Yeah, the issue with Traviss was always that she had an obvious bone to pick with the Jedi and it bled into her writing. She was very upfront in all her out of universe statements that she hated how they were characterized and in-universe her Mandos are often better than Jedi just cause. Normal people SHOULD be able to beat Jedi but as Imperator said the best works put in the effort to show that these are still superhumans with absolutely absurd powers (why would any Jedi not just choke even the buffest dude to death or speed up to him and cut him in half) and it takes a lot of guile and ingenuity to beat a Jedi one on one.
My point exactly. I'd have less problems with Karen Traviss if like Chris Avellone, who wrote KOTOR 2, she laid out logically how to defeat Jedi, while still respecting their power and recognizing that the average Jedi can still easily kill the average soldier rather easily. A Jedi-killing normie is one who should be on high demand, and writing one should be all about how a person uses their smarts to counter a Jedi's power or how they'd put a Jedi in a position where said Jedi can be killed.
Part of the Jedi wank that people took issue with was that they were getting absolutely absurd power ups in some later EU works but like I said even just using the movies there's no reason a Jedi couldn't just Force speed everything to death. There's a lot that Jedi CAN do but suddenly forget about when the plot demands it and that's always been a problem with Star Wars.
I'd say that even the Jedi with ridiculous powers in the EU can still be taken out by a well-prepared individual or unit. Like say, at the end of the Imperial Raxus Prime level in Force Unleashed, you dropped a Star Destroyer over an Imperial base to motivate the Rebels to unite under your banner. What happens next? They drop you into the Death Star. More specifically, they drop you into the notorious
Hangar of Death, filled with snipers, Dark Purge Troopers that have cortosis armor and energy shields, lightning-resistant EVO troopers, and a construction walker that can toss things in your face with its anti-gravity beam.
None of those fuckers can touch the Force, let alone use it, and they can easily kill you if you choose not to take the easy way out and just Force Repulse the floor to get away from them. A skilled and dedicated player can go to town and eradicate all the bad guys in the hangar, but it'd be a tough slog, and you'd probably tear your hair out more than once due to the many,
many times they'll end up killing you, unless you put the game on easy mode so that you can kill them easily.
So yes, even without the Force, a well-prepared individual or strike team can take on one of the most powerful Force-users of the time by just being well-prepared and having things that can counter or hinder a Jedi's powers or weapons. Starkiller is at the very least, stronger than Vader and is as strong as Palpatine, and yet a well-coordinated group of non-Force-users can take him down during the first part of the last level if the player isn't fast enough.
