Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread

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Silver
The Unstoppable Ledgernaut

The Fourth Precept

Posts: 4,654

Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 1, 2010 15:45:48 GMT -5

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Post by Silver on Dec 1, 2010 15:45:48 GMT -5

Sidious is a favorite Sith of mine, as well as villain in general, and I think he deserves a respect thread.

This thread, however, will be different from most respect threads created here in that comics are not the only source material for Star Wars. To represent Sidious's capabilities, I will be posting plenty of comic scans but also quoting novels, sourcebooks, handbooks, posting links to youtube videos/showing scenes from movies & TV shows, etc. For those of you who are hazy on Star Wars knowledge, let me explain a few things first.

1. Just in case this needs to be said, EU is Expanded Universe. Basically, EU Star Wars is all information and material separate from the movies. This includes TV shows, comics, novels, video games, etc.
2. The Star Wars canon classes will be brought up in this thread at least a few times. So, to follow the terms I use and just to clarify, in Star Wars continuity, there are five canon classes.

G-Canon- (George Lucas Canon). This is the highest canon class. It includes only the movies and material pertaining to them.
T-Canon- (Television Canon). This is the second highest canon class and includes any information provided in TV shows. This includes Star Wars The Clone Wars, as an example.
C-Canon- (Continuity Canon). This is the basic canon. This includes everything else that is confirmed to be in continuity, i.e., novels, comics, sourcebooks/handbooks, video games, etc.
S-Canon- (Secondary Canon). This is essentially any information that has yet to be confirmed as canon. It should only be mentioned in the context that there is a chance a given piece of information could be non-canon.
N-Canon- (Non Canon). Self-explanatory.

3. I may also abbreviate the titles of events or series. For instance, Return of the Jedi is RotJ. Revenge of the Sith is RotS. So on and so on. However, I will also bring up the Dark Empire trilogy through and throughout this thread and will be using DE as an abbreviation for it. The reason for that is because Dark Empire is where a number of Sidious's most impressive showings appear and the series in which he reached his prime. It took place 6 years after Return of the Jedi, and Palpatine had been in hiding for that time, studying Sith teachings and growing in power. So anything Palpatine did before DE was prior to the peak of his power.
4. As I said above, I will be quoting books. I will have no scans of pages from novels and only a few from sourcebooks/handbooks. In general, I will take a section from a book, quote, and list what the source material is.
5. I will also be giving mention to the Dark Empire audio drama. Star Wars audio dramas are C-Canon and do, in some cases, one of them being Dark Empire, offer information not provided in the comic or novel they were based on. As with various books, I will be quoting it. But if anyone feels the need to check the source, I believe you can listen to the DE audio drama on youtube.
6. For those of you who may be skeptical about my using sourcebooks/handbooks as a legitimate source of information, understand that Star Wars source/handbooks have a much better level of credibility than Marvel handbooks, for instance. In comparison with the comic or novel that a certain section may be based on, Star Wars handbooks and sourcebooks tend to be extremely accurate and are often re-released every few years with updated information. Facts provided in sourcebooks are C-Canon.
7. In addition to posting feats and general showings, I will make a few comparisons in this thread but not many. Force sensitives have the quality of being comparable to one another in the sense that a Green Lantern might be used as a power reference for another. What I mean by that is if John Stewart has programmed his Ring to attack an opponent traveling at a certain speed, it should be plausible for Guy to theoretically replicate that even if he never has in the past. The same generally applies for Force sensitives, sometimes even more so depending on the circumstances. So although there will be only a few in this thread, I will be making a couple general comparisons.

Having gone through all that (hopefully it all makes sense), respect Sidious.

Powers

Sidious is regarded as the most powerful Sith in history in none other than one of the single most referenced sourcebooks in all of Star Wars material.

Yoda went after Palpatine in the empty Senate chamber, but could not defeat the most powerful Sith Lord in history.

--Taken from The New Essential Chronology

Sidious knows virtually every Force power there is from all different eras. Thus far, the only power he has been confirmed not to know is Midichlorian Manipulation.

Palpatine has spent decades studying the most arcane and esoteric Jedi disciplines. It is believed that he has mastered nearly all the known powers, previously unknown powers, and devises new ones at his pleasure.

--Taken from The Dark Empire Sourcebook

Force Storm
Storm is an ability in which a user manipulates various Force energies to tear a rift in space and time and open a wormhole that has high order destructive power, as well as the ability to transport matter across space and time.

Sidious describes the creation of his Force Storm in his Book of Anger.

I have learned that Anger and Will, joined together, are the greatest Power. I have learned to meditate upon Anger and Will with clarity and precision, and I have learned to open the hidden reservoirs of Dark Side Power. Anger concentrated by Will in the vital center of the body creates a portal through which vast energies are released — the energies of the Dark Side of the Force. Standing watch with the mind, in my meditation of Anger, I have slain my enemies from great distances, through the Dark Side Power that permeates the Galaxy. I have created lightning, and unleashed its destructive fire. Using this knowledge, I can unleash the Dark Side energies that are all around us, even to shatter the fabric of space itself. In this way, I have created storms.

--Taken from The Dark Empire Sourcebook

The effect of Force Storm is explained.

This is perhaps the single most destructive Force power known. This power allows the Jedi to twist the space-time continuum to create vast storms of force. The power also allows limited control of these storms. Capable of creating annihilating vortices, the storms can swallow whole fleets of spaceships or tear the surfaces off worlds.

--Taken from The Dark Empire Sourcebook

This scan also gives a description of it.
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While on his personal retreat planet Byss, Sidious sends a Storm to Coruscant in order to transport Luke to Byss.
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Notice also in the last scan there at bottom right corner panel, the purple energy surrounding Coruscant. Those actually are not clouds and are Sidious's dark side energies as he channeled them around the planet. This was revealed in the audio drama, since Han noticed a magnetic storm in the atmosphere as they landed, but it turned out to be magnetic properties of the dark side Storm, which interfered with ship operating systems. This scan gives you a clearer look at the energies surrounding the planet.
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It has been noted in other works that Palpatine's Storm devastated all of Coruscant.

The shore of the western sea had been a glittering playground, a gay and glorious world that never slept, before the clone Emperor's Force storm had ravaged Coruscant. It had yet to fully recover.

--Taken from The Black Fleet Crisis: Before the Storm

After Luke is funneled through the wormhole, Mon Mothma comments on the incident, saying that there have been Storms sent to multiple planets.

The energy storm that took Commander Skywalker, this is not an isolated event. Similar Storms have been detected in several systems.

--Taken from the Dark Empire Audio drama

Sidious opens another wormhole around Pinnacle Base and consumes an entire fleet. Important to notice how quickly he does this. In only a matter of moments, Sidious opened a wormhole that had begun destroying several ships. After seeing this, Luke, Leia, and an unborn Anakin combine their powers through the Force to cause Palpatine to lose control over his Storm, after which, Palpatine and his ship, the Eclipse, are destroyed by it.
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In the DE audio drama, there was an exchange where Mon Mothma seems to imply that the Storm simply destroyed the fleet as it descended toward Pinnacle Base and actually engulfed the planet. After this, of course, Luke and Leia work to loosen Palpatine's control over it and destroy him.

Leia: It’s descending on Pinnacle Base, consuming all the ships in its path. Mon Mothma, can you hear me?
Mon Mothma: Princess Leia. There’s an energy storm. It’s suddenly taken over the planet! We have twelve ships lost already. All our hands are being lost. We’re being wiped out!
Han: Leia. Leia! ….
Leia: You’re going to slaughter all those people.
Palpatine: Yes. Did I not warn you? I’ve played long with your Jedi dueling games long enough. Now, you will experience my full potency. I live as energy. I am the dark side!

--Taken from the Dark Empire Audio drama

Essence Transfer
Essence Transfer, Transfer Essence, or Spirit Transference is an ability that allows a dark sider to exit their body in the form of their Force energy consciousness and possess another body or even an inanimate object. Essence Transfer is an extremely dangerous and difficult power to use because if a Sith's Essence fails to possess another body or object, they will be formless forever in Chaos. Aside from failure to possess a host, the only means by which an Essence can be defeated is if the Essence is banished to Chaos by a Jedi or another Sith. This happened to Exar Kun, for instance. Some Sith, such as Marka Ragnos, have anchored their Essences to an artifact, in Ragnos' case, a talisman. Most Sith, however, regardless of what they possess, have to perform a ritual or speak an incantation in order to use it. For example. Exar Kun had to chain himself in the middle of the Massassi Temple and have the Massassi perform a ritual in order for him to anchor his Essence to the temple. Sidious, in contrast, never demonstrated any of these restrictions. He used Essence Transfer, almost casually. He required no preparation, no outside help, and was not confined to using the power before he died. He can and has been killed, only for his Essence to escape and take another body. More importantly though, Sidious has traveled between planets as an Essence. For most dark siders, if they remain without anything to anchor their spirits to the physical world, they end up in Chaos.

Sidious traveled for over a year between Endor and Byss. When Vader killed him, Sidious projected his Essence and traversed lightyears of space to reach his clone supply. It should be noted that according to galaxy maps, Endor and Byss are literally halfway across the galaxy, in distance from one another.

He had spent over a year disembodied, formless, drifting through the maddening void of the Dark Side. He had never foreseen having to transport his spirit so far across space. He had nearly dispersed forever, but he had survived, and now need never fear death again. As soon as consciousness flickered back to a new clone body on Byss, he opened his eyes. All was as he had planned. He laughed out loud. He had won! The Rebellion had defeated his fleet, but he would return to rule the galaxy again.

--Taken from The Dark Empire Sourcebook

However, another source indicates that he possessed one of his hands, Jeng Droga, and returned to Byss in his body. It says he required aid in being separated from his body this could be because Droga's body simply did not have the power to use Essence Transfer, leaving Palpatine stuck in it.

The moment the Emperor "died" at the Battle of Endor, Droga fell into an inexplicable insanity, butchering his crew and causing the Emperor's Shadow to plunge into Kaal's oceans. Even as he perished, Palpatine used the dark side knowledge the Sith Lords had granted him years earlier to rend space itself and transmigrate his essence across lightyears to Droga's body. The infusion of Palpatine's overwhelming dark side energies reduced Droga to incoherent madness. Eventually, Palpatine's Grand Vizier Pestage was able to find Droga and tear the Emperor's essence from Droga's body.

--Taken from Star Wars Gamer #5

Sidious explains how he survived his death at Endor to Luke.
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Sidious says that he can possess anyone and even threatens to possess Leia's unborn child.
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Sidious threatens to possess Luke and then uses Essence Transfer to enter one of his clones. Also, in the DE audio drama, Sidious moves quickly around the room and even taunts Luke while simply floating around as an Essence, showing that he can operate, to some degree, while formless. Note: He uses it while still alive. This transference was voluntary.
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Bevel Lemelisk was an architect responsible for the majority of Palpatine's superweapons. However, when he failed, Sidious would torture and kill him but then shuttle his consciousness into a clone of Lemelisk. An important detail in this is the fact that Lemelisk is not a Force sensitive. He has no Force Ghost or dark side Essence. He is simply a normal human being. This shows not only that Sidious can affect other consciousnesses besides his own but that he can manipulate the consciousness of a non-Force sensitive as well. (This is also Pre-DE Sidious.)

Shortly after the Death Star was expected to crush the Rebel base on Yavin 4, Bevel Lemelisk had been summoned to meet personally with Emperor Palpatine deep within the Imperial palace. Lemelisk had been flanked by red-armored Imperial bodyguards as they whisked him off on a high-speed shuttle across the skylanes of the planetwide city. The millions of illuminated windows winked like corusca gems. Each point of light seemed to be another torch celebrating his triumph.
Lemelisk rubbed his jowls, pleased that he had remembered to shave this time. The red Imperial guards were a silent lot, standing at attention like statues. Lemelisk hummed and grabbed his jutting knees as the shuttle approached the enormous pyramid of the Imperial palace. The guards rushed him down the hall so quickly that their flowing scarlet cloaks billowed around them. When the group reached the door to the Emperor's private chambers, the guards stood at attention, their force pikes raised, their smooth plasteel helmets obscuring any expression.
Lemelisk jaunted happily into the vaulted room, pleased to see the black-cowled Emperor waiting for him. Palpatine hunched in his chair, reptilian yellow eyes glowing through the oily shadows cast by his hood. The Emperor appeared to be falling into ill health: His skin was blistered and folded in upon itself like a pasty drapery over his bones, as if decay had set in well before the advent of death.
But Lemelisk couldn't be troubled by unpleasant thoughts right now. He stood on the polished stone floor and made a cursory bow of obeisance. "My Emperor," he said. "I trust you have received word by now that our Death Star has destroyed the secret Rebel base."
"I have received word," Palpatine said and gestured with one long-clawed finger. Lemelisk glanced up at a clattering sound and saw a flexible wire cage released from the vaulted ceiling above. He ducked, but the cage fell squarely down over him, seating itself to the floor as if Palpatine were directing it with invisible powers. The cage was made of fine mesh, the grid barely large enough to stick his smallest finger through.
"Excuse me, Emperor?" Lemelisk said. "Is there something further you wish to discuss with me? Another project perhaps? Anything else I can do for you?" Lemelisk swallowed again.
"Yes, my servant," Palpatine said. "You may die for me."
"Uh—“ Lemelisk could think of nothing else to say. "I was hoping for something else, actually," he said stupidly.
Palpatine glowered at him. "I just received word that your Death Star was destroyed at Yavin. A puny band of Rebels with outdated fighters found a weakness in your design—a thermal exhaust port that allowed a single X-wing pilot to strike a fatal blow. One pilot obliterated an entire battle station!"
Lemelisk pursed his lips. "Thermal exhaust port, eh? I knew I must have forgotten something. I'll have to fix that in the next design."
"Yes, you will," Palpatine said with an icy voice. "But first, you will die for me."
Lemelisk blinked his watery blue eyes and reached out to touch the fine, tough wires of his cage. He looked around, and nervousness raged like a whirlwind around him. Though he had shaved, his neck itched fiercely. The Emperor sat completely still, yet he must have manipulated a set of controls because with a sharp snick at Lemelisk's feet tiny openings appeared in the polished stone floor, orifices that led down to a black unknown. He heard clicking sounds, the scrabbling of sharp, hard feet.
"I am most displeased with your performance, Lemelisk," the Emperor said.
Bevel Lemelisk shuffled aside as something small but iridescent poked out of the opening: a beetle of some kind. The eight-legged, hard-shelled insect shone a deep blue as it clambered into the light and paused to probe the air with waving antennae. From other openings five identical beetles emerged. They fluttered their wing cases, then took flight, buzzing around the enclosed space. Lemelisk swatted at one, but the blue beetle detected the motion and swooped toward him, sinking mandibles with serrated razor edges into the thick flesh of his palm.
"Oww!" Lemelisk flailed his hand until the beetle lost its hold. He stomped on it, cracking its carapace. But the scent of blood attracted the other beetles to him. He watched in horrified fascination as a dozen more of the insects emerged from the floor holes, fluttering their wing cases and buzzing toward him.
"Those are piranha beetles," the Emperor said, lounging back in his swiveling black chair. "They are native to Yavin 4, and I considered them too precious for extinction when your Death Star was expected to destroy the moon. So I rescued them."
The beetles swarmed over Lemelisk now. He slapped at them, shouting, paying little attention to Palpatine's words. "Stop this!" he yelled.
"Not yet," the Emperor said.
The beetles sliced through his clothing to the skin on Lemelisk's arms, his thighs, his chest, his cheeks. Blood flowed around him, drenching his shredded clothes. He could not keep up with the new injuries. Hundreds more beetles swarmed out, battering themselves against the cage mesh.
"These fine insects are not in danger of becoming extinct after all, though," Palpatine said, "since your Death Star did not work! You have failed me, Bevel Lemelisk," he said, slowing his words. His wrinkled, rubbery lips bent upward in a fiendish grin.
"And now, I'm going to watch these beetles devour you, bit by bit. They are very hungry, you see, and don't get satisfied easily. But if they gorge themselves and begin to slow down, don't worry—I have plenty more." The Emperor let out a glacial laugh, but Lemelisk could no longer hear.
The beetles buzzed in his ears, tearing at his flesh, his hair, his clothes. He struck at himself, throwing his body against the cage mesh. In the process, some of the beetles were stunned, and their own companions fell upon them, cracking through the iridescent shells and chewing to the soft organs within.
Lemelisk screamed and begged—to no avail. The agony went beyond his comprehension, beyond his imagination. His vision turned black after the piranha beetles devoured his eyes—but the pain continued for a long time afterward....
Later, Lemelisk had awakened, blinking his restored eyes, and was completely disoriented. He found himself in the same vaulted chamber, wrapped in a clean, white uniform. His body felt young and strong, without the paunch and the flab from spending too much time working on projects in his mind and too little effort maintaining his health.
Lemelisk bent his arms and looked at his hands, blinking in astonishment. Hearing a small buzz and clatter, he glanced over to find the wire-mesh cage still filled with buzzing, clacking piranha beetles that scampered up and down the walls, snapping their mandibles. Spattered patterns of fresh blood made arcs along the walls of the cage. Inside, he saw a carcass that had been stripped down to gnawed bones and shreds of clothing—the clothing he himself had worn only moments ago.
"You'll grow accustomed to your clone in a moment," the Emperor said, rubbing his knobby fingers over a strange ancient-looking artifact. "I trust that all of your memories have been transferred properly? It is an uncertain skill at best, and the Jedi I stole the technique from was reluctant to give me thorough instruction. But it seems to work."
Lemelisk nodded weakly, wanting to faint but knowing he didn't dare.
"Now don't fail me again, Lemelisk," the Emperor said. "I'd hate to have to think of an even worse execution for next time."

--Taken from Darksaber

Simply hearing the word execution brought back to his mind the full horrors of the Emperor's executions, the excruciating deaths Palpatine had inflicted upon Lemelisk each time he made an error...
The deaths remained in Lemelisk's mind, ever-present shadowy nightmares—seven executions in all. Once, Palpatine had launched him out an airlock; the pain had been excruciating, though the death was mercifully swift as the sudden drop of pressure and the freezing cold destroyed his internal organs.
He also remembered being slowly lowered into a vat of molten copper, watching his body burn away inch by inch. (Why molten copper? Lemelisk had wondered. Finally one day, more than a month later, he asked the Emperor. Palpatine’s answer had proved surprising in its utter mundanity. “It’s what the smelter used that day.”)
Lemelisk had also been trapped in a vault filled with thickening acid mist so that his lungs dissolved and he coughed blood, and the acid continued to eat him from the inside out. The other deaths had been as imaginative and just as painful.

--Taken from Darksaber

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The Death Star worked as planned, but fell victim to a design flaw at Yavin. As a result, the Emperor punished the engineer with the torture of flesh-eating piranha-beetles. Lemelisk died in agony, then awoke in the body of a clone. Motivated by fear, he set to work designing the second Death Stare, and also built the Tarkin super-laser. Lemelisk died seven times in total, dark side magic shuttling his consciousness through seven clones.

--Taken from The New Essential Guide to Characters

He transferred his Essence back to Byss after he was killed by his own Storm over Pinnacle Base. Regardless of how he arrived at Byss from Endor, this shows that Sidious can travel great distances of space to reach a destination and survive disembodied for long periods of time. Note: He was killed in Dark Empire. This transference was involuntary.
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Sidious's final body was defeated because of sabotage. Carnor Jax wanted to eliminate Palpatine once and for all, and as Sidious had a low supply of clones, due to Luke and treacherous Dark Side Adepts killing many of them, Sidious had none left. His final body was genetically tampered with, which caused it deteriorate much faster and cause physical disability.

Though Palpatine seemed to be winning his war of conquest, his final clone body had begun to fail him, aging at a rapid rate and eaten from the inside by the sabotage of Carnor Jax. He tried to clone other bodies so that he could resurrect himself again, but Jax’s manipulations had tainted even the source material. Palpatine’s scientists and physicians could offer no solutions.

--Taken from The New Essential Chronology

As Sidious's body was genetically unstable and his genetic samples were destroyed, he was in an increasingly weakening body and had no clones left to inhabit.
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Sidious visited Korriban to confer with the ancient Sith about what the best course of action would be for him.
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Sidious traveled to Onderon in order to take possession of young Anakin Solo (Leia's third child). As he is in an incredibly weakened state, Han is able to kill him with a blaster. Sidious's Essence is projected again and aims toward to Anakin. However, Brand moves in the path of his Essence and, as Brand is dying, since he was mortally wounded by Sidious, he uses Force Light to contain his spirit and drags Palpatine's Essence down to the Netherworlds of the Force with him as he dies.
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The only reason I posted scans of Sidious's final defeat is to show the circumstances behind them. He was only killed by Han because of how weak he was. He was never banished to Chaos by a Jedi or a collection of Jedi. He was dragged into it by a dying Jedi, and considering how long Sidious has survived formless, banishing him to Chaos would prove extremely difficult.

Sith Lightning
Lightning is Sidious's favored power and the one he is most noted for using, both in G-Canon and EU Star Wars. The ability, obviously, originated with him in Return of the Jedi and, as years progressed, became used by a variety of dark siders. Sidious, however, has feats with Force Lightning that place his potency with it at a level higher than most users.

Despite the fact that lightsabers have usually been shown to block or deflect Sith Lightning, Sidious’s Force Lightning was powerful enough to bend Windu’s lightsaber back toward him as Mace worked to deflect it.

Palpatine still made no move to defend himself from Skywalker; instead he ramped up the lightning bursting from his hands, bending the fountain of Mace's blade back toward the Korun Master's face.

Mace's blade bent so close to his face that he was choking on ozone.

--Taken from the Revenge of the Sith novel

The Emperor's Lightning overpowers Yoda's Force Deflection.

In the Senate Arena, lightning forked from the hands of a Sith, and bent away from the gesture of a Jedi to shock Redrobes into unconsciousness. Then there were only the two of them. Their clash transcended the personal; when new lightning blazed, it was not Palpatine burning Yoda with his hate, it was the Lord of all Sith scorching the Master of all Jedi into a smoldering huddle of clothing and green flesh.

--Taken from the Revenge of the Sith novel

This time, his Force Lightning overcomes Luke's Force Deflection.

Palpatine raised his spidery arms toward Luke: blinding white bolts of energy coruscated from his fingers, shot across the room like sorcerous lightning, and tore through the boy’s insides, looking for ground. The young Jedi was all at once confounded and in agony—he’d never heard of such a power, such a corruption of the Force, let alone experienced it. But if it was Force-generated, it could be Force-repelled. Luke raised his arms to deflect the bolts. Initially, he was successful—the lightning rebounded from his touch, harmlessly into the walls. Soon, though, the shocks came with such speed and power, they coursed over and into him, and he could only shrink before them, convulsed with pain, his knees buckling, his powers at ebb.

--Taken from the Return of the Jedinovel

Sidious’s Lightning can damage an enemy, striking them at their nerves and penetrating them down to a cellular level.

Without hesitation, he stepped between Kota and the Emperor, taking the full brunt of the Sith lightning into his own body. The pain was incredible, searing every nerve back to its individual cells, skewering each of them on white-hot needles.

--Taken from The Force Unleashed novel

Sidious generated Lightning powerful enough to kill a legion of stormtroopers with enough precision not to kill the Royal Guards in the area.
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In this example, Palpatine kills three Prophets of the Dark Side with a simple burst of Lightning from one hand. Despite the apparent ease of this, he chars their bodies down to skeletons.
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Palpatine generates Lightning powerful enough to reduce a Sithspawn to ashes.
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While in his final, genetically unstable clone body, being so weak he can barely stand on his own, Sidious one-shots Leia, Brand, and Rayf. Leia survives, in-continuity reason most likely being that Palpatine was too weak to kill her. However, he did fatally would Brand, who died not long after, and killed Rayf with one blast.
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Sith Alchemy
Sith alchemy is not a technical power so much as it is channeling dark side energies while performing rituals or drawing power from artifacts/talismans or utilizing science (or all of the above) to manipulate beings. In a way, it could be classified as a prep showing, but I add it here because it necessitates dark side power to be accomplished. Many Sith have used Sith magic to mutate beasts, for instance. Sidious has done this several times.

He mutated and created the Chrysalides, which are dark side war beasts.
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Mechu-Deru
Mechu-Deru is a dark side Force power related to Sith alchemy through which a Force sensitive manipulates machinery.

Palpatine may have used this power when he created Shadow Droids, which are cyborg fighters empowered by the dark side.
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Here, Sidious demonstrates an ability I have never seen any other dark sider use. He grants a portion of his own power in order to basically create Force sensitive Dark Side Adepts. I can only assume this is an ability Sidious uses by Sith magic. There have been examples of Sith drawing on each others' powers in order to collectively overcome an opponent, but outright giving someone else Force powers seems unique.
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Force Storm/Force Fear
Force Storm (the weather power, not the wormhole) is a Force ability that alters the weather patterns in an area to generate storms.
Force Fear is a power that induces fright in other individuals.

In these scans, Sidious performs an arcane ritual through Sith alchemy that seems to have several applications. He consumes a creature, channels his dark side energies into a crystal, and appears to have drawn out Sith spirits. In doing so, he creates lightning storms throughout Coruscant (possibly through Force Storm), while simultaneously influencing the minds and emotions of Jedi into feeling fear and aggression (possibly Force Fear). After he does this, the worm-like creature he ate breaks out of the crystal and devours him, to which Sidious responds to by killing it with Force Lightning. The end result is Sidious transformed into Palpatine.
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Force Drain
Drain is a dark side power that drains the life and Force energies present inside living beings, both Force sensitive and non-Force sensitive, as a means to kill them and enhance the user.

EU Sidious was able to Drain on planetary scales. He did this gradually to his own capital world, Byss, as he described to Vader. Also, for the record, according to The Essential Atlas, Byss had a population of 19.7 billion.
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It is further explained here.
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Imperial ships ferried millions of immigrants to the planet Byss, where the Emperor fed off their life energies through the dark side.

--Taken from The New Essential Guide to Characters

After choosing Byss as his resort world, Palpatine lured eager nobles to the planet—then used his dark to enslave its people, channeling their life energies for use in his own vile experiments within the fell Imperial Citadel.

--Taken from The Essential Atlas

Telepathy
Palpatine is one of the most skilled users of telepathic abilities among Force sensitives. He has telepathic feats on incredible scales, ranging from communication to memory wiping.

Sidious is explained as not only feeding on the Force energies of the inhabitants of Byss, but also influencing the populace through the dark side into submission to his rule.

Throughout the worlds submissive to the Empire, Byss is renowned as a paradise, whose siren call multitudes to willingly apply for emigration to its shores. Once there, wrapped in the power of the dark side, the immigrants become completely submissive, their life energy forever enslaved to the mind that would devour a galaxy.

--Taken from the Dark Empire endnotes

Sidious apparently mind wiped very possibly millions of people on Coruscant in order to conceal the location of the Star Destroyer Lusankya's burial place. This was Pre-DE Sidious.

The Lusankya--a Super Star Destroyer eight kilometers in length--laid waste to the area beneath which it had lain buried for years. Green turbolaser bolts pounded the cityscape, freeing the ship from the ferrocrete and transparisteel prison in which it had laired. Wedge knew Super Star Destroyers had only come into service after the Battle of Yavin, which meant the Lusankya had to have been created and hidden on Coruscant before the battle of Endor. Unless the constructor droids just built it there, then built over it. The idea that a hundred-square-kilometer area of the planet could have been razed and rebuilt to hide a Super Star Destroyer seemed beyond belief, especially with no one noticing the ship's insertion into the hole. Could the Emperor's power through the dark side of the Force have been sufficient to compel thousands or millions of people to forget having seen the Lusankya being buried? As hideous as that idea seemed, Wedge hoped it was the truth. The likely alternative--that the Emperor had ordered the deaths of all the witnesses--seemed that much more horrible.

--Taken from X-Wing: Krytos Trap

Now, the novel suggests that Palpatine may have simply executed the witnesses to this project, but more than one sourcebook has cited this event as Sidious wiping their memories.

This Super-Class Star Destroyer, built at Kuat Drive Yards under the name Executor, was hidden by Emperor Palpatine in a drydock located beneath Imperial City on Coruscant. A series of huge, hexagonal lift cells held the ship ready for deployment. The razing of vast areas of Coruscant's surface, the ship's construction, and its subsequent burial with additional levels of cityscape, had to be masked from the populace by the Emperor Palpatine and the use of the Dark Side of the Force.

--Taken from The Star Wars Encyclopedia

Further proof that it was a mind wipe.
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Now director of the Imperial Intelligence, Ysanne worked to demonstrate the usefulness of her office to the only person that mattered—the Emperor. Impressed with her suggestion to build a combination internment center and brainwashing facility, Palpatine gave her the Super Star Desteroyer Executor from the Kuat shipyards—a twin to Vader’s Executor from Fondor. She renamed the vessel Lusankya, and, with help from the Emperor’s mind-fogging powers, Imperial engineers buried the tremendous battleship beneath the cityscape in Coruscant’s Manarai Mountain district.

--Taken from The New Essential Guide to Characters

More showings of Palpatine's dark side influence over others. In this case, during Dark Empire when Luke decides to learn Sidious's ways in order to turn them against him, Sidious has some hold over Luke's mind. He was not mind controlling him, but his influence was sufficient to compel Luke into nearly succumbing to the dark side permanently.
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After Luke agrees to serve as Sidious's apprentice, he sends a message to Leia in the form of a vision, but, probably because of Sidious's influence on Luke, Palpatine overrides his message and speaks to Leia through the vision, which causes her to be knocked unconscious.
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Luke only escapes Sidious's influence over his mind with Leia's aid.
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Sidious haunts Luke in a dream. (It also could be speculated that Anakin's dreams of Padme dying in childbirth were implanted into his mind by Palpatine.)
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He communicates with Mara Jade across lightyears of distance, demonstrating interplanetary range.
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Even at the time of his defeat at Endor, Sidious sends a vision to Mara, continuing his order for her to kill Luke.
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His mind also seems difficult to breach as a result of the monumental amount of darkness/dark side energy in his mind. When Vima Da Boda makes an attempt at creating a diversion by pretending to be Leia and sending out a message to Sidious's mind that she is Leia, Vima is borderline traumatized at simply touching the darkness in his mind.
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Telekinesis
In spite of how large scale EU Palpatine has shown able to extend his abilities, his Telekinesis is impressive but not nearly as ridiculous. His most impressive telekinetic feat is actually N-Canon, since it was an alternate ending to a story line, but the feat itself was Sidious telekinetically downing a Star Destroyer on his enemies. But again, N-Canon. Sidious's most impressive canon telekinetic feat was probably during his duel with Yoda as he threw senate pods in RotS. A few things I would like to point out about this though. 1) Pre-DE Sidious. He had yet to reach the height of his power. 2) He seemed to perform this feat with relative ease, which could indicate that he could support greater weights. 3) When taking into consideration that this feat was performed under G-Canon power levels, given the context, it actually is fairly impressive.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFEjcvIRMDo

Briefly, he does show Force Flight though.
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And another demonstration of Force Flight.
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Concealment
Concealment is a power that masks Force sensitivity or alignment in the Force. Since, probably, all of us have watched the Star Wars movies, we should all understand why Sidious is the best with this. He hid the fact that he was the Sith Lord for decades while staring the most powerful Jedi in the Order in the face without them ever gaining the slightest suspicion of who he was. Also, as Yoda said, "The dark side clouds everything." Sidious dampened the Jedi's Farseeing, Vision, Precognition, Sense, etc.

Farseeing/Vision/Sense
Sidious seems to know about everything. He excels at manipulation of his pawns, his enemies, events, etc. I think this is more well-known also, since Palpatine has shown knowledge of events as they unfold throughout the movies. I will go over this more when I address his skill with prep though.

Sith Battle Meditation
Sidious used Battle Meditation at the Battle of Endor in order to influence and partially control the battle. Battle Meditation has a number of applications but usually involves increasing the morale of your allies and decreasing the morale of your enemies.

Durability/Protection/Strength
Presumably by use of Force Protection, Palpatine has withstood several very devastating attacks and shown a fair level of pain tolerance.

Sidious withstands at least a ton of weight being dropped on him by Leia, and this happened while Sidious was in an aged body that was only hours (at most) before fully deteriorating and dying. In a reborn body, he should be able to shrug off more. This is also a minor strength feat, since he is completely unphased by the weight, in addition to the crushing impact (Palpatine also destroys her lightsaber with a casual gesture; that may be a telekinetic ability or something more obscure, like Force Combustion; but I have no idea).
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This scan describes the cooling unit that Leia dropped on him as weighing a ton.
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When Leia Organa Solo brandished a lightsaber against him, Palpatine waved his fingers and the ancient weapon shattered. When Leia tried to kill the Emperor by dropping a cooling unit on him, Palpatine shrugged off the crushing impact of a ton of machinery.

--Taken from The Dark Empire Handbook

In the audio drama, Leia describes the cooling unit/power generator as being heavy enough to crush a bantha, which is saying quite a bit.

Come on, Leia. If there was ever a time to prove you’re a Jedi, now’s the time. Wait. That power generator suspended from the ceiling. It’s heavy enough to crush a bantha. If I can just use the Force…

--Taken from the Dark Empire Audio drama

Here, Sidious handles Luke's cho mai, cutting off his hand, without many signs of pain.
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Let me say this first. This scene made no sense. Starkiller releases a Dark Side Burst when he dies even though at this point in the story, he became a light sider. In the novel, Shaak Ti, a Jedi master who fought in the Clone Wars (appeared in the prequels too) gave off a Dark Side Burst. So why exactly they do that when both are Jedi, I have no idea. The entire scene makes no sense, but since it grants Palpatine and Vader a decent durability feat, I ignore those little details (for now). Here, Palpatine takes the blast of a huge Dark Side Burst to the face. The blast dwarfed the size of the Rogue Shadow (ship that escapes), destroys large portions of the observation dome, and tears apart nearby stormtroopers. Not to mention, this was Pre-DE Sidious. (I have scans from the comic and a quote from the novel about this.)
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Energy surged through him. He felt as though a star had blazed to life in his chest. Driven by concern for his friends rather than himself, he embraced the Force completely, utterly, and was rewarded with strength that made his efforts with the dark side look like those of a child. His nerves were on fire. Streamers of light radiated from his skin. His bones glowed like radiant lava. He saw rather than felt the massive shock wave that consumed a large portion of what remained of the observation dome. A glowing bubble of fire tore the stormtroopers to shreds and engulfed Vader and the Emperor. Shrapnel filled the air like dust caught in the beam of the Death Star's powerful laser. Tossed like a leaf, the Rogue Shadow fled in haste, ramp snapping shut on its precious cargo. The apprentice felt himself leaving his body again. Or was his body leaving him this time? He felt ripped apart by the energy that had flowed through him. Every cell was in shock; every fiber shook. The fire on his face possessed no heat at all. His limbs felt as distant as the farthest arms of the galaxy. He was amazed there was enough left of him to think at all. Weakened by the blast, the dome's supports gave way. It collapsed into the superlaser dish, triggering a series of conventional explosions. Stormtroopers converged on the site. Through the dense smoke, two figures were visible from the apprentice's rarefied perspective. Darth Vader struggled to his feet from the rubble, even more damaged than before. He reached out for support and found only his Master, scowling. Together, unspeaking, they searched the rubble.

--Taken from The Force Unleashed novel

Speed
Force Speed allows the user to accelerate their movements, reflexes, thought processes, and perceptions. Sidious has some of the most impressive Speed feats in EU Star Wars. (This is where I will be making a few comparisons.)

In RotS, when Windu, Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, and Saesee Tiin confront Palpatine to arrest him, in G-Canon Star Wars, Kolar and Tiin just appear to be terrible duelists, as Sidious jumped forward and cut them down. But in the novel, Sidious actually blitzed Kolar and Tiin, decapitating Tiin and stabbing Kolar through the head, after which he withdrew his lightsaber and stood next to the door to the chamber. (This is Pre-DE.)

A fountain of amethyst energy burst from Mace Windu's fist. "Don't try to resist." The song of his blade was echoed by green fire from the hands of Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, and Saesee Tiin. Kolar and Tiin closed on Palpatine, blocking the path to the door. Shadows dripped and oozed color, weaving and coiling up office walls slipping over chairs, spreading along the floor.
"Resist? How could I possibly resist?" Still seated at the desk Palpatine shook an empty fist helplessly, the perfect image of a tired, frightened old man. "This is murder, you Jedi traitors! How can I be any threat to you?" He turned desperately to Saesee Tiin. "Master Tiin--you're the telepath. What am I thinking right now?" Tiin frowned and cocked his head. His blade dipped. A smear of red-flashing darkness hurtled from behind the desk. Saesee Tiin's head bounced when it hit the floor. Smoke curled from the neck, and from the twin stumps of the horns, severed just below the chin.
Kit Fisto gasped, "Saesee!" The headless corpse, still standing, twisted as its knees buckled, and a thin sigh escaped from its trachea as it folded to the floor.
"It doesn't . . ." Agen Kolar swayed. His emerald blade shrank away, and the handgrip tumbled from his opening fingers. A small, neat hole in the middle of his forehead leaked smoke, showing light from the back of his head. ". . . hurt . . ." He pitched forward onto his face, and lay still.
Palpatine stood at the doorway, but the door stayed shut. From his right hand extended a blade the color of fire. The door locked itself at his back.

--Taken from the Revenge of the Sith novel

The first comparison I would like to make is with Mace Windu. Watch this video, and you will get a clear understanding how fast EU Windu is.
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Now, having seen how fast Windu can move and operate, read the text below. At certain points during his duel with Mace, Sidious moves so fast that he appears as a blur to Windu and to Anakin. As well, based on Anakin's perspective, Sidious seemed to be practically running circles around Mace. Consider how fast Windu is, and then think about that for a minute. (Pre-DE.)

Anakin blinked and rubbed his eyes again. Maybe he was still a bit flash-blind-the Korun Master seemed to be fading in and out of existence, half swallowed by a thickening black haze in which danced a meter-long bar of sunfire. Mace pressed back the darkness with a relentless straight-ahead march; his own blade, that distinctive amethyst blaze that had been the final sight of so many evil beings across the galaxy, made a haze of its own: an oblate sphere of purple fire within which there seemed to be dozens of swords slashing in all directions at once. The shadow he fought, that blur of speed—could that be Palpatine?

He could feel the end of this battle approaching, and so could the blur of Sith he faced; in the Force, the shadow had become a pulsar of fear.

--Taken from the Revenge of the Sith novel

Also, during Palpatine and Windu's duel, when Anakin arrives, both of them are moving so fast, Anakin can never see them. Even more important than that, the novel seems to suggest that Sidious is operating at light speed, when it says "boiling with power and lightspeed ricochets." Understand, I in no way believe that Windu can move at light speed. He was only as powerful as he was in this duel because Vapaad allowed him to draw on Sidious's darkness and convert it into strength for himself. Sidious however operated at relativistic speeds on his own. (Pre-DE.)

Their blades flared and flashed, crashing together with bursts of fire, weaving nets of killing energy in exchanges so fast that Anakin could not truly see them. But he could feel them in the Force. The Force itself roiled and burst and crashed around them, boiling with power and lightspeed ricochets of lethal intent. And it was darkening.

--Taken from the Revenge of the Sith novel

In Sidious' duel against Yoda, they were showing extremely high degrees of speed as they swung their lightsabers in accurate and controlled yet incredibly fast strokes described as a "tornado."

In that lightning-speared tornado of feet and fists and blades and bashing machines, his vision finally pierced the darkness that had clouded the Force.

--Taken from the Revenge of the Sith novel

In DE, during Luke and Sidious's second duel, Leia and Anakin are amping Luke's powers with Force Harmony so that he can overpower Sidious. (I already posted these scans; so this is just for reference.)
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Now, in their second duel, Luke won due to Leia/Anakin's Harmony, but in the DE audio drama, Leia comments on the speed at which Luke and Palpatine operate in the battle.

They’re both moving so fast; I can hardly see them.

--Taken from the Dark Empire Audio drama

Understand, most of the Speed feats I posted for Sidious were operational speed feats, which speaks volumes.

A few more comparisons. When considering how fast Windu has operated or Ventress or Anakin or Darth Maul or Jaden Korr, Sidious is leagues beyond all of them in terms of power. All of them have demonstrated the ability to move and operate at high speeds, but considering how much more powerful Palpatine is, he should be able to top their Speed feats by a certain margin. A more plausible comparison would be with Bane. Darth Bane has several impressive Speed feats. Since Sidious is the cultivation of 1000 years of Sith study under Bane's Rule of Two and since each Sith Lord is supposed to surpass their master, Sidious's Speed should well supersede Bane's.

Last Edit: Jul 31, 2011 4:50:08 GMT -5 by Silver

"Anakin remembered him in the arena at Geonosis, effortlessly carving his way through wave after wave of combat droids, on his lips a gently humorous smile as though the horrific battle were only some friendly jest. His severed head wore that same smile. Maybe he thought death was funny too."

Morpheus The One Ledger Above All Man of Constant Sorrow Your are right, my friend. I am so very good. Posts: 22,152	Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 1, 2010 15:57:22 GMT -5 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Morpheus on Dec 1, 2010 15:57:22 GMT -5 It will take some time to read it in its entirety, but this seems like premium work so far.
	"I've always wanted to diversify the DCU, but usually when I do it, James Robinson comes along and kills them all." - Grant Morrison

Silver
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Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 1, 2010 16:31:40 GMT -5

Quote

Post by Silver on Dec 1, 2010 16:31:40 GMT -5

@morpheus: Thanks.

Haha. I just wanted to fit this into one section. This will definitely be the longest post. The other two areas I need to go over now are dueling skill and intelligence/prep. Again, those will be shorter. XP

Phantom Stargrave Global Moderator Friendly moderating drunk Conjure by it at your own risk Posts: 6,756	Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 1, 2010 20:07:39 GMT -5 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Phantom Stargrave on Dec 1, 2010 20:07:39 GMT -5 Whoa. Quite an awesome thread Silver.
	Damn you and your expert knowledge of series you never read. - Morpheus I wanted to put a reference to masturbation in one of the scripts for the Sandman. It was immediately cut by the editor. She told me, "There's no masturbation in the DC Universe." To which my reaction was, "Well that explains a lot about the DC Universe." - Neil Gaiman

Matezoide Team Buster Ledger Elephants! Posts: 2,240	Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 2, 2010 7:48:42 GMT -5 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Matezoide on Dec 2, 2010 7:48:42 GMT -5 holy flark

Strafe Prower Administrator The Outsider Hado #31 Shakkaho Posts: 6,346	Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 2, 2010 9:00:28 GMT -5 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Strafe Prower on Dec 2, 2010 9:00:28 GMT -5 Top Job man

Silver
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Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 3, 2010 3:32:22 GMT -5

Quote

Post by Silver on Dec 3, 2010 3:32:22 GMT -5

One other ability Sidious had that I never addressed above is the fact that Sidious never sleeps. The reason I neglected to post that in his powers section is because I am not sure that counts as an actual feat. It may say something about his stamina, but at the same time, there is nothing to suggest he has infinte stamina (although he can operate for long periods of time). Regardless, Sidious decided to never sleep as a result of the fact that he killed his master, Plagueis, while Plagueis slept, and he wanted to ensure that he was never killed by any of his apprentices in his sleep. My assumption as to how he does this is by using a Force power called Remain Conscious, as well as possibly Sith magic. But that is just my speculation. I have no actual proof that that that is how he does it, just what makes sense/seems plausible to me.

Last Edit: Dec 3, 2010 3:35:16 GMT -5 by Silver

Silver
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Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 7, 2010 9:11:51 GMT -5

Quote

Post by Silver on Dec 7, 2010 9:11:51 GMT -5

Dueling

Sidious actually has far fewer skill showings than he does Force power feats. However, the few he does have are noteworthy. Once again, I think I can safely assume that everyone here has watched the Star Wars movies, in which Sidious does demonstrate two duels.

Let me first address his duel with Windu. Aside from Yoda, Windu has been confirmed as the best duelist in the Order at the time. Sidious of course lost this duel, but I have been of the opinion that Palpatine threw the fight. He sensed Anakin's arrival, he mainly relied on his lightsaber combat as opposed to his Force powers, he feigned weakness when he had enough power to continue a barrage of Lightning, and there are other reasons for my standing on that. There were also some circumstances that favored Windu. 1) Plot. This did have plot purposes behind it. 2) Vaapad. Vaapad works especially well against dark siders, as it channels negative emotions of an enemy, particularly dark siders, back into the user for strength. 3) Shatterpoint. Windu used Shatterpoint do determine a flaw that he could exploit. However, I should note that it did take a little time for Windu to notice this weaknes. 4) Once again, as Windu vs Sidious took place in RotS, Sidious has yet to reach his prime. 5) The environment offered Sidious little room to maneuver. I should also point out that while Sidious simply blitzed and killed Kolar and Tiin, he did have to fight and kill Kit Fisto along with Mace. In the novel, Fisto lasted longer than he did in the movie. But again, I believe that Sidious threw the fight. Different people have different assessments on this though.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX80LNuyCJY&feature=related

"Why, Master Windu," said the shadow. "What a pleasant surprise."
Shaak Ti felt him coming before she could see him. The infra- and ultrasound-sensitive cavities in the tall, curving montrals to either side of her head gave her a sense analogous to touch: the texture of his approaching footsteps was ragged as old sacking. As he rounded the corner to the landing deck door, his breathing felt like a pile of gravel and his heartbeat was spiking like a Zabrak's head. He didn't look good, either; he was deathly pale, even for a human, and his eyes were raw. "Anakin," she said warmly. Perhaps a friendly word was what he needed; she doubted he'd gotten many from Mace Windu. "Thank you for what you have done. The Jedi Order is in your debt-the whole galaxy, as well."
"Shaak Ti. Get out of my way." Shaky as he looked, there was nothing unsteady in his voice: it was deeper than she remembered, more mature, and it carried undertones of authority that she had never heard before. And she was not blind to the fact he had neglected to call her Master.
She put forth a hand, offering calming energies through the Force. "The Temple is sealed, Anakin. The door is code-locked."
"And you're in the way of the pad." She stepped aside, allowing him to the pad; she had no reason to keep him here against his will. He punched the code hungrily.
"If Palpatine retaliates," she said reasonably, "is not your place here, to help with our defense?"
"I'm the chosen one. My place is there." His breathing roughened, and he looked as if he was getting even sicker. "I have to be there. That's the prophecy, isn't it? I have to be there-"
"Anakin, why? The Masters are the best of the Order. What can you possibly do?" The door slid open.
"I'm the chosen one," he repeated. "Prophecy can't be changed. I'll do-" He looked at her with eyes that were dying, and a spasm of unendurable pain passed over his face. Shaak Ti reached for him- he should be in the infirmary, not heading toward what might be a savage battle-but he lurched away from her hand. "I'll do what I'm supposed to do," he said, and sprinted into the night and the rain.

[The following is a transcript of an audio recording presented before the Galactic Senate on the afternoon of the first Empire Day; identities of all speakers verified and confirmed by voiceprint analysis.]
PALPATINE: Why, Master Windu. What a pleasant surprise.
MACE WINDU: Hardly a surprise, Chancellor. And it will be pleasant for neither of us.
PALPATINE: I'm sorry? Master Fisto, hello. Master Kolar, greetings. I trust you are well. Master Tiin-I see your horn has regrown; I'm very glad. What brings four Jedi Masters to my office at this hour?
MACE WINDU: We know who you are. What you are. We are here to take you into custody.
PALPATINE: I beg your pardon? What I am? When last I checked, I was Supreme Chancellor of the Republic you are sworn to serve. I hope I misunderstand what you mean by custody, Master Windu. It smacks of treason.
MACE WINDU: You're under arrest.
PALPATINE: Really, Master Windu, you cannot be serious. On what charge?
MACE WINDU: You're a Sith Lord!
PALPATINE: Am I? Even if true, that's hardly a crime. My philosophical outlook is a personal matter. In fact- the last time I read the Constitution, anyway-we have very strict laws against this type of persecution. So I ask you again: what is my alleged crime? How do you expect to justify your mutiny before the Senate? Or do you intend to arrest the Senate as well?
MACE WINDU: We're not here to argue with you.
PALPATINE: No, you're here to imprison me without trial. Without even the pretense of legality. So this is the plan, at last: the Jedi are taking over the Republic.
MACE WINDU: Come with us. Now.
PALPATINE: I shall do no such thing. If you intend to murder me, you can do so right here.
MACE WINDU: Don't try to resist.
[Sounds that have been identified by frequency resonances to be the ignition of several lightsabers.]
PALPATINE: Resist? How could I possibly resist? This is murder, you Jedi traitors! How can I be any threat to you? Master Tiin-you're the telepath. What am I thinking right now?
[Sounds of scuffle.]
KIT FISTO: Saesee-
AGEN KOLAR: [Garbled; possibly "It doesn't hurt"(?)]
[Sounds of scuffle.]
PALPATINE: Help! Help! Security-someone! Help me! Murder! Treason!
[Recording ends.]

A fountain of amethyst energy burst from Mace Windu's fist. "Don't try to resist." The song of his blade was echoed by green fire from the hands of Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, and Saesee Tiin. Kolar and Tiin closed on Palpatine, blocking the path to the door. Shadows dripped and oozed color, weaving and coiling up office walls slipping over chairs, spreading along the floor.
"Resist? How could I possibly resist?" Still seated at the desk Palpatine shook an empty fist helplessly, the perfect image of a tired, frightened old man. "This is murder, you Jedi traitors! How can I be any threat to you?" He turned desperately to Saesee Tiin. "Master Tiin-you're the telepath. What am I thinking right now?" Tiin frowned and cocked his head. His blade dipped. A smear of red-flashing darkness hurtled from behind the desk. Saesee Tiin's head bounced when it hit the floor. Smoke curled from the neck, and from the twin stumps of the horns, severed just below the chin.
Kit Fisto gasped, "Saesee!" The headless corpse, still standing, twisted as its knees buckled, and a thin sigh escaped from its trachea as it folded to the floor.
"It doesn't . . ." Agen Kolar swayed. His emerald blade shrank away, and the handgrip tumbled from his opening fingers. A small, neat hole in the middle of his forehead leaked smoke, showing light from the back of his head. ". . . hurt . . ." He pitched forward onto his face, and lay still. Palpatine stood at the doorway, but the door stayed shut. From his right hand extended a blade the color of fire. The door locked itself at his back.
"Help! Help!" Palpatine cried like a man in desperate fear for his life. "Security-someone! Help me! Murder! Treason!" Then he smiled. He held one finger to his lips, and, astonishingly, he winked. In the blank second that followed, while Mace Windu and Kit Fisto could do no more than angle their lightsabers to guard, Palpatine swiftly stepped over the bodies back toward his desk, reversed his blade, and drove it in a swift, surgically precise stab down through his desktop. "That's enough of that." He let it burn its way free through the front, then he turned, lifting his weapon, appearing to study it as one might study the face of a beloved friend one has long thought dead. Power gathered around him until the Force shimmered with darkness. "If you only knew," he said softly, perhaps speaking to the Jedi Masters, or perhaps to himself, or perhaps even to the scarlet blade lifted now as though in mocking salute, "how long I have been waiting for this ..."
Anakin's speeder shrieked through the rain, dodging forked bolts of lightning that shot up from towers into the clouds, slicing across traffic lanes, screaming past spacescrapers so fast that his shock-wake cracked windows as he passed. He didn't understand why people didn't just get out of his way. He didn't understand how the trillion beings who jammed Galactic City could go about their trivial business as though the universe hadn't changed. How could they think they counted for anything, compared with him? How could they think they still mattered? Their blind lives meant nothing now. None of them. Because ahead, on the vast cliff face of the Senate Office Building, one window spat lightning into the rain to echo the lightning of the storm outside-but this lightning was the color of clashing lightsabers. Green fans, sheets of purple- And crimson flame. He was too late. The green fire faded and winked out; now the lightning was only purple and red. His repulsorlifts howled as he heeled the speeder up onto its side, skidding through wind-shear turbulence to bring it to a bobbing halt outside the window of Palpatine's private office. A blast of lightning hit the spire of 500 Republica, only a kilometer away, and its white burst flared off the window, flash-blinding him; he blinked furiously, slapping at his eyes in frustration. The colorless glare inside his eyes faded slowly, bringing into focus a jumble of bodies on the floor of Palpatine's private office. Bodies in Jedi robes. On Palpatine's desk lay the head of Kit Fisto, faceup, scalp-tentacles unbound in a squid-tangle across the ebonite. His lid-less eyes stared blindly at the ceiling. Anakin remembered him in the arena at Geonosis, effortlessly carving his way through wave after wave of combat droids, on his lips a gently humorous smile as though the horrific battle were only some friendly jest. His severed head wore that same smile. Maybe he thought death was funny, too. Anakin's own blade sang blue as it slashed through the window and he dived through the gap. He rolled to his feet among a litter of bodies and sprinted through a shattered door along the small private corridor and through a doorway that flashed and flared with energy scatter. Anakin skidded to a stop. Within the public office of the Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, a last Jedi Master battled alone, blade-to-blade, against a living shadow. Sinking into Vaapad, Mace Windu fought for his life. More than his life: each whirl of blade and whipcrack of lightning was a strike in defense of democracy, of justice and peace, of the rights of ordinary beings to live their own lives in their own ways. He was fighting for the Republic that he loved. Vaapad, the seventh form of lightsaber combat, takes its name from a notoriously dangerous predator native to the moons of Sarapin: a vaapad attacks its prey with whipping strikes of its blindingly fast tentacles. Most have at least seven. It is not uncommon for them to have as many as twelve; the largest ever killed had twenty-three. With a vaapad, one never knew how many tentacles it had until it was dead: they move too fast to count. Almost too fast to see. So did Mace's blade. Vaapad is as aggressive and powerful as its namesake, but its power comes at great risk: immersion in Vaapad opens the gates that restrain one's inner darkness. To use Vaapad, a Jedi must allow himself to enjoy the fight; he must give himself over to the thrill of battle. The rush of winning. Vaapad is a path that leads through the penumbra of the dark side. Mace Windu created this style, and he was its only living master. This was Vaapad's ultimate test. Anakin blinked and rubbed his eyes again. Maybe he was still a bit flash-blind-the Korun Master seemed to be fading in and out of existence, half swallowed by a thickening black haze in which danced a meter-long bar of sunfire. Mace pressed back the darkness with a relentless straight-ahead march; his own blade, that distinctive amethyst blaze that had been the final sight of so many evil beings across the galaxy, made a haze of its own: an oblate sphere of purple fire within which there seemed to be dozens of swords slashing in all directions at once. The shadow he fought, that blur of speed-could that be Palpatine? Their blades flared and flashed, crashing together with bursts of fire, weaving nets of killing energy in exchanges so fast that Anakin could not truly see them- But he could feel them in the Force. The Force itself roiled and burst and crashed around them, boiling with power and lightspeed ricochets of lethal intent. And it was darkening. Anakin could feel how the Force fed upon the shadow's murderous exaltation; he could feel fury spray into the Force though some poisonous abscess had crested in both their hearts. There was no Jedi restraint here. Mace Windu was cutting loose. Mace was deep in it now: submerged in Vaapad, swallowed by it, he no longer truly existed as an independent being. Vaapad is a channel for darkness, and that darkness flowed both ways. He accepted the furious speed of the Sith Lord, drew the shadow's rage and power into his inmost center- And let it fountain out again. He reflected the fury upon its source as a lightsaber redirects a blaster bolt. There was a time when Mace Windu had feared the power of the dark; there was a time when he had feared the darkness in himself. But the Clone Wars had given him a gift of understanding: on a world called Haruun Kal, he had faced his darkness and had learned that the power of darkness is not to be feared. He had learned that it is fear that gives the darkness power. He was not afraid. The darkness had no power over him. But- neither did he have power over it. Vaapad made him an open channel, half of a superconducting loop completed by the shadow; they became a standing wave of battle that expanded into every cubic centimeter of the Chancellor's office. There was no scrap of carpet nor shred of chair that might not at any second disintegrate in flares of red or purple; lampstands became brief shields, sliced into segments that whirled through the air; couches became terrain to be climbed for advantage or overleapt in retreat. But there was still only the cycle of power, the endless loop, no wound taken on either side, not even the possibility of fatigue. Impasse. Which might have gone on forever, if Vaapad were Mace's only gift. The fighting was effortless for him now; he let his body handle it without the intervention of his mind. While his blade spun and crackled, while his feet slid and his weight shifted and his shoulders turned in precise curves of their own direction, his mind slid along the circuit of dark power, tracing it back to its limitless source. Feeling for its shatterpoint. He found a knot of fault lines in the shadow's future; he chose the largest fracture and followed it back to the here and the now- And it led him, astonishingly, to a man standing frozen in the slashed-open doorway. Mace had no need to look; the presence in the Force was familiar, and was as uplifting as sunlight breaking through a thunderhead. The chosen one was here. Mace disengaged from the shadow's blade and leapt for the window; he slashed away the transparisteel with a single flourish. His instant's distraction cost him: a dark surge of the Force nearly blew him right out of the gap he had just cut. Only a desperate Force-push of his own altered his path enough that he slammed into a stanchion instead of plunging half a kilometer from the ledge outside. He bounced off and the Force cleared his head and once again he gave himself to Vaapad. He could feel the end of this battle approaching, and so could the blur of Sith he faced; in the Force, the shadow had become a pulsar of fear. Easily, almost effortlessly, he turned the shadow's fear into a weapon: he angled the battle to bring them both out onto the window ledge. Out in the wind. Out with the lightning. Out on a rain-slicked ledge above a half-kilometer drop. Out where the shadow's fear made it hesitate. Out where the shadow's fear turned some of its Force powered speed into a Force-powered grip on the slippery permacrete. Out where Mace could flick his blade in one precise arc and slash the shadow's lightsaber in half. One piece flipped back in through the cut-open window. The other tumbled from opening fingers, bounced on the ledge, and fell through the rain toward the distant alleys below. Now the shadow was only Palpatine: old and shrunken, thinning hair bleached white by time and care, face lined with exhaustion.
"For all your power, you are no Jedi. All you are, my lord," Mace said evenly, staring past his blade, "is under arrest."
"Do you see, Anakin? Do you?" Palpatine's voice once again had the broken cadence of a frightened old man's. "Didn't I warn you of the Jedi and their treason?"
"Save your twisted words, my lord. There are no politicians here. The Sith will never regain control of the Republic. It's over. You've lost." Mace leveled his blade. "You lost for the same reason the Sith always lose: defeated by your own fear." Palpatine lifted his head. His eyes smoked with hate.
"Fool," he said. He lifted his arms, his robes of office spreading wide into raptor's wings, his hands hooking into talons. "Fool!" His voice was a shout of thunder. "Do you think the fear you feel is mine?" Lightning blasted the clouds above, and lightning blasted from Palpatine's hands, and Mace didn't have time to comprehend what Palpatine was talking about; he had time only to slip back into Vaapad and angle his blade to catch the forking arcs of pure, dazzling hatred that clawed toward him. Because Vaapad is more than a fighting style. It is a state of mind: a channel for darkness. Power passed into him and out again without touching him. And the circuit completed itself: the lightning reflected back to its source. Palpatine staggered, snarling, but the blistering energy that loured from his hands only intensified. He fed the power with his pain.
"Anakin!" Mace called. His voice sounded distant, blurred, as if it came from the bottom of a well. "Anakin, help me! This is your chance!" He felt Anakin's leap from the office floor to the ledge, felt his approach behind- And Palpatine was not afraid. Mace could feel it: he wasn't worried at all.
"Destroy this traitor," the Chancellor said, his voice raised aver the howl of writhing energy that joined his hands to Mace's blade. "This was never an arrest. It's an assassination!" That was when Mace finally understood. He had it. The key to final victory. Palpatine's shatterpoint. The absolute shatterpoint of the Sith. The shatterpoint of the dark side itself. Mace thought, blankly astonished, Palpatine trusts Anakin Skywalker. Now Anakin was at Mace's shoulder. Palpatine still made no move to defend himself from Skywalker; instead he ramped up the lightning bursting from his hands, bending the fountain of Mace's blade back toward the Korun Master's face. Palpatine's eyes glowed with power, casting a yellow glare that burned back the rain from around them. "He is a traitor, Anakin. Destroy him."
"You're the chosen one, Anakin," Mace said, his voice going thin with strain. This was beyond Vaapad; he had no strength left to fight against his own blade. "Take him. It's your destiny.'"
Skywalker echoed him faintly. "Destiny..."
"Help me! I can't hold on any longer!" The yellow glare from Palpatine's eyes spread outward through his flesh. His skin flowed like oil, as though the muscle beneath was burning away, as though even the bones of his skull were softening, were bending and bulging, deforming from the heat and pressure of his electric hatred. "He is killing me, Anakin-! Please. Anaaahhh-"
Mace's blade bent so close to his face that he was choking on ozone. "Anakin, he's too strong for me-"
"Ahhh-" Palpatine's roar above above the endless blast of lightning became a fading moan of despair. The lightning swallowed itself, leaving only the night and the rain, and an old man crumpled to his knees on a slippery ledge. "I ... can't. I give up. I ... I am too weak, in the end. Too old, and too weak. Don't kill me, Master Jedi. Please. I surrender."
Victory flooded through Mace's aching body. He lifted his blade. "You Sith disease-"
"Wait-" Skywalker seized his lightsaber arm with desperate strength. "Don't kill him-you can't just kill him, Master-"
"Yes, I can," Mace said, grim and certain. "I have to."
"You came to arrest him. He has to stand trial-"
"A trial would be a joke. He controls the courts. He controls the Senate-"
"So are you going to kill all them, too? Like he said you would?" Mace yanked his arm free.
"He's too dangerous to be left alive. If you could have taken Dooku alive, would you have?" Skywalker's face swept itself clean of emotion.
"That was different-"
Mace turned toward the cringing, beaten Sith Lord. "You can explain the difference after he's dead." He raised his lightsaber.
"I need him alive!" Skywalker shouted. "I need him to save Padme!" Mace thought blankly, Why? And moved his lightsaber toward the fallen Chancellor. Before he could follow through on his stroke, a sudden arc of blue plasma sheared through his wrist and his hand tumbled away with his lightsaber still in it and Palpatine roared back to his feet and lightning speared from the Sith Lord's hands and without his blade to catch it, the power of Palpatine's hate struck him full-on. He had been so intent on Palpatine's shatterpoint that he'd never thought to look for Anakin's. Dark lightning blasted away his universe. He fell forever. Anakin Skywalker knelt in the rain. He was looking at a hand. The hand had brown skin. The hand held a lightsaber. The hand had a charred oval of tissue where it should have been attached to an arm. "What have I done?" Was it his voice? It must have been. Because it was his question. "What have I done?"
Another hand, a warm and human hand, laid itself softly on his shoulder. "You're following your destiny, Anakin," said a familiar gentle voice. "The Jedi are traitors. You saved the Republic from their treachery. You can see that, can't you?"
"You were right," Anakin heard himself saying. "Why didn't I know?"

--Taken from the Revenge of the Sith novel

Darth Sidious vs Yoda. This duel is more straightforward and less complex, really. I should note that in the novel, Sidious and Yoda never stalemated. It was a more clean-cut victory for Sidious. It was specifically stated that Yoda simply did not have the power or skill to overcome to Palpatine, and Sidious landed a direct blast with his Lightning on Yoda that ended the duel.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFEjcvIRMDo

Yoda rose. A gesture opened the grating of the vent shaft where he had waited in meditation, revealing the vast conic well that was the Grand Convocation Chamber of the Galactic Senate. It was sometimes called the Senate Arena. Today, this nickname would be particularly apt. Yoda stretched blood back into his green flesh. This was his time. Nine hundred years of study and training, of teaching and of meditation, all now focused, and refined, and resolved into this single moment; the sole purpose of his vast span of existence had been to prepare him to enter the heart of night and bring his light against the darkness. He adjusted the angle of his blade against his belt. He draped his robe across his shoulders. The holding office of the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic comprised the nether vertex of the Senate Arena; it was little more than a circular preparations area, a green room, where guests of the Chancellor might be entertained before entering the Senate Podium-the circular pod on its immense hydraulic pillar, which contained controls that coordinated the movement of floating Senate delegation pods-and rising into the focal point of the chamber above. Above that podium, the vast holopresence of a kneeling Sith bowed before a shadow that stood below. Guards in scarlet flanked the shadow; a Chagrian toady cringed nearby. "But the danger is real; be mindful."
"I will, my Master. Thank you." The holopresence faded, and where its huge translucency had knelt was now revealed another presence, a physical presence, tiny and aged, clad in robes and leaning on a twist of wood. But his physical presence was an illusion; the truth of him could be seen only in the Force. In the Force, he was a fountain of light.
"Pity your new disciple I do; so lately an apprentice, so soon without a Master."
"Why, Master Yoda, what a delightful surprise! Welcome!" The voice of the shadow hummed with anticipation. "Let me be the first to wish you Happy Empire Day!"
"Find it happy, you will not. Nor will the murderer you call Vader."
"Ah." The shadow stepped closer to the light. "So that is the threat I felt. Who is it, if I may ask? Who have you sent to kill him?"
"Enough it is that you know your own destroyer."
"Oh, pish, Master Yoda. It wouldn't be Kenobi, would it? Please say it's Kenobi-Lord Vader gets such a thrill from killing people who care for him ..." Behind the shadow, some meters away, Mas Amedda-the Chagrian toady who was Speaker of the Galactic Senate-heard a whisper in Palpatine's voice. “Flee.” He did. Neither light nor shadow gave his exit a glance.
"So easily slain, Obi-Wan is not."
"Neither are you, apparently; but that is about to change." The shadow took another step, and another.
A lightsaber appeared, green as sunlight in a forest. "The test of that, today will be."
"Even a fraction of the dark side is more power than your Jedi arrogance can conceive; living in the light, you have never seen the depth of the darkness." The shadow spread arms that made its sleeves into black wings. "Until now." Lightning speared from outstretched hands, and the battle was on.
In the Senate Arena, lightning forked from the hands of a Sith, and bent away from the gesture of a Jedi to shock Redrobes into unconsciousness. Then there were only the two of them. Their clash transcended the personal; when new lightning blazed, it was not Palpatine burning Yoda with his hate, it was the Lord of all Sith scorching the Master of all Jedi into a smoldering huddle of clothing and green flesh. A thousand years of hidden Sith exulted in their victory. "Your time is over! The Sith rule the galaxy! Now and forever!" And it was the whole of the Jedi Order that rocketed from its huddle, making of its own body a weapon to blast the Sith to the ground.
"At an end your rule is, and not short enough it was, I must say." There appeared a blade the color of life. From the shadow of a black wing, a small weapon-a holdout, an easily concealed backup, a tiny bit of treachery expressing the core of Sith mastery-slid into a withered hand and spat a flame-colored blade of its own. When those blades met, it was more than Yoda against Palpatine, more the millennia of Sith against the legions of Jedi; this was the expression of the fundamental conflict of the universe itself. Light against dark. Winner take all.
There came a turning point in the clash of the light against the dark. It did not come from a flash of lightning or slash of energy blade, though there were these in plenty; it did not come from a flying kick or a surgically precise punch, though these were traded, too. It came as the battle shifted from the holding office to the great Chancellor's Podium; it came as the hydraulic lift beneath the Podium raised it on its tower of durasteel a hundred meters and more, so that it became a laserpoint of battle flaring at the focus of the vast emptiness of the Senate Arena; it came as the Force and the podium's controls ripped delegation pods free of the curving walls and made of them hammers, battering rams, catapult stones crashing and crushing against each other in a rolling thunder-roar that echoed the Senate's cheers for the galaxy's new Emperor. It came when the avatar of light resolved into the lineage of the Jedi; when the lineage of the Jedi refined into one single Jedi. It came when Yoda found himself alone against the dark. In that lightning-speared tornado of feet and fists and blades and bashing machines, his vision finally pierced the darkness that had clouded the Force. Finally, he saw the truth. This truth: that he, the avatar of light, Supreme Master of the Jedi Order, the fiercest, most implacable, most devastatingly powerful foe the darkness had ever known . . . just- didn't- have it. He'd never had it. He had lost before he started. He had lost before he was born. The Sith had changed. The Sith had grown, had adapted, had invested a thousand years' intensive study into every aspect of not only the Force but Jedi lore itself, in preparation for exactly this day. The Sith had remade themselves. They had become new. While the Jedi- The Jedi had spent that same millennium training to refight the last war. The new Sith could not be destroyed with a lightsaber; they could not be burned away by any torch of the Force. The brighter his light, the darker their shadow. How could one win a war against the dark, when war itself had become the dark's own weapon? He knew, at that instant, that this insight held the hope of the galaxy. But if he fell here, that hope would die with him. Hmmm, Yoda thought. A problem this is . . .
The end came with astonishing suddenness. The shadow could feel how much it cost the little green freak to bend back his lightnings into the cage of energy that enclosed them both; the creature had reached the limits of his strength. The shadow released its power for an instant, long enough only to whirl away through the air and alight upon one of the delegation pods as it flew past, and the creature leapt to follow- Half a second too slow. The shadow unleashed its lightning while the creature was still in the air, and the little green freak took its full power. The shock blasted him backward to crash against the podium, and he fell. He fell a long way. The base of the Arena was a hundred meters below, littered with twisted scraps and jags of metal from the pods destroyed in the battle, and as the little green freak fell, finally, above, the victorious shadow became once again only Palpatine: a very old, very tired man, gasping for air as he leaned on the pod's rail. Old he might have been, but there was nothing wrong with his eyesight; he scanned the wreckage below, and he did not see a body. He flicked a finger, and in the Chancellor's Podium a dozen meters away, a switch tripped and sirens sounded throughout the enormous building; another surge of the Force sent his pod streaking in a downward spiral to the holding office at the base of the Podium tower. Clone troops were already swarming into it. "It was Yoda," he said as he swung out of the pod. "Another assassination attempt. Find him and kill him. If you have to, blow up the building." He didn't have time to direct the search personally. The Force hummed a warning in his bones: Lord Vader was in danger. Mortal danger.

--Taken from the Revenge of the Sith novel

In Sidious and Luke's second duel in Dark Empire, Luke won as he received an amp from Leia and Anakin's Harmony. However, in their first duel, Luke held his own for a short time but was soon overwhelmed.
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Last Edit: Jul 9, 2011 19:51:34 GMT -5 by Silver

goku Guest	Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 8, 2010 16:38:26 GMT -5 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Back to Top Post by goku on Dec 8, 2010 16:38:26 GMT -5 Nice, real informative.

Strafe Prower Administrator The Outsider Hado #31 Shakkaho Posts: 6,346	Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 8, 2010 16:52:59 GMT -5 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Strafe Prower on Dec 8, 2010 16:52:59 GMT -5 I love how much thought you put into this. I wouldn't mind you doing more we characters!

Silver
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Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 8, 2010 17:15:30 GMT -5

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Post by Silver on Dec 8, 2010 17:15:30 GMT -5

@strafe: There are a few characters from DC and Marvel that I do plan to create respect threads for. I am still planning my Martian Manhunter respect thread, I will be contributing to the Spidey respect thread once I get the opportunity, etc. As far as Star Wars characters are concerned, I could create a Nihilus thread quickly and easily. Same with Naga Sadow. Both are extremely powerful but only have a few actual feats. I could probably make a Bane thread also, but that would take a little more time. This thread takes time because Sidious has numerous feats, which is surprising given how rare it is for him to actually step up and handle a situation himself. Generally, he works behind the scenes and strategically coordinates his pawns and manipulates events, in which he has feats as well.

Strafe Prower Administrator The Outsider Hado #31 Shakkaho Posts: 6,346	Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 8, 2010 22:41:09 GMT -5 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by Strafe Prower on Dec 8, 2010 22:41:09 GMT -5 Sounds great to me

Silver
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Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 9, 2010 2:39:06 GMT -5

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Post by Silver on Dec 9, 2010 2:39:06 GMT -5

Intelligence/Prep

Sidious has proven several times to be extremely intelligent and effective with prep. The reason Sidious is a prep master is because of four things.
1) Sidious is manipulative. This should go without saying. Palpatine constantly demonstrated the ability to direct others' intentions to his favor. Prime example: he turned the Jedi's prophesied Chosen One over to his side. He initiated and coordinated the Clone Wars from both sides, manipulating the Jedi and the Sith like pieces on a chess board. He controlled the Republic Senate for the sake of amassing political power before he overthrew the Republic. He cycled through multiple Sith apprentices, using them purely for his own ends until they outlived their usefulness. He manipulated Jango Fett. He manipulated Starkiller. He manipulated Mara Jade. He manipulated Luke. The list goes on. Careful and precise manipulation is probably Sidious's best skill, his ability to influence other minds through the Force notwithstanding.
2) He is a strategic genius. He has been described as planning for every contingency (even his own death, which he prepared for by learning Transfer Essence). He planned and organized the fall of the Republic and rise of the Empire, as well as the destruction of the majority of the thousands of Jedi of the time. He has personally tactically carried out various Imperial battles and was, obviously, intelligent and patient enough to strategize his take over of the entire galaxy. Sidious's Empire was the largest spanning Sith Empire in history, possessing all except maybe a few systems in the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions. It should also be noted that long after his death, even his final defeat in Empire's End, Remnants of his Empire continued to operate.
3) Palpatine is resourceful. He has a galaxy of advanced technology and weaponry, as well as the right technicians under his command that can develop and upgrade his various military war machines, superweapons, plagues, clones, etc. Sidious himself is not a seasoned inventor/engineer, but he has had various experts work for him in order to build his multitudes of technological plans.
4) His efficiency in Sith magic is the last reason. Showings I presented above of his alchemical feats do apply to prep and enhance the point of his prep mastery.

Clones
Let me first briefly address this. Sidious has repeatedly abused the science of cloning. As I think we all know, he instigated the creation of the clone army on Kamino. However, he has also cloned several other individuals, often times more than once. Sidious has ordered the cloning of Darth Maul, Starkiller, Bevel Lemelisk, Jorus C'baoth, himself, etc.

Now, onto Sidious's superweapons.

Death Star 1 and 2
These should be fairly universally recognized. They appeared in the movies. Just for reference, the destructive capability.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=djZFHTa6TfA&feature=related

World Devastators
World Devastators were essentially mobile raw matter processors. They would suck in portions of planets and restructure the material to enhance the Devastator and produce star ships. These have been described as more powerful than the Death Star, and one of them manage to consume a Star Destroyer. Here is a scan that gives a description of them.
media.comicvine.com/uploads/4/48765/1773607-new_picture__116_.jpg

Galaxy Gun
The Galaxy Gun is a space station that fires a missile that travels at light speed toward a target. This missile connects with the planet it was aimed at and causes a nucleonic reaction that destroys the planet. Sidious destroyed Da Soocha V (Pinnacle Moon) and Nespis VIII, among other planets. The missile was also shielded well enough to withstand blasts from X-Wings and continue toward its destination. These scans show it destroying Pinnacle Moon.
media.comicvine.com/uploads/4/48765/1538531-new_picture__61__super.jpg
media.comicvine.com/uploads/4/48765/1538532-new_picture__62__super.jpg
media.comicvine.com/uploads/4/48765/1538533-new_picture__63__super.jpg

This scan gives a description of the Galaxy Gun.
media.comicvine.com/uploads/4/48765/1773606-new_picture__115_.jpg

Sun Crusher
The Sun Crusher was a particularly durable superweapon that, as its name suggests, could destroy stars.

The Sun Crusher was only slightly larger than a fighter, yet its resonance torpedoes were powerful enough to destroy a star.

The Sun Crusher carried eleven "resonance torpedoes" which were energized and launched through the resonance projector. The torpedoes could be launched into a star to trigger a chain reaction that would cause the star to go supernova, incinerating every world in its system.

--Taken from The Essential Guide to Vehicles and Vessels

Eye of Palpatine
Another superweapon, the Eye of Palpatine was a powerful dreadnaught encased in an asteroid. Its destructive power was on planetary levels

The specially-designed starship Eye of Palpatine was basically a huge dreadnaught hidden inside an asteroid-like shell. The moon sized craft could travel hyperspace until it neared a target, then drop into normal space. It would then swing into the destination system as a piece of space debris. It automated firing controls could then unleash a huge gout of firepower, capable of destroying an entire planet.

--Taken from the Star Wars Encyclopedia

Brief mention to chemical warfare.

Emperor's Plague
The Emperor's Plague was a chemically engineered bioweapon, supposedly more deadly than the Krytos virus, that specifically targeted and killed humans.

Of course, Sidious did also have a seemingly endless army and fleet of starfighters at his command along with his superweapons. He also had in his possession myriads of dark side artifacts. The number of holocrons he has been both confirmed and rumored to have does explain, to some degree, why he grew in power and knowledge to the degrees he did.

Sidious's strategic manipulations were carefully orchestrated and were effective enough to bring about the fall of the Republic and destruction of the Jedi Order. An important detail of the time period during the Rise of the Empire era is that the Jedi and the Republic were in a practical golden age. They had not seen any legitimate conflict for 1000 years since the end of the New Sith Wars, that Darth Bane concluded. The Sith were in hiding, and the Jedi and Republic prospered for that time. There was the Stark Hyperspace Conflict that took place during this time, but the incident was minor and did nothing to detract from the state the Republic was in. He was able to infiltrate the Republic from a political seat of power (that he carefully and strategically placed himself in) and was recognized and acknowledged by the Jedi Council. His use of Concealment is what allowed Palpatine to keep his dark side potency undetected. His use of Farseeing, Sense, Vision, and other clairvoyant and precognitive powers also granted Sidious a certain accuracy and clarity when carrying out his plans. Part of the reason he was so skilled in manipulating events is because, not only did he prepare for and strategize the outcome, but he understood almost every detail surrounding them. This only added to his strategic, manipulative, and resourceful means of exacting his plans.

Last Edit: Apr 16, 2011 4:03:07 GMT -5 by Silver

FadeToBlackBolt
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Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 9, 2010 6:15:37 GMT -5

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Post by FadeToBlackBolt on Dec 9, 2010 6:15:37 GMT -5

Scintillating and fascinating read, Silver. I've read the Revenge of the Sith novel, and I found it brilliant, and you've summarised its epicness very well.

Awesome stuff in other words, and probably the best respect thread I've ever seen. (Thumbs up).

Silver
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Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 9, 2010 6:21:07 GMT -5

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Post by Silver on Dec 9, 2010 6:21:07 GMT -5

@fade: Thanks, man. The Yoda/Sidious and Windu/Sidious duels in the novel are awesome. Matthew Stover wrote the RotS novelization, but he also wrote Shatterpoint (as you may know already). So he understands Windu's capabilities down to a tee, which did help in his description of their duel. Vaapad + Shatterpoint Vs Sidious = Awesomeness.

And Yoda is Yoda. 'Nuff said.

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Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 9, 2010 6:23:31 GMT -5

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Post by FadeToBlackBolt on Dec 9, 2010 6:23:31 GMT -5

@silver haha, too true, Yoda rules. I still can't believe some people say that Vader is greater than Sidious. It's mindboggling.

I love the chapter prefaces in RotS as well. Some of my favourite excerpts from any novel.

Last Edit: Dec 9, 2010 6:23:57 GMT -5 by FadeToBlackBolt

Silver
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Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 9, 2010 6:29:45 GMT -5

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Post by Silver on Dec 9, 2010 6:29:45 GMT -5

@fade: I always facepalm whenever I hear comparisons made between Vader and Luke or Sidious or Sadow or Jacen or any of the other major powerhouse characters. Vader is powerful, not that powerful. And the battle threads Vader has been placed in on the Vine........-_-

Stover is a great author. He has written a fair amount of Star Wars books, but I hope to see more of his work.

spidey_17 The Unstoppable Ledgernaut With Great Power Comes Great.... suffering? Posts: 4,961	Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 13, 2010 5:46:35 GMT -5 Quote Select Post Deselect Post Link to Post Member Give Gift Back to Top Post by spidey_17 on Dec 13, 2010 5:46:35 GMT -5 Awesome and tidy work silver. Pretty educational too. =]

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Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread Dec 13, 2010 6:26:40 GMT -5

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Post by Silver on Dec 13, 2010 6:26:40 GMT -5

@spidey: Appreciate it. Haha. "Educational."

I would have added a section about Sidious's origin and how he came to where he was in the movies, but very little information has actually been given about his past.

Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine Respect Thread

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Post by Silver on Dec 13, 2010 6:26:40 GMT -5