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.
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.
--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.
--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.
--Taken from The Dark Empire Sourcebook
The effect of Force Storm is explained.
--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.
--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.
--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.
--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.
--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.
--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.)
--Taken from Darksaber
--Taken from Darksaber
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--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.
--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.
--Taken from the Revenge of the Sith novel
The Emperor's Lightning overpowers Yoda's Force Deflection.
--Taken from the Revenge of the Sith novel
This time, his Force Lightning overcomes Luke's Force Deflection.
--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.
--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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--Taken from The New Essential Guide to Characters
--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.
--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.
--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.
--Taken from The Star Wars Encyclopedia
Further proof that it was a mind wipe.
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--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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--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.
--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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--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.)
--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.)
--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.)
--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."
--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.
--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.
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!
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."
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.
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.
"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.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A07WNupEXk&feature=player_embedded
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.