Darth Plagueis

“The Muun […] might have lived forever had he succeeded fully in his quest. But in the end—though he could save others from death—he had failed to save himself.”

This quote, presented from Darth Sidious’s perspective as he stands over his master’s body, frames the narrative with dramatic irony. It details the cause and nature of Plagueis’s death before the chronology of his life begins, establishing the central theme of The Hubris of Seeking to Control the Forces of Nature. The phrasing directly foreshadows the story Palpatine will later tell Anakin Skywalker in Episode III, functioning as an ur-text for that pivotal moment in the saga.

“The Jedi thought of the cellular organelles as symbionts, but to Plagueis midi-chlorians were interlopers, running interference for the Force and standing in the way of a being’s ability to contact the Force directly.”

As Plagueis scientifically observes the near-death state of his master, caused by his own violence. This passage establishes Plagueis’s cold cruelty and his unique, almost heretical philosophy regarding the Force. The specific diction—characterizing midi-chlorians as “interlopers” and an “interference”—rejects the Jedi’s mystical view in favor of a mechanistic one, framing the Force as a system to be dominated rather than an energy to align with. This explanation underpins his quest for immortality and introduces the Midi-chlorians symbol.

“In the dark wood of that remote world, with a salted wind whistling through the trees and a distant sound of waves like drumming, he would take flight from the underworld in which the Sith had dwelled.”

Now the sole master of the Sith, Plagueis reflects on his destiny while running through the wilderness. The author uses pathetic fallacy, as the ominous natural imagery—“dark wood,” “whistling wind,” and “drumming” waves—mirrors Plagueis’s internal embrace of the dark side’s power.