46 pages • 1-hour read
Darth Plagueis
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Character Analysis
Content Warning: This section of the guide contains depictions of graphic violence, physical and emotional abuse, illness, and death.
Darth Plagueis/Hego Damask
Darth Plagueis is a dynamic and round character, the novel’s eponymous protagonist. His character arc follows the trajectory of the traditional tragic anti-hero, drawing on fate, hubris, a fatal flaw, and dramatic irony. His existence is dedicated to achieving two ultimate goals: executing the ancient Sith Grand Plan to overthrow the Republic and the Jedi, and conquering death to achieve physical immortality. These encapsulate the two driving forces of his nature: the first is his sworn loyalty to the Sith Order; the second his personal ambition to escape Sith limitations on his personal power. The incompatibility of these two imperatives leads inevitably to his downfall.
Plagueis was born Hego Damask, an identity that, like all Sith Lords, he maintains in the external world as a cover for his true Sith identity. Having become a Muun of immense wealth and influence, Plagueis is Magister of Damask Holdings, using his financial and political acumen as a weapon to destabilize the galaxy from within. Damask is openly manipulative, power-hungry and corrupt, to a level acceptable in the Empire’s dealings, an example of the Sith hiding in plain sight.
Driven by his personal ambition, Plagueis attempts to subvert the foundation of the modern Sith Order: Darth Bane’s Rule of Two. Blinded by his self-interest, he intends for this endless cycle to end with him, consolidating his power forever. In this respect, his megalomaniacal greed for power reaches grandiose proportions. This frames his relationship with his apprentice, Darth Sidious, on which the major action of the book focuses. Sidious’s betrayal of Plagueis frames the novel’s beginning and ending, placing Plagueis’s role as mentor within a tragic structure and imbuing his character—however evil—with poignancy. Plagueis views himself as the culmination of a millennium of Sith evolution, a visionary uniquely equipped to transcend the limitations of his predecessors and elevate the Sith from a clandestine order to the galaxy’s rightful rulers. His journey is ultimately a cautionary tale about the theme of The Hubris of Seeking to Control the Forces of Nature, as his ambition leads him to fatal miscalculations.
Darth Sidious / Palpatine
Serving as the deuteragonist and antagonist, Darth Sidious’s arc represents the inexorable of the Sith ideology that his Master, Darth Plagueis, seeks to transcend. Sidious is a foil to Plagueis: He is more brutal and less intellectual in his methods, ultimately rejecting his master’s philosophy. His character draws on tropes of the decadent and murderous Roman emperor: violent, jealous of power, and quick to betray even those closest to him. The novel’s times frame reveals Sidious as Plagueis’s murderer from the start, casting him as the treacherous successor immediately. The murder, committed at the precise moment of their greatest political victory, demonstrates that for Sidious, power is not something to be shared. He waits for the “intuited perfect moment” (3) to strike, proving himself the superior strategist. Upon killing his Master, he feels the dark side anoint him, thinking, “The dark side had made him its property, and now he made the dark side his” (4). This moment signifies his complete submission to the Sith ideal: power as an end in itself, achieved through betrayal and destined to create a cycle of paranoia and destruction that will inevitably consume him as well: Within established Star Wars narratives, Sidious will achieve absolute power of the Empire but his reign will collapse, ending the Sith Order.
Born Palpatine, an ambitious and discontented young noble from Naboo, Sidious’s appetite for betrayal is made evident before he meets Plagueis. As a teenager, he skillfully exploits his family’s political rivalries on Naboo to attract the attention of the powerful Damask, correctly intuiting that the Magister would be drawn to his ruthlessness. His betrayal and murder of his own family is a turning point, marking his shift of allegiance to the dark side, but also mirroring his betrayal and murder of Plagueis.
As the novel progresses, Sidious is defined by a masterful capacity for manipulation and an insatiable lust for power. He skillfully presents a charismatic and unassuming political face to the galaxy while privately honing his connection to the dark side. He is the perfect apprentice for the new era of Sith influence, leveraging political cunning over brute force, yet he remains a firm believer in the traditional, violent succession of the Rule of Two. His journey from a troubled youth to the sole Dark Lord of the Sith frames the narrative and fulfills the self-destructive prophecy of his order.
Darth Tenebrous / Rugess Nome
As Darth Plagueis’s Sith Master, Darth Tenebrous serves as a mentor figure to Plagueis. Tenebrous is viewed mainly through the perspective of Plagueis’s narrative. This allows the reader further insights into the protagonist’s state of mind, as his recollections of Tenebrous reveal the suppressed, more vulnerable side of Plagueis, especially through memories of himself as an apprentice. Plagueis must overcome his bond to Tenebrous to claim his own authority, prefiguring his own murder.
A Bith, Tenebrous possesses a brilliant scientific mind, but his approach to the Force is one of prognostication and calculated foresight, a contrast to Plagueis’s desire for direct biological manipulation. Operating publicly as the legendary starship designer Rugess Nome, he exemplifies the Sith strategy of hiding in plain sight and accumulating influence through non-military means.
Tenebrous is a static character, representing the established traditions of the Sith Order and the inherent paranoia of the Rule of Two. He allows the novel to explicate Darth Bane’s Rule of Two and the precedent of betrayal between master and apprentice. As a contingency against Plagueis, Tenebrous secretly trains a second, Darth Venamis, breaking the rules of the Order in the hope of extending his life and power. This prefigures Plagueis’s own attempts to escape the Rule, just as his death foreshadows Plagueis’s death.
11-4D
11-4D is a medical and utility droid providing a uniquely objective and non-Force-sensitive perspective on the actions of the Sith. Initially the property of the crew of the Woebegone, 11-4D becomes Plagueis’s servant after the Muun massacres the crew. His programming and analytical nature allow him to observe the Sith’s atrocities and ambitious experiments with a clinical detachment that highlights Sith cruelty. 11-4D functions as a chronicler of the Sith’s secret history, such as witnessing Plagueis slaughter the Woebegone crew, assisting in the vivisection of Darth Venamis, or cataloging the arcane texts on Aborah. The droid is a tool, utterly loyal and efficient, reflecting the Sith’s utilitarian worldview in which all beings, organic or synthetic, are instruments to be used in the pursuit of power.
The Crew of the Woebegone
Captain Ellin Lah and the crew of the freighter Woebegone are characters whose collective role is to exemplify the effect of Sith evil, and to establish Plagueis’s dark character. Although they do not appear for long in the novel, their characters and dialogue are engaging, creating sympathy for them and—by extension—for the wider world of beings who will suffer under Sith rule. Their democratic and pragmatic approach to dealing with the Muun stowaway stands in stark contrast to the absolute, predatory evil they find aboard. Their attempt to negotiate and their ultimate decision to contact authorities trigger Plagueis’s wrath, leading to their swift and brutal massacre. This encounter serves as a powerful demonstration of Plagueis’s ruthlessness and his lethal efficiency, establishing the stakes of the narrative. Plagueis uses their dying moments as an opportunity for study, observing the behavior of their midi-chlorians and foreshadowing his deeper obsession with controlling life and death. The sympathetic depiction of the crew as living beings emphasizes the deeply immoral and disturbing nature of these experiments.
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