Darth Plagueis

These chapters reveal thematic and emotional tension by juxtaposing Plagueis’s calculated elimination of rivals with his meticulous grooming of Palpatine. In Chapter 7, Plagueis reflects on his master, Tenebrous, who secretly trained a second apprentice, Venamis, as an insurance policy—an act demonstrating the distrust at the core of Sith succession. These memories act as exposition but also reveal Plagueis’s private character and his most vulnerable bond, developing him as a tragic anti-hero.

These chapters further develop the philosophical contradictions of Sith ideology, exploring The Master-Apprentice Relationship as a Corruption of Patrilineage. Revealed through Darth Plagueis’s narrative arc, this centers on his attempts to secure power while being required to cultivate a successor. Plagueis views this historical adherence to the Rule of Two as a weakness he can transcend. His decision to neutralize the Force-sensitives Venamis had scouted is an act of consolidating power and an attempt to sterilize the environment of potential challengers. This desire for absolute control, however, is precisely what blinds him to the nature of the power he is cultivating in Palpatine. The brutal training on Mygeeto is designed to forge Sidious into a weapon for Plagueis’s use, but the reader knows that—however vulnerable Sidious may seem during training—he will become the treacherous all-powerful Sith shown in the Prologue.

The transformation of Palpatine from a resentful youth into the Sith apprentice Darth Sidious serves as the narrative’s central character study in this section, illustrating The Self-Destruction Nature of the Pursuit of Power. Palpatine is shown to be a willing participant in his own corruption: Plagueis does not create Palpatine’s darkness; he identifies it and provides a philosophical justification for its release. Palpatine’s conflicts with his father, Cosinga, and his secret transgressions establish a foundation of alienation and a craving for control. Plagueis effectively exploits this by positioning himself as a mentor who understands Palpatine’s exceptionalism. The fabricated story of murdering his own family acts as a form of psychological priming, validating the violent thoughts Palpatine already harbors. The subsequent familicide is the culmination of his character arc—a ritualistic severing of all ties to his former identity. When he later confesses his ultimate desire to Plagueis, declaring, “I want to rule” (165), it is the articulation of an identity wholly defined by the pursuit of power. His rebirth as Sidious is a formalization of this identity, and his training on Mygeeto is the process of stripping away any remaining humanity, leaving only the weaponized will Plagueis requires. Palpatine’s entire youth becomes a performance, hiding his ambition behind the mask of a respectable nobleman. Palpatine’s own description of his power after murdering his family—“I became a storm, Magister… I was death itself!” (178)—cements this connection, framing his dark side apotheosis as a force of nature that Plagueis mistakenly believes he can harness.

The narrative continues to examine The Hubris of Seeking to Control the Forces of Nature as Plagueis’s heretical experiments continue. His laboratory on Aborah, where he keeps the defeated Venamis alive as a living specimen for midi-chlorian experiments, symbolizes this worldview. He is less a dark side priest than a ruthless scientist treating life as a resource to be exploited. This perspective informs his actions across the galaxy; he deals with Force-sensitives as variables to be controlled or eliminated. He murders the Iktotchi prophet because her apocalyptic vision represents an uncontrolled proliferation of dark side power that runs counter to his structured Grand Plan. This relentless drive for control reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of the Force, which both the narrative and wider mythology presents as a power that maintains its own balance. Plagueis’s hubris lies in his belief that he can tip the scales permanently without consequence, a belief that renders him incapable of seeing Palpatine not as a controllable asset, but as the eventual, devastating consequence of his ambition. This section therefore builds dramatic tension by showing Plagueis to be unknowingly moving toward his own destruction.

The narrative employs deliberate structural parallels and dramatic irony to foreshadow the conclusion of the master-apprentice dynamic. The chapters dedicated to Palpatine’s seduction are structured as a dark mirror to a traditional hero’s journey: His mentor is a Sith Lord, his call to adventure is a manipulation into patricide, and his reward is a deeper enslavement to power. This is paralleled by flashbacks to Plagueis’s own youth, establishing a cyclical pattern of betrayal. Plagueis’s belief that he is the culmination of this cycle is the novel’s core dramatic irony; he seeks a partner but follows the precise steps to create a usurper. This is powerfully illustrated during the training on Mygeeto. While subjecting Sidious to torture, Plagueis declares, “We are not butchers, Sidious, like some past Sith Lords. We are architects of the future” (188). The disconnect between his brutal methods and his ordered vision exposes his deep self-deception and grandiose sense of destiny.