Darth Sidious, or Palpatine, is one of the most powerful and dangerous characters in Star Wars, in or out of canon.
While Luke SkywalkerDarth Vader, Leia Organa and Han Solo usually monopolize and divide the attention of Star Wars fans, Darth Sidious, also known as Senator Palpatine or Emperor, is a villain who arouses much curiosity, both for his mysterious past, and for his influence on such powerful heroes or his incredible abilities as a Sith Lord.
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Both in the official canon and in the past stories that are no longer part of the official timeline, in what we currently call Legends, Palpatine has always been described as one of the most powerful Sith Lords in all of the history of Star Wars – you see, for a thousand years, the Jedi believed the Sith threat was over, while Palpatine fueled the return of the villains.
Below are six Force powers that make Palpatine so dangerous and scary, both in the official timeline and back in the day. Expanded universe (currently known as legends):
The ability to hide in the Force
To this day, it’s not very clear how the Sith managed to hide from the Jedi for so many centuries, however, one explanation is Palpatine’s ability to hide in the Force. The battle of Jedhafrom recent High Republicby George Mann, reveals that a dark side power could be used to confuse the consciousness of others, even Jedi, which could explain how Palpatine did it.
And the villain would have been so confident in using this ability that he even did it by hiding from the Jedi Masters with Yoda and even from the Jedi Council itself, as you can see in the films of the second trilogy and in the book The Queen’s Shadowby EK Johnson.
Force Lightning
Force Lightning is her signature power and her favorite way to “convince” enemies to surrender. The true nature of him is best described in the book The Queen’s Hopeby EK Johnson, who suggests this ability as an outward manifestation of a Sith’s hatred and anger, and a Sith experiences a sense of emotional release when expressing it.
Thus, Force Lightning demonstrates the utter corruption of Palpatine, as he is extremely powerful and used to torture or kill – in some stories of legendsleft behind nothing but charred corpses.
Force telekinesis
If you remember correctly the duel between Palpatine and Yoda in Revenge of the Sithhe will remember Palpatine using his telekinesis to drop pods from the Senate auditorium onto the Jedi Master.
And, more recently, we’ve seen some amazing demonstrations of Darth Sidious’ use of this mental ability.who managed to accomplish it even thousands of light years from his goal.
Force Storm
In Legends, Palpatine learned to summon devastating force storms, capable of affecting entire planets. There are even times when Darth Sidious could be observed destroying remote worlds with this power, which resembles a rain of electricity on enemies.
In official canon, there are hints that he used this ability to destroy Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Temple, as seen recently in the graphic novel. The rise of Kylo Renby Charles Soule and Will Sliney. Also, you can witness this power in The Rise of Skywalkerwhen Palpatine nearly decimates the Galactic Fleet.
Forced unloading
This ability already existed in Expanded universe and was re-canonized through the trilogy of books Consequencesby Chuck Wendig, before being revised in The Rise of Skywalker. Force Drain allows the Sith Lord to draw both the Force and the pure life essence of his targets.
Palpatine uses the Force Dyad, when two Force beings merge into one, combining Rey and Kylo Ren into one source to revitalize his life and powers – it is worth noting that in legendshe had used this too, on a much larger scale, with every living thing on an entire planet.
Transfer of Essence into Strength
Seen in both current canon and legends, Essence transfer allows a Sith Lord to infuse his spirit into a host object or body. However, it is only possible for a Sith to possess the body of someone he killed in anger and hatred, while under the influence of the dark side, which is why the Emperor encouraged Luke to kill him in anger in Return of the Jedi.
The same goes for what happened to Rey The Rise of Skywalkerwhen Palpatine sought her out to encourage her to kill him in anger, just so his spirit could possess his body.
*With information from ScreenRant.
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