The Tragedy Of Darth Plagueis The Wise - A Sith Legend
Have you ever heard the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? Well, it certainly isn’t a story the Jedi would tell you. Or George Lucas, for that matter. Darth Plagueis is one of those characters that got lost in limbo when Disney bought Lucasfilm. Plagueis is undoubtedly canon since Palpatine mentions him by name and tells his story in Revenge of the Sith. However, most of the intricacies and backstory of the character have been lost to Legends. It puts him in a similar spot to Darth Bane and Darth Revan. They have been stated to exist in Star Wars canon, but we have no idea how much of their Legends stories will also become canon. That being said, there is a lot of information about Plagueis from Legends which made its way into canon that gives us a good idea about what the true story of Darth Plagueis is.
For the uninformed, Darth Plagueis was a Sith master who developed unprecedented Force powers through his scientific work and knowledge of the Darth Side. He was also the master of Darth Sidious, whom we know as Emperor/Chancellor Palpatine. Plagueis, through his dark mastery, was able to manipulate the midi-chlorians to create life. This would also allow him to use the midi-chlorians to save people he cared for from death. That is the gist of what we learn in Revenge of the Sith.
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However, canon does give us a bit more information on Plagueis. He also instructed Sidious in the Rule of Two, and he attempted to develop a Force dyad with Sidious, which is similar to what we saw Rey and Ben have in the sequel trilogy. However, the dyad between Sidious and Plagueis never succeeded. It is rumored that he attempted this dyad to beat the Rule of Two, but this isn’t confirmed in canon.
Canon tells that Plagueis was still with Palpatine before The Phantom Menace. At some point, Palpatine lulled him into a deep sleep and then killed him. That basically covers what is known about Plagueis. There simply isn’t that much information regarding him in Star Wars canon, and most of the other sources that reference him heavily were cast into Legends. There are some curious bits of information in the Darth Plagueis novel that does tie closely into canon.
To start off with, the 2012 book by James Luceno is not canon despite having input and expanding on ideas by George Lucas. While it may be a fan favorite novel, its plot wasn’t brought over into canon, but some of its ideas were. For example, Darth Plagueis being a member of the Muun race was suggested by Lucas, put into the novel, and then brought into canon. It does go into a great deal more detail about Plagueis and Sidious and falls in line with things we know in canon. The novel outright says that Plagueis hated the Rule of Two and sought to break it. He attempted this initially by killing his master Darth Tenebrous, and then later by using Palpatine to take advantage of the rule similar to the dyad that appears in canon.
The novel also goes into more depth about Plagueis' use of the midi-chlorians in his experiments on extending and creating life. The novel even goes as far as to say the Force retaliated against his midi-chlorian manipulation, and that came in the form of Anakin Skywalker. In the novel, Palpatine kills Plagueis further into The Phantom Menace than in canon, happening during the Battle of Naboo. The novel also states that Palpatine inherited Plagueis’s droid, 11-4D, which also occurs in canon. What is even more curious is that James Luceno, who wrote the Darth Plagueis novel, also wrote the Tarkin novel, which makes references to the Darth Plagueis novel, but the Tarkin novel is canon.
All this is to say that Darth Plagueis is one of the most fascinating and important characters in Star Wars. He trained Darth Sidious, developed deadly Sith techniques, and had a lasting impact on Star Wars, but we still don’t know a lot about him. With the novel being put into Legends, we have few sources to pull from outside of the films for information about him. Hopefully, the story can be adapted for canon in some form or fashion. I suppose the real tragedy of Darth Plaguis the Wise is how little we still know about this incredibly powerful Sith.
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Source(s): Wookieepedia