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Darth Plagueis is a Star Wars Legends novel by James Luceno set during the final decades of the Old Republic (beginning approximately 67 years before the Battle of Yavin in A New Hope). The plot concerns itself with the life and times of the titular character Darth Plagueis and his dual efforts to conquer the galaxy and achieve immortality through manipulation of the midi-chlorians that connect the Force to its users. After betraying and murdering his way to the head of the Sith Order, Plagueis's journeys lead him to discover a young noble named Palpatine. Sensing enormous potential in the youthful malcontent, Plagueis ensnares Palpatine in the Sith ways and grants him the Sith title of Darth Sidious. The remainder of the book concerns itself with the relationship between these two Sith Lords and how their pursuit of power disrupts The Force and inevitably leads their fruitful partnership to a lethal conclusion.

Darth Plagueis is pivotal in that its content is heretofore unexplored. The history of the saga's Big Bad is detailed, as are new insights (as experienced through the eyes and actions of the Sith) to galactic events that lead to the Empire's rise in Revenge of the Sith. The novel spans decades and even encroaches well into the events of The Phantom Menace, featuring (to varying degrees) characters like Chancellor Valorum, Count Dooku, Darth Maul, Jabba the Hutt, Nute Gunray, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker.

Tone-wise, Darth Plagueis is more cerebral, with more emphasis on history, mysticism, and politics than outright action, affording it a similar nature to Luceno's other prequel-era Palpatine-centric novel, Cloak of Deception. It was released January 10th, 2012.

There is one other interesting facet to note here: this book was one of the very last released prior to the infamous reboot of 2014, meaning it is, strictly speaking, under the Legends banner and not the new canon banner. However, unlike most other EU sources, the very first pieces of reboot material, especially the novel Tarkin (also by Luceno), reference huge chunks of this book outright, reincorporating elements from it into the Disney canon almost immediately. While the book itself has not yet been formally forked from Legends wholesale, it does seem as if it is at least Broad Strokes canon to the new Disney continuity.

See The Darth Bane Trilogy, a series of Star Wars novels which also serve as the backstories for two Sith Lords that would come to influence politics and galactic affairs.


The novel contains the following tropes:

  • Abdicate the Throne: After Veruna proves to be a complete liability to the Sith, Palpatine and Plagueis maneuver to force him into a situation where he would be forced to end his kingship early and put Padme on the throne. Veruna only does so after the failed attack on Sojourn in order to protect himself from Damask and Palpatine's retribution. And that plan might have worked...if his enemies were just a corrupt banker and politician rather than also secretly Sith Lords who are now feeling vengeful after Sojurun. Damask even tells Veruna on his deathbed that the King's abdication. ironically, would have been enough to satisfy the Sith into leaving Veruna alone to rot away in his exile. By abdicating only after nuking Sojourn and trying to kill Damask, however, Veruna made it personal and sealed his fate.
  • Aborted Arc:
    • After interrogating the Gossams, Plagueis abandons his investigation into who hired Subtext Mining to assassinate Tenebrous. Dialogue later in the book — and interviews with Luceno — implies that it was probably Kerred Santhe II.
    • Pax Teem and his Senatorial career are an in-universe example in the context of the Sith Grand Plan. Tenebrous had long-term plans to install the Gran in the Chancellorship and use Teem's corruption and incompetence to weaken the Senate and Republic. Plagueis, however, decides to abandon this plan and kicks Teem to the curb during Part I — a move which ultimately backfires on him a decade later.
  • Abusive Parents: Even if he has good reasons to disapprove Damask's influence on his son, Cosinga is too overbearing and emotionally distant for Palpatine to see him as anything other than a petty despot, a clash not helped by Palpatine's juvenile arrogance and Cosinga's own perceivable hypocrisy. During their travel to Chommell Minor, Cosinga seals it by openly admitting to have always hated Palpatine and fantasized about having him killed, even although moments before he had just accused Palpatine of the same towards him. Depending on how you interpret him advancing towards Palpatine right after, he might have finally decided to act on this, which would turn Palpatine's first murder into a bout of self-defense.
  • A God Am I: Both Plagueis and Palpatine, at different points, declare themselves to be the Sith'ari, which is basically the Sith version of Jesus. There's a difference, though: Plagueis does it in a symbolic way, being actually skeptical of the concept, while Sidious does it wholeheartedly. This continues a Running Gag where the only Sith who doesn't consider themselves the Sith'ari is Bane, who was the actual subject of the original prophecy.
  • Above Good and Evil: One of the reasons Plagueis is intrigued by Palpatine is that he seems to have transcended notions of morality. Plagueis himself believes in the idea, claiming that what makes one person better than another is how much their actions benefit him.
  • The Ageless: Plagueis would undoubtedly prefer Complete Immortality but is, in fact, desperately seeking this.
  • Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: Once Plagueis is skunk-drunk on Sullustan wine, he passes out, at which point Sidious butchers him by blowing up his breathing apparatus with Force lightning.
  • All of the Other Reindeer: According to Plagueis, he was this to his extended family for being born in Myggeto and not on Muunlist, and for being born of another of his father's wives, claiming that if there's one thing that Muun hate more than unnecessary expense it's nonconformity. Though given that Plagueis is an Unreliable Narrator and that he was manipulating Palpatine against his father, we don't known how much truth there is to his story.
  • All There in the Manual:
    • While Darth Plagueis can stand on its own, several short stories were published concurrently in novel reprints and the Star Wars Insider (Matthew Stover's The Tenebrous Way and Luceno's own Restraint and Endgame). They expand on the roles and actions played by Darth Tenebrous and Darth Maul during the course of the book. It's justified given that the novel's focus is Plagueis and Sidious. Joe Schreiber's Maul: Lockdown also explains how, when, and where Veruna and his cabal get their hands on a proscribed nuclear device just prior to their attack on Sojurun.
    • It also helps if you're at least vaguely familiar with the basic plots of Darth Maul's Dark Horse comic, Shadow Hunter, Cloak of Deception, and Jedi Council: Acts of War (although the relevant parts get summarized). The last third happens concurrently with the events of The Phantom Menace and simply skips anything shown directly there without explanation, although if you hadn't seen that why are you even here?
  • Always Chaotic Evil: The Yinchorri believe that anything that they can take with force is theirs. Plagueis and Sidious manipulated this into a conflict that resulted in the deaths of a fair amount of Jedi and the degradation of Valorum's reputation, setting the stage for Palpatine's ascension to Supreme Chancellor.
  • A Man of Wealth and Taste:
    • Darth Plagueis is said to be well-dressed. It's nearly written word-for-word in the form of an uncharacteristic Shout-Out - "A Muun of wealth and taste."
    • Palpatine qualifies as well, having come from a very wealthy and prestigious family on Naboo.
  • Ambiguous Situation: While Plagueis is undoubtedly a genius, proving that Sidious was actually telling the truth when he said his master could save people from dying, it is Plagueis's fighting abilities that are left unclear here. He never duels any character that would appear in other works so we can compare their power levels, and Sidious only kills him when he cannot fight back easily. The only indication of his real power, however, would place Plagueis in a Badass Bookworm role not very far from the level of Sidious himself, as the latter obviously respects his abilities, and ultimately chooses to play it the safest possible when he murders him.
  • Ambition Is Evil: Plagueis, Palpatine, Gunray, Dooku, Veruna, Pestage, Doriana, Jabba, etc. Except for Padmé and Qui-Gon Jinn, pretty much everyone with at least one line in the book regardless of their alignment.
    • It's also implied this is why Vidar Kim's Maladain assassin went off-script and tried to kill Ronhar despite explict orders from Pestage and her handler to leave the Jedi alone. According to Pestage, she'd already killed at least one other Jedi earlier in her career. So, Pestage speculates that the temptation to add another Jedi kill to her resume may have been to good to pass up, orders or not.
  • And I Must Scream:
    • Darth Tenebrous is seemingly forced to relive his own death forever in an endless Stable Time Loop. The very Trope Namer even gets quoted. By this point, the only hope Tenebrous has is that if his maxi-chlorians ever die, then he will die as well.
    • Darth Venamis is subjected to an artificial version of Tenebrous's fate by Plagueis.
  • And Show It to You: Plagueis actually rips out a primitive alien's heart in a fight.
  • The Antichrist:
    • Palpatine is introduced as a young son of a nobleman who exhibits prodigious intellect and a proportionately high disregard for common morality. He is also said to be a delinquent, having a history of petty crime and being directly responsible for the deaths of two individuals as well as someone who is willing to murder his family (not just his hated father, but his entire family with him) without too much prompting.
    • In the prologue, Palpatine admires the constellations that dot Coruscant's eastern sky just before the sun rises, i.e. the ''morning stars''. If that's not Revelation-y enough for you, he refers to the Dark Side in his thoughts as the "beast" that will bring about the "end times".
  • Antagonist Title: Darth Plagueis is the Greater-Scope Villain of the Prequel Trilogy and the main focus of the novel.
  • Aristocrats Are Evil: Palpatine, definitely. Dooku, not yet, but already on the road.
  • Arc Welding:
    • In addition to numerous references to other SWEU works that don't go beyond a Shout-Out, the novel ties previously standalone Episode I tie-ins into a coherent scheme of Sith machinations. In particular, the events in novels Cloak of Deception, Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter and Darth Maul: Saboteur and comics Jedi Council: Acts of War, Darth Maul and Bloodlines from Republic were all previously known to fit into the Sith Grand Plan somehow, until this novel tied them all together and explained the exact role each of those events had.
    • The scene when his mother gave Maul to Sidious ties in to the Nightsisters-arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, explaining how and why was Maul Separated at Birth from his fraternal twin brother Savage. However, considering the possibility that The Clone Wars might have revealed Talzin to be Maul's true mother, the character of Kycina shown in this novel might have been retconned as being lying all along.
  • Archaeological Arms Race: Discussed as a possibility to recover lost Sith teachings but dismissed by Plagueis. All of the known Sith sites have been thoroughly plundered multiple times over the millennia, so all that's left now are angry ghosts.
  • Armor-Piercing Response: Upon responding to Qui-Gon Jinn's suspicions and accusations of bringing chaos to the Outer Rim, Plagueis, under his disguise of Hego Damask, says that he's willing to admit that Jinn is right to say that Muuns monopolized finance if Jinn admits that Jedi monopolized ethics in return. Qui-Gon gives him a respectful nod after this response, but declines to answer and opts to leave.
  • Asshole Victim: Cosinga. Not so much his wife and other kids, though.
  • Avenging the Villain:
    • Plagueis goes after the heads of Subtext Mining for betraying Tenebrous, though it's mostly to ensure they don't pose a threat to him or the Grand Plan.
    • Sidious viciously retaliates against Pax Teem and his cohorts when they try to have him and Plagueis assassinated.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Plagueis initially has the idea of creating an army of Yinchorri clones to fight the Jedi, due to the Yinchorri's natural traits as warriors and of their resistance to Force mind powers. However he gives up on it after being told by the Kaminoans of how difficult and long it would be to make that project a reality, due to the Yinchorri's natural aggressiveness, which would require lots of time and effort for the Kaminoans to reduce said aggressiveness and discipline them.
  • Ax-Crazy: Laat Nare, the Force-sensitive Nautolan that Venamis visited and freed, as one of his possible apprentices, is an insane and violent assassin with a pyromaniac streak and tendency to murder and mutilate animals. And he comes from a healthy and loving family.
  • The Bad Guy Wins: As with most stories during this era, Darth Sidious achieves all that he desires.
  • Bad People Abuse Animals: Laat Nare, the mad Nautolan assassin that Darth Venamis listed as a candidate for his apprentice, savagely murders and mutilates animals for no reason except to satisfy his bloodlust. This is how Plagueis and the Jedi find him.
  • Badass Boast: Plagueis and Sidious have these in abundance, particularly for the latter when he is killing the former.
    Sidious: [I am] king of the beasts, Father.
    Sidious: No true Sith can ever really care about another. This has always been known. There is no way but my way.
    Sidious: You lost the game on the very first day you chose to train me to rule by your side—or better still under your thumb. Teacher, yes, and for that, I will be eternally grateful. But Master—never.
  • Badass Bookworm: Darths Plagueis, Sidious, and Maul.
  • Badass Normal: The Maladians are considered to be among the most elite and cunning assassins in the Galaxy. They've even gone up against Jedi and not only lived to tell about it, but also managed to kill Force users. This experience allows them to hold their own against Plagueis during the battle in the Canted Circle and come close to killing him.
  • Bastard Understudy: Darth Plagueis at the beginning and Darth Sidious seemingly for most of the book.
  • Batman Gambit:
    • Halfway through the novel, Plagueis is alerted by Veruna about disgruntled anti-Palpatine nobles reaching out to Pax Teem. Plagueis sees this as an opportunity to finally deal with Teem once and for all (as their now-costly feud is with his Muun identity, ergo it isn't Sith business and he needs leverage to justify an assassination to his allies). Damask thus outs himself as Palpatine's ally on the eve of a crucial Senate vote and in full view of Teem. This, combined with Palpatine deliberately tanking the vote, enrages the Gran (who wanted to use Palpatine as an unwitting pawn against Damask). Teem responds by doing exactly what Plagueis expected: Kidnapping Palpatine in broad daylight with the intention of murdering him. Damask’s Sun Guards thus swoop in to ‘rescue’ Palpatine and Damask now has his causus belli for declaring war on Teem.
    • And then in the very next chapter, it's revealed that Teem was running his own Batman Gambit — one that ironically hinged on the success of Damask's. Teem correctly anticipates how Damask will react to Palpatine's kidnapping and suckers him into sending nearly the entire Sun Guard on a wild goose chase off-world. With Damask's security forces depleted, Teem's hired assassins are easily able to hit Damask and the other Muuns hours later at the Order of the Canted Circle. Even without knowing Plagueis was a Sith, the Gambit still very nearly succeeds in killing Damask. It only fails because of sheer chance (Teem hires the same assassins Palpatine used to kill Vidar Kim and they tip off Sate Pestage to make up for nearly botching the job).
    • Ron Marz's Darth Maul comic previously established Maul's campaign against Black Sun was this. On Sidious' orders, Maul picked off Vigos one by one to trick Alexi Garyn into summoning the survivors to his fortress — thereby allowing the Sith Apprentice to take them all out at once. Luceno preserves this, but also expands upon it and provides additional context. Not only do we get to see Sidious devising the plan of attack, but it's also revealed that the true motive for the Gambit was secretly revenge on Black Sun for their role in the failed strike on Sojurun.
    • Episode I all but stated that Palpatine's 'Vote of No Confidence in Valorum' proposal to Amidala was one. Luceno not only definitively confirms it, but also adds new context to the Gambit. For example, it's revealed that Amidala returning to Naboo wasn't actually a Spanner in the Works for Palpatine like the film implied. On the contrary, this is exactly what Palpatine and Plagueis hoped Amidala would do after seeing the political and bureaucratic rot in the Senate. They wanted Amidala to become desperate and to take matters into her own hands. With her fleeing home to Naboo, they could try to salvage the original Trade Federation Treaty plan (and also ensure Amidala wouldn't accidentally jeopardize the impending Chancellorship vote.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Darth Plagueis, as per the Bane tradition, often bragged that he'd create the Jedi's Chosen One. Sure enough, as indicated by Nice Job Fixing It, Villain below, he ends up doing exactly that, to even his own horror.
  • Becoming the Mask: Sort of. When he arrives on Coruscant, Sidious is essentially giving a constant performance as the good, noble Senator Palpatine. Twenty years later, he's still the same bastard at heart, but he's been playing the part for so long that it's now second nature, and as effortless as breathing.
  • Been There, Shaped History: Plagueis is very largely responsible for reshaping the history and geopolitics of the galaxy into what we saw in the films with his mastery of the Force, experiments on midi-chlorians, and use of his fortune and criminal and political connections:
    • He's the one who allowed Gardulla the Hutt to establish herself on Tatooine and to bring podraces to the planet.
    • He obtained from Gardulla the Black Sun's approval in allowing Boss Cabra, a Dug crime lord, to operating on Nar Shadda, which set the course for Cabra's son, Darnada, to become a Vigo of the Black Sun later.
    • He supported the Yinchorri in their attempt to gain representation in the Senate, and later in their uprising.
    • He was the one who allowed Tapalo and Veruna to gain power on Naboo, and who led to the exploitation of Naboo's plasma by the Trade Federation and the rest of the galaxy, leading to Naboo being the way it was by the time of "The Phantom's Menace".
    • Via lobbying and manipulations of the senate and the Jedi, he allowed mega corporations such as the Trade Federation and the Techno Union to gain seats in the galactic senate, and helped them arm themselves, which would be crucial into making the crisis of Naboo and the CIS possible.
    • It was him who told Sifo-Dyas about Kamino, gave him the idea of an army for the Republic to use in case of a threat, and gave the funding for the clone army. He also introduced the Kaminoans to the corporations that would produce the Grand Army ships and vehicles such as Kuat and Rothana.
    • His murder of Veruna led to Pamdé's use of body-doubles and decoys.
    • He trained San Hill and made him the president of the IBC.
    • And there's of course him taking Palpatine/Darth Sidious as his apprentice.
    • His experiments on the midi-chlorians and attempt to control the Force led directly to the creation of Anakin Skywalker as the Chosen One of the prophecy.
  • Beneath the Mask: Standard trope for Sith of Bane's order.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Downplayed as Palpatine manages to keep his composure and mask, but after Finis Valorum say that he hoped to make things better for the galaxy with a gentler diplomacy and by taking example from the Jedi, Palpatine has to restrain himself from jumping across his desk and strangling him.
    • Downplayed, but the mere mention of the Senate is enough to darken Dooku's mood, as shown when Plagueis says that the Senate could learn a few things from Qui-Gon Jinn.
  • Betrayal Insurance: Attempted. Veruna thinks he has leverage in Part III to prevent Palpatine from betraying him to Damask. Palpatine knows about his dirty dealings with the Trade Federation and other parties, sure, but Veruna knows Palpatine had his Naboo political rivals murdered during the Time Skip and knows where the bodies are buried. It might've worked... had Veruna been dealing with a fellow Naboo aristocrat and not a disguised Sith Lord.
  • Big Bad:
    • Plagueis, as the titular character and Master of Palpatine, appears to be this at first. At the end of the novel, however, it becomes all too clear that Darth Sidious had usurped the mantle long before his own ascent.
    • Book of Sith, a supplementary text on all things Sith released not long after Darth Plagueis, goes one step further by implying that Plagueis was never the Big Bad at all, being played like a violin by Sidious even prior to his apprenticeship. Of course, it's Sidious telling us all of this.
  • Blackmail: The Vigos of the Black Sun threaten to reveal that Kerred Santhe II owes huge gambling debts to them if he doesn't pay them back, knowing that a scandal could convince the board of directors of Santhe/Sienar to fire him and appoint his rival Narro Sienar as the new CEO.
  • Bloodbath Villain Origin: Palpatine kills his father after a mutual hate statement and right after throttles his family and their bodyguards to death for no reason other than agreeing with his father's intention to forbid his contact with Plagueis.
  • Body Surf: The Tenebrous Way explains that Tenebrous' Evil Plan was reliant on this: he would 'infect' Plagueis' midichlorians when Plagueis murdered him, wait until Plagueis met and recruited The Chosen One, then bodyjack them. This doesn't go as planned, as Plagueis' canonical death by Palpatine may attest.
  • Broad Strokes: As noted above, while it's still formally Legends material, it does seem like the book is at least broadly canon to the new, reorganized Star Wars Disney continuity due to how much of it is getting referenced in post-reset material. (James Luceno having gone on to write Tarkin, the Disney-continuity's first major standalone novel, probably helped.)
  • Broken Pedestal: Palpatine initially sees Plagueis as everything his own inept father can never be, and dismisses Cosinga's claims that Plagueis is simply manipulating him. Then Plagueis goads Palpatine into slaughtering his family, and Palpatine is forced to bitterly acknowledge the truth.
    Palpatine: "And by killing [my father], I've rid you of an opponent! My father was right about you—you are a gangster!"
  • Brutal Honesty:
    • After meeting and talking to Palpatine for a little while, Plagueis ends up asking Palpatine to be a spy for him directly, bluntly telling him that while he does obviously care for his planet, Damask's group (Damask Holding and the IBC) are less interested in Naboo and its politics than in its plasma and the price it will have on the market. Hilariously, Palpatine looks at him as if the blunt truth was a completely alien concept to him.
    • Qui-Gon Jinn doesn't hide his dislike and distrust toward Hego Damask, even without knowing that he's a Sith, pointing out Damask Holding's involvement in many of the crisis in the galaxy and less than ethical practices.
    • Similarly to his former Padawan, Dooku is openly critical of the Galactic Republic, and especially of the Senate, for its corruption and closed-mindness, as well as of the Jedi Council for its passivity and blind obedience to the Senate.
    • Sate Pestage is also prone to this, loudly complaining about the lack of climate control on Naboo, or scoffing when Veruna speaks about Ric Olié's involvement in a space battle, pointing out how the pirates he faced were so incompetent that they rammed their own ships into each other.
    • Upon revealing his Sith identity to Veruna, Plagueis asks the deposed monarch if he still would've allied with Damask had he'd known the truth. Veruna, without hesitation, says he would've refused. Political power is one thing, but what Plagueis and the Sith represent is far, far worse even for someone like Veruna. While displeased with this answer, Palgueis does appreciate Veruna's honesty (not that it stops him from killing him).
  • Call-Back: In Part 1, Plagueis has Palpatine sit down on a bench to converse with him. In Part 3, he tries to do it again, but Palpatine is too angry to comply. This really emphasizes how Plagueis has lost control of his apprentice, if he ever truly had any in the first place. He even seems rather crestfallen that his surrogate son doesn't want to sit and chat with him.
  • Call-Forward: An Itkotchi prophetess foresees the ensuing Clone Wars, Order 66, Galactic Empire, Death Star, and Galactic Civil War. Needless to say, Plagueis moves quickly to silence her; Palpatine reminds Anakin that he will monitor his career with great interest; Master Sifo-Dyas is persuaded that the Republic needs an army; Plagueis spies on Qui-Gon Jinn speaking to Anakin before they leave Coruscant, and he sees a Force vision of a "black-helmeted cyborg rising from a table".....
  • Can't Kill You, Still Need You:
    • Kinda with Plagueis and Pax Teem after the Gran's falling out with Damask Holdings. For over the next decade, Teem is a thorn in Damask's side and does everything in his power to politically hurt the Muuns and Trade Federation. Plagueis tolerates it because while the Sith's original plans for Teem died with Tenebrous, the Gran's corruption still has its uses for weakening the Republic. More, Plagueis can't just unilaterally assassinate Teem (as their feud is with his civilian identity rather than his Sith alter ego, meaning he needs leverage to justify an assassination to his allies and associates). By the Palpatine becomes Naboo's Senator, though, Plagueis has finally had enough of Teem and manipulates events and the Grant to acquire said leverage.
    • This is what stops the Sith from (initially) including the Bando Gora on their post-Sojourn Hit List. Prior to the attack, Jabba the Hutt shares a rumor with Plagueis: That the cult's now being led by Dooku’s former Padawan Komari Vossa. Plagueis and Sidious decide to postpone their vengeance until they can confirm or disprove the rumor. If true, then they can use it to widen the growing schism between Dooku and the Jedi Council (since they signed off on Vossa joining the disastrous Baltizaar mission that led to her fall and refused to send backup after its failure). This postponement pays off in the epilogue, as both confirmation of Vossa’s fall and Qui-Gon’s death occurring back-to-back end up being the very last straws for Dooku.
    • As he is killing Plagueis, Sidious explains that he could have left his master to die at the hands of the Maladian assassins hired by Pax Teem, but chose to rescue him because he hadn't learned everything he could from Plagueis. He also admits that Plagueis surviving Veruna's attempt on his life (secretly arranged by Sidious) benefited him in the long run, as it allowed Sidious to secure his election.
  • The Chessmaster:
    • Luceno seems intent on removing any potential doubt that Darth Sidious/Palpatine is the pinnacle of this trope for the Star Wars mythos. As an example, it turns out Palpatine was the one who engineered Padme's campaign for the throne of Naboo. While this may not seem to be a big deal in and of itself, when you consider it along with the events of the films, the impact speaks for itself. Moreover, if we elect to fully believe Sidious's words at the end, some of Plagueis's own manipulations had in fact been manipulated by Sidious himself.
    • Plagueis himself is a skilled one, to a lesser extent. He was involved in the incident at Galidraan that began Dooku's dissent with the Jedi, manipulated the Jedi and Senate into giving a seat in the Senate to the Trade Federation and later to the Techno Union too, increasing the mega corporations' power at the detriment of the Republic which would later make the CIS possible, and, more importantly, was the one who gave Sifo-Dyas the suggestion to clone an army for the Republic...
  • The Chosen One: Both Palpatine and Plagueis are anxious and obsessed with meeting Anakin Skywalker. Namely, the reason they want to meet him is that he's not only the result of a botched experiment, but also the one destined to destroy them due to the midi-chlorians retaliating for the unethical experiment.
  • Co-Dragons: Sate Pestage and Kinman Doriana are this to Palpatine. They are soon joined by Janus Greejatus.
  • Commonality Connection: Upon their first proper meeting, at the epilogue, Palpatine is quick to notice the similarities between Anakin and his young self such each having his own moral code, and his defiance toward authority. This will be an advantage for coming close to Anakin and making him fall to the Dark Side in the future.
  • Conditioned to Accept Horror: Downplayed. Palpatine is so used to the lies, hypocrisy and plots of his father and of Naboo nobility, that he's totally taken off-guard when Hego Damask bluntly asks him to be his spy and tells him the reasons for his group's interest in Naboo, plasma and its price on the market, looking at him as if blunt truth was an entirely new concept to him.
  • The Consigliere: Larsh Hill, Hego Damask's right-hand in Damask Holding and an old colleague and friend of his father Caar Damask, is this to Darth Plagueis. Also Sate Pestage for Palpatine.
  • Consummate Liar: Both Plagueis and Palpatine, who keep high-profile public façades while being Sith lords.
  • Continuity Cameo: A lot. Sifo-Dyas, Qui-Gon Jinn, Wilhuff Tarkin, Finis Valorum, etc.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • Tons and tons, on the verge of Continuity Porn. Luceno gets an A+ for effort: the plot intricately weaves itself in with Cloak of Deception and The Phantom Menace. To get a general idea, about 99.8% of all names in the book are from previously established sources, sometimes so obscure the larger Expanded Universe ignored them all until now.
    • Just to list a few events that this novel references and/or reenacts: Darth Maul’s 2000 comic series, Darth Maul: Saboteur, Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter, Jedi Council: Acts of War, Star Wars: Starfighter, Star Wars: Cloak of Deception, Star Wars: Shadow Hunter, Star Wars Republic (issues 36-39, and 64), and a flashback from Jango Fett: Open Seasons issue 3. The Bando Gora and many of it’s members from Star Wars: Bounty Hunter' are mentioned.
  • Crazy-Prepared: The organisers of the gala to which Kerred Santhe and Darth Plagueis participed to, and who had Bloated Eel served as the main dish, had prepared for the eventuality of the Eel still being poisoned with medical droids and serums being ready to use immediately in case, though none of these could be useful when Santhe was actually being Force-choked by Plagueis.
  • Cryptic Background Reference: At one point Plagueis and Palpatine cite one Darth Guile, who's never been mentioned before, cite one detail about him, and that's it. Not even who he was, what he did, or what became of him (though given the Sith record...), and he never got any other mention in any other Legends work either.
  • Culture Clash: Plagueis, like the rest of the Muuns, finds annoying the human practice of eating and drinking during ceremonies and business or diplomatic discussions, though he does acknowledge Cosinga Palpatine's efforts to give him meals without any meat.
  • Curbstomp Battle: Plagueis vs. Captain Lah and the crew of the Woebegone. A 17-year-old untrained Palpatine vs. his family and their bodyguards.
  • Dashed Plot Line: The plot takes place over thirty-five years, with time skips between each third (roughly speaking) of the book. Ten years separate parts one and two, while twenty years separate parts two and three. Inside these parts, the plot covers two or three years at a time.
  • Deadpan Snarker:
    • By the end of the novel, the reader understands that Palpatine's "Legend of Darth Plagueis the Wise" was, more than anything else, a very twisted sort of joke.
    • This gem from Sidious to Maul, after Maul has told a recent victim that he is a Sith Lord: "And if by some marvel Garyn had managed to escape, or even defeat the one-being army that is Darth Maul, what repercussions might we be facing, apprentice?"
    • Plagueis himself isn't a slouch at it, frequently snarking during his encounter with Cosinga Palpatine, and congratulating Palpatine on having emancipated himself after he murdered his family.
  • Death Seeker: Vidar Kim implies he may be one, should Ronhar refuse to leave the Jedi Order and continue the Kim family line, after Palpatine tells him that he may be in danger of death should he reveal Tapalo and Veruna's corruption and secrets.
  • Deuteragonist: Palpatine fills the role by default upon becoming Plagueis' apprentice. His growth and development into the Sith Lord we know from the Prequel Trilogy are given as much focus as Plagueis' own machinations.
  • Didn't See That Coming:
    • Played with in the attack on the Canted Circle. The Maladians obviously didn't forsee that the primary Muun target was secretly a Sith Lord. While they're initially caught off guard, the Maladians quickly rally and change tactics without missing a beat (as they've fought Jedi before and know how to take on Force users). They actually come close to taking down Damask before he's rescued by Palpatine and Pestage.
    • Plagueis and Sidious are both left stunned upon learning that Valorum dispatched Jedi to resolve the Naboo Blockade. The reason they didn't forsee this development is justified because of the fallout from the events of Cloak of Deception. Thanks to the Sith's machinations, Valorum was left prohibited by the Senate from bringing the Jedi or Judicials into any more planetary disputes; to do so would mean taking a massive political hit (one that could potentially bring down his Administration). Sidious and Plagueis both underestimated Valorum's resolve and willigness to put his Chancellorship on the line if it meant doing the right thing (and, ironically, to help his old friend Senator Palpatine save his homeworld.
    • An odd subversion with Tenebrous' death. He foresaw his death on Bal'Demmic, but he didn't expect that it would be Plagueis who did him in, thinking his apprentice had no stomach for the guile and cunning needed to bring him down. As The Tenebrous Way attests he also didn't expect that Plagueis would die at his apprentice's hands before he found The Chosen One, which hugely derails his plans.
  • Didn't Think This Through:
    • The Gossam Executives of Subtext Mining accepting Damak's invitation to the Gathering on Sojurun. They admit they were surprised their company ended up on the radar of someone like Damask. They're blinded by greed and the prestige of attending such an exclusive corporate retreat like this. So, it doesn't occur to them until it's too late to truly consider how, or what they might have done, to get Damask's complete attention — or that the unexpected invitation came mere weeks after their murder of a Bith engineer who had longstanding public ties to Damask Holdings and its CEO.
    • Sidious's manipulations in Naboo politics put Padmé in power and lead to them building the fighter squadrons that turned the tide in the blockade, and his attempt to get Maul to salvage things does little but tip his hand and get his best servant killed. That his long-term plans survive it intact is down to sheer chance.
  • Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: Kerrred Santhe unknowingly managed to scam a Sith Lord when he pretended to accept making a deal with Rugess Nome, Darth Tenebrous' civilian identity, over a ship designed by Nome only to have his security guards ambush Nome and steal his ship schematics, before producing the ship all for himself, which was incredibly successful and allowed him to buy a great portion of Sienar Technologies. However he also signed his death warrant by doing this, as Tenebrous had Plagueis assassinate him both out of revenge and to cement his alliance with Santhe's rival Narro Sienar.
  • Disapproving Look: Vidar Kim gives one to a young Palpatine when he's joined by Plagueis, under his identity of Hego Damask, clearly disliking the Muun and disapproving of Palpatine's relationship with him.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: An in-universe variation with Valroum during the sequences chronologically set in the aftermath of Luceno's Cloak of Deception (and the 'baseless accusations of corruption'). Valorum correctly concludes somebody (Palpatine) engineered this scandal to cripple him and his administration — but it doesn't make any sense. After all, Valorum's ineligible for reelection and will be out of the Chancellorship before the year's out. Why someone — even his most stalwart detractors — would essentially sacrifice tens of millions of credits just to do this in his final months in office is utterly inexplicable. Valorum of course doesn't understand that tanking his legacy is part of the Sith's plan for installing Palpatine and kicking off their endgame.
  • Don't Create a Martyr: Acknowledged in-universe when Sidious and Plagueis begin shaping the planned Jedi Purge into what we’ll see in the Prequels. Plagueis emphasizes great care has to be taken not to turn the Jedi and any survivors into martyrs if they want to ensure the Galaxy will willingly turn its back on the Light Side of the Force. As the reader knows, Sidious will masterfully achieve this goal with Order 66 and its aftermath.
  • Downer Ending: The master who held (or believed to hold) Sidious's leash is dead, and without him, Sidious has secured the chancellorship and is now in contact with the Chosen One. The book ends with Palpatine already plotting to manipulate him, and we all know how that ends.
  • The Dragon: Maul to Sidious. Sate Pestage and Kinman Doriana each serve as this in the political arena.
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Palpatine. He's much more active in the field than Plagueis, serving as the main executor of his will for much of the story. And of course, he eventually becomes the Big Bad of the mainline Star Wars movies.
  • Dramatic Irony:
    • At one point, Senator Vidar Kim states that Tatooine is far too remote and lawless to have any impact on galactic affairs. Oh, how wrong he is...
    • Early on in their training, Plagueis tells Sidious about the occasional corruptive effect the Dark Side has on users. Sidious (still a young man at this point) asks if this means he's going to turn into "some aged, pale-skinned, raspy-voiced, yellow-eyed monster" over time. Plagueis just shrugs this off, but anyone who's seen the movies will know Sidious is right to be worried.
    • During the mediation on Serenno, Qui-Gon is suspicious of Hego Damask and Damask Holding's Outer Rim operations — and how their activities keep fostering inter-system chaos and spreading discontent. He's on the right track, but lacks the context to guess that this isn't simple corporate greed, but part of the Sith destabilization of the Republic.
    • Plagueis assures Sifo-Dyas that cloning a Jedi is impossible, all while Jorus C'baoth is standing nearby.
    • Plagueis dismisses transferring his essence into cloned bodies as a path to immortality. His apprentice has no such reservations.
    • Maul states that a Nightsister is not a Sith. To which Palpatine replies "As you well know", being a Nightbrother. A subtle indication of Palpatine's refusal to fully train Maul as an apprentice Sith Lord, and his use of him as a blunt tool.
    • After Plagueis sees a vision of Anakin becoming Darth Vader and changing the course of galactic history, the Muun believes the only way this can be stopped is if Maul kills Qui-Gon. Without the maverick Jedi Master, the desert urchin will lose his advocate within the Order and he'll never be trained. The audience, of course, knows that Maul killing Qui-Gon will instead have the opposite effect. Not only will Obi-Wan be granted permission by the Council to train Anakin (to honor Qui-Gon's sacrifice), but Qui-Gon's death will set off the chain of events that will ensure the Revenge of the Sith, but also the destruction of the Banite Sith line at Endor decades later.
  • The Dreaded: Plagueis and Sidious fear Qui-Gon Jinn more than any other Jedi, and make it a priority for Maul to kill him. This is less due to Qui-Gon's power, both are stronger than him, than of Qui-Gon's perceptive and non-conformist personality with him not being as blind to the threat of the Dark Side and submissive to the Republic and the Jedi Council as the rest of Jedi, as well of him being more suspicious of Hego Damask and Palpatine, and of having unknowingly interfered with their plans before. His influence on Anakin and potential training of him is another reason for them to want him out of the picture.
  • Drives Like Crazy: A young Palpatine killed two people by recklessly flying his speeder and crashing it.
  • Drowning My Sorrows: Kerred Santhe II became addicted to alcohol as well as to gambling, following his father's murder by Plagueis.
  • Drunk on the Dark Side: Palpatine in the Prologue, which shows him in the aftermath of murdering Darth Plagueis. He is positively exultant and awash in the energy of the Dark Side. Very much like the Palpatine we know and love from the films.
    • It's also established in-universe that this is actually an unavoidable part of every Sith Lord's training process (or at least the post-Bane Sith). After first being claimed by the Dark Side, each Apprentice is basically drunk with dark power and there's no getting around it. It's up to the Sith Master in the meantime to try and keep them on the straight and narrow (relatively speaking) until they finally come up for air and have perfected their power.
  • Emperor Scientist: Plagueis is a lethal combatant and seeks to conquer the galaxy like all other Sith, but he puts particular emphasis on the esoteric nature of the Force, conducting extensive experiments in attempt to directly control midi-chlorians.
  • Enfant Terrible: Both Damask and Palpatine were this, with the former having been specifically bred for this.
  • Equivalent Exchange:
    • This is how Plagueis views the Force. When you use it, it will recoup a payment from you somehow. He views the impending fall of the Jedi as this principle in action, for they have stopped serving the greater good of the Force and instead focused on enforcing the Republic. Anakin's birth is likewise a blowback from the Sith's experiments into immortality.
    • It's also used to fill in a potential plot hole after Jabba the Hutt becomes a key ally to Plagueis during the lead-up to Phantom Menace. If Plagueis had Jabba on speed dial, then why didn't the Muun just ask the Hutt to apprehend Amidala and company for him once the Sith had traced them to Tatooine? Plagueis actually does consider this very course of action but ultimately pulls the plug. Plagueis is simply too worried about what price the Force would demand of him in return for such a favor (and especially now with everything on a razor's edge).
  • Enforced Method Acting: In-Universe example. There are several instances through the novel when Sidious and Plagueis, in disguise in their civilian identities, react in genuine shock and surprise to unexpected news and developments.
  • Et Tu, Brute?: Palpatine's betrayal of Plagueis.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Plagueis legitimately cares about Palpatine and sees him as a sort of surrogate son. Unfortunately, the feeling is not reciprocated.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • When Tenebrous note  accessed Force Foresight upon possessing Plagueis, he ended up foreseeing Plagueis's murder at the hands of Darth Sidious/Palpatine, and it was strongly implied that Tenebrous was horrified not just at the apprentice's murder of Plagueis but also at how evil said apprentice was.
    • Plagueis is something of a conservationist and is shocked and enraged when the forests of Sojourn, filled with rare and endangered plants and animals is destroyed. He later tells Palpatine the event was the will of the Dark Side, as it likely needed to be destroyed for the sake of the Grand Plan, but he would have never had the heart to destroy it himself.
    • While he's happy to make deals with corrupt politicians, crime lords and syndicates, ruthless corporations, and bellicose and violent species, as Hego Damask and the president of Damask Holdings, Plagueis disapproves of the traffic of spices and slavery and won't agree to finance such activities. He also remarks to himself during his meeting with Jabba that unlike the Hutt he never deals or surrounds himself with low criminals.
    • Veruna flat-out admits that if he had known Damask was a Sith from the get-go, he would never have thrown his lot in with Plagueis, no matter how desperate. In his own words, “Political power is one thing, but what you represent…”.
    • Invoked by, ironically, Palpatine towards Bon Tapalo when Vidar believes he and Veruna engineered the speeder crash that killed his family. For all the King's corruption, Palpatine states that even Tapalo would know better than to attempt such a despicable act. Kim counter-argues that Papatine's giving Tapalo too much credit. Since Luceno never answers if the crash was or wasn't an accident, it's left up to the reader to decide whose opinion of Tapolo's standards (or lack thereof) is correct.
    • When Cosinga Palpatine announces to his son that he's being sent to live with the Greejatus family in reaction to his growing relationship with Plagueis despite the latter blatantly using him as a tool to ensure Tapalo's election, Palpatine despite his own bigotry toward Gungans seriously asks his father if he shares the Greejatus' anti-aliens views.
    • Subverted with Cosinga Palpatine. He tries to bully Plagueis into withdrawing his support for Bon Tapalo's electoral campaign, ostensibly because he's engaged in a feud with the Tapalo family, but it's actually because the opposing candidate is his mistress's brother. Possibly played straight in that he regarded his hated son as an "animal".
    • Played for black comedy when Damask and Larsh Hill first meet with the Yinchorri. After getting a glimpse of their bellicosity, Hill privately admits he's not sure if even the Senate's ready for the likes of them.
  • Everyone Went to School Together: Palpatine and Janus Greejatus met and became acquainted with each other as students, as part of the Youth Legislation Program.
  • Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Plagueis has a very dark sense of humor, telling Palpatine on how much he enjoyed his stepmother and stepsiblings take a fake treatment made to cure their heart illness by an impostor working for him, and how he amused himself feigning sadness at their funerals and indifference when inheriting their wealth (though how much true his story remains ambiguous), as well as congratulating Palpatine for his emancipation after he killed his own family.
  • Evil Is Petty: During his murder of Plagueis and his Villainous Breakdown, Darth Sidious spitefully and furiously brings back against his master all the moments when Plagueis supposedly wronged him in any way from the moment they have met, such as manipulating him into killing his family or the Training Through Hell he put Sidious through, while also bringing back minor or insignificant moments such as Plagueis telling him that he made Maul too arrogant and other minor slights. This moment shows how truly wicked, petty and spiteful Sidious is beneath his calculating, manipulative and pragmatic façade.
  • "Eureka!" Moment:
    • Palpatine's discussion with Plagueis during the Gathering on Sojourn, which results in the Sith realizing that killing the Jedi isn't enough. To fully wipe them out, they need to make them into the enemies of peace and justice — in essence, turning the entire galaxy against them.
    • Plagueis gets another one during the summit on Serenno when Sifo-Dyas unknowingly gives him the solution to the Clone army quandary: Create it for the Jedi rather than to oppose them.
  • Evil Genius: Both Tenebrous and Plagueis are this, the first being a legendary ship engineer who imagined and made the blueprints of the Sith Scimitar, which can turn invisible, who also tried to create a mega-computer to predict the future and a virus to deprive Jedi of their connection with the Force, and having modified midi-chlorians into Maxi-Chlorians in order to keep his consciousness alive; while the latter is a genius genetician and researcher of the Force who managed to get some degree of control over midi-chlorians allowing him to overcome Yinchorri's natural resistance to Force suggestion, partially rejuvenate himself and reviving Darth Venamis several times.
  • Evil Is Hammy: Daniel Davis's portrayal of Sidious in the audiobook mostly downplays his immense hamminess but retains the fey, faux-charming vocalisation Ian McDiarmid brought to the role.
  • Evil Mentor: Tenebrous to Plagueis, Plagueis to Palpatine, Palpatine to Maul.
  • Evil Plan: The Sith Grand Plan to conquer the galaxy begins in earnest here, and in surprising detail.
  • Evil Redhead: Palpatine.
  • The Evils of Free Will: How the Sith, or at least the non-Sidious ones, justify the Grand Plan. It's saving the weak-willed and inferior beings of the galaxy from making decisions which would be wrong anyway. That, and killing all the Jedi.
  • Facial Horror: Plageuis loses most of his jaw and part of his nose to a decapitator disk thrown by a Maladian assassin.
  • Failed a Spot Check:
    • This is stated to be why Plagueis declined an offer of enrollment in the Canted Circle over a decade prior to the events of this novel. While membership in the secret society would provide benefits, Damask couldn't risk the Order digging too deep into his past and uncovering something that might expose his Sith secrets. That said, the Order has no hard feelings about the declination and continues to do business with Damask in the 20 years since.
    • Palpatine is unnerved when Dooku is describing Anakin as extremely gifted in the Force and it occurs to Palpatine that he had been standing right next to the boy and sensed nothing about him.
  • Fallen Hero: Dooku. Still a Jedi Master during the events of the novel, Dooku is portrayed as an ethical but disenfranchised man whose disgust for corruption leads him to confide in Palpatine.
  • False Friend:
    • Valorum considers Palpatine his closest friend and most important political ally for decades, right up to the end. This is exactly why he was so invested in the Naboo situation, and why Padme's eventual call for a no-confidence vote is such a gut punch.
    • Palpatine also gets close to Ronhar Kim, the last son of his former mentor and senator of Naboo Vidar Kim, and a Jedi in order to get a better eye on his enemy.
  • Family of Choice: After his wife and two older sons' deaths, Vidar Kim tries to get his last son Ronhar to leave the Jedi Order and continue the Kim family line. Ronhar who's been taken to the Jedi Temple as an infant and has been entirely raised by the Order, evidently refuses, saying that the Jedi are his family now.
  • Fantastic Racism: Palpatine doesn't bother to hide his disdain for Gungans during his first meeting with Hego Damask/Plagueis, saying that they don't bother him as long as they stay out of his sight and that humans deserve to have the edge at Theed. Members of the Greejatus family are also noted for their hatred of non-human species.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Both Palpatine and Plagueis.
  • Fatal Flaw: Most of the villainous characters in the novel pay dearly for their hubris, and it is a Foregone Conclusion that Sidious himself will pay for his.
  • Feuding Families:
    • It's strongly implied that there is one opposing the Toniths, the Muun clan leading the Intergalactic Banking Clan at the beginning of the story, to the Damask and Hill clans.
    • It's also implied that there's one between Houses Palpatine and Tapalo of Naboo, with Consinga's grandfather having challenged and lost a duel to Tapalo's father over the Tapalo and Veruna's role in arming the Gungans during the Naboo-Gungan War, and Cosinga being Tapalo's main opponent in his bid to become king. Palpatine claims that Cosinga is in truth motivated by his ambition, as his mistress' brother is Tapalo's competitor for the the throne, and would give him a position of power if elected.
    • The Sienar and Santhe families, who are competing over the leadership of Santhe/Sienar Technologies, with Darth Tenebrous and Plagueis helping the Sienars take over their rivals.
  • Fiction 500:
    • Darth Plagueis, thanks to the wealth he inherited from his father, the money he earns from his activities as a high-ranked member of the Intergalactic Banking Clan and president of Damask Holdings, and of all his dealings with the most powerful criminals and organisations, is one of the richest individuals in the galaxy. His fortune was such that he was able of funding the creation of the Grand Army of the Republic by himself.
    • The Santhe family owns basically everything on the planet Lianna and owns huge parts of Sienar Technologies to the point that Plagueis believe that the Black Sun wouldn't dare to kill Kerred Santhe II. Downplayed as it's revealed that Kerred's drinking and gambling took a toll on his family's fortune and left him with huge debts.
  • Foregone Conclusion:
    • Any fan who has seen Revenge of the Sith knows what happens to Darth Plagueis at the end. Luceno even opens with the immediate aftermath of the murder, refusing to play it as a twist or give it a sense of false suspense. What the reader doesn't realize until the climax is that how Palpatine killed Plagueis isn't important. It's where and more importantly, when.
    • At the beginning of the novel, the Tonith family is in control of the Intergalactic Banking Clan with their rivals the Hills hoping to one day topple them from their lofty perch. Indeed, the Toniths will lose influence and San Hill will wind up as IBC Chairman by the time of The Phantom Menace. The novel shows some of the broad strokes of how this happens (and what role Plagueis and Palpatine played in San's ascension).
  • Foreshadowing:
    • During Palpatine and Sate Pestage's meeting to finalize Vidar Kim's assasination, Pestage approves of Palpatine selecting the Maladians for the job. He notes they are known for always honoring their contracts. This pays off in the climax of Part II when Pestage's Maladian contact learns that another Maladian faction has been contracted by Pax Teem to target Hego Damask. Having been left humiliated by how his contractor nearly botched the Kim job, the Maladian tips off Pestage as a way to make it up to him.
    • Another bit of Maladian-related foreshadowing comes when Palpatine and Pestage are discussing the nearly-botched aftermath of Vidar Kim's assassination. Wondering why the assassin jepoardized the assignment to take a shot at Rondar, Pestage muses she may have wanted to add another Jedi kill to her resume. This establishes the Maladians have not only engaged Jedi on past assassinations, but are also capable of killing them. This pays off during the battle in the Canted Circle when Plagueis has to out himself as a Sith to fight them. While the Maladians didn't see this coming, they're able to use their experience with Force users to quickly adjust tactics (and would've killed Damask had Palpatine and Pestage not arrived to rescue him).
  • Freudian Excuse: Played with, but averted at the end. Unlike his predecessor Bane, young Palpatine's feelings towards his family are a little... extreme. To elaborate, Palpatine's father does hate him and has some degree of desire to kill him, but for the simple reason that Palpatine has transparently hated him from the moment he was born and has become a criminal over the years (though his dad covering up his first crimes did help Palpatine develop an "I can do no wrong" mentality).
  • Freudian Excuse Denial: Palpatine hates his father with a passion, but doesn't cite his poor relationship with his family to be reason why he's evil. If anything, he was always evil and his family just so happen to be easy targets for his enrollment into Sith apprenticeship.
  • The Gambling Addict: Gardulla the Hutt is this, hence why Hego Damask eventually cut his ties with her as she became too unreliable in her payments. Also Thoris Darus, the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, and Kerred Santhe II of Santhe/Sienar Technologies.
  • Glad You Thought of It: Palpatine claims that he did this many times to Plagueis.
  • Godhood Seeker: Plagueis is hellbent on securing immortality, as he believes it will make him this.
  • Gone Horribly Right: The assassiantion of Vidar Kim. Palpatine and Pestage's instructions to the Maladians was to make the murder public. And indeed the operative did just that...except instead of hitting him at Mezzileen Spaceport (as Palpatine and Pestage expected and would've done in her place), the operative hit Kim while he was en route (and traveling wtih a Jedi). It nearly derails the entire operation and gets a Jedi investigation going into Vidar's death given Ronhar's presence.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Subverted. You'd think Plagueis, the master of Emperor Palpatine, would prove to be this for the film series even if he was dead beforehand. You'd be wrong.
  • Hate at First Sight:
    • Upon meeting Jedi on Mygeeto, coming to get crystals as an energy source for their lightsabers, a young Hego Damask immediately felt a strong dislike and quickly realised that he could never like them.
    • According to Cosinga Palpatine, his son immediately resisted him with strength far beyond normality when he tried to hold him just after his birth.
  • The Hedonist: Thoris Darus, the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic thirty years before the crisis of Naboo, is a shameless womanizer and lover of sports, opera, gambling, and gastronomy. He's in great part responsible for the decadence and the endemic corruption plaguing Coruscant and the Senate in the last decades of the Galactic Republic. This makes Dooku particularly and openly resentful of him.
  • Heel–Face Turn: Darth Gravid, sorta. He became convinced that conventional Sith doctrine was self-destructive, and required certain Jedi qualities - mainly altruism and empathy - to be stabilized and moved onto a more successful path. This resulted in him destroying huge amounts of accumulated Sith lore to try and establish a clean slate to build on, setting the Grand Plan back by centuries before his apprentice Darth Gean killed him. (Plagueis also notes that Gravid is the only Sith in a thousand years to turn to the Light Side.)
  • The Hermit: In the aftermath of the Gran Protectorate's failed attempt to assassinate him, Plagueis chooses to not reform Damask Holdings and publicly retire to Sojourn to dedicate healing his body and studying the Dark Side and Midichlorian manipulation.
  • Hiding in Plain Sight: Plagueis and Palpatine as the current Sith Lords of their generaton — the latter especially as he's based on Coruscant and in the heart of the Jedi's territory. Luceno explores how the Sith were able to conceal themselves from the Jedi even while in the same room.
  • Historical Fiction: Obviously it's not, but Luceno said the experience of writing it was like writing historical fiction - the book threads together so much pre-existing Star Wars lore that he spent a lot of time researching in order to fit the book around the "known history".
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: The Sith leak information about Ainlee Teem's corruption to another contender for the Supreme Chancellorship, Bail Antilles. Bail predictably uses the info to disgrace his opponent, but this makes him appear like a zealous reformer in the eyes of the heavily corrupt Senate who flock to the more moderate Palpatine.
  • Horrible Judge of Character: Plagueis believed Sidious reciprocated his loyalty towards him and shared with him his well-intentioned views towards the galaxy. He was very, very wrong.
  • How We Got Here: The prologue opens with the aftermath of Plagueis's murder before jumping back over 30 years to show us the events leading up to Palpatine's betrayal of his Master.
  • I Can Rule Alone: Plagueis wanted to form a Big Bad Duumvirate with Sidious. Sidious replied with this trope.
  • I Warned You: A variation during Part II when Pestage and Palpatine are discussing Vidar Kim's death and his failure to get Ronhar to leave the Jedi Order to carry on the Kim bloodline. Palpatine remarks he did warn Vidar (before he left Naboo) that Ronhar considered the Jedi his true family now and this wouldn't work.
  • Ignored Epiphany: The climax of Part I when Plagueis finally gets his first, truly unfiltered look at the extent of the Dark Side's power and influence within Palpatine. Even Plagueis is left stunned and realizes that training Palpatine would be a very cautious, very dangerous undertaking. However, any concerns about the potential danger are quickly dismissed by the benefits of having such a powerful ally during the final stages of the Grand Plan. Damask won't realize he should've heeded his instincts until it's too late.
  • Immortality Immorality: Darth Plagueis all the way. Much of his spare time is spent Playing with Syringes (and the Force) in efforts to create immortal creatures, or find a way to manipulate midichlorians to extend life.
  • Immortality Seeker: Plagueis, who is hellbent on achieving this to become akin to a god.
  • Immune to Mind Control: The Yinchorri are naturally resistant to Force mind control, though after many experiments Plagueis manages to find the reason behind their resistance, an adaptation of their Midi-chlorians, and to find a way to bypass their resistance.
  • Implied Death Threat: Cosinga Palpatine, in a very unsubtle way, does it to Plagueis in an attempt to scare him into stopping his support of Tapalo and from returning to Naboo. Plagueis, evidently, is unimpressed.
  • Insult Backfire: During the final argument between Palpatine and his father:
    Cosinga: Murder has always been in your thoughts, hasn't it? You've merely been waiting for someone to grant you permission to act.
    Palpatine: I don't need anyone's permission.
    Cosinga: Precisely. You're an animal at heart.
    Palpatine: King of the beasts, Father.
  • Ironic Fear: Plagueis's fear of death, as detailed in the movies.
    Palpatine: It's ironic. He could save others from death but not himself.
  • Irony: Cosinga Palpatine mentioned at one point that House Palpatine was one of the six gates that prevented Chaos from being unleashed in mythology. Now, take note that Chaos is presumably the Nabooian and Force-user equivalent of Hell. Palpatine (the eldest son)/Darth Sidious basically ends up unleashing Hell, thus undoing the Palpatine legacy.
  • It's Personal:
    • Darth Tenebrous, under his civil identity of Rugess Nome, offered a deal with Kerred Santhe, offering him exclusive rights for one of Nome starships. Santhe instead swindled Rugess Nome by having his agents steal the blueprints of Nome's starship, and used the profits gained with the sales of the successful ship to get a controlling share of Sienar Technologies. Tenebrous never forgave Santhe for having double-crossed him and later had Plagueis murder Kerred Santhe by force-choking him as one of his first missions.
    • Following Veruna's failed attack on Sojourn, Palpatine initially proposes dispatching Maul to pay the deposed monarch a 'visit'. Plagueis instead pulls rank to deal with Veruna personally. Damask even tells Veruna on his deathbed that the King's abdication would've been enough to satisfy him into leaving Veruna alone to rot away in his exile. By abdicating after nuking Sojourn and trying to kill Damask, however, Veruna made it personal.
  • Jedi Mind Trick: Though with the little difference that it's not a Jedi doing it, it's a Sith. Plagueis likes using them on occasion. He's got no luck with the Yinchorri though. They don't notice, and think there's something wrong with that Muun waving his hands about (and even wondering aloud if Damask is simply deaf, or in ill health).
  • Kick the Dog: Somehow, it's not really surprising that Palpatine comes up with the idea of not just killing the Jedi but completely destroying their reputation and legacy — thereby turning them into enemies of the Republic.
  • Kung Fu-Proof Mook:
    • The Maladian assassins are elite killers with the best training and gear, so much that they are officially a bane even for Jedi knights. However, it proves to be insufficient: although Plagueis is left grievously wounded just before their battle, he manages to fend off almost three dozen of them until a healthier Sidious comes to the rescue.
    • Plagueis' first idea of a clone army to exterminate the Jedi is one of Yinchorri, a race with a natural resistance to Force powers who will be the best suited to fight them. However, and especially after being told by the Kaminoans that it would not be easy to do, he comes up with the idea that the best course of actions will be a clone army to fight along the Jedi... at least at first.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: The Maladian assassin Palpatine hired through Pestage to target Vidar. She goes off-script, ignoring explicit orders from her clients to only target Vidar and to not engage Ronhar. Considering the Maladians' reputation for professional conduct, why she instead invoked this trope's left ambiguous (Pestage speculates she may have been unable to resist adding another Jedi kill to her resume). Regardless, her impulsive actions nearly botch the plan to seat Palpatine in the Senate — though ironically, her legacy ultimately benefits the Sith in the long run. Her handler's left humiliated and eager to set things right with his now very pissed off clients (and he finally does so when he gets word of Pax Teem hiring another Maladian faction to go after Damask).
  • Legendary in the Sequel: In the millennium since the events of the Darth Bane Trilogy, Bane himself and its now-legendary powers have unsurprisingly become all but deified by the contemporary Sith.
  • Light Is Not Good: Darth Gravid was one of the few Sith who converted to the Light Side of the Force. Unfortunately, he was also thoroughly cuckoo.
  • Like a Son to Me: Zigzagged in Palpatine's last conversation with Vidar Kim, the senior Senator of Naboo, who (unwisely) trusts him completely after the years they've spent working together.
    Vidar: Palpatine, we're too close in age for me to have thought of you as a son, but I do consider you the younger brother I never had.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: After learning about the Jedi dispatched to resolve the Naboo Crisis, Plagueis quickly deduces Valorum must have approached the High Council in secret without Vice-Chancellor Mas Amedda knowing. Otherwise, Amedda would've alerted Palpatine and Damask (as he's working with them).
  • Make an Example of Them: After being implied throughout the preceding Prequel-era multimedia, it's finally explicitly confirmed this was one of the Sith goals of the Naboo Blockade: To manipulate the Trade Federation into finally go too far and ultimately force the Republic and the Jedi to nationalize the corporation and dismantle them. This was intended to be the catalyst for the initial formation of the Confederacy of Independent Systems and the road to the Clone Wars. It "proves" Damask's warnings to the other corporate factions that with such a precedent set, the Republic will now be coming for them too. Their only chance to survive is to begin slowly and carefully withdrawing from the Republic before that happens.
  • Make It Look Like an Accident:
    • Possibly the Speeder accident that kills the Kims. Vidar believes Veruna and Bon Tapolo engineered the crash because he's opposed to their policies (and also knows about their dirty dealings with the Trade Federation). The problem is Tapolo can't just relieve Kim of his post, because his appointment was a necessary poltical concession to the opposition; recall him and the King's political enemies will break out the knives. So, Vidar thinks the accident was instead an attempt to force him from the Senate out of grief and/or fear. Luceno never confirms if Vidar was right or simply paranoid and delusional...though, interestingly, Veruna does mention to Palpatine during the Kim Family Funeral that he was surprised Vidar didn't decide to retire in the wake of such a tragedy...
    • Played straight with Plagueis' murder of Kerred Santhe at a banquet years earlier. He kills the target with a Force-Choke but is able to make it look like the accidental ingestion of the central dish (poisonous Bloat Eel).
    • Plagueis covers up his murder of Tenebrous by making it look like his starship crashed and was subsequently buried in a natural cave in. Decades later, Palpatine covers up his murder of Plagueis by passing it off as a mechanical failure of his breathing apparatus.
  • Manipulative Bastard:
    • Palpatine.
    Plagueis (thinking): Sidious had a gift for subterfuge that surpassed the talents of any of the Sith Lords who had preceded him, including Bane.
    • Plagueis is quite good at it too. He manipulates several times Sifo-Dyas, planting the idea that the Republic may face a terrible threat soon in the future and of commanding the Clone army to Kaminoans, and also manipulates the young Palpatine and Cosinga to make sure a fateful confrontation happens between the father and the son, and also tricks Naat Lare into confronting the Jedi to prove his worth, and getting himself killed.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!":
    • By trying to subtly drive a wedge between Dooku and the Jedi, this is the reaction Plagueis is hoping to achieve. If a Master of Dooku's power, reputation, and skill were to sever ties with the Order, it would send the Jedi into a panic.
    • The reaction of Pax Teem and his associates when an enraged Sidious violently interrupts their celebratory feast, lightsaber in hand.
  • The Mentor:
    • Other than Plagueis, Vidar Kim serves as Palpatine's main mentor and teacher in the domain of diplomacy and politics.
    • Plagueis is also this, other than to Sidious, to San Hill, who's the son of his late right-hand Larsh Hill, in the IBC, eventually making him the president of the IBC.
  • Meta Twist: Plagueis's death, specifically when it occurs. Luceno takes advantage of Revenge of the Sith never specifying when Sidious killed his master by revealing that Plagueis was alive well into the third act of The Phantom Menace, and (just barely) lived to see his apprentice become Supreme Chancellor, instead of Sidious killing Plagueis years before the events of the Prequel Trilogy as most fans had assumed and most databooks had claimed.
  • Mirror Character: Plagueis to Cosinga Palpatine. Both are incredibly wealthy Smug Snakes with a penchant for violence, though Plagueis restrains his darker impulses unless he needs to unleash them; both try to be The Man Behind the Man, with Cosinga wanting indirect control of Naboo via placing his mistress's brother on the throne and Plagueis wanting to be Palpatine's co-chancellor; both try to influence (or outright control) Palpatine with disastrous results, and both are slain in a way that Palpatine manages to both cover up and directly benefit from.
  • Misblamed: After Kerred Santhe's murder by Plagueis, and despite accusations of Rugess Nome and Siennar having assassinated him, it was ultimately the chefs who cooked the Bloated Eel that Santhe ate who were blamed for his death and went through long prison sentences despite their innocence.
  • Money Is Not Power: Despite his status as a financial superstar, Plagueis points this out to Veruna. This is understandable, given his immersion in the Dark Side.
  • Morally Bankrupt Banker: As Hego Damask, a high-ranked member of the Intergalactic Banking Clan, and the president of Damask Holdings, Darth Plagueis gives his financial support to the most powerful crime lords and syndicates, and other ambitious and unscrupulous individuals, species, and corporations in the galaxy. This allows him to spread chaos and wars in the galaxy to weaken the Jedi and the Republic and advance the Grand Plan.
  • Mugging the Monster:
    • Darth Tenebrous, under his alias of Rugess Nome, sought to make an ally of Kerred Santhe, who only had limited success with his ships, by proposing an alliance with him and the exclusive rights to produce a starship designed by Nome. Santhe accepted but only to lure Nome into a trap and to have his security agents steal the ship's blueprints for him. While he couldn't fight back without revealing his powers, Tenebrous took his revenge years later by having Plagueis Force-Choke Santhe.
    • At one point a group of disgruntled associates to Hego Damask take his young protege Palpatine hostage, intending to kill him as a message to the former. Palpatine plays along with them while privately thinking about all the ways he can kill them if and when things turn ugly (albeit believing at first that they actually want to get him to spy on his mentor), all the while really more concerned about maintaining his cover and letting them explain their sinister plans to him.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: In a villainous example, Plagueis has this reaction when he realizes that Anakin might be The Chosen One, born to destroy the Sith as a consequence of Plagueis's own experiments.
  • My Species Doth Protest Too Much: Darth Tenebrous is a villainous example—the Bith have a peaceful reputation.
  • Mysterious Past: The lack of knowledge or information about Palpatine's backstory is finally given an in-universe explanation. It's due to Palpatine's political enemies on Naboo allying themselves with Pax Teem and passing on intel and evidence linking him to Damask. Palpatine resolves to not only eliminate those enemies but to also see to it that all information about his past is removed from the public record to prevent a repeat of this.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • Plagueis is very specific in the type of immortality he's pursuing. He wants his body to live forever in good health and refuses to pursue shortcuts like transferring his essence into another being or a series of cloned bodies. His apprentice, on the other hand...
    • The book also references the "Han Shot First" controversy from the Special Edition of A New Hope: "Onaconda Farr thought of politics the way his Rodian brethren thought of bounty hunting: Shoot first; ask questions later".
  • Never My Fault:
    • A variation during the Maladian Attack on the Canted Circle. Upon seeing the Maladians, Damask initially wonders if Palpatine (who'd used them to kill Vidar Kim) took out a second contract on him. However, it's then quicky subverted; Damask recognizes this thought's born out of his not wanting to admit that Pax Teem's bested him.
    • During his Villainous Breakdown and murder of his master, Sidious lays entirely the blame on Plagueis for the exploitation of Naboo and its plasma and his murder of his family, accusing him of having tricked or manipulated him into doing so while omitting his own part of responsibility in it.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
    • Sifo-Dyas screws up big-time during the summit on Serenno (though he has no way of knowing), as his debate with Plagueis is what gives the Sith Lord the idea to create a Clone army for the Jedi rather than to oppose them.
    • Ronhar Kim is indirectly responsible for Dooku's fall to the Dark Side (or at least his corruption at Palpatine's hands). Having been impressed and intrigued by their meeting at Vidar's funeral, Ronhar discusses the newly appointed Senator with Dooku. Ronhar then later introduces Dooku to Palpatine during a key Senatorial vote (and Dooku is likewise left intrigued by the young man). While Plagueis already had an interest in Dooku, this first meeting leads to Palpatine eventually becoming Dooku's political confidant. This allows Palpatine to subtly drive wedges between Dooku and the Jedi over the next 20 years until his eventual schism with the Council.
    • By confiding in Palpatine at all, Dooku likewise unknowingly passes on key intelligence to Plagueis and Sidious regarding Jedi politics, the Prophecy of the Chosen One, and the discovery of Anakin.
    • Dooku gets another one during his business lunch with Palpatine just prior to the Election. It's made clear during the meal that Dooku's become suspicious of how Palpatine's benefiting politically from the Naboo Crisis. He also remarks that the Jedi don't really know anything of Palpatine beyond his voting record. Their later meeting in the Works during the Epilogue heavily implies Dooku's correctly deduced Palpatine's identity, or at the least put him on the list of potential Sith suspects. Either way, out of pride and his own lifelong fascination with the Dark Side, Dooku does not divulge these suspicions to Sifo-Dyas or anyone else in the Jedi Order before leaving. They won't learn the truth until 13 years later and by that point, it's too late.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
    • Sidious and Plagueis just had to upset the order of the midi-chlorians in a botched experiment of crafting a Sith Weapon. Well, it certainly bit them in the butt afterwards when the midi-chlorians retaliated by creating Anakin Skywalker to destroy them once and for all.
    • Darth Gravid's Heel–Face Turn in the backstory is cited as the reason why it's taken a full millennium for the Grand Plan to reach its culmination. Gravid's destruction of Sith holocrons, and his apprentice being forced to enact the Rule of Two far earlier than she would have under normal circumstances, cost the Sith valuable knowledge, connections, and time. Plagueis acknowledges Gravid single-handedly set the Grand Plan back centuries.
  • Noble Demon: Plagueis is a rare example of a Sith that has enough redeeming qualities to make him relatively sympathetic, even without being compared to the fully twisted Palpatine. He is actually capable of true loyalty, opposes the Stupid Evil facet of the Dark Side as much as he can, and is kind of a Well-Intentioned Extremist in his views. Unfortunately, this ends up becoming his own destruction to the hands of Palpatine.
  • Noodle Incident:
    • The death of Darth Tenebrous is an in-universe example for Palpatine in the Prologue. Sidious has long known the broad strokes from Plagueis — that Tenebrous was his Master's Master and that he obviously died prior to Palpatine's enlistment. But Palpatine also knows little else beyond that, as Plagueis never discussed the exact circumstanses of his Master's death. It's implied Palpatine's Flow Walking at the end of the Prologue to witness the fateful event for himself and answer these longstanding mysteries out of personal curiosity.
    • Subverted with Plagueis's murder of Kerred Santhe. It starts off as this in Part I, but he eventually ends up relaying the whole story to Palpatine halfway through the book.
  • Not Me This Time: If Vidar Kim's family was assassinated by Ars Veruna and Bon Tapolo, then it's ironically the one murder in the book that Palpatine and Plagueis weren't involved in. Even Palpatine sees no reason to believe it was anything other than a tragic accident.
  • Not So Above It All: After the time jump to Part III, narration reveals that even Palpatine couldn't help napping (right there in the Senate Rotunda) through some of the orations, diatribes, and filibusters he'd been forced to sit through over the last 20 years.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: On his deathbed, Veruna defends the attack on Sojourn and how he was in danger of losing everything he'd built and worked towards. Plagueis considers this, then admits that he probably would've done the exact same thing if he had been in Veruna's shoes. The difference, of course, is that he would have succeeded where Veruna failed.
  • Not-So-Harmless Villain: Pax Teem, who spends Part 1 and most of Part 2 being a political thorn in the Sith's sides...only to end up nearly derailing the entire Sith Grand Plan in one fell swoop in Part 2's climax.
  • Obviously Evil: Darth Maul, which, given the Sith's current modus operandi is hiding in plain sight, is a significant liability.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • Plagueis has this when Sidious tells him that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan have been sent to deal with the blockade of Naboo. Having met Qui-Gon 20 years earlier, he knows all too well Qui-Gon is no run-of-the-mill Jedi and that the Neimodians will stand no chance.
    • Plagueis gets another one when he, under the guise of Hego Damask, attempts to see the young Anakin Skywalker, only to be told by one of Padmé's handmaidens that he's already been taken to the Jedi Temple. While Plagueis clings to the hope that the Jedi Council will reject Anakin on the grounds of his age (which does happen but doesn't stop him from being trained later), he notably falls back a step and exhibits an understated but palpable fear that the Force itself may have screwed the Sith over.
      Plagueis: Are we undone? Have you undone us?
  • One-Man Army: All the Sith. Despite being taken by surprise, Plagueis is able to fell several dozen elite assassins. Palpatine slaughters the entire Malastare embassy singlehandedly. Amusingly, though, Darth Maul's arrogance is criticized by Sidious as him seeing himself as a "one being army".
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Jabba the Hutt made it clear to Plagueis that he intends to take care of his rival Gardulla himself, enough to get Plagueis's promise to leave her to him despite her part in the attempt on his life on Sojourn.
  • Out-Gambitted: Happens late in the novel, when Plagueis and his associates are ambushed by a group of assassins during a clandestine ritual. Plagueis gets caught flat-footed and loses half of his face in the bloodbath. Worst of all, the attack was planned by a perfectly normal alien senator. Palpatine later refers to the incident as part of his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Plagueis when he kills him.
  • Pass the Popcorn: This is basically Jabba the Hutt's response to Plagueis requesting to use his ship's comm systems to contact Veruna and inform the Naboo King that his ass is grass for the Sojourun strike.
    Jabba: Ohohoho! It will be my pleasure!
  • Pet the Dog:
    • Plagueis, in contrast to the majority of the galactic community, is surprisingly courteous and polite to droids he owns. 11-4D is the only member of the Woebegone crew Plagueis spares and is nothing but affable to the droid throughout the book.
    • Perhaps the largest display of empathy on Palpatine's part is that he shows some concern for what will happen to Maul after the Sith are victorious.
    • Although this happens when Palpatine is Killing Darth Plagueis, he does tell his master that he is genuinely grateful for Plagueis teaching him and admits that he couldn't have secured the Chancellorship without his help.
  • The Peter Principle: Plagueis's opinion of Gunray and the Neimodian bloc of the Trade Federation after they gain control of the Directorate (and after learning of the skullduggery that sets off the events of Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter.
    Plagueis: This is what happens when beings are promoted beyond their level of competence.
  • The Plan: The Revenge of Sith, which is also formally referred to by the Sith Lords as the Sith Imperative and the Grand Plan. Much of the novel is spent showing how the Plan's final stages develop into what we'll see in the Prequel Trilogy.
  • Playing with Fire: Sidious uses this to kill Pax Teem.
  • P.O.V. Sequel: The last third of the book retells multiple Episode I-era stories from the Sith's perspective. It is a bit odd in never doing so quite directly; we see them discussing events and making plans but never actually see the scenes directly from their perspectives.
  • Poor Communication Kills: This is part of why the assasination of Vidar Kim turns into a near-debacle. Palpatine's instructions, which Pestage relayed to the Maladians, were that Kim's death should be public. What Palpatine meant (and expected) was that the operative would take the shot when Kim was out in the open at Mezzileen Spaceport. But because Palpatine and Pestage didn't make that clear, the operative interprets the guidelines to mean she should hit Kim while he's en route (and while traveling with a Jedi). So not only does she nearly botch the job and get captured, but the Jedi end up opening an investigation into Vidar's death thanks to Ronhar's presence.
    • The Trope even gets invoked in-universe when Palpatine's debriefing Pestage on what the hell went wrong. Palpatine demands to know why Pestage didn't warn the Maladian operative about Ronhar. Pestage counters, in fact, he did warn her; he's just as furious and baffled as to why this somehow fell on deaf ears. The only explanation that makes sense to Pestage is that she willfully ignored his instructions in order to wrack up another Jedi kill for her resume.
  • The Power of Hate:
    • This is the reservoir of power that Sith are trained to tap into, unlike the Jedi.
    Plagueis: If you don't already want to murder me, you will before I'm through with you. The urge to kill one's superior is intrinsic to the nature of our enterprise.
  • Pragmatic Villainy:
    • Years after rescuing Plagueis from the Maladians, Palpatine reveals that while he didn't have to save him, he chose to do so believing that his master is too useful to be let killed off at that point in his career.
    • Palpatine chose the Maladians to murder Vidar Kim in the first place because in addition to honoring any contracts made, the Death Watch was overwhelmed at the time, and ruled out the Bando Gorra because it was a cult with its own agenda. In addition, hiring out the assassination via Sate Pestage would give Palpatine a measure of Plausible Deniability and would make him look clean when he succeeds Kim as the Chommell sector's senator.
  • Properly Paranoid:
    • As noted in the Villainous Breakdown entry below, Plagueis is shown to be mortified at the idea of Palpatine suggesting that Anakin Skywalker be made a Sith candidate. And for a very good reason.
    • Likewise, after the attempt on his life, Plagueis actually forsook sleep since he feared that he'd be killed in his sleep. He ultimately proved to be right. Unfortunately, Palpatine ensured he fell asleep by having him get drunk on Sullustan Wine before he made his move to kill him.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: Palpatine becomes a very high-functioning version of this.
  • Puny Earthling: Darth Plagueis describes Palpatine as such during his training: "Hard to tell (how long the training will take). Humans are their own worst enemies. Your body isn't meant to withstand real punishment. It is easily injured and slow to heal. Your olfactory and tactile senses are relatively acute, but your auditory and visual senses are extremely limited".
  • The Purge:
    • After capturing Venamis, Plagueis goes after the Bith's apprentice candidates. He does this to ensure they won't be a threat to either him or the Grand Plan.
    • After Palpatine's political enemies on Naboo form an alliance with Pax Teem and nearly derail the Grand Plan, Sidious resolves to use Sate Pestage to have them finally eliminated at the first opportunity. Remarks from Veruna after the Time Skip all but confirm the purge was successful (and that he knows where the bodies are buried).
    • While the Jedi Purge is still years away, Luceno not only obviously heavily foreshadows it, but also deconstructs the Trope. Bane's 'Kill 'em All' commandment gave the Sith an endpoint to build towards (along with 'Take over the Galaxy'), but he left no real details or ideas about how exactly to get there with only two Sith in a generation (a flaw which even Bane realized at the time, as he wasn't sure either). So, each subsequent generation of Sith have batted ideas back and forth (a virus targeting Force users or an army of elite assassins), rejected them for logistical reasons (the virus would affect the Sith too and maintaining operational security with so many assassins would be impossible), and kicked the can down the road for the next generation to figure out. While Plagueis' own ideas have merit and he's on the right track, it's Palpatine's 'enlistment' and perspective which ultimately shapes the Jedi Purge into what we'll see in the Prequels.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: When Sidious finally kills his master:
    Sidious: It was Plagueis who denigrated his apprentice in private for hiring an inept assassin to kill Senator Kim, and yet who allowed himself to be tricked by the Gran and nearly killed by mercenaries. Plagueis, who turned away from the Grand Plan to focus entirely on himself, in an egotistical quest for immortality. Plagueis, who had the temerity to criticize his apprentice for having inculcated too much pride in the assassin he had trained. Plagueis, who attempted to turn his equally powerful apprentice into a mere messenger and intermediary. And Plagueis, who watched in secret while his apprentice tasked their true intermediary to reveal the reborn Sith to the galaxy. Plagueis The Wise who in his time truly was, except at the end, truly trusting that the Rule of Two had been superseded and failing to realize that he would not be excused from it. Plagueis the Wise, who forged the most powerful Sith Lord the galaxy has ever known, and yet forgot to leave a place for himself! Whose pride never allowed him to question that he would no longer be needed.
  • Removed Achilles' Heel: After many experiments Plagueis deduces the source of the Yinchorri's resistance to Force mind powers, an adaptation of their Midi-chlorians, and of finding a way to impose his will on them.
  • Resolved Noodle Incident:
    • Back during the flashbacks of Star Wars: Republic #64, Vidar Kim had made veiled referencs to intrigues on Naboo while trying to get Ronhar to renounce his fealty to the Jedi. Darth Plagueis finally reveals what specifically Vidar was alluding to here (Veruna and Tapolo's crooked deals with the Trade Federation, their political corruption that engineered Tapolo's re-election, and their possible role in the deaths of Vidar's family).
    • Back in Cloak of Deception, Luceno had given the broad strokes of Sidious and Gunray's first meeting: Sidious had apparently contacted Gunray out of the blue and 'enlisted' him by casually mentioning details of some of Gunray's more illicit (and secret) activities. That first meeting is finally dramatized in its entirety here, as we find out the specific corporate/financial crimes Gunray committed (and which Sidious found out about thanks to the Sith's information network and Plagueis' ties to the Trade Federation).
  • Retcon:
    • The 2005 New Essential Chronology established that Sidious murdered Plagueis at some point between 52 and 46 BBY, that is, between Palpatine's ascent to Senator and Padmé's birth. In this novel, Plagueis is killed in 32 BBY, during the events of The Phantom Menace. Their reasons are also different: originally, Sidious killed Plagueis because he suspected Plagueis planned to replace him for a perfect Sith created through the midi-chlorians, who would have been Anakin, while in this novel he kills Plagueis because the latter had outlived his usefulness. Finally, this novel shows Sidious was embellishing the story when he claimed Plagueis was killed in his sleep, given that Luceno's Plagueis is killed much more prosaically while he is wasted on Sullustan wine.
    • The plot point that Sidious started training Maul behind Plagueis's back actually predates this novel by many years, but before the revelations given by Luceno, the Essential Guide to the Force databook suggested Sidious had maintained other secret apprentices before Maul. This is contradicted by Luceno's novel, where Maul is his first apprentice (and one Sidious was actually pressed by his mother to take). Also, as the novel was written after The Clone Wars made Maul a former Nightbrother, he is now introduced as a Dathomiri and son to a witch named Kycina.
    • The materials mentioned above and Vader: The Ultimate Guide had speculated that Plagueis (or Sidious taking up his plan after killing him) was actually successful in summoning a "living embodiment of the Force" through manipulation of the midi-chlorians, causing the virginal conception of Anakin in order to generate the perfect Sith candidate (a reminiscence of the Kwisatz Haderach from Dune, a novel that heavily inspired Star Wars in other aspects). In this novel, Plagueis does try to create the perfect Sith through the midi-chlorians, but it is instead implied that he failed and that the creation of Anakin was actually the Force lashing back at him by creating the opposite to what he wanted, a Chosen One who would destroy the Sith. Therefore, Plagueis is still related to the origin of Anakin, only that now he is technically less related and in a different way.
    • The Chronology (and Labyrinth of Evil, also by Luceno) stated that Sifo-Dyas planned the clone army entirely by himself and that it was Dooku, already secretly working with Sidious, who then took over the project and paid for it with his family holdings in Serenno. Plagueis was already dead by that point, and nothing implied he ever knew Sifo-Dyas personally, not to mention that he contributed to his thoughts. In this novel, it is shown instead that Plagueis was acquainted with Sifo-Dyas under his civilian disguise, discussed the topic with him to give him ideas, and funded the project with the money of Damask Holdings, after which Dooku and Sidious only had to kill Sifo-Dyas to hijack it.
    • The same happens with the future members of the Separatist movement, including the Trade Federation, who are here shown to have been manipulated by Plagueis since before the events of the film (heck, he is part of them, being a Muun banker himself). It's possible, even probable that all of this actually happened offscreen in previous canon, given that Plagueis had always been officially a Muun and that Sith generally like to play long-term, but it had never been shown until this work.
  • Retired Monster: A variation at the end of Part II and continuing into Part III. After the Canted Circle attack, Plagueis takes a step back to focus on recovering from his injuries and refining his etheric research into the Force and Midi-chlorians. While he's still dictating the broad strokes of the Sith Grand Plan, Palpatine essentially ends up with day-to-day control and oversight of their operations for the next 20 years. This neatly recounciles Palpatine's pre-established actions in the lead-up to Episode I while also accounting for Luceno's retcon that Plagueis was still alive during this time period.
  • Reread Bonus:
    • Once you know to look for it, you can spot that Palpatine is feeding Plagueis all of his plans and that half of what Plagueis takes as honest respect in his viewpoint scenes is barely-restrained sarcasm right from the beginning.
    • Palpatine's last two meetings with Veruna on Naboo also take on different contexts after finishing the novel. In the penultimate meeting in particular, you can now see Palpatine very subtly planting the idea in Veruna's head to launch an attack on Sojourn (and mentioning almost casually that Damask's base of operations is no longer secure as it was 20 years earlier).
    • Similarly, Plagueis and Sidious' reunion in the aftermath of Veruna's attack on Sojurun also plays differently. Knowing now Veruna's attack was actually a Batman Gambit of Palpatine's, you can see Sidious' contrition for misreading Veruna's threats is really him masking concern that Plagueis knows or suspects his apprentice set him up. Of course, Plagueis incorrectly concludes the attack was the will of the Dark Side.
  • Riddle for the Ages:
    • Was the Speeder crash that killed the Kims secretly engineered by Tapalo and Veruna to force Vidar from the Senate out of grief and/or fear? Or was it really a genuine malfunction and tragic accident? Luceno gives enough evidence to go either way and it's up to the reader to decide.
    • Why did Vidar's Maladian Assassin go off-script and try to kill Ronhar despite being given explicit orders from Pestage and Palpatine to only kill the Senator and to leave the Jedi alone? Pestage speculates it may have been her career ambitions (as she'd already killed another Jedi earlier in her career and such an act would only enhance her resume). But since the operative killed herself before being taken into custody, Pestage, Palpatine, and her handler (and the audience) are left in the dark as to her exact motives.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: Qui-Gon Jinn is rightfully critical and suspicious of Hego Damask and of Damask Holdings whose names are involved in every major crisis in the Outer Rim. He just assumes that the Muun is doing this out of greed, without suspecting that Damask is a Sith and does this to weaken the Republic and the Jedi Order.
  • Robot Buddy: Droid 11-4D to Plagueis and later to Palpatine. He's pretty much an "evil" R2-D2.
  • Rule of Two: Being a book about Sith Lords, of course this trope is in full effect. Of course, as is tradition every single Sith in the book breaks the rule in some way.
  • Running Both Sides: Since the book shows how the Sith Plan evolves into what we'll see in the Prequels, this aspect of the Clone Wars naturally gets more fleshed out. Revenge of the Sith previously confirmed the Seperatists were always intended to lose and Luceno runs with that. But he also confirms a longstanding implication from previous Prequel-era multimedia: Plagueis and Sidious intentionally structured the Clone Wars so that the Separatists and Republic lacked the means to achieve a swift, decisive victory. Both sides had to be carefully managed not just to ensure the False Flag Operation and casus belli, but also to keep the conflict going as long as possible. This was not just to buy time to corrupt the Republic into a legimitized autocracy, but to also pound the entire galaxy into a pulp over a sustained period. Doing so would ensure that by war's end, the exhausted, terrified galactic citizenry would eagerly and willingly embrace the strength and stability of the Empire.
  • The Scapegoat: Tenebrous and Plagueis manage to cover up the latter assassinating Karred Santhe by taking advantage of a conference that was serving bloateel, a creature that is lethal to digest if prepared incorrectly, and the blame for Karred's death was ultimately assigned to the chefs.
  • Screw Destiny: Plagueis doesn't believe in the viability of prophecies or of trying to read or predict the future, believing that one of the ancient Sith's errors was of putting too much faith in them and being skeptical about Tenebrous's projects to predict the future with a super-computer and Bith science.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!:
    • Young Palpatine got away with many actions that would have caused others to be sent to juvenile prison, such as killing two bystanders with his speeder, due to his father using his influence to get him off the hook and silence any scandal every time.
    • Tenebrous used his influence to boost Caar Damask's career and allow him to finally reach his dream of joining the upper ranks of the Intergalactic Banking Clan on Muunlist, in exchange of Caar giving him his son Hego to serve as Tenebrous' sith apprentice.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: This is one of the reasons why the annual Gatherings on Sojurun eventually end during the Time Skip between Parts II and III. Initially, the Gatherings go on hiatus while Plagueis recovers from the Canted Circle attack and re-focuses his attention on his etheric research. The Gatherings eventually resume 4 years later, but only last another half a decade before shutting down for good. Palpatine notes fewer and fewer guests were attending the Gatherings in any case, with many of the regulars having distanced themselves from Damask in the wake of the murders on Coruscant.
  • Secret-Keeper: Sate Pestage becomes this to the Sith after helping Palpatine rescues Plagueis and witnessing them using their powers to take on Maladian assassins.
  • Secret Test of Character:
    • As Plagueis and Palpatine begin planning the Naboo Blockade, a complication ensues: King Veruna. Plagueis has concerns that the monarch has become uncontrollable and that they may have to install a more malleable leader to make the Blockade work as intended. Sidious proposes first testing Veruna during his next trip back home and seeing how he reacts before they decide his fate. Veruna fails the test, thus setting up Palpatine's orchestration of Padmé's election run.
    • The epilogue during Dooku and Palpatine's final meeting. Continuing from their previous meeting, it's heavily implied Dooku's either correctly deduced Palpatine's the other Sith Lord, or at the very least he has suspicions based on how the Naboo Crisis politically benefited the Senator. Either way, he professes his interest in working with the Sith to bring new order to the galaxy. Palpatine, however, is well aware this Trope may be in play and Dooku may simply be trying to draw him out. So he resists the temptation to reveal his true identity to Dooku then and there. There will be other, better, and safer opportunities to do so in the coming months.
  • Seers: One of Darth Venamis's possible candidates to become his apprentice is a female Iktotchi, with greatly accurate visions of the future, such as the Clone Wars, the end of the Republic and of the Jedi Order, and the rise of the Empire, enough to actually impress Plagueis. However, Plagueis thinks that her visions are too premature and make her dangerous for the Sith's future, knowing the self-destructive power that prophecies have had on the Sith of old, and he electrocutes her with Force lightning to silence her.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Sidious, with a bit of Plagueis's influence.
  • Shout-Out: Plagueis references For Whom the Bell Tolls when killing an enemy:
    Plagueis: A celebrated ancient poet once said that every death lessened him, for he considered himself to be a brother to every living being. I, on the other hand, have come to understand that every death I oversee nourishes and empowers me, for I am a true Sith.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Darth Maul. He's a skilled fighter, only not as skilled as he thinks.
  • Smug Snake: Plagueis, Maul, and Naboo's King Veruna all suffer because of this to varying degrees.
  • Snooty Haute Cuisine: A luxury dish sometimes served at formal engagements, such as a gala by house Palpatine or a design conference on Corulag, is Bloat eel, one of the most venomous animals in the galaxy, which has to be prepared with great care and skinned while alive, to prevent it to impart its poison to its flesh. The prospect of a near-instant death if the dish wasn't prepared properly is more than enough to enliven a banquet. Plagueis took advantage of it during his assassination of Kerred Santhe, during the aforementionned conference on Corulag both individuals took part in, force-choking the industrial after he took his first bite of the eel, and framing the chefs for Santhe's death.
  • The Sociopath: The nicest thing you can say about Palpatine. He really was just born a bastard.
  • So Proud of You: After Qui-Gon had his argument with Hego Damask, with him fully expressing his distrust of the Muun and of his group, Dooku smiles at his former padawan's honesty and bluntness.
  • Spanner in the Works:
    • Pax Teem's plan to assassinate Plagueis is a brilliantly conceived and executed Batman Gambit. However, Teem doesn't know his assassins — the Maladians — were previously utilized by Palpatine's aide Sate Pestage to assassinate Senator Kim. Embarrassed at how that job was nearly botched, Pestage's Maladian contact tips him off about the Plagueis operation. This allows Palpatine to foil the assassination and leads to Teem's murder.
    • Later, Palpatine deliberately goads Veruna and his cabal in order to get them to try to kill Plagueis. However, Palpatine didn't anticipate that his Master had had dealings with Jabba the Hutt. Jabba gets wind of the attack plan through his underworld contacts and tips off the Muun. Plagueis survives and Palpatine has to wait until the night before the Election before trying again.
    • Dooku and Qui-Gon Jinn have foiled several of Darth Tenebrous's and Darth Plagueis's schemes, without knowing it, including one attempt to eliminate a senator and replace him by one of Tenebrous's puppets, even managing to unmask and imprison several of the key individuals to the plot. This is what caused Plagueis to first develop an interest in Dooku and turning him to the Dark Side.
    • At the end (which takes place during Episode I), Anakin very nearly becomes this. When it's revealed that the prophecy of the one that would bring balance to the Force might be true, Palpatine and Plagueis panic.
  • Spotlight-Stealing Squad: By making it apparent that Plagueis was the one who planted the seeds for the events of the Prequels, as opposed to Sidious, some feel that it ruins Sidious's character, preventing him from actually being the grand chessmaster that the movies made him. Then again, in his final speech to his master, Sidious claims that he was the one who planted the seeds with Plagueis acting as an Unwitting Pawn who, in Sidious' words, "thought [they] were your ideas when in fact they were mine, cleverly suggested to you so that you could feed them back to me". Ultimately, the question boils down to whether the reader is able to buy Sidious' claim.
  • Spotting the Thread:
    • While helping Plagueis track down one of Venamis' potential apprentices, and upon reading about gamblers who miraculously won huge sums of money in casinos, 11-4D notices that despite all the winners appearing to be of different species, they all are humanoids with the same height. This allows Plagueis to deduce that it's a lone individual able to change his appearance, and thus of a shapeshifting species.
    • Darth Maul is completley unaware he's not a true Sith Apprentice. However, Maul does unwittingly and unknowingly start putting it together when he ruminates on apparent holes Sidious has baffingly overlooked in his apprentice's Sith education (such as lacking a thorough understanding of how the galaxy actually functions, how exactly the Revenge of the Sith is to be executed, etc.).
  • Stable Time Loop: The Tenebrous Way reveals Tenebrous is stuck in a mental one, endlessly reliving his own death in a loop. The story ends with the same words it opens with.
  • The Starscream:
    • Firstly, Plagueis to Tenebrous. It is somewhat of a deconstruction of the trope, as not only was Tenebrous anticipating that Plagueis would betray him, he actually was glad that Plagueis finally acted on his desire to murder him, and his only regret was that Plagueis didn't act on the Starscream tendencies years earlier.
    • Later Sidious to Plagueis. Ironically, Sidious claims he had been, in fact, been manipulating Plagueis ever since the latter first initiated him into the Sith.
  • Start of Darkness:
    • Dooku and Gunray all the way. To a lesser extent, Palpatine, who was sociopathic from the very beginning.
    • One for Sate Pestage as well. Plagueis had given Palpatine Pestage in the belief that he'd be useful to the Sith Lord, and while he wouldn't be called 'innocent' he probably wouldn't have become so twisted if he hadn't been under the influence of the Sith Lords. Since he was, fast forward a few decades later and he becomes Grand Vizier of the Galactic Empire.
  • Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Plagueis spends a lot of his time trying to figure out what midi-chlorians actually do. Before him Jedi and Sith lore on the subject consisted entirely of "Force sensitives tend to have a lot of them".
  • Super Breeding Program: Plagueis is the result of one made by Darth Tenebrous. Tenebrous had one of his female Muun followers, who used the Force but wasn't strong enough to be a Sith apprentice, seduce and marry Caar Damask, who was another Force user, in order to breed a Muun strong enough to become his apprentice.
  • Surrounded by Idiots: A variation with Plagueis invoking The Peter Principle after learning about the Neimodian skullduggery that sets off the events of Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. In a bit of Black Comedy, he then has to immediately clarify that he's not talking about Sidious (who's overseeing said Neimodians and thus momentarily and angrily thinks he's the target of his Master's verbal tirade).
  • Sympathy for the Devil:
    • If supplementary items for the novel (such as the Tenebrous Way) are of any indication, Plagueis literally was destined to become a Sith before he was even born, meaning he literally had no other choice to be anything except to be a Sith. Even then, he managed to become a Noble Demon by their standards.
    • Very intentionally averted for Palpatine, who is more or less portrayed as The Antichrist absolutely loves being evil. He is deliberately written as not being sympathetic in the least and more evil than every other villain in the story bar none just to cement his status as the ultimate Big Bad of the Star Wars mythos.
    • Darth Maul was raised a Sith from birth and Gunray's ambition was relentlessly exploited.
  • There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Veruna's attack on Sojourn during Part III. It starts off with orbital bombardment to soften up Plagueis. He then follows this up by dropping a nuke as the coup de grace. The cabal's strategy is entirely justified considering the last assassination attempt against Damask 20 years earlier didn't exactly go well.
  • Thicker Than Water: Vidar Kim tries to evoke this to convince Rohnar, his last surviving son who's a member of the Jedi Order, to leave the Jedi and continue their family line, following his wife and two other sons' death. This fails to move Rohnar, who has been raised by the Jedi and didn't have any contact with his biological family until then, and thus consider the Jedi to be his family.
  • Training from Hell: Plagueis flat-out states Palpatine's Sith training is supposed to be hellish, so Palpatine will want to kill him, as dictated by the Rule of Two.
  • Tom the Dark Lord: Plagueis' birth name is "Hego".
  • Too Dumb to Live: As Palpatine notes to Plagueis while killing the latter: why did he think that Sidious would let him live? Sith operate on Klingon Promotion and Chronic Backstabbing Disorder policies, after all.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, anyone?
  • Undying Loyalty: Atypical of Sith Lords, Maul is deeply devoted to his Master. As is noted, this just makes it easier for the truly evil Palpatine to manipulate him to get what he wanted.
  • Ungrateful Bastard:
    • Played with in the climax, when Sidious finally makes his move against Plagueis. Palpatine concedes that he is at least genuinely grateful to Plagueis for inducting him into the Sith and teaching him the power of the Dark Side. He even admits that he couldn't have succeeded in becoming Chancellor without Plagueis' help. Other than that, he has no qualms about killing his former Master, now that he's outlived his usefulness (and, indeed, very much wanted to do so after years of serving as an Apprentice and subordinate).
      Sidious: Teacher, yes, and for that I will be eternally grateful. But Master—never.
    • Veruna also becomes one gradually over the course of the novel. While initially partnering with the Muuns to help secure Bon Tapalo's election (and his own after Tapalo's tenure ends), Veruna becomes increasingly resentful of his patron and done with Damask by the lead-up to The Phantom Menace. It ends up getting him killed.
  • Unreliable Narrator:
    • A very subtle and well-executed example in the Prologue. Again, Luceno doesn’t hide that Palpatine killed Damask or play it as false suspense. However, if you pay close attention, you’ll realize that Luceno doesn’t actually divulge any details about how old Palpatine (or Plagueis) is, or even their actual planetary location. This foreshadows the reveal in the climax that Plagueis won’t actually die until the climax of The Phantom Menace.
    • An in-universe example with Sith Holocrons during Part II. Plagueis cautions Palpatine about consulting them — or at least at this stage of his Sith training before he's found his own path to the Dark Side. As Plagueis explains, each Holocron contains knowledge specific and idiosyncratic to each Sith Lord who constructed them. ''Real' knowledge is passed by Master to Apprentice during one-on-one training sessions where nothing is codified, recorded, or diluted — and thus can't be forgotten or altered.
  • Unsatisfiable Customer: Pax Teem and the Trade Federation, with Plagueis grumbling that there's no way to ever satisfy them, with Teem always complaining about Damask Holding's dealings with the Gran Protectorate rivals and competitors such as Gardulla or the Trade Federation, leading to the falling out between Plagueis and Pax Teem.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Utterly averted with Palpatine. He was always a sociopathic antichrist-in-waiting almost from the moment he was born; Palpatine was just smart enough to try and hide it behind a Mask of Sanity.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom:
    • Subtext Mining and Kerred Santhe II sabotaging the probe droid on Bal'demnic. While it gets Rugess Nome killed, they of course had no way of knowing the Bith was actually a Sith Lord. So, it also allows Damask to become the senior Sith Lord and to begin pulling the trigger on the Grand Plan in his lifetime. Worse, Plagueis' subsequent investigation and interrogation of the Subtext Mining Executives brings Naboo and its plasma reserves to Damask Holdings' attention, which in turn introduces him to the young Palpatine.
    • The Maladian assassin who kills Vidar. Despite being warned about Ronhar, she violates direct orders to only kill Vidar (Pestage speculates she wanted to add another Jedi kill to her resume). Not only does this nearly derail the Sith's plans to seat Palpatine in the Senate, but it also leaves Pestage's Maladian contact utterly humiliated and eager to make it up to his understandably now-angry client. Upon learning Pax Teem took out a contract with another Maladian faction to kill Damask, Pestage's contact relays the intel to him and Palpatine. This allows Palpatine to rescue Damask in time, which not only leads to Teem's death (and the later purging of Palpatine's political enemies on Naboo) but it also ironically prevents Teem's cabal from successfully and unknowingly assassinating the then-senior Sith Lord (which would have left Palpatine still only partially trained and ill-prepared to execute the final years of the Grand Plan).
  • Unwitting Pawn: Pretty much everyone in the book is a pawn of the Sith in one form or another. The book's climax reveals that Palpatine regards Plagueis himself as this, too.
  • Villain Protagonist: Carrying on the tradition established by the Darth Bane series.
  • Villain Respect:
    • Subverted in the case of Darth Tenebrous to Plagueis when the latter finally catches him off guard and mortally wounds him. While initially pleased and even congratulatory, Tenebrous takes a second look and decides that Plagueis wasted his opportunity to escape the imminent mine collapse, thus proving himself unworthy to ascend to mastery.
    • Sidious is begrudgingly impressed with Valorum when the Chancellor manages to piece together bits of the Grand Plan on the eve of the Naboo Blockade.
    • Hego Damask, Plagueis's public alter-ego, is one of the rare individuals that Hutts respect as an equal and are willing to talk to in Basic language instead of Huttese. In return, Plagueis does have genuine respect for Jabba, enough to honor his promise to Jabba to let him deal with Gardulla himself.
  • Villain Takes an Interest:
    • Downplayed as Palpatine was already far from a good person, but Plagueis takes an interest in him upon learning how he defied his father by releasing information helping Tapalo's side during Naboo electoral campaign, and how he rejected his first name to only be called Palpatine. Plagueis' interest only grows upon meeting him and observing Palpatine's unique personality, moral code and how his mind is unreadable even with Plagueis using the Force.
    • Plagueis also takes one in Dooku, to the point of considering him a potential replacement to Sidious should he die or fail his training. Other than his exceptional duelling and diplomatic skills, Dooku's awareness of and dissatisfaction with the corruption of the Republic, as well as of the Jedi Order's blind obedience to it, and his anti-conformism are qualities that intrigue Plagueis.
    • And of course, Palpatine immediately takes an interest in Anakin upon learning about his immense potential in the Force and of Qui-Gonn Jinn's belief that he's the Chosen One of the prophecy.
  • Villainous Breakdown:
    • At the book's climax, Sidious unleashes a spectacular one against Plagueis.
    • Plagueis also has one after learning of Anakin's existence. He becomes coarse and blunt when demanding a meeting and actually shows genuine fear when it's revealed that Anakin is being considered as a candidate.
  • Villainous Friendship: Kinman Doriana and Sate Pestage, Palpatine's Co-Dragons, instantly develop one upon their meeting on Coruscant.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist:
    • Plagueis seems to regard himself as this in some respects. He truly believes that the galaxy would be better off under the direction of the Sith. His Muun mentality is at play here - Muuns' regard themselves as superior to other forms of life and prize ambition and elitism, but they also value the collective good of Muun society. As such, Plagueis thinks it entirely natural and obvious that some people are just destined to rule over others, but that doesn't mean he thinks that all life is intrinsically worthless or that he isn't working towards some higher goal that will ultimately benefit everyone (in his case, the elimination of death).
    • Count Dooku, freshly resigned from the Jedi Order and Sith aspirant.
  • Villain Team-Up:
    • In the climax of Part II, Pax Teem forges an alliance between himself, Palpatine's enemies among the Naboo nobility, and Kerred Santhe II based upon Teem's implications to take out Palpatine and Damask. As they don't realize their targets are Sith Lords, it ends badly for all parties involved.
    • In Part III, Veruna forges an alliance of Damask's enemies (Gardulla the Hutt, Black Sun) and the Bando Gora) to drive the Trade Federation out of Naboo and kill Damask. Like Teem's cabal, it too goes badly for all parties.
  • Wham Episode: The entire book, but especially the last third where we learn Sidious didn't kill Plagueis years earlier as fans had always believed. The Muun is alive well into the climax of Episode I before the apprentice makes his move.
  • Wham Line:
    • "I'm looking for a student named Palpatine." This simple query to a Naboo collegial receptionist sets the downfall of the Republic and Jedi in motion, and sealed Plagueis' own fate.
    • "Have you named him?" "Maul, he is called."
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • The fate of 11-4D after Sidious murders Plagueis. Sidious says he will give 11-4D a new body, but there's no sign or mention of him in the post-Episode I literature. According to Luceno, he likes to think that 11-4D is one of the droids that gets the drop on Aurek Team in Labyrinth of Evil and is present when Anakin is put into his armor. The novel Tarkin, also by Luceno and part of Disney's post-2014 canon, reveals that 11-4D is still in Sidious's service five years after the creation of the Empire.
    • As noted earlier, the mystery of who hired Subtext Mining to assassinate Tenebrous is left unresolved, though dialogue later on implies that it was probably Kerred Santhe II. Alternatively, since Subtext Mining claims they were hired by someone on Naboo, and since Palpatine claims he was plying Plagueis from the beginning, longer than Plagueis knew, it is entirely possible- if stretching- that Palpatine was the one who hired them, so that the Sith would have an opening, and knowing that Plagueis would be drawn to Naboo for that reason and others, and that thus- through the Force or other means- he somehow found out who the two Sith Lords were before Plagueis even met him (and thus, truly was manipulating his master from the very, very beginning).This would, however, be clashing with the prologue that openly states that Palpatine doesn't know how Plagueis's master died.
    • Bon Tapalo, Veruna's predecessor as King of Naboo and Plagueis's pawn, never appears in person again after his one scene in Chapter 9; is only mentioned briefly in Chapter 19; and vanishes completely following the time-skip between the end of Part 2 and the beginning of Part 3, by which time he's been succeeded by Veruna. Did he die, and if so, how? Did he oppose Veruna's ascension, or did he step down?
  • Wicked Cultured: Evil has never been so prominent in the EU as it is with Darth Plagueis, and little to none of it is thuggish.
  • Wicked Stepmother: Plagueis supposedly had one when he tells Sidious a story about his family and how he obtained the Damask family wealth. However, he would later admit that the story is an amalgamation of fact and fiction so whether if he was honest or not is debatable.
  • Worthy Opponent: Darth Venamis to Darth Plagueis. Briefly.
  • Xanatos Speed Chess: It was evident during The Phantom Menace that the Sith were having to adjust their plans on the fly to account for unexpected developments (like Valorum sending Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan to Naboo, or Amidala escaping). Here, we get to see the Speed Chess and how the Sith reacted in real time and from their POV.
  • You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: Inverted, unsurprisingly. Plagueis tells a crooked gambler and potential apprentice of Venamis that he would respect him more (and allow him to continue his scam unhindered) if the man was doing something more bold and far-reaching with the money, like funding terrorism.
  • You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With:
    • Boss Cabra's son Darnada tries this trope on Plagueis after first meeting him, only for the unimpressed Sith Lord to react the same way with much more reason. Darnada's assistant has enough sense to shut the Dug up before he does any more damage to Damask's business relationship with Cabra.
    • As demonstrated from the opening page, when it came to Palpatine, Plagueis had no idea who he was dealing with.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Given that the central characters are Sith, this is standard operating procedure. Plagueis does this to Darth Tenebrous and Darth Venamis, as well as to all of Venamis's potential apprentices. Karma's a cold bitch, however, as King Veruna of Naboo and his cabal of toadies attempt to do this to Plagueis's alter-ego, though it fails horribly. And just when things seem to be absolutely peachy for the reigning Sith Master, Sidious makes his own move...

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