Who's the greatest Sith Lord ever?

[MontanaHatchet]

TalonMan said:

MontanaHatchet said:

I've watched every lightsaber battle in the series obsessively (even Ben vs. Vader), so I could answer this one.

If you've watched the Palpatine vs. Windu fight scene, Palpatine actually had the opportunity to kill Windu but instead just taunted him (as normal for the arrogance of a Sith). Windu's form of lightsaber combat was advantageous in the sort of environment he was fighting Palpatine in, whereas judging by the crazy acrobatics he pulls off in some fight scenes, Palpatine was at a disadvantage.

In the end, duels don't come down to just pure strength with the force or lightsaber skill. Most duels are won by a completely random action brought about by a deeper issue in the fight scene. Qui-Gon Jinn is actually said to be more powerful than Yoda, but he still lost to a mildly powerful Sith like Darth Maul. His form of lightsaber combat left him at a disadvantage in the closed environment, and his older age allowed him to get tired more easily (as you would see, Darth Maul takes advantage of Qui-Gon's slower reflexes).

It is true that Yoda is more powerful than Mace Windu, but not by a great amount. And Yoda is very old as opposed to Mace Windu who was still young enough to retain his high fighting prowess. Whereas Yoda gets weaker the longer a duel goes on, one could argue that Mace gets stronger. Again, most duels in the Star Wars universe are won by pretty random occurrences if the two opponents are about evenly matched.

As for Anakin, well, there's a good explanation for that. Not only is his spirit completely crushed after believing that he killed his wife, but having three of his limbs chopped off and becoming, largely, a cyborg, really limits his connection with the force (and his concentration and amount of midi-chlorians but those things are lame). He could probably never beat Sidious in a fair match. And if he killed Sidious and claimed himself new ruler of the galaxy, what would the other leaders of the galaxy think? Sure Vader is feared and respected, but not everyone is understanding of how the Sith work (apprentice kills master).

Although he tells Luke to join him and overthrow the Emperor, he probably has no intention of doing so. Palpatine remained a father figure even after Vader enters his suit. In fact, a lot of people wanted Vader dead at first because they thought he would threaten the new Galactic Empire (one of them being Darth Maul).

Anywho, there's my long explanation for everything.

 

The most OBVIOUS reason why Palpatine didn't crush Mace himself is that in order for Anakin to complete his journey to the dark side, HE would have to be the one to kill Mace (Palpatine is no master of evil, he's the master of manipulation!!). What benefit would Palpatine have gained by killing Mace himself? He would have given Anakin all the reason in the world to back out and probably kick Palpatine's ass...

...no, letting Anakin do the deed was the only way.

 

I hear this explanation all the time. If you watch the fight scene, they're fighting pretty equally until Mace kicks Palpatine in the face, disarming him and sending him helplessly against the wall. Besides, how was Palpatine supposed to know that Anakin was coming anyways? Hell, Count Dooku couldn't even sense the presence of Obi-Wan and Anakin nearby, who were watching him. I'd imagine that sensing the presence of another would require extreme concentration, and given how much effort he was putting forward into killing Mace, it seems unlikely he knew Anakin was coming. Besides, if he was really trying to motivate Anakin to join the Dark Side, why did he attempt to kill Mace with force lightning? Palpatine knew that Anakin needed him and that he could do whatever he wanted.

Mise: I was talking about Episode V and not before the suit. As for betraying Palpatine, it was to save his son (because he freed himself from the hold of the Dark Side) and not to overthrow him (Vader knew he was going to die).