Lit Has the EU explained what Darth Sidious meant by his words to Anakin in ROTS?

"To cheat death is a power only one has achieved..."-Sidious

So, who was this one he was talking about? It obviously can't be Plaguies because Sidious killed him in his sleep and he sure as heck didn't come back. Plus Palpatine was rather happily telling Anakin how it was ironic that Plagueis could keep others from dyring but not himself.

So who was this mysterious Sith, and where is he now?

(note: With the stuff going on in the cartoon, technically one could say Sidious was talking about Darth Maul...:evil

 

Well, we know Plagueis basically stopped aging, and he managed to keep his test subjects, Darth Forgivable included, alive. "Cheating death" doesn't have to mean being immortal.

 

Darth Maul is the best current bet, but I hardly see Palpatine acknowledging Mauls achievements as superior to his own especially since Maul did not cheat death if he never died in the first place but kept himself alive

and speaking of that, "to cheat death" a lot of Sith did... Darth Sion, etc. many others. to die and return, that is one only Palpatine did later on, and one thing that Plagueis could do to Venamis.

so what the hell is he talking about indeed?

maybe he means Essence Transfer Darth Bane tried failing with Zannah superior, which as far as we know only Seth Harth managed successfully several times.

 

It is possible that Sidious was talking about himself "cheating death" by transfering his (and others) conciousness into clone bodies.

 

There's Darth Andeddu-
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Andeddu

Darth Sion might also qualify-
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Sion

as might Darth Nihilus-
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Nihilus

as well as Lord Scourge and the Sith Emperor:
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Scourge_(Sith)
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sith_Emperor

In practice, Lucas is most likely to have intended that Palpatine either be lying, or speaking of Plagueis.

 

I've always assumed that Palps was just BSing Anakin... mockingly making a myth out of Plagueis' actual achievements and his ambitions, designed to downplay the destructive aspects of the Dark Side by claiming it can create and conserve life...

...alliterations aside, I think he was having his own private little joke at his dead master's expense by using Plagueis' name and plans to get Anakin to embrace the Dark Side.

 

Still, its highly possible that he knew the technique, thus cheating death. As in "I've cheated death, because if I die I'll just come back"

 

Yeah, that's how I've always taken it too.

 

He was rather eager to get hold of the anti-aging secrets of the Kaminoans in the later Republic Commando books.

And in Darksaber, when performing Essence Transfer on Lemelisk (flashback)- he seemed pleasantly surprised that it worked, since "the Jedi from whom I took the technique was reluctant to give me full instruction".

I'd go with him, at least as of RoTS, still doing the research.

 

Obviously it was intended for him to speaking about Plageuis

 

I figured that. I also figure that he never really learned the technique- which is why his body aged and he needed to take clone bodies instead of halting the aging of his own.

 

At the time ROTS came out I assumed Sidious was lying to Anakin about this until we got to read Darth Plagueis. If he wasn't lying he really did mean Plagueis. When I first saw ROTS and saw that scene I was thinking 'How dumb are you Anakin?' He told you earlier or implied that he knew, now he tells you he doesn't know. What the heck?

 

Don't you find it interesting though, that technically this could now mean to represent Maul?

Obviously I do not think this, but wouldn't this give a speck of possibility that Lucas intended for Maul to return somehow and thus inserted this dialogue?

 

Before Darth Plagueis, it seemed possible that he was referring to essence transfer(*); in fact, books such as Dark Lord and Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor seemed to indicate an equivalence between essence transfer and the term "cheat death". However, from Darth Plagueis it appears that he was referring to Plagueis' ability which was manifested in the revival of Venamis.
( * It should be noted that in the 2005 ROTS novel it was explicit that Plagueis was the one who cheated death. )

Making "only one" work as a reference to Set Harth would have been problematic anyway; if Palpatine somehow knew of Set Harth having achieved the ability he would likely have found out about Andeddu as well.

 

I find myself thinking that incessently throughout the entire 3 movies

 

Hah! Too true!

 

Ooh... totally forgot about that one. Has this been explained anywhere in the post-PT EU? Who is that Jedi from whom Palpatine took the technique? Did he by some means conjure up Qui-Gon's spirit and try to make him give up the secret of keeping one's Force essence stable after death? Because I guess that would be like the first step of essence transfer...

 

Yeah it was explained in the EU, even before the PT I think. Forget who, but it's on Wookieepedia.

 

Damn. That was a wasted opportunity.

I mean, there are how many stories about Imperial coups against the Emperor, and you know they are all going to fail...except with Palaptine's line we actually have an excuse for one of these coups to win, temporarily. How hilarious would it be for someone to kill the Emperor...only to have him stroll back a few days later like nothing happen and just kill the **** out of everyone.

 

Thats what I thought considering he knew how to transfer someones memories through the force from original host to clone as he did that with Bevel Lemelisk

There is a man who experianced more deaths in a life time...

 

I'll continue to ignore this wholly unimaginative workaround (in that it's not even an attempt at a workaround ), and assume that Endor was important by virtue of the fact it was the first time the Emperor was killed.

 

After TCW its definetley Darth Maul he talks about, he cheated death. Darth Plauguis managed to keep himself alive a long time, but he dident survive injuries that should have killed him.

 

After TCW it's more like "To cheat death is a power that everyone and his dog has achieved."

And how are we forgetting K'kruhk? He's cheated death plenty of times!

Death is a really lousy sabacc player.