Speculation Sifo-Dyas

He wasn't in A New Hope, but him hiding away for years was explained in the PT. We saw him go to Dagobah in ROTS.

An EU explaination is not the same as a movie one, the everyday viewer might not have read any outside material.
Besides, the EU isn't canon and will likely be altered by any new films.

Palpatine's death. The ( incomplete ) destruction of the Jedi was not necessary to achieve balance. Anakin could have chosen differently in ROTS and in that case the prophecy would have been fulfilled without the destruction of the Jedi. Balance is not a Jedi/Sith head count.

Yea and I don't think he stayed there 24/7 like everyone else. I bet he went to Obi wan sometimes and I'm sure Obi came by

Not sure where people keep coming up with this stuff! Lucas kept very tight reigns on the EU on what they could/could not do. He has always tried to maintain continuity AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, which is what Pablo Hidalgo did for the PT. He provided research on any characters that were in the EU and the films as to not utterly destroy the universe as it's been created.

Only a few VERY SMALL things have fallen by the canonical way-side in the process. MOST of the EU should survive again, but some thing may change. i wouldn't expect a full swoop of EU destruction as some are suggesting.

Even to GL, continuity has been an important thing with Star Wars.

An EU answer is not an acceptable answer to the movies failing to bring it up.

According to who?

Well the more I think about it, there could be a way for it to work AND still keep the integrity of the prophecy and all that, as I said in reply to Summer Dreamer. And the more and more I think about it, the more I'm starting to like it. Say Plagueis does return, but not as a physical entity. He is able to create a disturbance physically for Luke and the new Jedi and the new republic. But not just that, he literally creates a disturbance in the Netherworld of the Force as well, so Luke and the Jedi have to fight this new and even darker threat and power, but since Plagueis isn't back in physical form, there is only one who can finish him once and for all... the one he helped to create... the Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker, the Chosen One. The final conflict that doesn't just sweep the galaxy, but also the very Netherworld and fabric of the Force!

The more I think about it... wow... how cool would it be if they went in that direction for this trilogy? It would explain so much, like Sifo-Dyas, how Qui-Gon discovered how Jedi could become Force Ghosts, and that Plagueis did learn to cheat death but creating the Chosen One still ultimately leads to his demise.

Never said it was a numbers thing. But you have to admit if you have ten thousand Jedi of the Lightside of the Force and two Sith of the Darkside of the Force, the Force is kinda out of balance. All that Light and so little Dark. By destroying the Jedi Order down to just the one and having just one member of the Sith Order alive, the Force is in balance again simply because there isn't so many people using one side of it anymore.

You asked for an explanation, I gave you one that is canonically accepted. There is nothing that says Lucas could not use it as a way to explain Sifo-Dias return. And it is not that hard to put that explanation in the opening scroll. It could look something like:

WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF THE EVIL SITH AND THE

EMPIRE'S DEFEAT AT THE BATTLE OF ENDOR,

JEDI KNIGHT LUKE SKYWALKER GOES IN SEARCH OF

SURVIVING JEDI AND NEW POTENTIAL TO FILL THE

RANKS OF THE NEW JEDI ORDER.

HE FINDS ONE SURVIVING JEDI THOUGHT TO BE LONG

DEAD FOR THIRTY YEARS, SLEEPING UNKNOWINGLY

THROUGH THE DECADES IN THE BASEMENT OF THE

EVIL COUNT DOOKU'S HOME ON SERENNO.

FREED OF HIS FORCED SLUMBER, JEDI MASTER SIFO-

DIAS VOWS TO HELP THE SON OF ANAKIN SKYWALKER

TO REBUILD THE JEDI ORDER AND END THE CONFLICT

BETWEEN THE REBEL ALLIANCE AND THE GALACTIC

EMPIRE.

BUT A NEW THREAT LOOMS ON THE HORIZON, ONE THAT

IS NOT PLEASED WITH THE DISCOVERY OF THE

SLEEPING JEDI MASTER...

Cheesy, but you get my point.

Didnt Lucas a whole back kind of make fun of how Han had kids and Luke was married like he didnt the idea

Knowing a bit of the EU kind of lets me in on at least some author's interpertation of what came before (Lucas or not.).

But now just taking the film in to consideration I guess Palpatine does make it sound like he's telling a very old story about Pelagius to Anakin... but then, Palpatine doesn't actually tell us that Pelagius is is master for that matter. I think that much is infered, though not necessarily explicity.

Could Sifo-Dias be revealed as Darth Plagueis? I mean he ordered the creation of the clone army (whether it was Dooku pretending to be Sifo-Dias or not is not explained to my knowledge so it's open for interpretation).
Sidious doesn't mention when he killed his master. Sifo-Dias was presumably killed around the same time Anakin met Palpatine.
And if by chance that is true, then it would fit in nicely and offer continuity - something like a legacy of evil - the perfect adversary for the Skywalker legacy. It would make Plagueis seem like a menace, surviving Sidious' assasination attempt, keeping a low profile and attempting to rise to power once his old apprentice is no more.
And with that there would be no need to clone Palpatine or anything like that, since the main villain would be connected to the previous events. That would have a more powerful impact on the story rather than introducing someone completely new.

Taking something from the PT and taking people from the OT could be whats needed to make it all feel like one story

Wait for it...

Never said it was a numbers thing...

The Force is said to be in balance at a point when there are 0 Sith and a nonzero number of Jedi.

Force-users are not the Force. The balance of the Force is not a balance of Force-users.

It really is a great read, too!

My favorite EU story. They did a great job with Palps in this book.

I like the idea and I am thinking of how this could work. Even if Sifo-Dias is just mentioned and explained or tied into the ST would be awesome. Actually seeing him arise as a jedi who has been in carbonite vs. him actually being Darth Plagueis could tie things together and pose a new threat to the galaxy!
Plus....I don't like him dieing in his sleep, that sounds like too sissy of a way to die, especially if you are "all powerful"

1. Plagueis Will NOT return...he's dead murdered by his apprentice Darth Sidious
2. Syfo Dias is a pre battle of Yavin character....he died before the PT even began. How could he possibly be in the new triology?
3. Palpatine/ Darth Sidious is also dead
4. Disney is on thin ice with the Star Wars Community, including any of these dead characters would be the equivalent of "jumping the shark"...they've already stated this movie will occur some odd years AFTER ROTJ

based on your post I'm assuming you haven't read Darth Plagueis....Syfo Dias is clearly a seperate character in the novel...and Plagueis wasn't asleep per se when Sidious killed him...I'm sure that Force lightning woke him up pretty quick

Lucas had heavy involvement wit the Plagueis book. More so than any other EU book if I'm not mistaken.

Sifo-Dyas was a mistake. Please don't bring him back in any form.

I liked the Sifo-Dyas mystery (though I wish it was clarified a bit more), but odds are he would be completely irrelevant in a sequel trilogy.

I think it works better as a mystery. All we really know, is that someone claiming to be Sifo-Dyas ordered the creation of those clones. We can't be sure it was even really him. He may have already been dead. That's the beauty of it. I don't want to explore that deeper.

That mystery, and the way it works with the idea that the Dark side works in the shadows and muddles the truth, is one of the things in the movie that I like. I don't want to change that.

IMO Dooku used his name as cover. If enquiring minds come enquiring when the army's creation is discovered (by Obi wan investigating an assassins dart) which by the way, makes me wonder. what if events hadn't conspired as they did and the army hadn't been discovered? What would the explanation have been for the army and who would've given it? Out of nowhere a ready made army is at your disposal. AT Palpatines disposal none the less. What a stroke of luck! If your going to come up with such a story line, then thoroughly look into every conceivable angle of it so no one can question it's validity. Makes sense, no?

Yes, it's possible Dooku killed him and used his identity to negotiate the creation of the army. Those are the kinds of possibilities I think exist.

The main advantage with "He really did order the army" is it makes the Jedi willingness to report it to the Senate, a bit less odd.

"Trustworthy Jedi Master orders army for republic"

vs

"person or persons unknown pretending to be Jedi, orders army for republic"

Which would convince the Jedi that the Republic should use this army?

Is it ever explained how Dyas died? Not from my knowledge. So either he was killed and his identity stolen to negotiate the Clones as cover? OR, he was controlled and influenced to do so and after the deal was done with the Cloners he was told to kill himself? Don't know about you? But I'm kinda leaning toward the prior. And who possibly could've done that?? Hmm..