Books The Official Darth Plagueis Discussion Thread (Spoilers Allowed)

This is one of the few Star Wars novels that I've actually read start to finish more than once. When I first read it, I was only starting to dip my toes in the EU (novel wise), most of my knowledge being second-hand from places like Wookieepedia. I then read it again after I had read other books that connected with it, like Cloak of Deception and Shadow Hunter. To this day, it remains one of my (if not the) favorite Legends novels.

Heck, I was so glued to it that I would even read it during the day rather than my usual reading time at night. Partly it was because I was avoiding spoilers, but also because it was that good. And I can still vividly recall reading it in my living room as I slowly started to piece together that the events of the novel were overlapping with Episode I... and Plagueis was still alive. The fact that Plagueis was still the Dark Lord during Episode 1 was a plot twist I don't think anyone was expecting. And of course, Sidious' speech as he kills him is one of my favorite Sidious moments.

Man, I even wrote a book report on it in high school! And I got an A! That's how good it was!

So, yeah. Favorite Legends novel and probably favorite SW novel overall. It's great.

 

You hit the nail on the head regarding the connectivity. It feels like the EU version of Avengers: Infinity War, pretty much every major prequel plot thread in the films and EU gets touched on at some point.

And the crossover with TPM feels very similar to how The Siege of Mandalore crossed over with ROTS. Epic in scope and really makes the film feel more like an event, rather than an episode.

 

I’ve not read many EU books. In fact, Darth Plagueis and Tarkin are the only two. Oh, and Splinter if the Minds’ Eye, which incidentally would make a fun film adaptation since it was based on Lucas’s ideas for a cheap SW sequel after his pessimistic view that his first SW film would fail. Anyway, yes, Luceno wrote great characters, but he was able to also create a universe that seemed compatible to Lucas’s own. His exposition/creation of the SW history, especially concerning the Sith and the Grand Plan are consistent with Lucas’s tendency to tell a variety of stories at different scales in various eras. It relished the political, economic, social and cultural themes that are exotic but based in a concrete realism that always seems familiar to our world.


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I like the fact that during the Jedi Apprentice Novels Darth Plagueis is still alive in Legends and Plagueis appears in Maul Lockdown Maul EU Novels could be considered as Spin Offs and Plagueis was also in the behind the scenes during the events of Jedi Council Acts of War

 

Amazing. This very thought crossed my mind just yesterday.

 

I reached the end of the audiobook. One part that stood out to me is when Damask started panicking about Jedi being sent to Naboo. I find it fascinating that out of all the power players Plagueis had to deal with and work around, there was only one person he ever ran into who scared him absolutely ****less.



Plagueis is so freaked out by Qui-Gon being sent to resolve the situation that he immediately orders the invasion of Naboo launched since he immediately assumes Qui-Gon will be capable of taking down the entire Trade Federation control ship and will have no trouble getting Gunray to talk. It's especially amusing when you read Plagueis's thoughts on Yoda, who he seems to think is a complete moron.

 

Plagueis made several critical mistakes, but in this case he was right.

 

Oh absolutely. Really the only mistake he made that truly hurt him though was tipping the Scales of Balance to the Dark Side - not truly a mistake for his goals, but it caused the Force to create Anakin in retaliation - and trusting Darth Sidious (cannot believe a Sith would make that mistake, lol). But yep, on Qui-Gon, he was absolutely right. They were kind of, in a sense, opposites. Both characters whose philosophies were decades ahead of their time in-universe.

I do think if Sidious hadn't offed Plagueis then he would have had a much easier time maintaining control later on and not fallen victim to his trademark overconfidence.

 

Basing on The Tenebrous Way,

Spoiler

Plagueis' inability to predict Sidious' betrayal was not even his fault.

 

Spoiler

Are you implying that Tenebrous moving his maxi-chlorians into Plagueis robbed Plagueis of his ability to forsee that Sidious would kill him?

 

Spoiler

Yes. IIRC, Tenebrous himself understood that.

 

I've never read that short story - why on earth wasn't it just included as part of the book?!

 

You never read Tenebrous Way? It was by far one of the best short stories. One of those stories that sticks with you, even years later. Reminded me of the old Twilight Zone episodes, when they had a particularly shocking twist at the end.

 

I haven't read it yet either; not sure why it wasn't included in the paperback reprint (unless it was and I missed it?). It was in SW Insider #130 and reprinted in this collection:

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55883514-star-wars-insider

 

Ya I heard the term "maxi-chlorians" and thought that sounded like an awful idea, so I never looked for it. I do like Tenebrous though, you'd say it's worth the time to read?

 

Well I just said it was by far one of the best short stories, so no, you shouldn't waste any time reading it.

 

Same. I moved a couple of years ago and so this book came out of the mess and I really enjoyed reading a few pages here and there. I hadn’t seen it since before the big Reset. I’m curious about the audiobook too, to hear how the characters are voiced.

 

Cosinga says, “The Naboo have a legend about six impenetrable gates that hold back chaos. House Palpatine is one of those gates, Damask.” Is this line supposed to be winking to the reader about how Sheev’s family is preventing him from unleashing the Separatists and the Empire on the galaxy?

 

I think so, although I always took it as a reference to the Sith (since Plagueis is obviously the reigning Sith head honcho at this point).

 

Is a shame that Palpatine did not reveal to Dooku that he was a Sith in this Novel but it is implied that Dooku becomes Darth Sidious Sith Apprentice shortly after the Novel since in Jango Fett Bounty Hunter Video Game Dooku is already Sidious Apprentice and that Video Game takes place in 32 BBY the Fans of Darth Plagueis Novel should play the Jango Fett Video Game since the Bando Gora are the Villains

 

I wonder how Sidious would have dealt with Veruna had Plagueis been killed by Veruna’s nuke.

I also wonder if the parents of the child who Plagueis mind-tricked into jumping out a window sued Plagueis’s parents.

 

Probably would've killed Veruna in a much more cruel and gruesome way than Plagueis did in the book, since Palps wanted to kill the old **** himself.

 

I'm almost certain he would have just sent Darth Maul to kill Veruna. We even get Sidious's first-hand PoV astonishment at the way Plagueis handled Veruna.

 

I wonder if some Readers of the Darth Plagueis Novel have Read Maul Lockdown Novel since Darth Plagueis appears in that Novel too