General Grievous looked like he was in the middle of everything—leading Separatist armies, talking directly to Darth Sidious, and hunting Jedi across the galaxy. But when you read the Labyrinth of Evil novel and watch how he talks and acts, you start to see how much he really didn’t know anything.
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Treating Palpatine Like A Prisoner
When Grievous kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, he never showed the slightest hint that he thought Palpatine and Sidious were the same man. He mocked him and spoke to him as just another hostage:
“You’re about to make an unscheduled appearance on the HoloNet, Chancellor. I apologize for not providing a mirror, hairbrush, and cosmetics, so that you might at least camouflage some of your fear.”
Palpatine, playing his role with perfection, told him:
“You can display me, but I won’t speak.”
Grievous took that at face value:
“I’ll display you, but you won’t speak. Is that understood?”
And then he added something that proves his ignorance:
“Lord Tyranus will soon be here to take charge of you.”
He truly believed Dooku would arrive and “take charge” of the Chancellor. That single line shows Grievous never made the connection between Palpatine and Sidious.
Orders He Never Understood
Grievous was deadly, but to Sidious he was never more than a weapon. He got the orders, not the reasons behind them. He was told what to do, not why he had to do it. In Labyrinth of Evil, this is exactly how he comes across—someone who carries out the tasks without ever being told how the war actually worked.
And the truth is simple: the Clone Wars were never meant to end in a Separatist victory. They were designed to drag the Jedi into years of bloodshed, weaken them, and make the galaxy beg for Palpatine’s power. Grievous didn’t know this. He was kept in the dark, fighting a war he thought he could win but that was never meant for him.
The most revealing part of this scene is when Grievous admitted he would have happily killed Palpatine on the spot, but he was restrained by orders he didn’t understand.
“You’re more defiant than I was led to believe, Chancellor. But, yes, the plan will succeed—and to your deficit. I would gladly kill you now but for my orders.”
Those words capture his situation perfectly. Grievous thought he was serving Sidious by holding Palpatine alive, while in truth he was carrying out Sidious’s own staged script. His confusion about why Palpatine had to survive proves he wasn’t trusted with the bigger picture.
Grievous Is Not The Only One Left Out
Grievous wasn’t unique in this. Ventress didn’t know either. The Separatist Council never knew. Even most allies of Dooku thought Sidious was just some mysterious Sith Lord pulling strings. The only ones who ever knew the whole truth were Dooku and later Anakin. Maul figured it out, but long after his fall from Sidious’s favor.
And even if Grievous had somehow put the pieces together, it wouldn’t have mattered much. His entire existence was about fighting Jedi. That was his obsession, the only thing that drove him. Politics, strategies, identities—those weren’t what kept him moving. What mattered was being unleashed against Jedi and the Republic, and Sidious gave him exactly that.
A Little Extra
In the 2003 Clone Wars micro-series, there’s even a moment where Palpatine taunts Grievous while being “kidnapped.” He acts smug, unafraid, and almost entertained. The reason he can play it that way is simple—he knows Grievous has no idea about his true identity.
