Before becoming the infamous Darth Sidious, Palpatine was just another figure in the vast galaxy, seemingly unremarkable. However, his hidden potential caught the eye of Darth Plagueis, who saw in him the makings of a true Sith Lord.
Through rigorous and brutal training, Plagueis transformed Palpatine into one of the most dangerous Sith in history, destined to reshape the galaxy. Here is how Plagueis broke Palpatine from an ordinary person into a Sith Lord.
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Plagueis Discovers Palpatine’s True Desire for Power
Before we get into how Plagueis truly “broke” Palpatine, we need to look at the moment when Palpatine was first accepted by the Sith Lord. In the Star Wars Legends novel, Darth Plagueis, we see that Plagueis’s search for an apprentice was unlike anything we expect from a typical Sith. He wasn’t just looking for any Force-sensitive acolyte—Plagueis wanted someone with the ambition to reshape the galaxy and the curiosity to unlock the ultimate secrets of life and death. That search eventually led him to Naboo.
On Naboo, a brilliant but frustrated teenager named Palpatine was already suffocating under the weight of his powerful family and the shallow politics of his world. Even as a boy, Palpatine was different—harboring a darkness and a deep fascination with power, manipulation, and the mysteries of the Force.
Their fateful meeting happened when Plagueis, using his public identity as “Hego Damask”—a wealthy Muun financier—visited Naboo for business and political reasons. He quickly noticed Palpatine’s potential. Their first true conversation took place in secret, away from prying eyes, as Plagueis subtly tested the young man’s intellect, ambition, and hidden ruthlessness.
When asked if he fancied himself extraordinary, Palpatine hesitated, embarrassed, but admitted, “I only meant that I want to live an extraordinary life.” Plagueis encouraged him not to apologize for his ambition but to “dream large,” pressing further: “To what position do you aspire? Republic Senator? Monarch of Naboo? Supreme Chancellor of the Republic?” At first, Palpatine was reluctant, but when pushed, he finally confessed, “I want to be a force for change. I want to rule.”
That was the moment Plagueis realized he had found exactly what he was looking for—a human who craved power above all else, and who was willing to go beyond ordinary ambitions. Palpatine made it plain: “If not power, then nothing.” Plagueis smiled, knowing he’d found a rare soul willing to risk everything to achieve his goals, no matter the cost. He offered to be Palpatine’s ally in this quest, asking only for total commitment and the willingness to do whatever was necessary.
Palpatine’s First Step Into Darkness: Destroying His Own Family
Once Plagueis realized the depths of Palpatine’s ambition, he subtly encouraged the young man to embrace his true nature. Palpatine’s first real act as an apprentice wasn’t a grand political maneuver, but something far more personal and chilling.
Tormented for years by his controlling father and feeling isolated from his own family, Palpatine’s anger finally erupted after his secret alliance with Plagueis. During a confrontation on his family’s private yacht, Palpatine unleashed all the pent-up hatred he’d harbored for so long. Fueled by the dark side—and for the first time, fully embracing it—Palpatine murdered his entire family: his father, mother, and siblings. He did it with the Force, in a fit of rage that left no survivors.
Afterward, Palpatine confessed everything to Plagueis, admitting with chilling detachment that he felt no guilt or remorse. In fact, he felt empowered and free, fully shedding any last traces of his former life. Plagueis, far from horrified, saw this act as the final proof of Palpatine’s Sith potential. From then on, Palpatine became the true apprentice of Darth Plagueis, fully committed to the dark side and his own rise to power.
After Palpatine’s chilling act of severing all ties to his family, he returned to Plagueis—now completely free from his old life and ready to embrace a new destiny. Plagueis could sense the power and ambition in Palpatine, and their conversation quickly turned to the future.
Palpatine, with awe and anticipation, told Plagueis, “I can sense it…” Plagueis replied, “What you sense is a fraction of what I can bring to bear.” Recognizing the potential within himself and the possibilities ahead, Palpatine asked, “Might I be of some use to the Sith?” Plagueis didn’t give him easy assurances, answering, “Possibly. Perhaps even likely. But we would have to wait and see.”
When Palpatine asked about the Sith, Plagueis revealed the truth: “Just now there is only one. Unless, of course, it is your will to join me.” Palpatine didn’t hesitate: “I do wish to join you.” At Plagueis’s command, Palpatine knelt before him and pledged, “It is my will to join my destiny forever with the Order of the Sith Lords.”
Plagueis formally accepted him, touching him on the crown of the head and declaring, “Then it is done. From this day forward, the truth of you, now and forever more, will be Sidious.” With this, Palpatine was reborn—now Darth Sidious, apprentice to the Sith Lord who saw and cultivated his true potential.
How Darth Sidious Was Forged by Plagueis’s Brutal Training
Up until this point, we’ve seen how Plagueis discovered Palpatine and guided him toward the dark side, setting him on the path to join the Sith Order. But it’s after this moment that we truly witness the transformation—from a privileged young man named Palpatine into the ruthless Darth Sidious—through the brutal and relentless training imposed by Darth Plagueis.
1. Initiation into the Dark Side: The First Steps
Palpatine’s journey into the dark side began with a brutal act—murdering his entire family in a fit of rage. This act convinced Plagueis that Palpatine was ready for true Sith training. After covering up the massacre, Plagueis took his new apprentice to the unforgiving world of Mygeeto. Palpatine’s first test was to survive the naked cold of the planet with only a thin enviro-suit for protection.
On Mygeeto, Plagueis explained that this ordeal wasn’t about revisiting his own past or testing Sidious for sport. It was about teaching a fundamental Sith lesson: “The divide between the ways of the Force as practiced by the Sith and the Jedi has less to do with the distinction between darkness or the presence of light than between—in your case—naked cold and the presence of warmth. Between distress and comfort, entropy and predictability.” Plagueis wanted Sidious to experience what it truly meant to be removed from comfort, to face distress head-on, and to understand that the Sith thrive not in peace and balance, but in chaos and adversity.
Plagueis was coldly honest about the danger: “Your blood is close to frozen. Too much time here and you will die. That is what you will think at the beginning, when the dark side has sniffed you out and sidled up to you. You will think: I will die; the dark side will kill me. And it’s true, you will die, but only to be reborn.” Plagueis drove home that to become a true Sith, Sidious had to let go of predictability and comfort—he had to feel the knowledge of what it means to be removed, to suffer, and to rise from it stronger.
2. Pushing Beyond Physical Limits: The Mountain Climb
One of Sidious’s most punishing trials was a relentless climb up a sheer mountain on Mygeeto, using only his bare hands and with no food, water, or sleep. Plagueis watched from a comfortable perch above, never offering any help. Every time Sidious slipped and fell, battered and exhausted, he was forced to start over. This challenge was meant to do more than just test physical endurance—it was designed to strip away the last of Palpatine’s aristocratic arrogance and replace it with pure, relentless hatred.
As Sidious struggled upward, Plagueis taunted him, using every fall to fuel his apprentice’s anger and reinforce the Sith Rule of Two. Sidious’s resentment grew with every attempt, and only by channeling the dark side did he finally reach the summit. Overwhelmed with fury, he attacked Plagueis, but was effortlessly repelled. The true lesson sank in: brute force alone would never be enough—only mastery of the dark side would allow him to truly survive and win.
3. The Torture and the Lesson of Pain
The next stage of Sidious’s training was sheer agony. In the freezing tundra of Mygeeto, Plagueis relentlessly tormented his apprentice with searing lightsaber attacks—never meant to kill, only to inflict unbearable pain and push Sidious to the edge of collapse. This suffering was no accident; Plagueis believed that, unlike the Jedi who protected their younglings, the Sith must be forged through pain and adversity.
He wanted Sidious to do more than endure—he wanted him to draw strength from pain itself. Crawling through the brutal cold, Sidious realized that nothing from his old, privileged life could help him now. Survival meant surrendering all compassion and fully embracing the darkness within. Through this torture, the last traces of Sheev Palpatine were stripped away, leaving only Darth Sidious—driven by the dark side and an unbreakable will.
4. The Hunt: Embracing the Predator Within
Sidious’s training reached new extremes on the low-gravity world of Buoyant. Here, Plagueis introduced his apprentice to the art of the hunt—a brutal ritual soaked in blood and darkness. Wielding vibroblades, the two Sith pursued herds of animals, turning the act of killing into a lesson in dominance.
Plagueis made it clear that this was about more than physical skill. He taught Sidious to use the dark side to seize control over the minds of his prey, pulling them close and extinguishing their lives with ease. This was the Sith way: imposing one’s will on the world and reveling in the raw power that comes from mastery over others. By the end of this trial, Sidious was no longer just an apprentice. He had fully embraced the predatory instinct at the heart of the Sith, ready to wield that merciless efficiency as the future Emperor.