How Darth Sidious Became Such a Deadly & Powerful Lightsaber Duelist

Sidious seems to me to actually enjoy lightsaber combat, too; smiling and cackling in joy, revelling in cutting loose a bit.

It would've been satisfying to see Palpatine kick Rey's ass with his lightsaber since he mastered all 7 forms. But you know Disney.

I feel like Sidious detests lightsaber dueling so much that he learned how to master it, solely for the purpose of ending duels quickly, so he wouldn't have to spend more time on it.

Form 6 might be the best style. As the saying goes "Jack of all trades, master of none. Better to be good at all, than master of one."

Sidious must have done a lot sparring sessions with Darth Plagues

This is a excellent breakdown of what Sidious did with his knowledge of lightsaber combat. I find it a better explanation of his style than to simply say he just was a master of all forms of lightsaber combat. Instead, saying he understood them well enough plus utilizing a defensive form in a random sequence that was hard to discern for 99% of opponents and then being able to switch to a aggressive form that he used his vast Force potential to augment the form, makes more sense and less Mary Suelike...

He was a master of juyo, making him unpredictable is how he overcame the jedi masters so quick in his office

I wish they didn't bring him back for Ep 9. If they had made Snoke to be Darth Plagueis, and had allowed him to remain the central antagonist, it would have tied things together soooooo much better.

Also, with Windu, he found out really quickly that he could not toy with him like the other dualist...if Anakin wasn't there for the assist, Windu would have surely finished him off.

Love all you analytical videos. Especially the ones that focus on Dooku and Sidious. I would push back on two points: 1) That he has not mastered all forms of lightsaber combat and that he’s dangerous due to his speed. Source material says he’s a master of all seven forms and I’d be inclined to believe that. There is a narrative amongst some in the fan base, especially since the force council podcast with the YouTube Star Wars versus series was released, that Sidious is not actually skilled but simply fast. The best rebuttal to this is his duel with Mace Windu. According to the novelization Sidious and Windu reached an impasse once Maxe sank into Vaapad. This implies that once their speed was equal they continue to fight with no real end in sight. This means that in terms of pure skill Sidious and Windu were dead even. While Sidious is faster than most duelist he’s also more skilled than they are.

I honestly think Sidious uses precision and high levels of skill because he is able to literally toy with multiple opponents with the exception of Yoda. He was very precise in his strikes and movements in order to show his true power over his opponents in the force by being so old and able to be acrobatic, nimble, aggressive, defensive, and lethal at a split seconds notice. The only way an opponent would be able to actually fight him in a lightsaber duel would be to completely put themselves into the force and hope that they had enough will/power in the force that the force wills that persons victory against Sidious.

It's funny how Palpatine thinks dueling is stupid while being skilled at it. It's like how Terry in "The Other Guys" practiced ballet when he was young so he could make fun of people who take ballet.

Thank ypu for pointing that put that Sidious lost that duel with Windu..some people think he did not but form 7 Vaapad was Windu's spealaty and it's a sith's or dark force user nigjtmare because he can?tap in the darkside and use it against them. Not many master this form

Plo Koon vs Sidious would be a very interesting duel , I think that electric judgement would be very difficult for palpatine to deal with . And it is doubtful he knew he had this ability, he was stunned when yoda absorbed his force Lightning so it is clear palpatine underestimated certain jedi . He even was arrogant against Jocasta seemingly because she was the Jedi librarian

When Samuel L. Jackson signed on to doing Star Wars, I believe he said something like "As long as I don't die like some sucker". So of course, Mace Windu got to face down Sidious himself. But it makes it really funny to hear the fight choreographer say "you're a sucker if you think you're gonna get the best of him"

While I agree with you about the style he uses… I’ll tell you just how he was so good… force enhancement. You can be sloppy with the blade if you are just so fast and strong that it doesn’t matter. He doesn’t need to be good enough with a blade… he just has to be fast and strong enough that it doesn’t matter

Connection to the Force and rigorous training is one thing but what completely changed the game is when he became the senate.

I think two important factors are the obvious: The years of intense training under Plaigues but he also had very favourable genetics, considering that he had a very high midichlorian count

Exar kun was the Niman GOAT 🐐 he mastered it highest degree he incorporated techniques from tulak hord and the jedi exile also he was so powerful with The force he could use dark side tendrils while dueling he was too skilled with the blade even mocked a prime luke Skywalker lightsaber techniques

9:20 yes. I always thought that was pretty solid evidence he threw that fight, as he sensed Anakin was on his way. That should have been game over, but it didn’t serve Sidious’s purpose to kill Windu then.