u/RealElvarasaidVannak

This question is mostly related to lightsaber dueling.

When do Sith Lords practice dueling?

During the clone wars, Sidious and Dooku didn't have a lot of time on their hands to practice against each other. Dooku actively fought Jedi masters so he surely wasn't rusty.

But when and how did Sidious practice? What if he out of practice when he faced the Jedi masters? If that is true, imagine how great he would be if he was on the top of his game. :)

Palpatine was the most powerful Sith of the Banite line. A line that started a 1000 years before The Phantom Menace. He was probably the most powerful Sith that ever existed and is exactly the result Bane wanted to achieve when he came up with the rule of two.

As most on this sub know, the philosophy behind the rule of two is twofold.

1. This is the only system where the Sith do not turn on each other. And when they do, that is a feature, not a bug.
2. It is a Darwinian model which results in stronger and stronger Sith over time, as the apprentice is supposed to outperform their master. If they fail to do so, the master would eventually replace them. This, in theory guarantees that every Sith master is more powerful than the previous one.

At the same time, it is also a cooperative model except for the betrayal in the end. Every generation of Sith aim to acquire a deeper understanding of the Force which also makes them more powerful. They collect artifacts and build on the knowledge accumulated by earlier generations.

What I’m wondering about is the extent of progression. What if Sidious, the ultimate Sith and Bane, who was only the first of the line and theoretically be the weakest of the lot, fought each other? Would it be an easy win for Sidious? Wouldn’t even break a sweat? Or would it be a battle of fine margins?

Why I believe it could not be a cakewalk for Sidious is that there is a problem with the Darwinian part. Apprentices tend to turn on their master only when the opportunity presents itself. When they sense weakness. Both Plagueis and Sidious only turned on their master when they had their guards down. Would they have been able to defeat their masters in a fair fight? We don’t know.

Of course, deception and opportunism is a valuable skill for a Sith. When we talk about how powerful a Sith is, these are also taken into account. Not just knowledge, ,„raw” power (midichlorians?) and sparring skill.

Sidious clearly knows more about the force than Bane did but I’m not certain that in terms of raw power he has a substantial edge. He would still win due to this, but I’m not certain he’s necessarily better with a laser sword – you can only swing it in so many ways.

I have a real world analogy for this. Ancient philosophers and scientist know a lot less about the world than we do. A fresh physics grad know more about physics than the brightest minds of the ancient times, a fresh MD knows more about the human body than anyone of the ancient times. Hell, even a random teenager knows a few things a lot than they did, e.g. than dinosaurs existed, that the American continent exists, etc.

But did Socrates, Plato, Aristotle have a lower cognitive capacity than the brightest people of the modern era? Were they less intelligent? I doubt it.

So what do you guys think? Were the last Sith of the Banite line substantially more powerful than the first ones of the lot?

 Thanks for reading my rant.