The tutelage of Palpatine under Darth Plagueis and the Dark Lord's creation of Anakin produced some great debate in the comments on the last article. While that matter won't be put to rest any time soon as everyone has an opinion, I gave you mine and in the comments clarified and defended my theories. As we left off, Palpatine had slain Plagueis, who had lost his power, in his sleep.

As we look into Palpatine's political rise, we must go back in time a bit. At the maximum, Plagueis had to have lived up to 41 BBY, the year Anakin was "born". But since Palpatine was first elected Senator in 52 BBY, he had begun his political ascent while his master was still alive. Plagueis most likely approved of this, as he had taught his apprentice the Sith plot to defeat the Jedi: not through direct conflict, but through the rotting corruption and weaknesses of the Republic. Thus Sith infiltration of the legitimate government was key to the plot. But sometime in the intervening years, Plagueis grew to desire a more powerful apprentice, one created by himself through his midi-chlorian abilities.

Palpatine undoubtedly realized that Plagueis was grooming a replacement apprentice, so he knew he would eventually have to strike down his master in time. Thus Palpatine would become the master, and desire an apprentice of his own. But he knew the time to bring down the Republic was approaching, and he needed an apprentice that could be used in his schemes sooner rather than later. The result: In 57 BBY, after his election to the Senate but before the creation of Anakin, a Zabrak was born on Iridonia, one whose true name remains unknown, if there was one to begin with. He would come to be known as Darth Maul, first apprentice of Palpatine.

It is not known why Palpatine chose Maul in particular when he kidnapped him as an infant. Perhaps he merely chose an infant that was in good physical health as well as tapped into the Force. Perhaps he foresaw that Maul had great potential as a weapon of anger. Moast likely it was a combination of both. Just as the Jedi found Force-sensitive infants and molded them into apprentices, also "kidnapping" them from a certain point of view, Palpatine took an infant to train in secret as a Sith.

Plagueis did not know of Maul at all. How could he not sense another Sith? Firstly, with Maul living on Coruscant, a sea of life, it could be difficult to detect a single Force-sensitive on a planet of them given the large Jedi presence, especially when one wasn't looking in particular for another Sith. Secondly, Plagueis spent large amounts of time in meditation, honing his midi-chlorian techniques until they were powerful enough not just to preserve life, but also create it. Finally, when Plagueis was still powerful, Maul was young and in-training, thus his dark-side aura was not great or powerful. As Maul grew into a genuine Sith Lord and matured from a child, Plagueis was simultaneously trying to create Anakin and then weakening from loss of his powers. And though it is unoriginal to say, I will add Yoda's words: "Hard to see the dark side is." Even when one is a darksider himself. To add just one final statement, Plagueis would not have been suspicious of Palpatine's frequent trips to Coruscant to personally train Maul, as his Senate duties meant he was onworld quite frequently to begin with.

Lord Maul was trained as the ultimate weapon, a tool for Palpatine, blindly loyal, fueled by anger, feeding off of the fear of others. He endured endless pain in his Sith training, but he viewed it as a welcome teacher. Such was his devotion that he had his entire body tattooed with intricate Sith designs. He was the perfect apprentice for the time which he was needed: operating from the shadows, the physical executor of Palpatine's will. He was also perfectly unambitious, having no desire to take his master's place nor to achieve his power. His only thrill was to destroy, and he focused his raw and reckless hate on the Jedi. But like his master, he would obey and bide time, staying hidden in the gathering dark.

Like Amidala after him, Palpatine chose to remain in politics beyond the years of 12-20, in which all Naboo must be a part of the civil service in some respect. But whether by his own design in order to feign political weakness, or by sheer bad luck, he suffered a series of defeats in campaigns for minor Naboo government positions. He did emerge as a known political personality in those years, and learned much of politics, in which his Sith teachings could have only helped a little. It was thus that he was known well enough as well as knowing enough about politics, if you catch my meaning. That was good, but it would take a little extra nudge more.

In 52 BBY, Naboo's Senator Vidar Kim was assassinated by a run-and-gun hitman who was never apprehended. His contractor was none other than Palpatine in the concealed identity of Darth Sidious. It was then that Palpatine was elected to succeed Kim as Senator for the Chommel Sector, which comprised Naboo and roughly thirty other worlds. His rise had begun, at the age of thirty.

Now we see the emergence of the most fascinating aspects of Palpatine: his political genius. Even if he had not been a Sith Lord, his subtle ruthlessness and far-reaching schemes made him one of the greatest political minds in Republic history, if not the greatest. But his rivals in the Senate knew this not. The Core World Senators and those that represented powerful system clusters, important commercial interests, and strategic space corridors viewed Palpatine as insignificant. He was viewed as just another delegate from a backward and unimportant sector, unschooled in politics and of little threat or concern. Palpatine trumped up this perception of weakness, maintaining himself as a mediocre Senator, and guaranteeing he amounting to nothing within the Senate. While his true schemes developed in secret, the powerful underestimated him and did not scrutinize him, ergo Palpatine operated in stealth. Distracted with their own squabbles, the bureaucrats did not know Palpatine's true significance. This would not be the first time Palpatine used Senators' prejudices to his advantage. He encouraged them to believe exactly what they expected he was: powerless.

During the coming years, Palpatine slowly shed his seemingly unambitious nature, and would begin to build a power base that would extend his influence. Through gradual achievement, he would become a force to be recknoned with. The plotting had just begun. Palpatine already had the power of the Dark Side to wield, and had a developing apprentice. Now he had the power of politics as well, a power that would be far more useful in the long run.

Next Time: Part IV: The Gathering Dark

Though not affected by Palpatine at all, the Stark Hyperspace War put into power several key players: Finis Valorum, Nute Gunray, and Wilhuff Tarkin. We will look at the schemes of Palpatine as he plots to bring down one, uses the second, and befriends the third. These three would play great roles in the events that set up TPM. I will cover everything from where I left off right up to the beginning of TPM. We will see how everything in that film was orchestrated, including the election of Queen Amidala, by Sidious.