Star Wars: 10 Things You Might Not Know About Emperor Palpatine
6. He was a Lightsaber Master
In Revenge of the Sith, Darth Sidious reveals himself to the Jedi and duels with both Mace Windu and Yoda. During the events of the film his Canon age is 65, and yet he is still able to keep up with the heavily Force attuned Jedi Masters, even matching Yoda in skill.
Despite his distaste for the use of the Lightsaber, revealed in the Legends novel ‘Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader,’ Sidious is widely considered to be one of the greatest Lightsaber masters of his era, even considered to be the greatest Sith swordsman of all time. As well as being extremely gifted with his mastery of the Force, Sidious was proficient in all seven forms of Lightsaber combat, focusing specifically on Form VII: Juyo.
Juyo is the most aggressive of the Lightsaber forms, hence its nickname as ‘the Ferocity Form.’ The form was banned by the Jedi Council to most of the Jedi, barring Mace Windu who used a special variation known as Vapaad, as they thought that practitioners of the form would be more likely to embrace the Dark Side. Windu’s use of Vapaad actually gave him an advantage over Sidious’ Juyo as it taps into the Darkness in the opponent rather than from inside like Juyo does.