Let's back up a moment. I originally said (to someone other than yourself) "Proof Palpatine's guards were just to "feign weakness"?" - you began responding to me from this point on. I said your response didn't answer my question. I answered your question, no, we have not seen Sidious employ his guards. You did not answer my question, despite engaging me in rhetoric.
How do we "know" Sheev doesn't need them? Doesn't need them for what exactly, and what is your evidence? He clearly needs them for something, unless he simply has them as extremely expensive, well trained sentient decorations. That Snoke's guards might be better does not mean he needs them any more than Sidious needs his own guards. That's like saying Snoke "needs" better military assets, ships, technology, soldiers and so on. It's less a matter of "need" and more a matter of "well, a better army is more preferable than to have a worse army", and in the same way, it is more preferable to have better guards than it is to have worse guards.
So like our other fine man said, the guards may simply compliment Snoke rather than only compensating for him. It is preferable to have guards than to have no guards at all.
Are you referring to any specific sets of guards, the guards on average, or not even the guards themselves but simply their equipment? And can you provide evidence for this claim, or is it just based on your feelings?
Registered: May 2007
Location: Best company on the planet
Praetorian guards as opposed to the royal guard. Red vs red. The fight against Kylo and Rey as compared to Yodas easy dismissal of the royal guards. Praetorian showed how capable they were against two extremely powerful force users. No evidence in the films of the royal guard being as capable in combat.
This implies that Yoda and the Kylo-Rey team share a level of parity to make this comparison valid. Is there any evidence for this?
There is no evidence for the royal guards being as capable, true, but there is no evidence that they are not as capable. It is an unknown, unless the aforementioned comparison checks out.
Idk abought feigning weakness but the fact Vader and Sidious were sith was NOT known through tout the empire, he did trust the imperial guards enough to see him use the force.
Also....in the book lords of the sith, while Vader and two imperial guards were struggling to fight a nest of indigenous beasts, Sidious was laughing his ass off killing them effortlessly.
Registered: May 2007
Location: Best company on the planet
Well I saw even yoda required the aid of Kenobi against clone troopers. I see no reason to believe yoda could solo these praetorians alone based off Yodas film history.
They have superior showings so more evidence leads us to believe they are superior than anyone not even citing the Star Wars visual dictionary references of their formidability.
Snoke has a hard time walking around due to injures sustained, this is confirmed. So his Guards do his melee fighting for him. So his Guards are needed in that aspect.
Palps can fight both melee and Force combat, this is shown. So he doesn't need his Guards, I'm pretty sure this is also noted somewhere in the current canon as it was before the wipe too. Sure his Guards are functional and can do fighting for him, but they aren't needed.
Ok...so we got that cleared up? Now back to the thread at hand.
Again, this does not satisfy the criteria I asked for, which you rightly acknowledge.
Would you be kind enough to post the specific excerpt from Lords of the Sith you are referring to, that we may review it and draw a conclusion on the utility of Sidious' guardsmen?
Can he fight? Yes he owned Kylo and Rey but that was using the force.
Not sure if he can ragdoll Vader like he did those two newbs.
Proof he’s way stronger then Vader? Yes, I don’t believe Vader could perform force feats from light years away like Snoke or Sidious could, please correct me if I’m wrong.
So he simultaneously can't fight but can fight using the Force? It seems you have contradicted yourself. You would not be the first and I doubt you will be the last.
Well, Darth Vader has choked people from light years distance away.
Yes, but we must decide how useful they were as guardsmen, or if they were merely superfluous. If you incapable of or unwilling to provide evidence for your claims, I will not think less of you for retreating.
What does that have to do with the debate at hand? He either needed the guards for something or he did not.
Sheev’s guard were obviously superfluous. Anyone who was actually a threat to Sidious in combat would be capable of defeating the guards with utter ease as shown, ironically enough, in Quan’s gif.