Is Sideous positive of how his powers stack up?

This might be a lame quesiton, but just something that I thought would be interesting to discuss.

Granted, Sideous is powerful and has certainly been able to decieve the Jedi in secrecy for a very long time. This certainly would be a confidence builder.

We can assume Sideous knows, for the most part, the extent of all of the Jedi's powers. He also knows the power of the dark side.

The problem I have is this. I am sure Sideous has been "training" and learning more about the force and the dark side for a number of years. The problem is, he really didn't have a way to gauge his prowress in combat against a formidable foe. I would assume the Jedi spar directly against each other (probably with some sort of non-lethal lightsabre/stick/whatever) to truly check their progress. Sideous had a pretty limited number of force users to check his powers and technique against.

With this in mind, do you think he had any fear about facing Yoda? What about Mace? Did he mean to avoid Yoda completely for this reason, or did he want to fight Yoda, almost certain that he would destroy him? When Yoda shows up for a fight, is Sideous' mindset "About time. Time for me to own you as I did the rest of your pitiful band" or "Not Good, Windu was tough enough."

Bottom line, is Sideous at all apprehensive of facing the elite Jedi? If not, how is he so sure his combat skills compared to the skills of other force users?

I don't post here very often, but I read quite a bit. Searched around, but I don't think this has been discussed. It's not horribly relavant to anything else, but I think it's somewhat thought provoking.

Carnage04

Interesting. Still, I think that Sidious' downfall is his overconfidence. By that point in the movie he has already managed to wipe out the jedi and turn their chosen one. He probably feels that the force is with him at that point. Sidious also probably had some sparring matches with Dooku. We all know how Dooku vs Yoda turned out. I think Sidious is probably overjoyed at having the opportunity to have his REVENGE on the so called "best" of the jedi. Some people just know that they're a bad ass! 😉

Was maul trained in lightsaber skills by sidious or somebody else (dooku)

I don't think Sidious could have gotten anywhere whithout his manipulation of Anakin and the Republican senate/army.

Maul was trained by Sids from the time he was a baby. Plus he studied under Palguies (sp?) . Granted he didnt really have a 'sparring partner' per se in recent years, but I dont think that has any bearing on his ability. And yes, overconfidence is his greatest weakness.....

Didn't he kill his master Plagueis?
I guess his skills are on par.

Yup, he killed him....

I guess that answers that...

Well, he's condifant enough to believe he can both turn the chosen one and defeat the head of the Jedi order. And he does. I'm pretty sure he knows he's the fonz.

If he trained Maul (and he did) then he must be skilled.
As far as killing Plagueis, I wouldn't be surprised.......

I'm not so sure him training Maul is proof that he is really skilled. I mean, Maul was good and all, but "My apprentice killed a Jedi and ALMOST got his Padawan too. And to think I'm BETTER than he was." Really doesn't lead to the logic "I am the greatest! Bring on Mace and three other Jedi Masters. Bring on Yoda! I'm Invincible!" I think the bottom line is that SidIOUS (I can spell today. Somehwat. I was pretty damn tired yesterday.) was insanely overconfident. I'm sure Plagueis was powerful too, but I'm not so sure he went toe to toe with any Jedi either.

However, with the lame Midichlorian approach, you might be able to find an explanation. I think the story started like this, years ago.....

"Sidious, my apprentice. I've gotten one of these new fandangled Midichlorian testing devices the Jedi have been raving about. Look, it says I could whip Yaddle's a$$."

Sidious grabs the new device.

(Sidious) *Sighs* "This thing has me nowhere near Yaddle."

Plagueis - "Damnit, I had begun to suspect you were far weaker than I originally had guessed. If only I had one of these things when I turned down that hot Twi'lek Dark Jedi to take you on as my apprentice."

Sidious - "Weaker? No, no, what I meant was that I am far superior to Yaddle, and Yoda for that matter."

Plagueis looks frightened.

Sidious - "You are weak, old friend. It was I who ordered the construction of these devices, it was I who sent that death stick dealer over with the stolen jedi technology. It is I who knocked up that innocent woman on the desert planet. It was I...."

Plagueis - "I get the picture. Are you going to slice me with your light sabre or not?"

Sidious - "Light Sabre, bah. You know how you were getting sooooo frustrated because I couldn't master the force push?"

Plagueis - "Well.....Yes...."

Sidious - "I may have lied."

*ZAP*

Oh god. I think I have waaaay too much time on my hands sometimes. However, I think this shows another way (Albeit not a REAL serious one.) why the whole Midichlorian angle was lame.

Namenlos

Midichlorians aren't lame. They show that the PT Jedi have an incredible knowledge of the force and how it works. Even though, they're clueless to the darkside.

Hm. Just because the notion is lame, I had to say something. Midichlorians take the pizazz out of the mysticism of the saga, and they make Anakin out to be this incredible hardass I never saw him portray. (Granted, I still am awaiting III, but he'd have to work really hard to impress me after seeing Psycho Yoda) Now, correct me if I'm wrong (Some of you may have started typing now...) but I don't recall the lengthy explanation of how this works, how one finds out, etc. etc. It's not in the original book written by GL, that much I know. And as much as the movies are really about the life and death of Anakin, I think making him to be the strongest Force user of all time was a bit much if you're gonna come out with material on Sith lords previous who were much better. Hell, even Sidious could dominate the brat. Lava bath or no, if you're practically the Force incarnate, you can take an old man that doesn't even wield a lightsaber. All you had to do was push him down the stairs or over the rail anyways.

Based on common knowledge and quite a lot imagination, I think the whole goddamn theory isn't that difficult.
Given the fact that the Sith ways are passed on from master to apprentice in many thousands of years we know the basic is there.
According to official sources, Sith are known to train in very brutal ways as expected for a Dark Sider and so naturaly that is passed on to the apprentice.
Isn't it the fact that at the time of the imbalance and the coming of the prophecy, the Dark Side is at the height of his power, in this case manipulated by the Dark Lord of the Sith(Sidious)...and his apprentice.
Also, let us not forget, it is never mentioned a Sith could have faced off against a Dark Jedi(for training) in which the master looks out for a possible target(ok, you could call this EU or Non-Canon).
And yes, Master and Apprentice face of against eachother on many occasions as described in the Visual Dictionary(describes how Maul was trained very powerfull by his Master).
Yeah, Sidious knows the weaknesses of the Jedi(during the prequels) and yes in the end(ep6) Luke is right, The Dark Lord's overconvidence can eventually be shred to pieces.
The Light side is the stronger part of the force again as the Chosen One comes to terms with his destiny!!!!!!!!

The real problem with the midichlorians is that they are a psuedo-science explanation for what WAS the mystical aspect of a fantasy saga.