Gideon:
"Is the Ravager destroyed when Nihilus dies?"
Not instantly, although when exactly it would been destroyed if the bombs hadn't gone off, no one knows.
However, it is explicitly stated Nihilus held the ship together with the Force; the ship should not have existed, yet it still cruised through space. Nihilus kept its crew alive, or rather half-alive, with his power, even though it was exposed to the vacuum of space.
"Palpatine operates on a magnitude on par and sometimes in excess of what we've seen from Nihilus."
You're using faulty logic.
Freedon Nadd used the Force to incapacitate an extremely powerful Jedi Master from lightyears away. Does that mean Nadd could incapacitate every single living being in several star systems simultaneously from across the galaxy? No.
Sidious, ALONG WITH HIS DARK SIDE ADEPTS I might add, gradually leached the life force of the population of Byss. Very gradually - and the people of Byss had already given their will to the Dark Side Adepts and their Master.
Leaching life force to bolster one's power is not unprecedented; heck, even Nihilus' ability to kill an entire world was not unique to him, but Sidious sure didn't have the ability, just as he didn't have the ability to instakill enemies with an assortment of Sith spells, or create talismans that would prevent anyone from harming him without his consent.
Sidious didn't leave pile of corpses strewn over an entire planet turned to ash in his wake like Nihilus did.
Sorry... I think I just fell in love with those emoticons. 😆
"His manipulation and transformation of the planetary Byss from an otherwise nascent planet into "one of the most powerful dark side sites in the galaxy" (Byss and the Core Worlds) makes it clear that he's not only capable of planetary destruction but also non-destructive manipulation. Not to mention that he enslaved Byss's 20 billion inhabitants to his will."
I would like to add that the Dark Side Adepts were responsible for much of this; it's like how Kaan AND the rest of the Sith Lords created and unleashed the thought bomb. It was not as if Kaan just suddenly decided to kill Ruusan.
Rakatan Temples were also on Byss. I think anyone who has played KOTOR knows what that means... 😉
"Anakin has at least the highest midichlorian count in galactic history according to both the Essential Guide to the Force and the Complete Visual Dictionary. That doesn't necessarily indicate the highest potential, of course, unless midichlorians were the only tool for measuring Force potential since the establishment of the Jedi Order."
Agreed.