Originally posted by The_Tempest
It certainly precludes a ritual, but he definitely charges up between the 2:20-2:24 mark. We see him coil and gather the energy before it leaves his hands.YouTube video
I was more thinking about a prolonged gathering of power before a force attack is unleashed. Something that would require a little bit more time than four seconds. At least I was under the impression, that Eminence had something like that in mind.
Vitiate never dispatched any of them but Revan in combat. As Eminence explained, it was hardly a one-sided contest and Revan was back on his feet moments after foolishly trying to literally manhandle Vitiate's barrage of Force lightning after foolishly allowing him to channel the power to begin with.
Do I need to remind you, that the first time Malak and Revan confronted Vitiate, he didn't even need to fight them (according to Revan's own recollection of the fight) but utterly mindraped them.
And when Revan managed to get an attack in on Vitiate, it is noted - even by Revan - that this was just possible because the Sith Emperor was focusing on attempting to dominate Revan's mind again, probably because he knew that he had been capable to do that before. Had Vitiate chosen to simply utilize his force abilities (e.g. lightning) against the trio as he did agains the Jedi strike team, I don't think Revan, the Exile and Scourge would have stood a change, provided how Vitiate leveled Revan's force defense with an attack before.
An uncertainty they shared with Vitiate, if the text is to be believed.
Where does the text give any account of Vitiate's access to the situation?
Not quite. Scourge had a vision that the Jedi who triumphed over Vitiate would not be Revan. If the text is to be believed, Vitiate "needed" the distraction afforded by Scourge's treacherous murder of Surik to incapacitate Revan.
I wonder what text you did read.
"A dozen bolts of purple lightning arced from the Emperor toward him. Revan treid to draw them in and contain them, but the Emperor was infinitely more powerful than Darth Nyriss had ever been. Revan's body was engulfed in agony as the electricity coursed through his body. His skin began to boil and blister, the flesh of his face melting and sticking to the superheated metal of his mask as the Emperor pured more and more power into him" - Darth Revan, p.321
Vitiate is quite capable of completely overpowering Revan's force defense, just not with bolts of dark side energy, that he did fire "in quick succession. In the direct confrontation, he still seems rather certain about emerging victorious from that battle. You are, apparently hinting at this here:
"The distraction gave the Emperor the opportunity he needed, and he unleashed another blast of lightning into the Jedi's chest" - Darth Revan, p.325
But he had already downed Revan before. Why not do it again? Why not unleashing the full extend of his abilities against the trio, as he does with the Jedi strike team in the video above?
As part of a ritual that at least two sources (The Old Republic Encyclopedia & the in-game codex) alleges was a cooperative effort between Vitiate and the Sith victims.
Does the "how" somehow change the result?
Losing to Mace and Yoda hardly disqualifies one as an expert duelist.
Correct.
But then, Sidious himself had a master, to whom "lightsaber duels were tedious affairs, full of wasted emotions and needless acrobatics" (Darth Plagueis, iBook, p.80). And in fact, the only instances of actual combat training we witness, is Sidious dismantling some droids (with blasters) and him and Plagueis reducing a tribe of warriors to electro-shocked victims. And Plagueis himself also decided his duel against Venamis making use of his (controlled) fury, rather than of lightsaber expertise. And all we see Sidious do with his lightsaber is pretty much dependent on the (force aided) speed of the Sith Lord, rather than elaborated lightsaber manouvers. After all, we know, that he - unlike the Jedi in his time - didn't have much combat experience when it came to lightsaber duels. As it seems, not even in the form of sparing fights, since their is no account of him fighting Maul or Plagueis in practice fights, while Dooku even notices at one point, that honing his lightsaber abilities is probably beneath Sidious.
His lethality clearly owes much to his command of the Force, but in Maul's estimation, Sidious is extremely efficient as a swordsman and (elsewhere) refers to his prowess as "elegant."
The latter statements don't contradict the former idea. Sidious is certainly efficient when using his weapon and there are probably much and more duellists, that he could overcome with his abilities. Yet, he lacks the "drill" of people who dedicated their lives to lightsaber combat (as Dooku did for example) and, in consequence, might lose a lightsaber duel to a better trained duellist, even if being the (vastly) superior force user. That's what we see, when Mace disarms him and it's a possibility that is mentioned in other sources (e.g. Path of Destruction, when Kas'im starts utilizing two sabers against the otherwise superior Bane).
Star Wars Insider #113 refers to Palpatine as a "stunning fighter." Probably an allusion to his political cunning, though.
In a realm, where every second being capable of holding a lightsaber in hand is dubbed "master swordsman", I'm somewhat reluctant to base my judgement on such quotes. And Vitiate is, likewise, no pushover when it comes to direct action. Especially if you consider that most of the action in ToR is just him acting through his "voice", while a part of his essence (and power) resides within his Hands, his original body and his "children". Hence it's somewhat difficult to grasp the full extend of his abilities.