He did this during a debate he had about Sidious and Nihilus, for context.
[[The fifth and final reason is that this of course means the feat takes no effort on Palpatine's part, and as such means it is not even close to his theoretical limit with the power. Nihilus on the other hand had to exert maximum effort on draining a much smaller amount of people, and even then there was a survivor, indicating that killing them all was beyond his ability.]]
Okay so this needs to be addressed first. BYSS WAS A STRONG NEXUS POINT BEFORE PALPATINE EVER SHOWED UP. The Rakata empire built it as a base of operations and built temples and other structures there. When Sidious eventually shows up he opts to allow such structures to remain while he orders the building of others. That's important to note because Rakata ships operated through Force empowered Hyperdrive systems, and they targeted worlds Rich in Force Energy to travel to and from.
Relevant sources:
Byss Nexus 1:
https://i.imgur.com/1527LpW.png
Byss Nexus 2:
https://i.imgur.com/XO6bZFL.png
Byss Nexus 3:
https://i.imgur.com/S2EFyZs.png
Byss Nexus 4:
https://i.imgur.com/KA7fcAp.png
Byss Nexus 5:
https://i.imgur.com/mV2qiYE.png
Byss Nesus 6 (Luke calls it the dark center of the universe:
https://i.imgur.com/dfchtxP.png
Rakata Nexus Planet Targeting:
https://i.imgur.com/ZS0nMs5.png
Rakata Owned Byss:
https://i.imgur.com/O6lzfu0.png
Special Extras, First Two Pages of Star Wars Evasive Action Recruitment. These two pages show that even during the *construction phase* of the planet when the site hadn't even been fully set up and optimized, it was greatly empowering Vader and Sids because of its Nexus state. It also shows that Vader who was not draining the workers on the planet, was able to easily and without effort draw upon the power the workers and nexus produced:
Pg 1.) https://i.imgur.com/uY5vmbD.jpg
Pg 2.) https://i.imgur.com/oXO1vaY.jpg
Pg 3.) https://i.imgur.com/kaNdReO.jpg
So it's true it takes little effort on Palpatine's part because the feat is empowered by the Nexus that is the planet itself. It's like saying you can push a tank down the road and it takes no effort, but oh, the tank is already turned on and in drive. Lol.
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[[The third reason is that Sidious never got addicted to feeding off of others, whereas Nihilus became a slave to his hunger.]]
Eh, factually untrue.
https://i.imgur.com/gTOV5i4.png
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[[The range of his abilities covered the entire galaxy, and he was maintaining the feeding for almost three decades in a row. Take any comic, book or video game, or even the original movies, and he is at the back of his mind leeching on the helpless people of Byss as they endlessly fuel his power.]]
While his use of Force Storm light years away (iirc Byss is like 10k light years from Coruscant), his power is also being greatly enhanced by Byss. Technically both Nihilus and Sidious have the "Distant Power" Force Secret, which means their Peak reach (without being amped by anything) is "anywhere in the same Star System".
Distant Power: https://i.imgur.com/kH9fS98.png
Our Star System is 287.46 billion km in diameter so if we were to put Pluto on the furthest point away from the sun and then put a clone Pluto on the other side of the sun the same radius away, Nihilus and Sids would be able to use their power to effect anything in that range.
The difference is, Sids is being amped by Byss which dramatically increases his range, and Nihilus using his own power.
Honestly that's not as impressive since he's not doing it on his own power. Still impressive though.
On a side note, we don't ever get a reason for why Nihilus likes to roll up on planets to drain them but I suspect it has to do with his Wound Aura. Just as Malachor V has Wound Aura (or area around the planet where the Force doesn't travel), Nihilus also projects this aura. When it comes to people "becoming one with the Force" if they are hindered by something (like the Star Forge's Force Prisons), they will be stuck in limbo until their Force Energy is expended and they become nothing (KOTOR 1 Malak Fight with Description). If a person were to be draining these trapped souls, they would be able to get THE MOST they can get out of them without them dying and becoming one with the Force thereby retaining some Force Energy. So its not really a matter of range, its a matter of squeezing out every single drop possible.
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[[The next reason is that Palpatine employed other Force powers in conjunction with Force Drain. Nihilus simply devoured their life force, whereas Palpatine used complex telepathic powers alongside his draining ones.]]
ALSO through the huge machine that is Byss' nexus power. I mean you're acting like this is proof that he is powerful because he's using all these powers at once... when he's practically sitting on a nuclear reactor letting it flow through him.
There's also the fact that these were people who were ALREADY in a worshipful state of mind towards him, which makes it far easier to mentally dominate them. So I mean...
a.) They are already enthralled by him
b.) They are on a beautiful disarming paradise planet
c.) They are saturated in Dark Side energy that pushes them towards accepting his power.
The number is big yes, but the feat when closely examined... eh still not really him doing it on his own, but doing it through the nuclear reactor he's squatting on.
Additionally Nihilus didn't just drain their life force, he caused the flow of the Force to stop existing wherever he fed. The places he touched became wounds in the Force. Sure, draining people is cool and all, but when you give the Force itself a black eye and busted lip and tell it not to come around those areas again... well that's something different isn't it? Lol.
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[[He did this to a far greater amounts of people than Nihilus did. In the end Byss housed almost 20 billion people, as opposed to the meager population of Katarr numbering only a few million at the time Nihilus consumed them.]]
In all actuality it would be easier to drain Byss in Sidious' position than it would be Nihilus draining Katarr. Reasoning?
Examine this description of the power being used:
https://i.imgur.com/gyTyYEy.png
As you can see I highlighted each thing that adds difficulty in yellow, orange, and red, and red for the bonus difficulty.
YELLOW = Easy for willing, worshipful subjects.
This is definitely the Byss residents. They were enthralled and worshipful of Sidious in their paradise kingdom.
ORANGE = Difficult for ambivalent or apathetic individuals.
These are people who just don't have an opinion. Now Byss was indeed a planet 19.7 strong, but 2% of that (394,000,000) were aliens who were tricked to go there, and then were trapped on the planet as slaves. Those guys definitely hated Sidious especially after seeing and knowing of so many other (this is why the Essential Atlas states MOST of Byss' population was in a dream-like state lol) non-humans butchered over the years (the Evasive Action Recruitment comic shows "one way trips" with alien possessions incinerated upon leaving). Still, even if 394,000,000 Million were at least apathetic to Sidious, 19,306,000,000 worshiped and adored him, cancelling them out.
RED = Heroic for ENEMIES, +10 For each individual imbued with the light side of the Force.
Sidious was beloved by the people of Byss, and carefully selected through applicants who were not force sensitive at all.
This is definitely NOT the case with the Katarr residents. Katarr had millions of Force Sensitive Miraluka who HABITUALLY joined the ranks of the Jedi Knights. There was a conclave on Katarr where nearly a hundred senior Jedi were present. The Miraluka were light side oriented.
So in regard to which of the two is a more difficult feat, Nihilus is literally performing his feat through THE MOST DIFFICULT of circumstances, and he does so with casual ease.
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