(This response is gonna look kinda messy, my apologies)
"Valk, even with his most grandiose rituals, with the resources of two empires and countless willing minions supporting him, and has never done anything remotely as impressive as bending the will of the Force, even with thousands of years to pull it off. In contrast, vastly pre-prime Plagueis and Sidious pulled it off. As Az pointed out in the blog, Plagueis would go on to become so much more powerful he should be capable of replicating the meditation on his own."
Neither has Plagueis, not on his own. He had the aid of Sidious, who helped in at least equal part. And again, this was over the course of an extended length of time, with each Sith pouring power into the meditation. They applied their own power, multiplied exponentially. I really don't know how else to explain it, or how to be clearer about it. The feat CANNOT be attributed to Plagueis or Sidious alone, it's a joint feat, and there is no indication that either of them could have done it on their own. Is it a better feat than anything Valk has? Yes, it is, I'm not disputing that. What I'm disputing is that the feat can be at all attributed to the power Plagueis or Sidious have at their disposal in a fight. The feat is simple not attributable to power summonable in combat.
Proof he became far more powerful? Proof he attained power enough to perform the feat on his own?
--------------------
"The implications of Plagueis and Sidious' actions being so severe that the Force miraculously conceived a being with power to rival The Father just to stop them, just to "re-balance" the Force. So sorry, but it's just a plain better feat."
Again, it's better as a joint feat. It can't be attributed to Plaguies specifically, which is what you're doing. He did NOT perform it on his own, he did NOT do it in a short amount of time, and he did NOT do it only with power available to him in a normal circumstance. Therefore, the feat is not an indicator of Plagueis' power. To say that it is, is to ignore literally EVERY bit of context surrounding the feat.
"There is no question of it's combat effectiveness: destroying midichlorians is "far easier" than creating them, according to Plagueis, and yet, Plagueis could incite his midichlorians to heal damaged tissue, while drunk and ambushed, that he could heal himself faster than Sidious' most powerful lightning could damage him. So, logically, Plagueis, while not drunk and combat-ready, should be able to kill off the midichlorians of damn near anyone who can't defend from it, and just as quickly heal himself."
I don't disagree with any of this.
"But as for your criticism, no, it's not a greater achievement because "it's more useful", which isn't said anywhere in the book. It's a greater achievement, and required Plagueis to grow more powerful, because it was plainly more difficult to do than the meditation. Quote:"
Requiring growth in power for Midi Manipulation=/=power required to enforce one's will on he Force alone. Which seems to be what you're implying. That stance is just, to be honest, hilariously stupid. As for the quote, nothing in it implies that the ability to use Midichlorian Manipulation makes him powerful enough to justify the meditation being attributed to him. In fact, the text itself seems simply to imply that this (Midi Manipulation) was groundbreaking solely because it had never been done before, and because of all the applications it could have, The text never directly states or implies that Plagueis underwent some significant growth in power to be able to use the ability, even the line "drunk on newfound power" in the context of the rest of the passage, seems only to imply that Plagueis was highly impressed with himself for learning how to cheat death. All that is, is gaining greater mastery over the Force's applications, it doesn't imply a jump in actual power.
So do you understand now?
"1. The meditation itself is more profound, with farther reaching implications and more impressive than anything Valk has done, even with all of his best rituals."
I'm not saying it wasn't more profound, I'm saying it's not attributable to Plagueis as an indicator of his average level of power.
"2. The meditation was less impressive than what proceeded, the resurrection of Venamis which "stunned Sidious into silence", which left Plagueis "drunk on newfound power." Further evidence of his increasing power and mastery was "his own increased midichlorian count.""
Less impressive in that Midichlorian Manipulation has far more far reaching possibilities, that doesn't necessitate that it's more impressive in regards to power required to perform it. What you're saying is in no way stated or implied by the text, and to think that midichlorian manipulation would require greater power than altering the balance of the Force, and forcing your will onto an all powerful cosmic force, is laughable.
"Plagueis became exponentially more powerful in the 8 years after the meditation, and after that, he still had what is at least 2-5 years of growth before we get to TPM itself. So at minimum a full decade before his prime.
Hence why I said "short of fighting as a disembodied entity." However, if we make a thread, and the goal of the thread is for Valk to keep his physical body alive, Plagueis would surely win."
Based on what did Plagueis grow exponentially? I've seen nothing to indicate as much. I'm not saying he didn't grow at all, mind you, only that he didn't grow significantly, at least not in regards to power. He very well could have grown significantly in regards to knowledge and mastery.
As Az pointed out, Plagueis was well aware of the ancient's greatest feats, including Essence Transfer, Necromancy, saturation of an entire planet with dark side energy, creating illusions, creating alchemical monstrosities, and as noted in Darth Plagueis, "compel stars to explode, or induce paralysis in crowds, as Exar Kun apparently did to select members of the Republic Senate." He was also aware of weather manipulation, flight, invisibility and teleportation... and you know what Plagueis had to say, in spite of knowing all these abilities exist, in spite of knowing exactly who Exar Kun and Vitiate are, once he went Neo and broke the source code of the Matrix Force? Quote:
Being aware of these abilities, and knowing how to replicate them, are not the same thing. As for Plagueis' auto-fellating pats on the back, it's not convincing. Sith are constantly believing they're the greatest ever, that doesn't make it true. Plus, the quote itself makes note that there was a possibility of other Sith being his superior.
"If a Sith of equal power had preceded him, then that one had taken his or her secrets to the grave, or had locked them away in holocrons that had been destroyed or had yet to surface."
The quote can very easily include Vitiate or Kun as superiors to Plagueis. The quote isn't an objective statement of Plagueis' superiority to other Sith, it's Plagueis sucking his own dick.
"And why was he so confident? Because, as echoed by Darth Wyyrlok III centuries later, nothing was outside of Plagueis' grasp once he could exert his will upon on the Force. Not in the mundane sense... in the sense that his will can subvert the will of the Force and tap into the source code, the midichlorians themselves, and alter them. Because Plagueis has essentially hacked the Force itself, there are no abilities he cannot learn."
Except Plagueis didn't "hack the Force" on his own, as is very obvious by the feat itself. So Wyyrlok's word means very little when it's not in line with what ACTUALLY happened. I'm not saying Plagueis' discovery of Midichlorian Manipulation wouldn't lead to making himself more powerful once he mastered the ability, theoretically, he could have made his full potential nearly unlimited. But, unfortunately for him, and for the pro-Plagueis argument, he never reached that level of power. So his having learned to manipulate Midichlorians ultimately means very little in regards to how traditionally powerful he actually was. It means even less when faced with the likelihood that the ability wouldn't even work on Vitiate/Valkorion due to being an entity who doesn't rely on the midichlorians in their host body.