Toss-up - both have their immense highs above any earth-genius guy and immense low points.
Valkorion - while Vitiate lacks any charisma for me, Valkorion persona is another story.
Valkorion - blows Sidious out of the water. Sidious succeeded in getting galactic power for 30 years, was betrayed and killed by his apprentice, his success was a result of buildup by Plagueis, while Valkorion had hundreds of years over his Sith Empire, rose to power completely by himself and remained the supreme one among hundreds of Sith. Zero contest.
Sidious - pretty obvious here. Vitiate is a bland version of Palpatine mixed with Nihilus until Valkorion persona arrives, but even then, Palp is just far more complex.
Sidious - let's see... villain of the maybe most popular movie saga ever, or the villain of a MMO that derives from this saga?
You know exactly what I mean. IU would mean we judge their relationships to other characters, who was more successful at doing their stuff while OOU would be their effect in real life.
And from an OOU perspective, they both suck. One is a 1-dimensional evil character and the other is a failed attempt of 'evil' buddhist.
Originally posted by FreshestSliceI forgot to respond to this.
Reverse engineered the Eternal Fleet into the greatest tech the galaxy has seen sense Iokath and his Empires, which he built from the ground up lasted infinitely longer than the one Sidious was literally handed by Plagueis and Jar Jar(which started rebelling almost immediately). This not what most people would call successful. But I guess as one accustomed to failure, it's quite amazing to you.
Vitiate had centuries in hiding and thousands of Sith to make use of in countless ways to achieve his power and empire, and Palpatine had the banite lineage and after overthrowing the republic, he had its resources at his disposal. They were in very different circumstances and comparing their accomplishments the way you do it is pointless at best. Plagueis novelization makes it clear that Palpatine was the sole orchestrator of the Grand Plan while Plagueis secluded himself into his studies. One of the Darth Maul novels further elaborates on this, IIRC.
What's important here is that Palpatine was brought down by the Skywalkers. Anakin was literally destined by the Force itself to bring balance to the force which only happened with Palpatine's death. As Gideon elaborated in GH, the cosmic aftermath of Sidious' death in ROTJ was different than any other dark sider who died after the balance was shifted. Each death fueled the dark side. Only after Palpatine died the prophecy was fulfilled and balance was brought back.
His permanent defeat was then ensured by his offspring. Being brought down by the Skywalkers is not something you can really use against Palpatine. In fact, the fact that they were needed in the first place is a testament to Palpatine's might. Without the Skywalkers, there would be nothing to stop Palpatine from continuing his rule for centuries. And of course, considering how he created the mightiest army and fleet in galactic history in such short time time (and an even bigger army between ROTJ and DE, which is even shorter), the difference between him and Vitiate would show itself even more clearly, since Palpatine would literally become the Dark Side God that Vitiate always dreamed of becoming. I suggest you read The Apotheosis of Palpatine to properly understand what it means for the galaxy to have Palpatine as its ruler for a couple centuries.
On the other hand, let's take a look at Valkorion: He made himself the god emperor of his empires but despite this he turned the Sith against him, which pretty much means the entire galaxy barring Zakuul. Then, just to take over the Outlander, he willingly got himself killed and let Arcann take over the only empire he had left, which also caused the Vaylin situation to go out of his control. He placed himself irreversibly in the Outlander, which is a position that put him in huge disadvantage against Vaylin. In this terrible strategic position that he put himself in, he reveals his "Kneel before the dragon of Zakuul" trump card to Vaylin, and he was in no position to stop Vaylin from trying to find a way out of this TP lock in her mind. Of course, she ultimately finds a way to go unchained. On top of all this, Outlander's path leads to a vault that contains the only thing that can kill Valkorion, and again, Valk is in no position to stop this due to his own plan. He ultimately gets permanently erased at the end of these events.
I think it is obvious who is superior in intelligence and succes, but since you're drastically lacking in both, I understand why you would have a hard time figuring it out. 👆
Yeah, Sheev kinda made the Force his *****. At the end of Darth Plagueis, he becomes so powerful he can will the Force to stay unbalanced to the dark side, and the Force requires Anakin the demigod to take him down and restore balance. In a prophetic manner, this occurs, but good ol' Sheev doesn't really care, just comes back stronger and unbalances the Force even more. Then there's another prophecy about Luke and Leia taking him down, and they do, but he just comes back stronger and unbalances the Force even more. At his final death, the spirits of every single Jedi Knight who had ever existed were forced to restrain Sheev in Chaos, or else he'd just waltz out and become even stronger.
Sheev stomps in the success category lmao.
Re: Palpatine vs. Valkorion: non-Force qualities
Originally posted by The Ellimist
1. Who is more intelligent?
Sidious. He accomplished more with less and mastered a broader array of subjects in a much shorter amount of time.
2. Who is more charismatic?
Palpatine is probably the most skilled politician of all time, so him. It is true that Valkorion got the citizens of his empire to love him, but Palpatine did it to a large fraction of the galaxy within decades.
3. Who was more successful?
While it is true that Valkorion held power for a much longer period of time, it is much easier to hold power for centuries hiding in the Unknown Regions than to actually seize the entire galaxy - that leap is something no Sith before Palpatine had accomplished. Likewise, Palpatine only lost because the Force itself intervened through the Chosen One.
4. Meta: who is a better character?
Lol, obviously Palpatine
5. Meta: who has had a greater influence on pop culture?
This was a troll question, Palpatine
Re: Re: Palpatine vs. Valkorion: non-Force qualities
Originally posted by The Ellimist
Likewise, Palpatine only lost because the Force itself intervened through the Chosen One.
And then he built another Empire even greater than the Galactic Empire, became far stronger in the Force, and overall gave the Force the finger. Then he got killed by the Chosen One's offspring, came back even stronger, and strengthened the Dark Empire even more. He only finally lost because all the Jedi who had ever existed had to keep him restrained in the Netherworld, lest he just walk out and become even more powerful.
Palpatine was literally an anomalous cosmic abomination that the Force could do nothing about despite its best efforts. Only a braindead Vitidiot would say Failkorion was more successful.