What I find most compelling is the way Luceno handles the concept of the Rule of Two. It is not merely an arbitrary rule but a survival mechanism born from centuries of failure among the Sith. This context adds a chilling weight to Sidious’s betrayal. It was not an act of impulse but the natural conclusion of the very system Plagueis had sworn to uphold.
Your mention of the political complexity is valid. In fact I think it is part of the point. The reader is meant to lose track of factions and agendas because that mirrors the way most galactic citizens would have experienced the Republic. This is a story not just of lightsabers and Force powers but of information asymmetry and how the Sith use it as a weapon.
If the Vader arc in the main films is a tragedy about identity then the Plagueis arc is a tragedy about legacy. Plagueis spends decades trying to shape the future only to be erased by the very apprentice he cultivated. That narrative symmetry deepens the larger mythos in a way the Disney era has yet to match.
What I find most compelling is the way Luceno handles the concept of the Rule of Two. It is not merely an arbitrary rule but a survival mechanism born from centuries of failure among the Sith. This context adds a chilling weight to Sidious’s betrayal. It was not an act of impulse but the natural conclusion of the very system Plagueis had sworn to uphold.
Your mention of the political complexity is valid. In fact I think it is part of the point. The reader is meant to lose track of factions and agendas because that mirrors the way most galactic citizens would have experienced the Republic. This is a story not just of lightsabers and Force powers but of information asymmetry and how the Sith use it as a weapon.
If the Vader arc in the main films is a tragedy about identity then the Plagueis arc is a tragedy about legacy. Plagueis spends decades trying to shape the future only to be erased by the very apprentice he cultivated. That narrative symmetry deepens the larger mythos in a way the Disney era has yet to match.