100 Fun Facts About The Sith

Which actor has played Darth Sidious on screen in all three Star Wars film trilogies?

Ian McDiarmid. He was missing from the first cut of The Empire Strikes Back, where the Emperor was a masked actress with Clive Revill's voice, and was only edited into that scene in 2004.

In the Disney canon, a kyber crystal turns red when the dark side forces it to do what?

Bleed. A Sith takes the crystal from a Jedi they have beaten and pours pain and hatred into it until it turns red, and a light-side user can heal such a crystal, which then shines white.

Who established the Rule of Two?

Darth Bane. He appears on screen only once, as a towering phantom that confronts Yoda in The Clone Wars, and the voice of that ancient Sith belongs to Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker himself.

Under the Rule of Two, the master embodies power and the apprentice does what with it?

Craves it. 'One to embody power, the other to crave it': the rule counts on that hunger, expecting every apprentice to murder the master one day and take a pupil of their own.

Where is Palpatine sitting when he tells Anakin the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?

At the opera. He tells it in his private box during a performance of Squid Lake, and George Lucas himself turns up at the opera house as a blue-faced patron, Baron Papanoida.

Which Jedi Master does Anakin Skywalker maim so that Sidious can kill him, sealing Anakin's fall?

Mace Windu. He had the Sith Lord beaten and at his mercy when Anakin struck, and within minutes Anakin had knelt, sworn himself to the Sith and been given the name Darth Vader.

In the Code of the Sith, the opening line 'Peace is a lie' is followed by 'There is only' what?

Passion. The code was written for the 2003 game Knights of the Old Republic by David Gaider, who asked whether the Sith had a creed, was told to write one, and simply reversed the Jedi Code.

What physical change commonly marks a Sith steeped in the dark side?

Yellow eyes and pale skin. The Emperor shows both in Return of the Jedi, and Anakin's blue eyes burn yellow in Revenge of the Sith just after he slaughters the Separatist leaders.

Which telekinetic technique was Vader infamous for using as execution or intimidation?

Force choke. On the Death Star he throttles Admiral Motti from across the table for sneering at his 'sad devotion to that ancient religion', remarking, 'I find your lack of faith disturbing.'

Which martial artist and stuntman first played Darth Maul on screen?

Ray Park. He did the fighting but not the talking: Peter Serafinowicz dubbed Maul's lines in his first film, and Sam Witwer voiced the character in The Clone Wars, Rebels and Solo.

Which actor played the Sith Lord Count Dooku in the prequel films?

Christopher Lee. He was playing two fallen sages at once in those years, Dooku for George Lucas and the wizard Saruman in The Lord of the Rings, and came back to voice Dooku in the 2008 Clone Wars film.

What species is Maul?

Dathomirian Zabrak. The look began when George Lucas asked for 'a figure from your worst nightmare': concept artist Iain McCaig drew his own, then based the face markings on muscle with the skin stripped off.

Which British bodybuilder wore Darth Vader's suit in the original trilogy while another actor supplied the voice?

David Prowse. He spoke every line on set in his Bristol accent, not knowing that George Lucas would replace them all with the voice of James Earl Jones.

Who rescued Maul from his exile, more than a decade after Obi-Wan Kenobi cut him in half?

Savage Opress. He found his brother on a junk world, raving, living on vermin and with no memory of who he was, scuttling about on spider-like legs he had built from scrap.

Who is Maul's mother and leader of the Nightsisters?

Talzin. When her son was brought home a broken madman she used her dark magicks to restore his mind and conjure him a new pair of legs, then loosed him on Obi-Wan Kenobi.

After seizing Mandalore, Maul kills which woman whom Obi-Wan loved?

Duchess Satine Kryze. Maul kills her purely to hurt Kenobi, but the act sends a ripple through the dark side that brings his old master to Mandalore to crush him as a rival.

Which underworld syndicate did Maul run from the shadows during the Empire's reign?

Crimson Dawn. The gangster Dryden Vos was its public face, and Maul is unmasked as the hidden boss only in the closing minutes of Solo, his first film appearance since being cut in half.

On which forbidden Sith world was Maul stranded until Ezra Bridger arrived?

Malachor. An ancient battle between Jedi and Sith ended there when the temple's weapon fired and turned every fighter on both sides to stone, and their petrified bodies still cover the ground.

Dooku was born to the royal family of which planet?

Serenno. His father, frightened by the infant's power, abandoned him to the Jedi; decades later Dooku walked out of the Order, went home and took back the title of Count.

Which bounty hunter did Dooku recruit as the template for the clone army?

Jango Fett. Part of his price was one clone left completely unaltered for himself, and he raised the boy as his son: the future bounty hunter Boba Fett.

What Sith name did Dooku take?

Darth Tyranus. He used the name when recruiting the clone army's template, so 'a man called Tyranus' is the only lead Obi-Wan gets on Kamino, long before anyone ties it to the Count.

Which limbs did Vader lose in his duel with Kenobi on Mustafar?

His remaining arm and both legs. Dooku had already cut off his right arm on Geonosis, so Kenobi's stroke left him with no natural limbs at all before the lava burned what was left.

What species was Plagueis, Sidious's master?

Muun. In the Legends novel that bears his name he hides in plain sight among his people's financiers as Hego Damask, a magnate of the InterGalactic Banking Clan.

Who was Plagueis's own master, in the Legends continuity?

Darth Tenebrous. In public he passed as the celebrated starship designer Rugess Nome; he prided himself on foreseeing the future, his own death included, and was still murdered by his apprentice.

How did Sidious kill Plagueis?

In his sleep. Palpatine tells Anakin the story himself, savouring the irony that a master who could keep others from dying could not save himself from his own apprentice.

In the Legends game The Force Unleashed, what is the codename of Darth Vader's secret apprentice?

Starkiller. Vader kills a Jedi, takes the man's son and raises him as a hidden assassin, only for the apprentice to turn on him and help plant the seeds of the Rebel Alliance.

The Rule of Two is described as a pale imitation of which older Sith concept?

Doctrine of the Dyad. It prized a Force dyad, two beings bonded so closely that they are one in the Force, as Rey and Ben Solo prove to be; master and apprentice were the nearest the Sith could get.

In Legends, which member of the Solo and Skywalker families becomes the Sith Lord Darth Caedus?

Jacen Solo. Timothy Zahn introduced him as one of Han and Leia's infant twins; years of novels later the Sith Lady Lumiya turned him, long before the films gave the couple a fallen son called Ben.

What first name was Emperor Palpatine finally given in a 2014 novel?

Sheev. For decades he was just Palpatine, and the author who finally named him did not invent it: James Luceno was handed the name for his novel Tarkin as George Lucas's own choice.

Who plays Qimir, the Stranger, in The Acolyte?

Manny Jacinto. Best known as sweet, dim Jason in The Good Place, he spends much of the series posing as a scruffy, harmless smuggler before he is unmasked as the Sith behind it all.

Which villain of the Star Wars sequel films proves to be an artificial being, made as a puppet by Sidious?

Snoke. Kylo Ren cuts him in two to seize the First Order, and only later learns that his old master was manufactured and steered from the shadows by the Emperor all along.

In Legends, the exiled Dark Jedi settled on which planet, home of the Sith species?

Korriban. The exiles ruled over a native people called the Sith and ended up taking their name for the whole order; today's canon keeps the tomb world but calls it Moraband.

Which command from Sidious turned the Republic's clone troopers on their own Jedi generals?

Order 66. The clones had no say in it: a chip implanted in each trooper's brain compelled obedience, which is why loyal soldiers shot Jedi they had fought beside for years.

Which ancient Rakatan weapons factory did Revan and Malak seize to build their fleet?

The Star Forge. In the game that tells the story its fate is the player's to choose: finish on the light side and the station is destroyed, or take the dark path and keep the factory and the Sith throne.

Which member of the Sith Triumvirate could absorb Force energy to wipe out a planet of Jedi?

Darth Nihilus. The 'Lord of Hunger' drained the planet Katarr of every living thing to kill the Jedi gathered there, and his craving so consumed him that only his mask and robes held his spirit together.

Who was Darth Bane's apprentice and eventual successor?

Darth Zannah. She is said to have killed her master in a duel on the world of Ambria, the pattern nearly every later Sith would repeat; an early novel, written before she was invented, calls the apprentice 'him'.

What does every Star Destroyer in the Sith Eternal's Final Order fleet carry that the old Empire's lacked?

A planet-killing cannon. The Xyston-class ships, nicknamed 'planet destroyers', were built in secret, and one of them obliterates the world of Kijimi as Palpatine's opening warning.

The Rise of Skywalker's lore names a Sith Trooper legion after which Knights of the Old Republic Sith Lord?

Darth Revan. The film's Visual Dictionary gives the 3rd Legion his name, carrying the masked lead of a 2003 video game, whose true identity is that game's great twist, into the films' own continuity.

On which hidden world of the Sith does the resurrected Sidious assemble his fleet in The Rise of Skywalker?

Exegol. It appears on no star chart, so Kylo Ren and then Rey each have to track down a rare Sith wayfinder before they can cross the Unknown Regions to reach it.

Which planet did the future Darth Sidious represent in the Galactic Senate?

Naboo. In his Sith guise he had the Trade Federation blockade and invade his own homeworld, then rode the crisis he had made to election as Supreme Chancellor.

Which Star Wars film was the first in which the word 'Sith' is spoken on screen?

The Phantom Menace. Vader's title, 'Dark Lord of the Sith', was cut from the 1977 film but appears in its novelization, so the films went 22 years without speaking the word.

Which order of dark-side Jedi hunters answered to Darth Vader without any of its members being Sith?

The Inquisitorius. Its Inquisitors were former Jedi, turned to the dark side and sent to hunt down their own surviving brethren, with Vader as their taskmaster.

Which cyborg warlord, trained to duel by Count Dooku, collected the lightsabers of Jedi he had killed?

General Grievous. He fought with four stolen blades at once yet could not touch the Force at all, so for all his Sith teacher and Jedi trophies he was never a Sith himself.

In Rebels, the ancient temple super-weapon is armed by placing what in an obelisk?

A Sith Holocron. Ezra and Maul can only win it by using the Force together, light side and dark at once, which is just the bond Maul wants in order to claim the boy as his apprentice.

Whom does Maul blind after betraying his allies in "Twilight of the Apprentice"?

Kanan Jarrus. Freshly blinded, he still beats Maul in the duel that follows, and in the months afterwards he learns to see through the Force instead of his eyes.

On which desert planet does Maul finally track down Obi-Wan Kenobi for their last duel?

Tatooine. The duel he had chased for decades lasts only moments, and Maul dies in his old enemy's arms, comforted to learn that Kenobi is guarding the Chosen One.

Which assassin did Count Dooku train as a secret apprentice, then abandon when Sidious ordered her death?

Asajj Ventress. Left for dead by the master she had hoped would make her a true Sith, she went home to plot revenge and ended up a bounty hunter, 'neither a Sith nor a Jedi'.

In Legends, Exar Kun made his last stand at an older Dark Lord's stronghold on which moon?

Yavin IV. The stronghold's great temples were raised by the Massassi, the enslaved warriors of an exiled Sith Lord, and in the films one of those ruins houses the Rebel base that destroys the Death Star.

In Legends, which clone did Mara Jade kill to fulfil Palpatine's psychic command?

Luuke Skywalker. The mad Dark Jedi Joruus C'baoth grew him to fight the original, and by cutting the copy down Mara silenced the dead Emperor's order to kill Luke without harming the real one.

In Legends, who led the Sith into hiding after the Great Hyperspace War, living for centuries?

Darth Vitiate. He drained an entire planet of life to lengthen his own, then ruled the hidden empire for more than a thousand years before unleashing it on the Republic in the game The Old Republic.

Sound designer Ben Burtt created Darth Vader's menacing breathing by recording himself through which piece of equipment?

A scuba regulator gave Vader his rasp: Burtt recorded his own breathing through an old Dacor diving unit, and he also invented the lightsaber hum.

George Lucas modelled Emperor Palpatine, who turns a republic into a dictatorship, partly on which American president?

Richard Nixon was on Lucas's mind: he said the Nixon presidency got him thinking about how democracies get turned into dictatorships.

Darth Vader ranked third on the American Film Institute's list of film villains, behind Norman Bates and whom?

Hannibal Lecter topped the 2003 list of fifty villains, which was unveiled in a television special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Which title did the first teaser trailer give the original-trilogy finale in which Darth Vader dies saving his son?

Revenge of the Jedi was dropped in December 1982, when George Lucas decided that a Jedi should never seek revenge.

Which actor voiced Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy but chose to go uncredited in the first two films?

James Earl Jones felt the part was too small to warrant a credit, and he got the role after Orson Welles was judged too recognisable.

Anakin Skywalker's turn to the Sith begins with visions of which woman, his secret wife, dying in childbirth?

Padmé Amidala dies soon after giving birth to twins anyway, so the dark side bargain Anakin struck to save her bought him nothing.

Which Jedi Master, once the pupil of Count Dooku, is fatally wounded by Darth Maul's double-bladed lightsaber?

Qui-Gon Jinn spends his dying breath asking Obi-Wan Kenobi to train Anakin Skywalker, the boy who will grow up to become Darth Vader.

Which rating did Star Wars first receive with Episode III, in which Anakin Skywalker burns beside a lava river?

Rated PG-13 for its violence, Episode III carried a certificate that did not exist until 1984, when it was created after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Which John Williams theme, written for The Empire Strikes Back, plays when Darth Vader appears on screen?

The Imperial March had its premiere at a Boston Pops concert three weeks before the film opened, with John Williams himself conducting.

In which Bespin mining colony does Darth Vader reveal that he is Luke Skywalker's father?

Cloud City is also where Vader severs Luke's hand, after forcing the administrator Lando Calrissian to set a trap for his friends.

Which actor, cast after Leonardo DiCaprio turned the part down, played Anakin Skywalker's fall to the Sith?

Hayden Christensen was later edited into the 2004 DVD of Return of the Jedi, replacing the original actor as Anakin's ghost in the final scene.

Which veteran English actor played the unmasked, dying Darth Vader in a single scene of Return of the Jedi?

Sebastian Shaw was contractually barred from discussing the part with anyone, even his family, and most of the crew never knew he was on set.

The Jedi Temple where Darth Vader slaughters even the younglings stands on which city-covered capital planet?

Coruscant is also where Sidious takes the barely alive Vader afterwards, to be sealed inside the black armour that keeps him breathing.

On which forest moon does Luke Skywalker burn Darth Vader's body on a funeral pyre after the Emperor's death?

Endor is the homeworld of the Ewoks, and the pyre burns there because Vader died just above it, aboard the second Death Star.

On which rocky planet does Count Dooku cut off Anakin Skywalker's right arm as the Clone Wars begin?

Geonosis housed the Separatists' secret headquarters, where Dooku had already sentenced Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi to death.

Which Jedi Master duels Darth Sidious in the Senate chamber and, failing to kill him, goes into hiding?

Yoda had once trained Count Dooku, so the Sith Lord he fought in Attack of the Clones was his own former pupil.

The granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine was abandoned as a child to scavenge on which desert planet?

Jakku is where Rey survives by salvaging machine parts, unaware until The Rise of Skywalker that her grandfather was a Sith Lord.

Which masked sequel-trilogy villain, a grandson of Darth Vader, aspires to become as powerful as the Sith Lord?

Kylo Ren wears a mask that director J. J. Abrams said was designed as a nod to the Vader mask.

Which dark side power does Emperor Palpatine use to torture Luke Skywalker aboard the second Death Star?

Force lightning is what finally moves Darth Vader to act: hearing his son beg for help, he throws the Emperor down a reactor shaft.

The Sith Lord Darth Plagueis was said to prevent death and even create life by manipulating which of these?

Midi-chlorians were George Lucas's loose depiction of mitochondria, and he later had a passage about them added to his 1977 notes on the Force.

Which title from an ancient Jedi prophecy marked Anakin Skywalker, the future Darth Vader, as destined to bring balance?

The Chosen One kept that status in George Lucas's view: he said Anakin is still the prophesied figure even after turning into Darth Vader.

Which former Padawan of Anakin Skywalker duels Darth Vader in Star Wars Rebels and recognises her old master?

Ahsoka Tano had assumed Anakin died with the other Jedi, and her voice actor was never told in advance whether she survives the duel.

Maul took the Darksaber, and with it the rule of Mandalore, by beheading which Death Watch leader?

Pre Vizsla had helped Maul seize the planet, then betrayed and imprisoned him, and lost his head to his own black-bladed weapon.

Which Super Star Destroyer, introduced in The Empire Strikes Back, serves as Darth Vader's personal flagship?

Executor was filmed as a model six feet long, wired with more than 150,000 individual lights.

"Duel of the Fates", the choral piece written for Darth Maul's climactic lightsaber battle, is sung in which language?

Sanskrit carries words taken from a fragment of an archaic Welsh poem, though John Williams rearranged the syllables until the meaning was lost.

Which actor, who dubbed Maul's lines in the film Solo, voices the fallen Sith Lord in The Clone Wars and Rebels?

Sam Witwer took over from Peter Serafinowicz, the comedian who had supplied Maul's few lines in the character's first film appearance.

Which clone trooper unit follows the newly named Darth Vader into the Jedi Temple to kill the Jedi inside?

The 501st Legion had been Anakin Skywalker's own unit throughout the Clone Wars, so the troops he led as a Jedi Knight followed him as a Sith.

Palpatine first becomes Supreme Chancellor by engineering a vote of no confidence against which predecessor?

Finis Valorum was played by Terence Stamp, and the motion that toppled him was called by a queen whom Palpatine had manipulated and deceived.

Which Neimoidian viceroy invades a planet on Darth Sidious's orders and is later killed by Sidious's new apprentice?

Nute Gunray outlived his usefulness: Palpatine sent the newly turned Anakin Skywalker to assassinate him and the other Separatist leaders.

Darth Vader's fighter in the original Star Wars, given reshaped wings so audiences could spot him, carries which name?

TIE Advanced x1 was the model makers' idea: the script never said Vader flew a different ship, so they reshaped the wings to mark him out.

Which studio developed the first Knights of the Old Republic, in which Darth Malak unleashes a Sith armada?

BioWare did not make the sequel: it recommended the newly formed Obsidian Entertainment, a studio it knew well, for the job.

In Knights of the Old Republic II, which mentor of the Jedi Exile turns out to be the Sith Lord Darth Traya?

Kreia won particular praise from critics, and GameSpy named her the best video game character of 2005.

In Knights of the Old Republic, the Sith Lord Darth Malak wears a prosthesis after losing which body part?

His lower jaw was sliced off by his own master's lightsaber in a duel, which is why Malak speaks in a harsh electronic voice.

Which masked Sith Lord storms the Jedi Temple and kills Master Ven Zallow in a trailer for The Old Republic?

Darth Malgus wears the mask over his nose and mouth after an earlier battle, and by then he had also killed his own wounded master.

In the Legacy comics, set over 130 years after Palpatine's fall, which Dark Lord of the Sith rules a reborn Empire?

Darth Krayt is finally killed by Cade Skywalker and his allies, though Cade, a descendant of Luke, had earlier abandoned the Jedi.

Which 1990s comic series resurrected Emperor Palpatine by moving his spirit through a succession of cloned bodies?

Dark Empire also shows Luke Skywalker temporarily succumbing to the dark side, and it was first developed for Marvel before Dark Horse published it.

Which 1990s Dark Horse comic series chronicled the ancient Sith Lords Naga Sadow and Exar Kun?

Tales of the Jedi ran from 1993 to 1998, and its first books covered the Great Sith War, set almost four thousand years before the films.

Which planet did The Clone Wars establish as the Sith homeworld in the sixth-season episode "Sacrifice"?

Moraband is haunted in that episode by the ghost of an ancient Sith Lord, voiced by Mark Hamill, the actor who played Luke Skywalker.

In The Rise of Skywalker, which Sith navigation device does Rey recover from the wreckage of the second Death Star?

A wayfinder charts the route to a hidden Sith world, but the one Rey finds lasts only moments before her rival destroys it.

Which posthumous command from Emperor Palpatine turns storm-making satellites on whole planets in Battlefront II?

Operation: Cinder was the late Emperor's final command, delivered by messenger droid, and its storms push the game's Imperial heroine to abandon her mission and rescue civilians.

Darth Vader tests a freezing chamber on Han Solo, meaning to trap Luke Skywalker next, by encasing him in what?

Carbonite freezing was only a trial run: Vader wanted to know whether the process would safely imprison Luke before he tried it on him.

Which Senate representative proposes the emergency powers that let Chancellor Palpatine raise a clone army?

Jar Jar Binks thereby handed a secret Sith Lord the legal means to mobilise the clones as the grand army of the Republic.

Which concept artist created Darth Vader's mask by combining a full-face breathing mask with a samurai helmet?

Ralph McQuarrie proposed the space suit himself, reasoning that the script had Vader travelling between spaceships.

Costume designer John Mollo built Darth Vader's outfit from clerical robes, a gas mask, a German helmet and what else?

A motorcycle suit joined the clerical robes in John Mollo's design, while the helmet and armour were made by the prop sculptor Brian Muir.

Which New Zealand actor voiced the Emperor in the original theatrical release of The Empire Strikes Back?

Clive Revill supplied only the voice: the face in the hologram was an actress under a prosthetic disguise, with a chimpanzee's eyes superimposed.

Which Olympic fencer doubled for Darth Vader in the lightsaber duels of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi?

Bob Anderson fenced for Great Britain at the 1952 Olympics and went on to coach screen swordsmen from Errol Flynn to Johnny Depp.

Which author wrote the 2012 novel Darth Plagueis, about the Sith Lord who trained the future Emperor Palpatine?

James Luceno asked George Lucas whether the title character could be an alien, and was sent artist renderings that settled the Sith Lord's species.

Which showrunner created The Acolyte, the series that gave the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis his first on-screen appearance?

Leslye Headland's series lasted a single season: it was cancelled in August 2024 over low viewership and an overrun budget.

Which undead Sith Lord of Knights of the Old Republic II once served under Exar Kun in the Great Sith War?

Darth Sion is one of the game's three main antagonists, and the player's Jedi Exile kills him on the final floor of a Sith academy.

In Legends comics, the spirit of which long-dead ruler interrupts a duel to name Exar Kun Dark Lord of the Sith?

Marka Ragnos was the last ruler of the Sith's golden age, and his death set two rivals duelling for the throne at his own funeral.