Saturday, March 8, 2014

STAR WARS Darth Plagueis the Wise

Presenting Darth Plagueis the Wise from the Star Wars Black Series Toyline.

We seem to have quite a collection of Sith joining the Dungeon: Darth Krayt, Darth Vader, Darth Malgus, Ulic Qel-Droma, Darth Nihl, Darth Maul, Mother Talzin,  Darth Talon, etc...

But this Sith Lord is... special.

If you were impressed with the way Emperor Palpatine beat the crap (Debatable) out of the leaping, lunging, twirling little green goblin called Master Yoda, Darth Plagueis the Wise is the guy that trained Palpatine.

Darth Plagueis the Wise, a Munn Sith Lord who can trace his lineage all the way back to Darth Bane is also, like Palpatine, a Sith Lord who hides in public. He maintained his identity as Hego Damask, Magister of Damask Holdings head of the InterGalactic Banking Clan (One of the groups that led to the Galactic Civil War).

A master manipulator of midi-chlorians, Darth Plagueis was obsessed with cheating Death and creating new life using the Dark Side of the Force (He once amused himself by bringing his rival back to life several times just so he could kill him again-and-again).

His attempt to create life through the Dark Side back-fired (In a manner of speaking), the Force fought back and created the fatherless conception of Anakin Skywalker.

In effect, this is Anakin Skywalker's Daddy.


Darth Plagueis' blister card reads "Known as Darth Plagueis the wise, this Sith Lord experiments with ways to cheat Death using midi-chlorians, until he is killed by his own apprentice - Darth Sidious."

We're actually not quite happy with how Darth Plagueis the Wise died: Palpatine got him drunk and then tortured him with Force Lightning till he died.

For someone supposedly so "wise" he obviously never read the "Rule of Two" and at that time, Darth Maul was already being trained by both Plagueis and Palpatine. Plagueis actually believed Palpatine's promise not to elevate Maul to the level of apprentice.

What's to like about the STAR WARS Black Series Darth Plagueis?

We at the Dungeon actually love how Darth Plagueis doesn't look like a Sith Lord. Who would think that someone who's that thin and wispy is capable of such Dark Power? A Jedi maybe - even surely. But a Sith? And that is where Plagueis' true evil lies - in people's inability to see what's right in front of them.

Such Dark Side tactics gave Palpatine his seat of power, and we have again seen this duplicity with the return of the Lost Tribe of the Sith to Coruscant in the soon to be non-canonical "Fate of the Jedi Series"

The Black Series Darth Plagueis comes with a Transpirator (Fancy way of saying Respirator) that the Munn used early on in his career for utilitarian purposes, but ended up using permanently later on when he lost most of his jawbone and severed his trachea following an assassination attempt.


So you can choose to display him pre-or-after the assasination attempt. Personally we prefer him without it. It's also kinda hard to slip on to his face. The best way is to actually pop his his head off then slip the Transpirator on. 

As mentioned, we prefer our Darth Plagueis the Wise without his Transpirator because.... well he's got a really nice and expressive face:


Now you may think that that lanky body looks really bad, but with the cloak, and demi-staff, it's not so bad. He even looks quite regal. Darth Plagueis the Wise has one of the nicest hood-folded back cloaks in my collection:


Now Darth Plagueis does look lanky without the cloak, but it's not really that bad. He looks like a Jedi, more than a Sith though. Kinda hard to take him seriously - again, part of his Dark charm. As you can see, while he may not have the full articulation of a Vintage Edition figure, he can dual wield his lightsaber.


But we think he looks best with his cloak on. Darth Plagueis actually despised Lightsaber combat but was extremely good at it, even described as a master. He was capable of moving so fast that people who saw his duel with his rival Vemanis though they saw a thunderbolt instead. Darth Plagueis was a master of Jar'Kai - though his figure only comes with one lightsaber so let's let him use his demi-staff:


And that Lightsaber can be attached to his demi-staff to form a polearm of sorts:


What's NOT to like about the STAR WARS Black Series Darth Plagueis?

We love the STAR WARS Black Series Darth Plagueis the Wise figure. It's a wonderful addition to any collection and an important figure/discussion piece. We do however have a few nit-picking problems with it.

First is his cloak - it only looks good on his head in the picture to the right because we used blue-tack to hold it in place. Otherwise it fluffs out of control.

We've already talked about the trouble we've had with his Transpirator


Next is his lightsaber. He doesn't come with an unlit one and it looks like his lightsaber is really supposed to be stored on top of his demi-staff. Since it doesn't go off, does/should it always be on? I actually even considered ripping the blade out.

Still, as mentioned, this is a great figure and discussion piece that is a must for any collection.

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