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TIO has targeted Emperor Palpatine (Star Wars) for rename to Emperor Palpatine for the following reason(s): A disambiguation page needs at least three veraions of this character, since there are only two versions with another one being a fanfic, not really needed. Please discuss it on the talk page for this article. "TIO. That's my name. Or, at least, what I am called." |
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This Pure Evil was Headlined on December 2020. | ||
| NOTE: This is a composite profile of both mainstream versions of Palpatine being his Canon and Legends counterparts where both incarnations take different directions in their storylines with the exceptions of the films and The Clone Wars. |
| “ | I am defenseless. Take your weapon, strike me down with all of your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete. | „ |
| ~ Emperor Palpatine to Luke Skywalker. |
| “ | Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design! | „ |
| ~ Emperor Palpatine |
| “ | You've been nothing more than a pawn in a game played by a genuine Master. The Sith'ari. Reflect back on Yinchorr, Dorvalla, Eriadu, Maul, the Neimoidians, Naboo, an army of clones, the fallen Jedi Dooku … You think these were your ideas, when in fact they were mine, cleverly suggested to you so that you could feed them back to me. You were far too trusting, Plagueis. | „ |
| ~ Palpatine on betraying and taking his master's place |
| “ | I expected to take some damage from him. Any worthy opponent is going to inflict injury. If he doesn't, he's not worth troubling with. Let a few Devastators be destroyed. Let Skywalker think he's getting the best of me. As long as he believes he's succeeding, I have him in my grasp. And as long as I hold him, the more vulnerable he becomes to the unfathomable power of the dark side. Think what he'll do when he is fully mine, when he is working for the Empire, working to help us win! | „ |
| ~ Palpatine on continuing his persist in corrupting Luke. |
Sheev Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious and Emperor Palpatine or simply The Emperor, is the main antagonist of the Star Wars franchise. He is an immensely powerful Sith Lord and the ruler of the Galactic Empire, which he formed from the Galactic Republic.
He was also the de facto ruler of the Separatists, which he used to give himself autocratic powers as Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. As the Dark Lord of the Sith, he plotted to overthrow the Jedi by manipulating the events of the Clone Wars to bring himself to rule the whole galaxy, thus posing as the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic throughout these events.
He is the archenemy of the Skywalker family and the Jedi Order as a whole, especially Yoda, and they were suspicious of him even just after Count Dooku's death when they were unaware that he was Darth Sidious. He is also later revealed to be the secret benefactor and de facto leader of the First Order, and he is the paternal grandfather of Rey. and in the Legends continuity, he returned with multiple clones in an attempt to end the Rebel Alliance.
He is famously portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the films and by the late Clive Revill and the late Marjorie Eaton in the original version of The Empire Strikes Back. In the radio drama adaptations of the original trilogy, he was voiced by Paul Hecht. In the 2003 animated microseries Clone Wars, he was voiced by Nick Jameson. In The Clone Wars, he was voiced by the late Ian Abercrombie and then Tim Curry, who also played the Pennywise form of It in the 1990s miniseries of the same name, Taurus Bulba in Darkwing Duck, Hexxus in FernGully: The Last Rainforest, Skullmaster in Mighty Max, Slagar the Cruel in Redwall, Von Talon in Valiant, Anatoly Cherdenko in Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 and Nihilus in The Story Keepers. In Rebels, he was voiced by Sam Witwer, and McDiarmid later reprised the role for its fourth season as well as The Bad Batch and Tales of the Jedi. In the Russian dub of Return of the Jedi, he was voiced by late Boris Bystrov, who also voiced Sentinel Prime in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Even by Sith standards (who can have some degree of humanity such as redeeming traits, honor, values, and loyalty to their masters), he is utterly and irredeemably evil and has none of those with even his own master Darth Plagueis showing disgust at him.
- Although he is sophisticated and polite even in his real persona, this is nothing more than a manipulation tactic to control those to further his ends, as is any time he refers to someone as his "friend".
- He had no true loyalty to anyone, including his own minions, even if they served him well and shared his same objectives, as he didn't care for their well-being, letting them lose or die during the middle of a conflict, such as Darth Maul when he was presumed killed on Naboo and General Grievous on Utapau, and was also willing to killing them once they fulfill their function and pose a threat to his progressive plans:
- He killed his master Darth Plagueis to search for a new apprentice in accordance with the Rule of Two.
- He confronted Maul when his machinations on Mandalore threatened his future domination of the galaxy, sadistically killing his brother and later mother.
- He had Darth Tyranus killed for outliving his usefulness in order to eventually take on Anakin Skywalker as his new apprentice known Darth Vader.
- He had Nute Gunray and the other Separatist Leaders killed in order to end the Clone Wars and establish the new Galactic Empire.
- He incited Luke Skywalker to kill his father Darth Vader to become his new Sith Apprentice.
- He drained Kylo Ren and Rey’s life energy to restore his body, no longer needing any apprentice to rule the galaxy.
- Palpatine was intended by the screenwriters to be an extremist with his heart in the right place, but while his intentions of bringing order to the galaxy certainly sound noble in theory, he does not perceive morality as normal people do and they are warped accordingly to his own idiosyncratic standards, as Palpatine does not have any real convictions or core values, only a long list of biases he harbors.
- To give a clearer picture on how superficial Palpatine's good intentions are, nearly all of the political imbalance, the very thing Palpatine claims to fight against, that we even see throughout most of the Skywalker Saga, is all orchestrated by Palpatine for amassing personal power.
- There are also various times where Palpatine shows great self awareness of being a dark side loving psychopath and greatly relishes in it. By the time of the sequel trilogy in the Canon continuity and The Dark Empire Trilogy in the Legends continuity, he has abandoned all pretenses of being well intentioned, and decides to reconquer the galaxy openly as the evil Sith Lord so he can rule through fear.
- Although he has a multitude of comedic moments, nothing about the threat he poses to the galaxy is ever remotely played for laughs and all of the characters take him 100% seriously. Furthermore, most of his comedy are part of his facade or only highlights how sadistic he is. Even if he has detracting comedic moments, specifically during the prequel trilogy, he subverts them by the time of original and sequel trilogies.
- Despite having to compete with various other very heinous villains in both the Canon and Legends timelines, such as Vitiate, Abeloth, Grand Moff Tarkin, Supreme Leader Snoke, General Grievous and Dr. Nuvo Vindi, Palpatine stands out given that he has a huge impact in the franchise, being the only Sith Lord who came close with destroying the Jedi Order and all the fear he spreaded around the galaxy, as well as many of his crimes being very cruel and personal, especially to the Skywalker family, particularily Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker.
Background (both Canon and Legends Materials)[]
- Kidnapped Darth Maul from his mother, mercilessly torturing and abusing him into becoming his ruthless apprentice.
- He used his master Darth Plagueis to become a Sith Lord and killed him in his sleep right after he realized Plagueis was of no further use to him, despite everything Plagueis did for him (although Plageuis did deserve it).
Canon Material[]
The Phantom Menace[]
- Had his homeworld, Naboo, invaded by the Trade Federation as part of his plan to become Chancellor, not caring if any of his own people or the Gungans were killed during the invasion.
- Ordered Nute Gunray to get rid of Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, who are two Jedi ambassadors sent by Chancellor Valorum, as soon as possible, saying that Valorum shouldn't have brought them into the spaceship.
- Manipulated Padmé Amidala into asking the Senate for a vote of no confidence, which led to Chancellor Valorum getting removed from office and replacing him with Palpatine.
- Tried to have Maul take out a 9-year-old Anakin Skywalker before deciding he would be of more use to him alive.
- Ordered Viceroy Gunray to have all of the Gungans wiped out.
Tales of the Jedi (2022)[]
- Showed no care when Dooku calls him on having Maul kill Qui-Gon Jinn, just casually saying they both lost an apprentice and brushing off Maul's own fate (he doesn't know Maul is alive yet, but his intentions count).
- Forces Count Dooku, his new apprentice, to kill Yaddle so he can both complete Dooku's commitment to the dark side and because Yaddle knew too much, causing Dooku to become the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus.
Attack of the Clones[]
- Orchestrated the Clone Wars, which resulted in countless deaths.
- He had Dooku create the clone army with chips in their brains, making them turn on the Jedi.
- He told Dooku that the war was near and everything was happening according to the plans of the Sith Order with a sadistic smile.
- Got all emergency powers as the Supreme Chancellor for total control of the Republic.
The Clone Wars[]
- Ordered the Zillo Beast killed when he found out its armor was unbreakable, something even Mas Amedda briefly questioned. Furthermore, he risked the destruction of the Senate building when he brought it to Coruscant.
- Hired Cad Bane to kidnap Force-sensitive infants so he could conduct illegal fatal experiments on them (of which he dismissed the ones who didn't survive) and convert them into dark side spies. When Ahsoka and Anakin went to save them on Mustafar, Palpatine ordered the droids to erase all evidence and evacuate all the infants.
- Forced Dooku to kill his own apprentice, Asajj Ventress, out of fear that she was growing too powerful, threatening to kill him if he didn’t comply.
- While he wanted General Grievous to be released from the Republic's custody, this was more so because he didn't want to lose a powerful force in the war, not out of care. This is also why he wanted Dooku to free Nute Gunray, and even then, he had no problem with Ventress silencing him if freeing him wasn't an option.
- Murdering a total of 4 of Maul's Death Watch guards, 2 of whom simply told him to halt, and the other 2 for no reason whatsoever.
- Betrayed his former apprentice, Darth Maul, upon learning of his return and growing power, which threatened to interfere with his long-term plans.
- In the process, he murdered Maul's brother, Savage Opress, right in front of him before sadistically torturing him with his Force lightning while taunting him that he has other plans just for him other than death.
- After betraying Maul, he forced him to help him in a scheme to kill his mother, Mother Talzin.
- Slowly corrupted Anakin Skywalker to turn against the Jedi and made the Jedi Council expel his apprentice Ahsoka after she was framed for bombing the Jedi Temple when she had nothing to do with it. He even managed to persuade Anakin to try to kill Obi Wan Kenobi, a man who considered Anakin to be his honorary younger brother.
- Once Fives, a clone trooper, learned of Order 66, Palpatine had him drugged to the point of insanity and murdered him in order to keep Order 66 a secret from the Jedi (who would be the victims of Order 66).
- He even revealed the truth about Order 66 just to mock Fives and provoke the trooper to attack him in order to make him appear insane.
- Force choked Dooku from far away after he failed to keep further details of Sifo-Dyas' death from the Jedi, during which he called Dooku clumsy and told him that he knew the price of failure.
- Attempted to corrupt Yoda by interfering with his trials on Dagobah. After failing, he tried to trick him into letting Anakin die, in an attempt to mentally break him and deprive the Jedi Order of its most powerful member.
Son of Dathomir[]
- When Maul took Dooku and Grievous hostage and threatened their lives, Sidious showed no care since he had no further use for them.
- He makes it very clear to Darth Maul that once he's established his rule over the galaxy, he will move on to conquer all of the universe.
- Taunts Maul over the death of his mother at the hands of Grievous.
Revenge of the Sith[]
- He has General Grievous "kidnap" him just to test Anakin Skywalker's Sith potential, callously bringing about thousands of deaths and billions of credits worth of damage in a grisly space battle in the process.
- Adhering to the Rule of Two, he instructs Anakin to kill Darth Tyranus once his role is finished (even though Darth Tyranus was nothing but loyal to Sidious), later renaming the former Darth Vader after Anakin was forced to join him due to betraying Mace Windu in said master's attempt to avenge the other Jedi Masters, all of whom were killed by Palpatine as well, and having him murder all of the Separatist leaders after he'd taken control of the Senate.
- He also would've more than likely taken Padmé's life if Vader hadn't.
- When General Grievous showed concern over Dooku's death (only because he was wondering who would lead the Separatists), Palpatine mocked him and proudly told Grievous that Dooku was merely a necessary loss.
- Killed Agen Kolar, Saesee Tiin, and Kit Fisto and blasted Mace Windu away with his Force lightning and expressed his uncontrolled and excited enjoyment of his power, which hurt him after the quartet arrived to apprehend him.
- He orders Vader to kill all the Jedi on the Jedi Temple including younglings while he orders the clones to kill all the Jedi through Order 66, causing the survivors to hide.
- Due to Palpatine's actions of Order 66, At Attin activated its barrier so it can be closed off to the galaxy.
- He later orders Vader to go to the Mustafar system to wipe out the Separatist Council led by Nute Gunray on Mustafar, despite being genuinely loyal to him and were willing to surrender once the Empire had rose to power, as they concorded.
- His announcement to the galaxy on making propaganda of the Jedi being evil was a manipulation tactic to make the public side with him in making a ruling dictatorship being the Galactic Empire.
- Attempted to kill Yoda at the Senate so that he could take out one of the most powerful Jedi before he managed to stop him.
- Although he saved Vader's life in Mustafar, he did so because of his sheer potential with the Force and not wanting to strenuously look for another apprentice.
- He had deliberately kept Vader awake during his surgical procedure, where he was given replacement body parts and gained his life support armor, leaving him screaming in agony.
- Sadistically smiled at Vader's grief over the death of Padmé. Not only that, but Sidious is also indirectly responsible for her death in the first place for turning Anakin into Darth Vader.
- It’s implied he killed Padme by draining her life despite her being heathly.
Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith[]
- Configured Vader's suit to be extremely vulnerable to Force lightning to ensure that he could easily kill Vader if he tried to defy him.
- When Darth Vader used the Force on him in anger over Padme's death and the promise that Palpatine would save her, he brutally attacked Vader with Force lightning after convincing Vader to let his guard down.
- He then held his lightsaber to Vader's throat and threatened to kill him if he ever touched him with the Force again.
- Had the Inquisitors hunt down and eliminate any Jedi that survived Order 66. Making him responsible for every Jedi, Vader or the Inquisitors killed.
- Enslaved almost all non-human species in the galaxy.
Between Revenge of the Sith and The Bad Batch[]
- Enslaved the Geonosians so that they could create the Death Star for the Galactic Empire.
- When the Geonosians finished creating the Death Star, Palpatine ordered the extermination of the entire Geonosian Race to get rid of the information relating to the creation of the Death Star, which led to a total of 100 billion deaths.
The Bad Batch[]
- While he does become glad that Admiral Rampart will face charges for destroying the Kaminoan facilities, he then accuses the clone troopers of taking part in it despite the fact that they were not doing it out of their own will.
- He also took all of the credit from Rampart for Project War-Mantle in addition to putting him in a war camp, scapegoating him to an extent.
- Despite the clones’ loyalty to him and the fact that he was the one who had them commissioned in the first place, he is indicated to despise them like most of his underlings do. He publicly denounces them as soon as the opportunity arises resulting in them losing their jobs and many of them ending up on the streets due to having no wars to fight anymore.
- While he does commend and show a degree of respect for Senator Riyo Chuchi for exposing Rampart's destruction of Tipoca City and says he is saddened that many lives were lost, this was only for him to be able to phase out the rest of the remaining clones and fully enforce the Imperial Defense Recruitment Bill, showing that he doesn't care about the rest of the living clones. Given his penchant for bloodshed, it is likely he did not care about (or was even happy about) the lives lost.
- He shows sadism over seeing all of the kids Dr. Royce Hemlock kidnapped and hopes to use them to further Project Necromancer.
- He approves Hemlock’s approach of using children instead of adults because the children are easier to control and harm if necessary.
- He admits that even most Imperials would call Hemlock’s work an abomination, but dismisses the notion.
- Although he does show respect for Dr. Hemlock’s brilliant mind and his contributions to Project Necromancer which would allow him to live on through cloning, he didn’t mourn his death at all, showing that he was also using him as a tool to further his own agenda in addition to all of his Sith apprentices.
- Also, it is implied from a comment by Tarkin that he did threaten Hemlock’s life prior to his death for his failure.
Lords of the Sith[]
- Psychologically tested Vader throughout the mission to Ryloth by frequently reading his mind without permission, ensuring his loyalty to and strength in the dark side.
- Frequently reminded Vader of his past to indirectly taunt him while also referring to his occasional remembrance of the past as weak. He even scolded him for not landing their crashed ship properly, saying it is not like how he landed properly after killing Dooku.
- Despite helping Vader defend themselves against enemies, he potentially made himself appear weaker than usual to see if Vader would betray and kill him, as well as to let Vader do most of the work.
- Ordered one of his Royal Guards to kill a wounded guard after their ship was shot down.
- Killed many Twi'leks using his Force lightning, which left them badly charred.
- Attempted to kill Drua, a child Twi'lek, with his lightsaber for coming across them in the forest but was stopped by Vader.
- Told Isval that he let the Free Ryloth Movement nearly assassinate him and Vader in order to drain the movement's resources. He then had Vader execute Isval shortly afterwards.
- If this claim is true, that would make Palpatine indirectly responsible for all lives lost during the movement's deadly attempts, including countless of Imperial lives lost during the destruction of the Perilous.
- Ordered Vader to slaughter a village of Twi'leks, which included Mala who was pregnant at the time, to eliminate all witnesses.
Obi-Wan Kenobi[]
- His evil deeds in The Bad Batch indirectly led to a clone trooper being homeless, left on the streets to beg for money, and looked down on even by Obi-Wan.
- He threatens Vader into giving up his pursuit of Obi-Wan, which was only done so as not to waste his resources and to ensure Vader doesn't turn from the dark side.
Andor[]
- After the Aldhani Heist, Palpatine ordered Yularen to stop the Rebels by any means necessary, thus leading to the enactment of PORD which led to massive repression across the galaxy.
- He ordered the construction of various prison cells across the galaxy, so that the parts of the Death Star could be built in secret. This would eventually lead to the prison officers killing more than a hundred prisoners on Level 2 after they learnt no one would be leaving the prison.
- Orchestrated the Ghorman Massacre to seize parts for the Death Star, leading to Mon Mothma defecting from the Empire and declaring her allegiance for the Rebellion.
Rebels Season Four[]
- Uses planet-destroying weapons such as the Death Star to spread fear in the galaxy.
- Has multiple cities and populations razed or killed off out of paranoia that they might conspire against him.
- Tried to kill Ahsoka and Ezra when they were in the World Between Worlds, trying to use them to get in so he could use the power to have control of time and reality.
- After Grand Admiral Thrawn brought Ezra Bridger to him, he tried to prey on Ezra’s desire to be with his family. When Ezra refused to open the portal, Palpatine ordered his guards to kill him so he could join his dead parents in death.
- Although he does show sadness over Thrawn’s disappearance, this was pragmatic because he only viewed him as beneficial to his own plans in the galaxy along with Darth Vader. Also, while he supported Thrawn’s plans to wipe out the Grysks, it was not for the noble goals Thrawn had, but because he views him as useful to his cause.
Darth Vader (2020)[]
- After Darth Vader refused to kill both Luke Skywalker and Padmé's body double, Sabé (which would've threatened his manipulation of him), Palpatine punished him by attacking him with Force lightning.
- After, he took Vader's lightsaber to fight his two Royal Guards by himself, then proceeded to Force choke Vader and dismember three of his limbs. Palpatine worsened his punishment by taking Vader back to Mustafar to relive the painful memories of his defeat against Obi-Wan, ordering him to rebuild himself without using the Force.
- When Vader arrived on Exegol, he had his members of the Sith Eternal attack his broken apprentice, openly saying that any of them could potentially replace Vader and showing no care if his apprentice was defeated.
- He reveals his Sith fleet on Exegol to Vader, using its power to compel Vader into submission once more. He decides to restore Vader only after Vader agrees to serve him again.
- When the Knights of Ren save him and Vader from being frozen in time by Qi’ra to gain their favor, Palpatine ungratefully attacks them with Force Lightning for believing they could win him over, which killed two of them and subsequently allowed two of them to serve him.
Return of the Jedi[]
- He created the second Death Star to spread fear around the galaxy.
- Lured the Rebel fleet to Endor as part of his plan to destroy the Alliance by purposely allowing them to know the location of the second Death Star's shield generator. He admits this to Luke Skywalker and taunts him about it.
- Used the second Death Star to destroy some rebel ships and uses this to provoke Luke to get him to join the dark side.
- Betrayed Darth Vader by attempting to have Luke kill Vader to seduce Luke toward the dark side of the Force to become his new apprentice.
- When Luke refuses, Palpatine attempted to slowly kill him with Force lightning, taking clear sadism in doing so, which caused Vader to turn on him and kill him at the cost of his own life for Luke's.
Battlefront II (2017) & The Mandalorian[]
- Ordered that all life in the galaxy be eliminated, including the Empire itself, if he ever died, thus enacting Operation Cinder via Gallus Rax.
- As a result, he was directly the reason behind Valin Hess massacring the city of Burnin Konn alongside his loyal soldiers, killing thousands, leading to Migs Mayfeld defecting from the Empire.
Between Return of the Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker[]
- Orchestrated most of the events that happened in the sequel trilogy as he resurrected himself and was thus the one behind the creation of both the First Order and Supreme Leader Snoke.
- The First Order was shown to kill many innocent people and causing mass destruction to find the heroes, even if these innocent people weren't a threat to the First Order, possibly making the First Order just as, if not, even more tyrannical, murderous and dictatorial than the Galactic Empire.
- Besides creating Snoke to corrupt young Ben Solo into becoming Kylo Ren, Palpatine himself whispered voices in Ben's mind during his childhood to corrupt him further, making him responsible for Ben becoming Kylo Ren in the first place.
- Creates the Sith Eternal's fleet, the Final Order, to reclaim his rule over the galaxy and establish a new Sith Empire while having them destroy any planet in the galaxy that refuses to bow before him, not caring if this could kill trillions of people around the galaxy.
- Has Ochi kill his own (clone) son and his daughter-in-law once they refused to hand his granddaughter Rey over to him.
- Even before that, he rejected Dathan as a son when he failed to have the same Force powers and left him to be raised by his cultists with no concern about how badly they treated him.
The Rise of Skywalker[]
- Tries to use the Sith fleet to enslave the universe once the galaxy has been reconquered.
- Orders the destruction of the planet Kijimi to demonstrate the Sith Eternal's power.
- Attempts to have his granddaughter kill him to force his spirit into her and take control of her body.
- Drains the Force energy out of Rey and Ben Solo's dyad to restore his body, then attempts to kill him by sending him plummeting into a ravine, all just to spite his grandfather and uncle for causing his first death.
- Uses his Force lightning to attack and disable the enemy fighters, killing many of them in the process.
- In his true final moments, he attempted to kill his own granddaughter while sadistically mocking her and telling her how she is "weak" like her parents.
- Causes Rey to die as she destroyed him, because he had drained almost all of her and Ben's life energy.
- Is indirectly responsible for Ben Solo's death, as Ben sacrificed himself to resurrect Rey after she gave her life to kill the Sith Lord.
- Succeeds in destroying the Skywalker, Organa, and Solo bloodlines, forcing Rey to change her last name to the former.
- He clearly doesn’t care for Rey, only seeing her as an extension of himself since he never even refers to her by name and only uses terms related to himself.
- While he treats his men better in the movie, avoiding harming them and telling them not to fear the Resistance, he doesn't mourn their deaths when they're killed by Ben and Rey, showing that he just continues to manipulate people and only doesn't hurt them because he needs an army.
- Although his ironic death was horrific when he was killed and disintegrated by his own Force lightning that Rey deflected back at him, it was not played for any sympathy at all but rather a fitting punishment for his atrocities, as he outright deserved it for all the horrible, cruel, and vile things he had committed considering not only for what he did to the Skywalker family and Rey's parents, but also for what he did to all the Jedi that he had wiped out in the past as well, as well as betraying and killing his master Darth Plagueis, betraying Darth Maul and Count Dooku, orchestating the devastating Clone Wars, betraying the Separatist Council by having Darth Vader killing all of them on Mustafar, and the destruction of the planet Kijimi.
Legends Exclusive[]
Background[]
- While he did have an extremely poor relationship with his family, especially his father, and was the most hated member, being treated as an outcast by them doesn’t serve as a motivator for his crimes, as he was already a violent, spoiled, and misanthropic psychopath even before he developed any kind of relationship with his family (hence the estranged relationship).
- For the record, Palpatine was a troublemaker in school and killed two pedestrians with a speeder, showing no remorse at all which indicated that he was already evil even before he met Darth Plagueis. It also serves as deteriorating instead, since his personality becomes worse through time, which further cements him as antisocial since early childhood.
- Because of this, he didn’t care about them, and his actions went far past it as he murdered his own parents and siblings, including his family's two guards. His father did tell him that he should've killed him, but he is still far past it.
- Killed Senator Pax Teem by burning him alive, but not before killing his family, friends, and guests at the Embassy he was at in front of him by burning them all alive.
Between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope[]
- He sadistically killed three Jedi survivors of Order 66.
- With the intent to drive Tarkin further into the evil moral scale, he ordered Vader to murder his son Garoche Tarkin, which caused Tarkin to become a mass murderer of civilians on the kill count of billions.
- With the asssistance of Hethrir, he unleashed a horrible flesh eating virus on Firrere that wiped out almost all the native life.
- Encouraged Vader to continue betraying Galen by nearly painfully killing him.
- He had the Empire do many heinous things to the environment on Kashyyk and Felucia, such as having Ozzik Sturn enslave the Wookiees and installing a device into the sarlacc on Felucia, the latter of which left Juno audibly horrified.
- When he captured the politicians who were planning to form a rebellion, he was about to interrogate, torture, get information on more of their allies, and execute them.
- Tried to convince Galen Marek to fall to the dark side by killing Vader, and when Kota attempted to stop him, he tortured him with his Force lightning.
- In the dark side ending, where Palpatine succeeds in convincing Galen to mercilessly kill Vader, he asks Galen to strike down Kota. When Galen refuses by attacking Palpatine instead, he proceeds to electrocute Galen, uses the Force to throw the Rogue Shadow (which has Juno, Galen's lover, as the pilot in there) onto him, and kills the rest of his allies.
- After Galen survives the crash of the Rogue Shadow, he ends up in a harmful physical state similar to how his former master Darth Vader was in, where Palpatine controls him to do his bidding until he finds a new apprentice that will likely kill him.
- The aftermath of this was Galen killing Obi-Wan and corrupting Luke to the dark side.
- When Galen rescues Kota in the light side ending, Palpatine insists on him giving in to his hatred for killing him. When Galen doesn't give in, Palpatine attempts to kill him and his allies with his force lightning, which leads to Galen sacrificing his life to make sure he wasn't successful in killing his allies.
- In the sequel's alternate Battle of Endor timeline, when he finds out about the cloning program, he attacks Vader with Force lightning all while laughing sadistically.
- To make matters worse, right after he does this, he has Captain Sarkli kill the Galen clone, despite the fact that he helped bring about the fall of the Rebellion.
Empire: Betrayal[]
- Used the dark side to go into Shreeftuts dreams to make trading deals for the Ssi-ruuvi invasion of Bakura.
- Trained Mara Jade to serve the Empire and assassinate Luke.
- He had Bevel Lemelisk, one of the designers of the Death Star, tortured to death to punish him for giving the Death Star a design flaw. He brought him back to life multiple times just to torture him to death again, including feeding him flesh-eating insects.
The Dark Empire Trilogy[]
- Brought himself back as a clone to rebuild his Empire and continue his conquering of the galaxy.
- Drove Jeng Droga to madness while possessing him.
- Him being devastated by Thrawn's death was him losing some of the most effective war soldiers on his side to take down those who oppose him, not actual care.
- Corrupted Luke Skywalker to the dark side of the Force.
- Attempted to corrupt Leia to the dark side.
- Summoned a Force storm on the New Republic fleet, killing many people once again.
- Used the Galaxy Gun and Star Dreadnought to bring most of the New Republic under his rule.
- Tried using "World Devastators" to destroy Mon Calamari's homeworld as a punishment for their support of the New Republic.
- Destroyed the Pinnacle Moon to wipe out the Rebel base there.
- Arrived at Korriban to meet the Sith spirits as a means to be healed and was informed that he needed to use Han and Leia's third child, Anakin Solo, to do that. As predicted, he attempted to possess Han and Leia's child. Of course, a team would try to stop him from being Luke, Ysanna, and Brand, with Ysanna getting killed and Brand being wounded to near-death by Palpatine. Ultimately, Brand did die as a means to sacrifice himself in ending his tyranny once and for all.
- While it is shown that he will suffer a fate worse than death, it is also not played for sympathy but but rather another fitting punishment for all the crimes he had done, considering the first two trilogies (as well as the Clone Wars) are part of the Legends continuity.
Post-death and the Legacy Era[]
- Even after his death, his legacy will still haunt the Legends continuity, considering that he was a part of Lumiya's rise as a Sith Lord, Jacen Solo becoming Darth Caedus and betraying everyone he knew, and A'Sharad Hett becoming Darth Krayt, who attempted to commit the same crimes Palpatine committed. Because of this, Palpatine is responsible of the Sith causing more chaos around the galaxy, especially in Krayt's case, even if he is permanently dead.
Trivia[]
- While unambiguously Pure Evil as presented in both Canon and Legends works themselves, and never having demonstrated even subverted redeeming qualities, Palpatine, or his Legends version to be more precise, had one or two redeeming qualities and a mitigating factor through word of god and an unproduced work:
- According to The Clone Wars Campaign Guide, Sidious eventually grew to care for Sly Moore despite previously kidnapping her, bonding with her, and eventually revealing himself to be a Sith, though he didn't reveal he kidnapped her. It was even speculated that they fell in love and that Sly Moore gave Palpatine a son, even if he didn't love him. In-universe, however, Palpatine and Moore are never truly shown interacting, with their relationship being professional, and his care for Moore doesn't count due to being from a sourcebook and thus Word of God.
- In the unproduced Star Wars: Underworld, a planned 100-400 episode TV series that was due to air in 2009 but was delayed and eventually put on hold indefinitely due to budgetary concerns, according to Cory Barlog, Palpatine was somehow wronged by a heartless gangster woman, which destroyed him as a person and seemed to be portrayed as sympathetic. In addition, this implies he loved her, though it was never confirmed, and he likely stopped due to her wronging him. Though the backstory did seemingly inspire Kratos in God of War (PS4), the series was never produced due to the aforementioned reasons and Disney buying Lucasfilm. In addition, the novel Plagueis showing Palpatine was evil as a child and Darth Plagueis himself being recanonized later throw heavy doubt on whether the backstory would be included if Underworld is made (as it was never cancelled), cumulatively preventing the backstory from being mitigating.
- McDiarmid once said that he considers Palpatine eviler than the Devil himself. Funny enough, McDiarmid once played the Devil in a stage adaptation of Paradise Lost, where the Devil was portrayed as a tragic villain with sympathetic and even redeemable qualities, which Palpatine does not possess. It is possible that Ian is referring to Satan from Paradise Lost and not the Devil from theology, as the theology incarnation of the devil is way more complicated and mysterious.
- In a documentary for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas strangely stated that Emperor Palpatine is the hero in his own story and a well-intentioned extremist. However, the film itself doesn't imply this at all, so Palpatine still counts as Pure Evil, especially because his own actor stated to summarize why he is doing many of his actions; Ian McDiarmid said that everything he does is out of pure hypocrisy, and it is likely to what George was referring was how Palpatine saw himself, as he stated he is the hero in his 'own story', with everything and everyone else being a means to an end.
- Some have speculated Palpatine created Anakin Skywalker given that the final issue of the Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comic book series seemed to suggest that Palpatine was behind Anakin's mysterious conception. Indeed, George Lucas originally intended to reveal in Revenge of the Sith that Palpatine or Darth Plagueis manipulated the midi-chlorians to conceive Anakin, so in some ways, Palpatine could be considered Anakin's father. The idea was dropped from the final cut, and Lucasfilm has affirmed since then that this isn't the case.
- Concept art in The Clone Wars episode “The Lawless” had him decapitate Savage Opress. However, this was cut in the final version in favor of just stabbing him due to being too violent.
- Considering that the Original Trilogy was when everything started, the audience then didn't see Palpatine as evil as Grand Moff Tarkin, who destroyed Alderaan and was going to destroy Yavin 4. Palpatine had the Death Star II which was the upgrade of the first Death Star, but apparently only used it to attack the Alliance but not planets. Had the Star Wars franchise permanently stuck after the release of Return of the Jedi, Palpatine would have been Near Pure Evil for seemingly failing the heinous standards to Grand Moff Tarkin and seemingly suffering from Fridge Horror.
- His LEGO counterpart does not qualify as Pure Evil due to him being too comedic.
External Links[]
- Emperor Palpatine on the Villains Wiki
- Emperor Palpatine on the Star Wars Wiki
- Emperor Palpatine on the Disney Wiki
- Emperor Palpatine on the The Ultimate Evil Wiki
- Emperor Palpatine on the VS Battles Wiki
- Emperor Palpatine on the Wikipedia
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