Analyzing Evil: Darth Sidious, Emperor Palpatine From Star Wars

hello everyone and welcome to the 30th episode of analyzing evil featuring darth sidious the dread emperor of the galactic empire this episode is a special episode for me as palpatine is my favorite cinema villain the amount of pure evil that is contained within the character of darth sidious and the way in which he goes about sowing this evil is both genius and terrifying and i may be bold and biased in saying so but it's my belief that he is the greatest villain to have ever appeared in cinema simply for the fact that his machinations and actions on a galactic scale are far beyond anything most villains are able to accomplish coupled with the fact that palpatine is a character who has no redeeming qualities whatsoever and with all the details we're given about the man by the end of this video i feel i just might have you convinced that this insidious monster is indeed a villain worthy of being placed atop the hierarchy of cinematic villains in this video i'll be providing you with information from all of the resources i used in the previous videos on maul dooku and vader as well as two novels darth plagueis and tarkin in accordance with the negative feelings people have towards palpatine's return in the legends comic series dark empire there's an even wider array of people who detest his return in rise of skywalker and for those of you who have great distaste for the way palpatine returned in episode nine as a courtesy i'm going to provide a marker in this video that will indicate at what point i'm going to be discussing his role in the events of the sequel trilogy it will be brief and feel free to skip that part if you wish as any information presented there will have little impact on the way i sum up the character at the end of the video but his appearance in that film is still part of his character and i will be discussing it now without further ado let's begin we'll start with palpatine's background and the personality he developed as a young man born in 84 bby to his father kosinga palpatine and an unnamed mother chief palpatine was said to have been a strong and willful child from birth whom his father hardly recognized as his own young palpatine would be a defiant child from the time he learned to walk and as he aged he would find himself getting into trouble with the authorities numerous times and would even cause the deaths of two pedestrians while out racing on his speeder however due to his status as a noble this would have little consequence for the young palpatine as his father was able to sweep any mishaps that might befall his son quietly under the rug the only ire he would gain from these moments would be the disdain of his father who thought the young palpatine brought great shame unto the noble name of house palpatine this behavior was in line with how palpatine conducted himself at home as he was constantly at odds with his family especially his father who he viewed as far less intelligent than he believed himself to be and misguided in his efforts to advance the interests of house palpatine part of this attitude came from the fact that palpatine held two incredible traits within him a genius level intellect and a force sensitivity that was far beyond even the most prominent force users in the galaxy he had sensed this great power within himself from a young age and owing to his grandiose views and his innate sense of superiority palpatine would come to desire to use that power to advance his own position within the galaxy and with this desire came ideas that were in stark contrast to his fathers and a sizable faction of the naboo aristocracy in that palpatine longed for the day where naboo would shuck off its backwards ideas of isolation and enter the galactic community at large believing there was a great place for naboo amongst the galaxy proper and he knew that by integrating naboo into the galaxy the opportunity for acquisition of great power would present itself to palpatine the palpatine we see here would have the vestiges of the sith lord he would eventually come to be as we have within him a willful mind a commanding set of unwavering opinions a hidden darkness waiting to be unleashed and the desire in life to do one thing and one thing only acquire power despite his previous transgressions with regards to his family and the law even here at this young age palpatine would have a great understanding of restraint and patience appearing to the public at large as a calm well-mannered and gracious individual one who knew his way around the art of conversation and who could placate anyone in his path with mild flattery or a cautious agreement with their positions all of which would serve to strengthen his efforts for greater power however service level interaction and public service were not nearly enough to facilitate his goals and in order to advance his position and the position he believed naboo deserved in the galaxy he would collaborate with the supposed enemies of his house the members of the aristocracy who desired to bring naboo into the galactic fold as he did through this espionage he would come to meet the man who would provide him a path to everything that he craved and more his master darth plagueis known to the rest of the galaxy as he damask of the prestigious damask holdings sensing the ambition in young palpatine and his strong personality that was well suited for leadership plagueis would go on to court palpatine into becoming his spy to advance his dealings on naboo through these endeavors plagueis hadn't yet sensed the strong attunement to the force that palpatine somehow managed to keep hidden in his subconscious and at this point he was hoping that palpatine was force sensitive but he wasn't exactly looking to make him his apprentice at this moment but was instead looking to add him to his repertoire of useful minions to advance the sith grand plan sensing something deeper over a lengthened exposure to palpatine he began goading him into aligning himself with the principles of the sith telling palpatine to seize that which he most desired and using palpatine's hatred of his father to his advantage plagueis tells palpatine a story about how he came to bring about the end of his own brothers and sisters who were contending with him for the rights to their late father's legacy eventually winning out through careful plotting and securing for himself a high position amongst the moons and after a confrontation with his father aboard a family ship palpatine's anger and hatred unleashed the immense force power he had been concealing choking his father and slamming him into the ship's thick metal walls until his death he would proceed to murder his entire family making him the sole heir and sole decider of the fate of house palpatine all while bringing his true self to the forefront letting the beast that had slept within his soul emerge to begin transforming palpatine into the man he had always wanted to be a man who was free of the bonds that had been placed on him from birth and a man who was free to be the ultimate decider of his fate and the fates of those around him palpatine in the moment after killing his family felt exalted a feeling that was slightly hampered by the fear of his actions being discovered however this too like every other terrible thing that palpatine had ever done was swept under the rug only this time it was his new master doing the cleaning up and not a father he had so despised this was of course the first event that would separate palpatine from the ambitious and self-serving youth that he had once been to the megalomaniacal architect of terror that he would ultimately become from here palpatine would immerse himself fully in the teachings of the sith deferring to his master in all aspects plagueis would train his body and his mind for 12 years while palpatine rose amongst the ranks of the political structure on naboo and at the end of these 12 years we find palpatine in the position of ambassador for naboo in a secret annual meeting arranged by his master on the moon sojourn we get to see palpatine's mastery of the art of diplomacy and conversation in action where he defers to the opinions of others reading the crowd and the atmosphere before taking a position and even when he does so he does so in a way that's manufactured to satisfy those asking the questions yet vague enough to hide his differing opinion or true thoughts on the matter it was here on this very moon that sidious made his first contribution to the sith grand plan an idea that would be instrumental in ensuring its success the idea that the jedi needed to be framed as the enemies of peace and justice rather than their ally with his own growing power and his master's connections the pieces began falling into place as new allies like saint pestage came into the fold as well as unwitting and developing ones in count dooku and sifo-dyas throughout his years as his master's apprentice palpatine would grow his rapport with the members of the senate and the jedi as well and his presence in the republic as a rising star was well known and talked about the galaxy over the beauty of palpatine's restraint is shown to us in these early years and his ability to hide as a proverbial wolf amongst the sheep is something that few villains of his magnitude are capable of he moves in a way that's both elegant and reserved projecting himself as a kind and caring man and the sincerity he holds in both his smile and mannerisms make palpatine come across as a genuine and admirable leader in this persona he's never seen giving in to anger or any other volatile emotion for that matter and through the serenity of his disposition he projects a calm and confident strength that served to both disarm and inspire the people around him up until the eventual execution of his master by his own hand palpatine would work to bring the people and organizations that had been cultivated by his master to be subservient to him and in the process would also find for himself his own apprentice in darth maul by the time the naboo crisis had reached its peak and palpatine was elected as supreme chancellor his power and prestige had now far outshone his masters and the night of his election he killed his master in his sleep cementing himself as the focal point of the dark side and the galaxy palpatine would go on to consolidate the power that had been conferred upon him by not only his master and the republic but as he felt in the moment following his master's demise the dark side itself as it had his master years earlier when he had disposed of darth tenebrous wrapping him in a penumbra of dark power that flowed through every fiber of his being now with his master dead and palpatine seated at the pinnacle of power in the galaxy the real work towards executing the grand plan of the sith could begin with the loss of his own apprentice palpatine would now look toward recruiting a fallen jedi who had gained much repute as a political idealist and as an elusive man who operated at the fringes of the galaxy count dooku with his assistance he would orchestrate the plan his master had set in motion by pinning the production of the clone army on the late sifo-dyas whom in truth had believed what he was doing was the right thing to combat the coming onslaught of darkness that would fall upon the galaxy using his master's contacts within the various corporations and dissidents that would eventually make up the separatist leadership palpatine through count dooku would begin fanning the flames of discontent that had been growing for decades flames that had been in part ignited by the sith and their secret collaboration with the seedier and more corrupt elements within the galaxy and the republic itself through these endeavors palpatine would seat himself in a position that few can claim to have ever held in a plot such as this one where no matter the outcome of the events that would follow he would emerge the ultimate victor i could go into individual detail about each atrocity that was orchestrated by the separatists and each battle that cost the lives of countless innocents but the simplest way to convey to you palpatine's role in the clone wars is to state that he was responsible for everything each death each broken world can ultimately be traced back to palpatine making him responsible for casualties and cruelty on a massive scale that can hardly be matched by any other being all while appearing to the public as the shining bastion of the republic the man who was steering the galaxy towards the right course this is the evil genius of palpatine the fact that he had the foresight to formulate a plan using the materials handed to him by generations of sith with which he would exact their revenge in the most efficient and effective way all the while appearing to the galaxy as a man who was pure in his intentions staunch in his adherence to republic principles and a defender of the law and order that the galaxy so desperately desired the fact that he's able to hide his true intentions and thoroughly evil self from everyone even the jedi is a testament to both his power and skill known to only a select few behind the eyes of palpatine lies every facet of evil you can imagine in a person he holds within him immense cruelty and brutality the absence of remorse and the ambition and willingness to sacrifice everything and i mean everything to achieve his goals as long as when the dust settles there's still some toys for him to play with we see this notion when he expresses the vader during a conversation in the darth vader comics that he doesn't wish to rule over a galaxy of the dead showing us that his desire to torment and rule people supersedes the intense bloodlust that he holds within himself his disregard for life was not only seen on an impersonal level but a personal one as well as along with his bloodlust comes an intense sadism a sadism that went in tandem with his view of the helpless beings of the galaxy as nothing more than his playthings every life was nothing more than a mind to be bent and a will that he could turn toward his own pleasure or ambition and physical and mental torture were commonly employed by darth sidious as i said in the beginning of the video palpatine has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever and in his pursuit of power there lies no shred of morality not a desire to better the galaxy through his leadership like count dooku or to uphold and save the lives of the ones he loves like anakin no everything palpatine does in his life is done for one person and one person only himself he is a sith and does wish to avenge his order and uphold its values to a certain degree but if palpatine needed to destroy and defile everything he had pledged his life to in order to remain at the top he would have done so as nothing holds more value to palpatine than himself and his power all of these things are the crux of what makes palpatine the most sinister and cunning villain imaginable his rampant megalomania unending patience disregard for any and all life the understanding and abuse of the intense power he holds a lack of any moral values whatsoever and his genius level intellect that makes him capable of outwitting his enemies at every turn however these traits would have taken him nowhere if it weren't for his use of the sharpest tool in his arsenal manipulation promises and bribes flattery and feigned respect common cause and moral values all of these enticements would be promised to thousands of beings across the galaxy from senators to the heads of corporations to jedi all would fall prey to the either real or false promises of darth sidious a prime example of these false promises are the ones he made to tyranus and vader lured in with the promise of a new order an order that would be clean and robust one that would supplant humans above the common filth-ridden rabble of the galaxy and bring about an age where the sith led an army of force-wielders through sheer might a force that would set the galaxy as a stage on which the powerful could reign their ferocity over the weak and meager masses this idea was purred into the ear of count dooku a tendril extended from the indomitable shadow of palpatine's soul coaxing the already power-hungry dooku into becoming his apprentice and the perfect puppet figurehead of the separatists this of course was only a means to an end and the apprentice he had been cultivating since he had laying eyes on him during the naboo crisis was anakin skywalker unknowingly nurtured from a young age with disparaging ideas about the role of the jedi and the republic in both anakin's life and the galaxy anakin would latch on to the many ideas that were funneled into his head by the deceitful whispers of this dark entity coaxing him into embracing his feelings and feeding conflict into an already conflicted mind palpatine would successfully turn anakin with false promises and friendship that would ultimately backfire on anakin just as the falsity of palpatine's entire being had spelled the end for countless other beings throughout the galaxy this is perhaps the greatest feat of manipulation sidious managed to pull off as he cultivated anakin from a child into one day becoming the final piece in the grand plan ensuring the destruction of the republic and the jedi order accomplishing this feat through careful coercion deceit and pandering by turning anakin darth sidious made it so that he would have a vessel from which he could rule the empire indirectly a force and voice for his vision while he focused on other important matters with all that we have discussed at his disposal how can anyone hope to match a person who has successfully infiltrated the institution he is actively trying to destroy and not just as a regular saboteur but as the leader of that organization a position in which he has thousands if not tens of thousands of beings secretly advancing his agenda whether they knew it or not controlling everything in the galaxy from the criminal underworld to businesses to the most respectable institutions that have stood in the name of the greater good for a thousand years palpatine's manipulation of the entire galaxy and his eventual victory is expertly described with a beautifully poetic paragraph written by matthew stover in the revenge of the sith novelization the dark is generous and it is patient and it always wins it always wins because it is everywhere it is in the wood that burns in your hearth and in the kettle on the fire it is under your chair and under your table and under the sheets on your bed walk in the midday sun and the dark is with you attached to the soles of your feet the brightest light casts the darkest shadow and of course we know the dark does indeed win and it even wins when it's losing even when he's maimed by his own force lightning during his duel with mace windu this only furthers his own ends in providing him an opportunity to lower the mask he had been wearing for so long letting his true self shine through it would seem that he suffered grievous injuries and irreversible damage to his person and in a sense he has but he's now able to use these wounds to always live as darth sidious letting the dark side and his natural personality flow from within himself no longer is he concerned with catering to the masses now his smile is as malicious as his intentions his laughter scornful and cruel and his actions and movements a reflection of the ill intent he holds within himself at this moment at the end of the war he started the jedi and the republic his ambitions are secured and the galaxy has been ranked asunder transformed in the name of stability and order into the unlimited fountain of power and energy darth sidious would use to transform himself into the almighty emperor of an entire galaxy putting in place a repressive and authoritarian government that had an iron grip on almost every aspect of sentient life sectors had been divided among moths who were reinforced by military might that was ready to subjugate worlds at a moment's notice and to back them up a network of spies and intelligence all manufactured in the name of the new order all of which were only in place to protect palpatine and increase his hold on power rather than being the force that was upholding the rule of law during his years reigning supreme over the galaxy sidious would task his apprentice with the training of inquisitors to hunt down the remaining jedi commissioned technological horrors that would instill fear into rebellious systems and hold a court that was rife with power struggles and descent where conflict and subterfuge often took the place of comradeship he would enact policies and laws that would boost the position of humans within the galaxy strengthening the core worlds to become his bastion of power while the outer rim systems languished as planets to be used and abused for their resources and slave labor like when he ordered the geonosians who had been the architects of the death star to work on its construction against their will and thereafter instituting a policy of sterilization for what would be the rebellious geonosians wiping out an entire species to ensure dissident elements stayed buried this new order would attempt to rule through the force of might and all the initiatives palpatine took during this time were aimed solely at increasing imperial power without regard for the well-being of the citizens of the galaxy the prosperity of the people of the galaxy was last on the list of priorities for the emperor and any benefit that the empire brought to the galaxy was negligible and beneath the notice of a man whose only goal was everlasting power there's a line i'd like to note here from the plagueis novel where palpatine states his mild distaste for the grandiose art of his home planet telling his master that he much prefers a more minimalist style during his time as a youth a senator and chancellor palpatine would dress in the finery that was expected of him but upon forming the galactic empire he would project his minimalism on the very structure of the empire preferring his soldiers officers starships and buildings to be pristine and pragmatic this would include himself as he now exclusively garbed himself in a black-hooded robe allowing himself to be unconcerned with what he likely perceived as needless fashion and pandering this minimalism shows us how unconcerned palpatine is with the material world or with possessions preferring to focus all of his energy on the pursuit of power rather than anything else however his appearance wouldn't matter all too much as he chose to hide himself from the galaxy more often than not and sidious would spend much of his time delving deeper into the dark side placing much of the day-to-day activities of ruling the empire on his cronies the pursuit of greater understanding of the dark side was of course only in service to his one true goal expanding his power and the way sidious wished to accomplish this was by providing for himself eternal life his endeavors would include expanding upon the research of his master but also by trying new and extreme methods like project blackwing which had the empire employing researchers who delved into sith alchemy to try and uncover the secret to unlocking immortality accidentally creating zombie-like creatures in the process achieving this still wouldn't have been enough though as his efforts were also spent on divining ways in which he could alter the very fabric of time and space by obtaining this power he would use the dark side to reshape the galaxy and the universe in any way that he desired transcending from a mere lord of the sith and emperor into nothing short of a god though the institution he created would be robust and hold considerable power this iteration of his empire would have its flaws as despite all his preparations its transformation from the disorder that was the republic into an immovable force was hardly perfect and his rule would be subject to various problems like separatist holdouts frequent assassination attempts and a growing rebellion it was this rebellion in tandem with his lack of foresight in regard to the children of anakin skywalker that would be the undoing of all the efforts he had put into increasing his power as his reliance on his apprentice being totally subservient to him and an overestimation of his own power was a fatal flaw in palpatine that ended in his undoing the vestiges of imperial rule in the galaxy wouldn't be snuffed out in a single day however as palpatine had accounted for the unlikely scenario of his death and had put into place a contingency plan that called for the total destruction of the empire in the event of his death in order to set the stage for its eventual rebirth it's a testament to the intense selfishness of the emperor that he believed the empire served one purpose and one purpose only preserving the life of its emperor and ensuring his continued and unbroken rule of the galaxy through these orders he would ensure the destruction of his empire an empire that had served its purpose as practice for the plans he had been forming in secret during his reign all the efforts he had put into preserving his life and expanding not only his personal power but the power of the institution he wished to rule over for an eternity were concentrated on the planet exagole where he had experimented with the help of his sith cultists finding ways into which he could achieve the impossible and extend his life indefinitely through the use of both cloning technology and ancient sith rituals here is where palpatine accomplished a number of things namely the creation of a clone body that his soul could escape to upon his eventual death a fleet of star destroyers each with the planet destroying capabilities of the death star and an army of brainwashed and genetically altered children who had been conditioned to be the perfect soldiers to form his new sith army in the pursuit of creating his own clones he created two separate beings that would be instrumental in his rebirth and the rise of his resurgent empire the first being snoke whom he would rule the first order through as a puppet and simultaneously attempt to turn the grandson of his former apprentice to the dark side to take on the mantle of his new sith apprentice the second is his son that had been born as a result of the efforts of the cultists to clone sidious a new body however this clone would have no force sensitivity and his purpose in regards to the plans of darth sidious wouldn't come until he sired a force-sensitive daughter many years later when the timing was right sidious lured ben to exigle promising him a future as the leader of the new and improved empire in doing so he would in turn bait ray to the planet where he would conduct a ritual with his faithful cultists in which he could possess the body of rey and continue his existence through her this of course fails but these plans and his far-reaching preparedness in accounting for his own demise is a testament to the cunning of darth sidious and mirrors the planning and effort he put into instigating the clone wars and the purge of the jedi order and this shows us what he's willing to do to provide for himself an immortal body and immortal empire so in the end who was darth sidious he's a man who displayed from a young age his will to dominate and his desire to carve his own path in the galaxy and who felt from this age that he was destined for a greater purpose this purpose however was tempered with selfishness beyond imagining as palpatine's ambitions lay not in the acquisition of power to serve his people or a set of moral values but to serve his own desire to rule with his induction into the order of the sith lords palpatine's inner self would be released transforming this ambitious and power-hungry young man into a megalomaniacal monster who would stop at nothing and sacrifice everything to obtain ultimate power in his efforts to achieve this power palpatine would use manipulation cunning and violence to ease himself into the highest position obtainable within the galaxy all while appearing to the masses as a benevolent and selfless leader who sought only to bring good to the people of the galaxy from this position he was able to start a war one where he was the leader of both opposing factions ensuring for himself that no matter the outcome he would emerge the victor in doing so he destroyed the lives of trillions of beings in the galaxy all the while subjecting his allies minions and enemies to torture and torment whenever the situation allowed feeding the bloodlust and sadism that was a core part of his personality all of his machinations resulted in the destruction of his enemies ushering in a new order a galaxy-wide empire that only served to further increase the power of a malicious entity who cared nothing for the people he ruled over this galaxy would become the personal playground for this veritable devil one where he would further abuse its citizens for both his own personal delight and his selfish desire to be supreme among all other beings his crimes are immeasurable and the destruction of life on a galactic scale simply to achieve ultimate power is nothing short of terrifying arrogant cruel egotistical sadistic brutal conniving genius unforgiving remorseless selfish deceitful all of the terrible traits you can possibly imagine in a person come together to form a man whose intentions are nothing short of pure evil and his willingness to do whatever it takes for the sole purpose of enhancing his own personal power and the ways in which he went about gathering this power make him the most devious and unredeemable villain to ever appear in cinema thank you all for tuning in to this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed what are your thoughts on palpatine did i miss anything let me know down below and leave a suggestion for a villain you'd like to see featured while you're at it if you liked this video and want to see more like it appearing in your feed click the subscribe button to keep up on the latest episodes and feel free to leave a like while you're at it thank you once again to all of my existing subscribers for your incredible support if you'd like to support the channel further consider signing up as a patron over on patreon you can find a link to patreon down in the description thank you to everyone who signed up so far and a most vile thank you to those whose names you're seeing on screen now join the channel's discord server to interact with myself and others in the community and follow me on the social media platforms listed in the description for occasional updates on the channel as always thanks for watching and i'll be seeing you soon

Channel: The Vile Eye

Views: 480,347

Rating: 4.9464588 out of 5

Keywords: Palpatine, Emperor Palpatine, Darth Sidious, Sith, Dark Side, Vader, Dooku, Maul, Darth, Star Wars, Force, Republic, Empire, Skywalker, Plagueis

Id: rVbJ7FmZJiQ

Length: 30min 7sec (1807 seconds)

Published: Thu May 27 2021