Why Palpatine Became OBSESSED With Super Weapons - Star Wars Explained

once Darth Sidious transformed the Republic into the Empire all things were now at his grasp he had absolute control over everything and he ruled almost all things within the known Galaxy with his new rule came so much new power as he now had a massive military with which to subjugate any system that he desired or opposed him but although he had so much power as Emperor there was one thing that Sidious seemed to be completely obsessed with during his whole life in both Legends and Canon and that is the idea of a super weapon super weapons are no strangers to Sith lore and in fact many Sith Lords in the past have used them in varying degrees of success super weapons and some rights are a staple of some Sith Lords that have caused tremendous death in the past Sidious learned from the successes and failures of each Dark Lord that predated him but despite the endless failures of his own Super weapons Palpatine always has a desire to return to them using them as his final stand above all else so why is exactly is this what made Palpatine admire and obsess over the idea of a super weapon well my friends in this holocron we are going to offer up some of our own theories and speculation along with some lore from Sidious himself that may explain why he cares so much about the super weapon idea now acolytes let us begin like we said super weapons are definitely nothing new to the Sith order as this was something the Sith had discovered pretty early on after repeated failures to defeat their enemies with Will and strengthen the force alone during the old Sith Lords we see some of the first Super weapons when both nagasa Dao and freed and NAD were unable to overcome the Jedi or the Republic because they relied solely on having total control and subjugation over those that they ruled and using their own power within Sith sorcery to rule and nothing else while both of these men were exceptionally powerful Sorcerers their magic was no match for the combined power and conviction of the Jedi Order the Jedi Order would only send their very best onto the battlefield to command over armies as well as massive navies seeing through the Sith Illusions and throwing down their dark power using the Light Side answering the force with the force this became a recurring issue that had destroyed two Sith Lords in a row however this would change with the arrival of the dark lord Exar Khan who really changed the whole Sith order and how it operated revolutionizing it ex-arcon was powerful in Sith magic to be sure but he used it far more subtly and meticulously than the passive had and then more so a means to an end than an outright weapon during the last fight of what became known as the old Sith Wars exarcon would be the first of the order to actually construct and use a super weapon successfully what we might go ahead and call the very first sis super weapon was something called the dark Reaper this saucer-shaped weapon had the power to literally rip the life Essence from an entire Army Darth Sidious had greatly admired exarcon for obvious reasons did not only create and use the dark Reaper but he had also used many Sith amulets and magical artifacts in order to put others under his control he had almost managed to completely topple the galactic Republic and killed many of the most powerful Jedi of his day exarcon even managed to destroy the great Jedi library on osis and in the end of the war would get the last laugh when he was not killed but became a Sith Spirit we can begin to see where Sidious had gained so much inspiration he had just decided to do all of his work in a more subtle way than XR had Sidious was a man who had a frightening amount of patience and was more than eager to play the long game when it came to getting anything that he desired over nine years of careful planning went into the setting up of the Clone Wars and three years of actually playing both sides of the war to get the Jedi in perfect position he took his time when it came to manipulating Skywalker allowing upwards of over 10 years of careful planning and seeding with the young boy it took almost 20 years for him to abolish the Imperial Senate and make himself the absolute ruler of the entire galaxy judge jury executioner because when Sidious patience pays off he will usually swing for the fences and go for the bigger plays that's the most important thing to know about Sidious as a person he likes to think big as a boy he wasn't satisfied with his family simply being nobility he wanted there to be a Palpatine on the nebu throne he didn't want to just be Chancellor of the Republic he wanted to be the emperor so when it comes to Warfare we can reasonably apply this same logic Sidious doesn't care for the long drawn out engagements if he wants a resistance squashed he will use a planet-destroying weapon or a fleet of Star Destroyers Sidious epitomized the rule of two in what they aimed for wait a long time for the perfect moment and then get everything done in one Fell Swoop it is this big thinking that has garnered Sidious victory over victory in fact we can even hear it straight out of insidious's own mouth going back to the dark Reaper in Darth malgus's chapter in the book of the Sith Lord Malgus talks about trying to find the super weapon of exarcut and this section is underlined in the margins as Sidious writes this a spark of insight from Malgus a Sith should always think on a Monumental scale Sidious complements malkus for his Ingenuity and thinking about using the dark Reaper as he gives us a glimpse as to why this scale is so important it's this tendency to allow himself to think big that produces some very interesting results While others see planet destroying weapons as Superfluous Sidious sees it as being his finest strategy because when it comes to size that all boils down to one word to the Dark Lord that word is fear the weapons deciduous represent more than the ability to destroy a planet Sidious has a lot to say when it comes to ruling with fear in fact he has an entire section devoted to it in his chapter in the book of the Sith We Believe through sidious's research in the past that he realized that ruling through fear was optimal many dark Lords in the past had tried to lame ultimate Victory and Authority by their regime But ultimately fell short as it was overthrown by their inferiors who did not want to be subjugated by a higher power Bain mitigated this temporarily with the idea of the rule of two but Sidious knew that eventually a rebellion would be born against him so his plans was to cut it off at the root and ensure that no one would ever make the attempt to stand against the dark lord in his book Palpatine would go on to say that fear is the spark that drives his Empire and fuels it to perfection in his own words the weak must be trained to fear the consequences of betrayal they must dread that their neighbor's loyalty is greater than their own the anxious will whip themselves into hysterical nationalism without further prompting at all fear is self-perpetuating we actually get to see this in action during some of the early episodes of Star Wars Rebel where the ghost crew were constantly having to question the Loyalty of their allies they are frequently betrayed by those who fear the Empire greater than they care for their friends the Empire runs on fear in fact Let us look at one of the smaller aspects in the Tie Fighter the Tie Fighter is designed to emulate a screaming noise as it flies overhead as an intimidation tactic the size of the Star Destroyers are made for the simple fact as well that size conquers all when enemy forces come against even one star destroyer their will to fight will drain from them as soon as they lay eyes on the massive Cruiser before them and of course this effect is only Amplified by the massive fleets the size of those ships are meant to cast a shadow on the surface of nearby planets to give the citizens something to fear a visual of the Empire's might Tarkin put it perfectly when he addressed the emperor I maintained that the effectiveness of the Star Destroyer stems from not only its massive Firepower but from its sheer size when citizens look at a star destroyer and then compare it to the craft which might be mustered to attack it they have a tendency to dismiss such a notion as suicidal rather than approach the problem tactically Tarkin in this address would go on to explain that he believes the Empire could exploit this notion to an even greater degree and it was this conversation that inspired Palpatine to put Tarkin in charge of the Death Star program Tarkin exemplified the law of fear perfectly in how he conducted his Imperial business Sidious knew that having a massive symbol of the Empire's Supremacy in superiority was Paramount the Death Star was the perfect way to go about this it was a massive battle station with the ability to eradicate entire worlds in an instant only a few demonstrations were enough to subject many planets into absolute subservience to the sheer Terror of such a weapon very few planetary leaders no matter how ideologically driven they are will be willing to put their entire planet and populists at risk over 5 fighting the Empire if they had such a weapon being able to hold the Galaxy at effective gunpoint was Sidious Grand and final plan political subterfuge and maneuvering was over and now was the era of fear so you see the obsession city has had for super weapons was not in their innate power the ability to destroy one or several planets was very tactically powerful but the real result from having such a weapon was to the morale of an enemy to break their Spirit of rebellion this is the entire end goal of the rule of two nay the entire end goal of the dark side this had the exact effect that Sith battle meditation had without Sidious ever having to lift the finger and the fear in the Galaxy literally went to fuel Palpatine's own power within the dark side this is what Vader meant when he said the ability to destroy a planet is insignificant compared to the power of the force Vader knew it wasn't the power of the planet busting weapon that Sidious was after but rather the power he would receive from the fear that such a weapon inspired but anyway my friends this is why city is appreciated and became obsessed with super weapons we invite you all to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments down below and do you think that there was another reason for Palpatine's Fascination or do you agree with our assessment thank you as always so much for visiting our archives and I hope that you're having a great day and May the force be with you foreign

Channel: The Stupendous Wave

Views: 44,949

Keywords: Star Wars, Star Wars Theory, Revenge of the Sith, Death Star, Death Star Explained, Darth Malgus, Darth Sidious

Id: S127EpBvyUE

Length: 10min 29sec (629 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 12 2023