Why Palpatine Is The Greatest Movie Villain Ever

Just try! I'll get you my pretty  -- and your little dog, too. Can you even have a great  movie without a great villain? ...Okay, maybe you can, but  it's not nearly as much fun. I'm sending it back to hell where it belongs. Were you in love with her beast? And that's true even for non-Disney movies. Human beings define their reality  through misery and suffering. Is this your king? I'm your number one fan. I won't touch Barton. Not until i  make him kill you. Slowly. Intimately. So it's no surprise that when a thousand  film industry pros were asked about the   greatest villain of all time their  choice was Emperor Palp-- wait... Good morning. He's not even on the list?? Fools! Idiots! Imbeciles!! Could they really not find space for a villain  who emerged from across the gulf of time -- to settle an epic grudge -- hiding in plain sight -- until he could twist the hero of  the movie into his personal pawn -- in order to enslave the universe to his will? What exactly is being overlooked here? Is it the scope of palpatine's plan Because after, all a villain  is only as good as his plan. Do I really look like a guy with a plan? By the time of the Phantom  Menace the -- uh, phantom menace is about to execute the next step in his  plan to take full control of the galaxy and no one has any idea. They're all way too focused on the  political process to see Palpatine's   scheme unfolding right before their eyes -- Oh hey, maybe they could start a YouTube channel! So his evil scheme... is he really  wants Queen Amidala to sign a paper. I have never known the plot of this movie until  now, after having watched this movie for 20 years. Okay... I don't get it Imbeciles!! Unfortunately, Palpatine isn't the  type to just drop out of the sky   and announce his plan to destroy civilization: "You are about to die at the  hands of the children of Thanos." Why should he? He's got the  Republic exactly where he wants it and the Jedi think the Sith's return is -- "Impossible. The Sith have  been extinct for a millennium." A millennium is a long time  to be planning revenge. That would be like if the descendants of Genghis  Khan came back now to take revenge on... Russia? When the Sith went extinct, it was clearly at  the hands of a dangerous capable Jedi order and it sounds like whatever happened then  is part of what created the Republic: "This republic has stood for a thousand years..." That's why the Jedi seem so confident. And yet the Sith seem pretty  sure of themselves, too... "At last we will reveal ourselves to  the Jedi. At last we will have revenge." That's because the Jedi order has lost a step. Now they're just an inflexible hierarchy making  arbitrary decisions from a literal ivory tower. "The Force is strong with him." "He is to be trained then?"  "No. He will not be trained." Whatever they were before, there's  little more than a ghost left of it now. As Dave Filoni says, this sense that  the Jedi have lost their mission   is what makes Qui-gon's death so tragic. "What's at stake is really  how Anakin's gonna turn out because Qui-gon is different than the rest  of the Jedi and you get that in the movie and Qui-gon is fighting because he  knows he's the father that Anakin needs but instead of that father, Anakin gets this one "The Chosen One the boy may be,   but agree with your taking this boy  as your Padawan learner I do not." "The rest of the Jedi are so detached  and they've become so political that they've really lost their way and Yoda starts to see that in the second  film but Qui-gon is ahead of them all that's a failing for Anakin he doesn't have the the family that he  needs so he's left completely vulnerable. "What will happen to me now?" Palpatine steps into that  role of guidance for Anakin filling his head with a very  different idea of destiny: "You are the most gifted Jedi I have ever met.  I see you becoming the greatest of all Jedi." "I will be the most powerful Jedi ever." And since Anakin's relationships  grow increasingly strained,   both with the Jedi Council and with Obi-wan Palpatine is the only person who  truly believes in Anakin's potential "They've finally given you an  assignment. Your patience has paid off." In fact, he's essentially the only person from the  entire Republic who's ever shown him any support. "The republic's anti-slavery laws--" "The Republic doesn't exist out here." In many ways the Prequels are  the story of an arrogant religion who get a hold of the messiah and then  accidentally hand him over to the devil. The war doesn't go well, either. What we get to see of the  Clone Wars... is pretty sick. There's a reason people wanted more of it. Like a lot more of it This is a really good show, by the way.  I wonder why it's so -- oh that's right. But for the story Lucas was telling,  the only things that really matter   about the Clone Wars are how  they begin and how they end. That's certainly all that matters to Palpatine. You know the funny thing about this promise? "I will not let this republic be split in two." He kept it. There were never two sides to the war Of course it looks like you have  Dooku and the Separatists and Grievous versus the Jedi and the clones and the Republic, but the reality is, all of these  people are fighting for the same guy. It was a proxy war. It was a sham. A manufactured crisis that made  hypocrites out of the Jedi: "We're keepers of the peace not soldiers." Destabilized planets across the galaxy: "We are being held hostage" And extended the range of Palpatine's control. Listen to the music here: This is the birth of the Empire This is why Palpatine plunged  the galaxy into the fog of war   and made peacekeepers forget their purpose. Politics. And the Jedi just stood by and watched --  seemingly ignorant of the real game being played. They totally missed the importance of -- uh wait  it's here somewhere -- oh yeah: The Chosen One. The Jedi's fate is inextricably  connected to Anakin's,   and who is the only person he trusts? Not them. "My trust in them has been shaken." But they don't see this. They  don't see a lot of things. They kind of look like idiots honestly. "Chancellor Palpatine Sith  lords are our specialty." They don't notice when Palpatine uses  Anakin to siphon their power away. And when they finally discover the truth,  they rush in in a very unjedi-like manner. They just assume that it's gonna go the  same way it did a thousand years ago. And the Jedi council's rejection of Anakin. "You're on this council, but we do  not grant you the rank of master." Comes back to haunt them. When Palpatine activates Order 66 the Jedi who scoffed at the idea of  the Sith's returning from extinction   are annihilated in a matter of minutes most of them never knowing how  deep their failure truly went. And now the path was clear for Palpatine to  become emperor "with thunderous applause." He promises the galaxy: Although we get to see the fates of those who  Palpatine previously promised security to. "Lord Sidious promised us peace!" Palpatine's final victory is  almost unmatched in its scope Revenge of the Sith is like a  renaissance painting of judgment day where the Republic's political and  spiritual powers crumble into nothing and its hero tries to murder his wife,  before crossing swords with his brother,   and being consumed by wrath and when it's all over Palpatine swoops  into hell like the angel of death and Darth Vader is born as the last person in the galaxy who still  believes he has any good in him dies. Who is Palpatine's competition exactly? Satan? Because that's basically who Palpatine is. He dragged the most promising  Jedi down to the fires of hell returning him to the state  of slavery he was born in as a machine with a skull  where his face used to be. "And I'm telling you this  finale it's unbelievable. How tepid contemporary art seemed compared  to the passionate quality of this finale. So you have this like huge  like romantic nature painting the apocalyptic landscape of the lava. Then Lucas cross cuts to the  destruction of the senate chamber and you have the destruction of industry going on and then after all these  horrors -- it is so beautiful I'm saying my god! Nothing in the last thirty years in  any of the arts has been produced,   as emotionally compelling and significant as the finale of Revenge of the Sith." In other words the only thing that  eclipses the scope of Palpatine's villainy   is the scope of Star Wars itself.

Channel: So Uncivilized

Views: 2,614,767

Keywords: Jar Jar, Jar Jar Binks, Star Wars, George Lucas, The Phantom Menace, Ahmed Best, Natalie Portman, Liam Neeson, Jake Lloyd, Gungans, Queen Amidala, Padme, Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Dialogue, I Don't Like Sand, Attack of the Clones, Romance, Awful, Wooden, King of Wooden Dialogue, Prequels, Prequel Trilogy, Best, Worst, Lines, Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine, Emperor Palpatine, Greatest, Villain, Ever, Of All Time, GOAT, Dave Filoni, Camille Paglia, Ian McDairmid

Id: LXsYcdXaa7I

Length: 10min 38sec (638 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 08 2020