Discussions Why is Palpatine so evil?

Palpatine regarded himself as the embodiment of the Dark Side. But that doesn't mean he thought of himself as evil, since he did not perceive the Dark Side itself as evil (that would count as Jedi BS for him). In a way, all of these things are true:
- He WAS objectively evil ;
- He thought the old "good vs evil" concept was BS ;
- He thought he was the Dark Side itself ;
- As such, he felt responsible for ruling the galaxy.

 

In conversation with Maul in The Wrath of Darth Maul:

"rather than embrace the full spectrum of the Force, the Jedi ignored the infinite shades of gray that stretched between light and darkness. They declared the light side good and the dark side evil. To them there could be no in-between, no middle ground."

"It's one thing to examine an energy field that permeates the galaxy. But to give an energy field characteristics of good and evil? One might as well say "This cloud wants to protect us from solar radiation, but that other cloud wants to strike us dead with lightning."

 

As far as the Bane lineage goes, I think he's the worst. I'm not familiar with all the previous Sith Lords before Bane, but for somebody like Vader, who slaughtered the younglings in the Temple, to admit that Palpatine kills just for fun...that really makes a statement. Several of the Sith were not evil before they turned to the dark side. Palpatine seemed to be evil from his childhood, as did Plagueis.

 

The Sith Emperor of the Old Republic Era (ca 3650 BBY) might have actually been born a manifestation of the dark side. At one point he devoured the life force and drained the Force out of his home planet, leaving the whole system as a wound in the Force. I like the idea that every so often, a being is born as the dark side of the Force achieves some sort of ascendancy, like a natural, almost sinusoidal function of the way the Force manifests (crests and waves, basically). Of course, there's every possibility that this was never intended for Palpatine, but I think Luceno implies in his book very strongly that in some way Palpatine was born connected to darkness.

That said, this doesn't leave a lot of room for dualism in such a being, but for the sake of a good yarn, I like it.

 

A lot of that owes to the Sith Emperor being little more than an Expy of Palpatine, I think.

 

That's actually a good point...Anakin was born due to the perverse experiments by Palpatine and Plagueis, and Luke was born because of his father's failure. Every once in a while, a being born of the Force that's just overwhelmingly powerful...I love that idea.

 

I wouldn't say he didn't think of himself as evil, but more like he just didn't care about good or evil. He just cared about power. He was greedy and selfish and only cared about getting ahead -- even at the expense of others. Anyone who stood in his way was expendable.

I wouldn't say he was the worst Sith Lord ever, either. They were ALL like that.

 

Hmm, maybe you're right. But by not caring if you're evil, you know you're evil... I don't know, it's tough to figure.

 

GL actually does say that his statement includes Palpatine and goes on to explain Palpatine's view of himself.

 

Perhaps Palpatine is the Sith Emperor.

 

One could almost argue that most Sith Lords are either a Palpatine, a Vader, or a Maul (i.e. mystical, overpowering, or dynamic). I think that Karpyshynn wrote Revan before Luceno wrote Darth Plagueis, so the "born into darkness" aspect might be first applied to the Sith Emperor, but overall I think you're right. The Sith Emperor is little more than a plot device to set the stage for the Old Republic MMO.

 

If he is, it would have to be a kind of reincarnation. Luceno pretty much gives Palpatine a "birth certificate" when he wrote his background.

 

Given Palpatine's plan of shifting his spirit into the body of baby Anakin Solo- maybe he's done it before- but lost all his memories in the process?

Would somewhat dilute the theme of Essence Transfer if the only "lost secret" was how to do it without losing memories, though.

 

Darth Nihlus was pretty evil. He hardly talked and he drained other jedi of their abillity to use the force to feed his need for power

 

No, the Sith Emperor isn't Palpatine.

 

darth sidious was Emperor Palpatine

 

How do we know that Palpatine doesn't remember being the Sith Emperor? He did say that ROTJ isn't his first "death".

 

Vitiate and Palpatine are two completely different characters.

 

That has never been stated anywhere.

 

It's common sense. C'mon, Palpatine is not the Emperor from ToR. You know, he was created decades after him and there's absolutely no connection between them other than being Sith. If something has to be stated it's that they are the same character not that they aren't. We can just say they are the same character without any logical arguments that connect them and without concrete evidence. It's just simple and unsupported speculation.

 

also there was no emperor in ToR. the rule of 2 wasn't written yet. there was a council

 

Umm, yes there was... Emperor Vitiate?

 

oh yeah i forgot about him. sith leadership always swings from an emperor to a council and back

 

1. they have the same title
2. they both want to destroy the galaxy
3. they both like to transfer their essence
4. both wiped out their own families
5. the Galactic Empire has many trappings of the TOR Sith Empire

 

I think Nadd is FAR more evil than Kun