PT Is Palpatine truly evil in the prequels?

As evil and heartless as Lucifer as far as I'm concerned.

 

Tim Curry portrayed Pennywise. He also portrayed Palpatine in The Clone Wars. This should tell you all you need to know.

 

Truly evil and yet at the same time I can see how he offered Anakin something like a legit familial bond. In some ways Anakin had to look to an almost demonic presence to find a scrap of humanity denied to him in the "freedom" of his Jedi life. That's what makes Palpatine way more unsettling to me than other saga big baddies like ESB Vader himself or Lord Orcsworth from TFA.

 

Very good insight!

Plus -- Palpatine had nice chairs. I'm sure Anakin wanted one.

He resented being told by Mace to "take a seat", got bum ache, and had to run to Palpatine's office to get the dead feeling out; and to exact a little payback.

I'm referring, specifically, to the Emperor's big chairs. But I think those ones at the opera, he'd have settled for one of those. "These things have buttons on? Buttons and lights!!! Okay, try to look interested in 'Darth Plagueis The Wise'. I'm going to the Dark Side for one of these."

 

Palps is evil all the way, he is good at hiding it until the right time to strike.

 

Anakin's obviously a stand-in for Lucas in that eventually both just wanted a comfortable seat away from all the space wizard laser sword nonsense. That's why the PT had so many sofas, recliners, and loveseats instead of x-wings, a-wings, and TIE fighters. Lucas was subconsciously telling the fanboys to finally put away their toys and take a seat in reality.

Seriously, though, some of my favorite scenes in the whole series are from the PT, where characters are simply sitting down and talking to one another. For all the craziness of the PT I think it likewise excelled when it came to quiet drama.

 

In ANH there is also alot of sitting down scenes, such as the dinner room on Owen's farm, the officer meeting room on the Death Star, the MF 's holo chess bench, the MF cockpit, etc. I agree with your post about the quit drama in the PT.

 

The new Ahsoka book has something to say about this particular fandom view of the Jedi Order.

Spoiler

“Poor little Kaeden Larte,” said the creature. Ahsoka narrowed in on his location. “So hopeful that her Jedi friend would come for her. I had to tell her that Jedi don’t have friends. Jedi don’t have attachments of any kind. They’re heartless and cold and don’t even understand what love is.”

“I don’t know who taught you about the Jedi,” Ahsoka said. “But they seem to have left out a few things. You should ask for better lessons.”

 

I believe they have taken action and control of other planets.

 

He's the Diet Coke of evil. Just one calorie. Not evil enough.

 

People like Palpatine are why the concept "evil" was invented in the first place.

He sees people as tools, pawns, objects to be used, owned, and/or discarded.

He possesses no empathy for others (only fakes it) and acts on this lack of empathy to inflict colossal harm for his own benefit.

He is completely deceptive for a good portion of his entire life.

He tortures for his own pleasure and turns friends and families against each other, resulting in mass murder. On purpose.

He doesn't even do most of the murders himself, he simply manipulates others to do unspeakable acts for him that destroy them inside.

He doesn't seem capable of genuine friendship or caring for others. He only believes in power and selfishness. He only cares about one thing: himself.

In every situation, he sees what he can exploit from others and then does so.

And nowhere can he use the defense "I didn't know better," or "I didn't comprehend what I was doing at the time." He does.

This is a fully grown man who doesn't just think these thoughts, he acts on them in nearly every case.

He shows no inner conflict about any of the horrible things he's done, no signs of genuine sorrow or remorse. In fact, he generally only shows glee.

I personally believe it's clear that he's a sociopath.

Everyone touched by Palpatine's life can be said to have been corrupted or destroyed, while he profited from it.

Even if one does not believe in the concept of 'evil,' I think he fits the bill for what evil is defined to be.

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Ian McDiarmid had this to say about him:

"Everything he does is an act of pure hypocrisy, and that's interesting to play. I suppose it's rather like playing Iago. All the characters in the play - including Othello until the end - think that 'Honest Iago' is a decent guy doing his job, and he's quite liked. But at the same time there's a tremendous evil subconscious in operation. There's a moment in one scene of the new films where tears almost appear in his eye. These are crocodile tears, but for all those in the movie, and perhaps watching the movie itself, they'll see he is apparently moved - and of course, he is. He can just do it. He can, as it were, turn it on. And I suppose for him, it's also a bit of a turnon; the pure exercise of power is what he's all about. That's the only thing he's interested in and the only thing that can satisfy him, which makes him completely fascinating to play, because it is an evil soul. He is more evil than the devil. At least Satan fell; he has a history, and it's one of revenge."

 

One can debate and question the existence of pure evil or true evil... but I will throw all that philosophical and existential debate out the window and say this....

Palpatine was pretty damn evil, about as evil as a human being can be... He may not be a gory serial killing sadist... but he is responsible for the deaths of billions of beings all because he wanted to sit on a throne...

 

But....

Anakin is not aware of the "demonic" side of Palpatine until the very end, where Anakin is now being drawn into making a final decision, where the demon has tempted Anakin by first winning his trust and presenting himself as something he wasn't.

Do you really think that the Anakin that falls between TPM and AOTC would have looked up to Palpatine as a father-figure if Palpatine had right out of the gate told Anakin that he was behind Qui GOn's death, planned on murdering the Jedi, creating a war that would pit both sides against one another and kill billions of people, than turn the Republic into an Empire where he would use a huge space station to destroy entire planets in order to keep everyone in line? Of course Anakin wouldn't look up to Palpatine as a father figure if Anakin had known the truth from the very beginning. So to try and demonize the Jedi by saying that their way of life was so bad that Anakin had to turn to a real demon doesn't seem fair because that is not what happens.

The demon was pretending, pandering, catering to Anakin and doing so over a decade where Palpaitne first earns Anakins trust, respect, and than admiration and affection. Palpatine than uses all those factors as a way to slowly shape, bend and even imprint certain opinions onto Anakin.

Basically Palpatine was a wolf in sheeps clothing.

Anakin looked to Palpatine to fill that void of not having a father, because Palpatine told Anakin everything that Anakin wanted to hear. It's the grandparent/child syndrome. Ya know where a child would rather go live with grandma and grandpa because whenever grandma and grandpa are over they spoil the child, never yell, never correct or criticize so the child thinks life would be so much better with grandma and grandpa. That is why Anakin looks up to Palpatine, because Palpatine fills that part of Anakins pysche.

What's important though is that Anakin also calls Obi Wan a father. So Anakin does realize that a father should be critical and tough, and not just pandering.

Throughout AOTC and ROTS we see how Palpatine has slowly and cunningly pretended to be a loving and caring father figure, only to get what he wants from Anakin. We all know how Palpatine treats his "sons"...

So again, I think it is a very unfair statement and characterization to make in order to take a shot at the Jedi.

 

Could you not talk about Darth Trump in that way? It's making me feel bad for the guy.

 

Ummm, yes he is.

I mean orchestrating a war, killing millions in the process, causing the massacre of a group of peaceful protectors and toppling a democratic government and replacing it with a dictatorship seems pretty evil to me. There's some ambiguity in the PT but whether Palpatine is evil or not isn't one of them.

 

Uhhhhhh....... yes.

Then again...

"Good is a point of view, Anakin."

 

Yes, I do believe he was evil. He was a Sith Lord the whole time, and didn't care what he did to gain power.

 

He killed my OTP. So yes.

 

I read that and thought it said ''Lucas'' at first, and was thinking that is seriously harsh. Palpatine's not THAT evil... (jokingly.)

 

He is.
Truly.
And i love it.

 

He's truly deeply evil.

 

Mon Mothma isn't his first choice, if you know what I mean. And if the Jedi don't like him, they should move to the Outer Rim.
palpatineandvader2016

All the Wookiees are criminals. Go back to Kashyyyk! I love the Twi'leks. Senator Farr's a Rodian, so we can't trust him.

 

I don't know if I'm alone on this but do you think there was a small side of Palpatine that genuinely cared for Anakin??? Obviously that side of him wasn't stronger then his desire to use Anakin for his goals but I do believe deep down he cared for him somewhat.

 

That is a fair argument with some evidence to support it, but Palpatine definitely takes pleasure in Anakin's suffering. If he felt anything for Anakin, it certainly fizzled out by the end of Episode III, when Anakin was severely weakened. I do think that Anakin was the closest thing that Palpatine could get to caring about anyone but himself, but it is obvious to me that Palpatine is willing to torture Anakin.

 

Cared for Anakin? I don't think so. I think he only saw the great power in Anakin that he could manipulate as a tool. In that sense, he needed to be that nonjudgmental father figure that Obi-Wan, as his master, could NOT be. Anakin craved that kind of nurturing, which the Jedi Order could not truly give him (one of their weaknesses). Palaptine knows this and decided to feed that need to some extent, drawing Anakin to him.