CT The Emperor's ride

In ROTJ Palpatine arrives in the Endor system aboard a standard Star Destroyer. This has always seemed odd to me. After all, Lord Vader has the Executor, a Super-class Star Destroyer at his disposal. I would think not wanting to be outdone by his apprentice, the Emperor would have had a ship at least equal to Vader's in size.

What was the name of that SD Palpatine arrives on? Who captained it? Did he always use that particular ship? In the EU, did Sidious have something more impressive?

 

Darth Vader arrived in a regular Imperial-class Stardestroyer and Palpatine with the Executor.

 

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But isn't the Star Destroyer that passes overhead at the beginning of the movie after the crawl a Standard Imperial-class SD? I'm sure it is, and that Vader arrived on that... Unless I'm losing my mind. I haven't seen the movie in a year...

 

I don't think one-upping his apprentice is a high priority on Palpatine's mind, seeing as how he's already above him.

 

In the EU Palpatine and Vader are always in a kind of cold war of one upmanship with each other.

 

That may be true but Vader has more use for an impressive flagship than Palpatine does. He spends most of his time chasing down Rebels and getting involved in conflicts, after all. Palpatine spends most of his time holed up on the Imperial Center seeking immortality and unlocking the secrets of the Force. I doubt Palpatine cares about impressive ships much, anyway. Vader clearly does. That's the only aspect of his old life that doesn't bring him unbearable pain.

 

Before the prequel trilogy I thought Palpatine has no time for luxuries. But since seeing the man's clothes, offices, artwork etc in the prequel trilogy i'm beginning to think differently.

 

Yeah. It's an interesting tangent of his personality that he apparently appreciates opera/fine art/etc. I mean, I'm sure if you criticize the opera in ROTS he'd kill you horribly, but that's no different than alot of people around here.

Also-one of the SW cross-section books shows one of the compartments in the DS2's tower as having a very prequel-esque room for Palpatine to sleep in and such.

 

eww, so the guards watch him sleep?

 

They're more there as early warning for when Vader tries to murder him in his sleep.

 

In Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader- it says "Unlike Plagueis, Sidious knew better than to sleep."

So the sleeping chambers may be more for show.

 

From a security standpoint I wouldn't want the Emperor to have a ship which stands out. It would make that ship a target for terrorists, criminals or rebels.

 

I think Palpatine has the ultimate one-up: at least he isn't hooked up to an iron lung for the rest of his life. Ships probably don't matter.

And how do we know he didn't trick out his standard shuttle? For all we know, he had that thing hooked up with Wi-Fi, XBOX, Netflix . . . you get the picture.

 

The Death Star is Palpatines ride... He goes big or goes home.

 

This is why I loathe the EU. Seriously, now Sidious doesn't sleep? What the frack!

How exactly does he survive then, without sleep? And why does Yoda sleep then?

 

Yeaah, because a guy capable of unbalancing a universal energy field by existing is clearly subject to the vagaries of human biology.

 

In Darth Plagueis, we find out that, after his mastering the midi-chlorians, Plagueis stopped sleeping as well- Sidious had to drug him in order to get him sleeping and therefore vulnerable.

 

Dark Empire he has a Super-Duper Star Destroyer or something of a similarly crazy bombastic name. He was just keeping it in storage at Byss in ROTJ. Apparently it's as long as a planet or something huge like that. Go big or go home!

 

Actually it's shorter than the Executor- 16 to 16.5 km instead of 19- though thicker and more massive. He has two- one built at Byss, one at Kuat. Neither was complete till after his first death in RoTJ. Between RoTJ and Dark Empire, the Kuati engineers flee into the Deep Core on the not-quite complete Eclipse- which is later completed and seen in Dark Empire. The one built at Byss, is seen in Empire's End.

 

Perhaps you misunderstood him. He agrees with you

Not the biggest fan of EU sources, but one that is quite reliable is the ROTJ novelization. Vader arrived in an ordinary 1.6 km Star Destroyer. Palpatine arrived in the Executor, at which point Vader resumed command. So Adrain the Cool is right.

 

Luceno doubled down on the not sleeping thing.

 

If Sidious was able to drug him to get him to sleep, why not just go the whole way and poison him instead?

 

I have always wondered this too...

By the way, does anyone know where I can find the clip of that original "emperor's arrival at endor?" (The one they cut out where his shuttle emerges from under the Star Destroyer. I think they cut it because there were issues with the TIE fighters.) I have searched everywhere to no avail. Anyone know where I can see this clip once more?

 

^ Never heard of that alternate arrival before.

If true, it mirrors the shot from ROTS, showing Palpatine's return to Coruscant aboard his Theta Class Shuttle, escorted by several V-Wings, which was also cut from the final film. It is preserved in the final Trailer as the opening shot, though.