PT Was any part of Palpatine good?

Um...
He's using a healing technique and checking Anakin's condition. It's like Obi-Wan does to an unconscious Padme and unconscious Luke.
If you look carefully Anakin stops moving when Palpatine touches him, like he is being calmed.
It's been described as Palpatine's one act of compassion and partly explains why Vader would stay with him.

Nevertheless, besides all that your sentiment is correct.

 

Unconscious is not the same as being burned from head to, well, stump.

 

The junior novelization does say he's "using the dark side to keep Vader alive" - with the adult novelization saying Palpatine has "set his will" on Vader, willing him to live:

Adult ROTS novelization (Matt Stover)

A Naboo skiff reverted to realspace and flashed toward an alien medical installation in the asteroid belt of Polis Massa.
Tantive IV reentered reality only moments behind.
And on Mustafar, below the red thunder of a volcano, a Sith Lord had already snatched from sand of black glass the charred torso and head of what once had been a man, and had already leapt for the cliffbank above with effortless strength, and had already roared to his clones to bring the medical capsule immediately!
The Sith Lord lowered the limbless man tenderly to the cool ground above, and laid his hand across the cracked and blackened mess that once had been his brow, and he set his will upon him.
Live, Lord Vader. Live, my apprentice. Live.

Junior ROTS novelization (Patricia C. Wrede):

As the Imperial shuttle closed its wings and settled on the topmost landing platform, Darth Sidious saw a small starship fleeing from Mustafar. But he could not order the shuttle into pursuit—the uneasy urgency was stronger than ever, and it was tied to the planet, not the ship.
The clone troopers disembarked first, fanning out through the quiet building to make sure nothing would endanger their Emperor. They found only bodies. Then, as Darth Sidious inspected the control room, one of the troopers came in through an exterior door.
"There's something out here," he reported.
That's it. As quickly as he could, Darth Sidious followed the troopers outside, onto the black sand banks of the lava river. No, it can't be!
But it was. His promising new apprentice, who was to be the greatest Sith who'd ever lived—maimed and burned, perhaps dead. Darth Sidious ground his teeth in frustrated anger. Part of him wanted to turn on his heel and leave what was left of Darth Vader to burn to ashes in the rising lava. Even if he was alive, even if he could be saved, Vader would be crippled.
And not just with his mechanical limbs. The Force—dark side as well as light—was generated by living beings, and it took living flesh to manipulate it. Darth Vader would never be able to cast blue Force lightning; that required living hands, not metal ones. And with so much of his body replaced by machinery, he would never come close to the potential he'd had.
It was a great pity, Darth Sidious thought, controlling his anger, but perhaps not irreparable. Even diminished, Darth Vader would still be very strong, and there were no Jedi left to challenge him. Darth Sidious had seen to that himself. So he kept walking until he could bend over the body. And to his surprise, his apprentice was still alive.
Relief swept his doubts away. "Get a medical capsule immediately," Darth Sidious commanded, and clones ran off to do his bidding. Leaning down, he placed a hand on Darth Vader's forehead, using the dark side to keep him alive.

 

Presumably not kindness and compassion since those are antithesis of the darkside. Hatred, suffering and pain are the darkness.

Makes sense if Vader is to be a servant of evil, his first experience involves hating and suffering enough to motivate him to live long enough to punish those he feels are responsible.

Having your burnt skin handled by someone would certainly induce suffering, anger and hatred.

 

He started off like anyone else , but how he became evil would be an interesting story .

 

Completely agree. He's on a whole other plane to everyone else. He's a predator walking among sheep. The alpha of all alphas. Everything he does is to serve his mission. He's always thinking and moving towards his target. Complacency isn't an option.

 

Is that true? I was given the impression that, like the Jedi, Sith were often raised from birth. Palpatine included.

 

I don't know about that , but we at least know that Dooku and Anakin weren't .

But what I mean is Palpy wasn't born evil .

 

What I mean is, has that been confirmed?

 

No idea . The movies don't address it , but I don't see why someone would need to be born evil , humans have quite the capacity for it anyway .

 

Ok. I wasn't sure if it was declared one way or the other in a book or whatever.

So it's still possible that he was raised as a Sith from birth like Maul.

 

Ian McDiarmid said that Palpatine was a patron of the arts, but that's not an inherently moral act.

I don't see Palpatine as born evil, but I don't see anything redeeming about him.

 

Palpatine, Darth Sidious the Patient, brought order to the galaxy. He ended the corruption of the Senate and the apathetic attitude of the Core, the bureaucrats and the Jedi Order, to the plight of Galactic citizens at the mercy of criminals whether they be trade cartels, smugglers, slavers or Hutts. He united the galaxy in a way no one thought possible.

There was no civility. The bureaucrats were in charge. Corruption rampant. The people ignored.

The Chancellor saved the galaxy. Admittedly he put down the Jedi. An Empire with Jedi would be win win. If not for Palpatine's Empire we needed a Jedi Junta. Not the corrupt old Republic.

The galaxy needed a new leader. A visionary leader. A strong leader. For a safe, prosperous and secure society. For the people, not the bureacrats!

 

...

Dude the Empire is much, much worse.

 

Yeah, I remember this.

Also,

If you consider Palpatine having a feeling for Anakin as him having a good part, then I guess he did?

 

That smile on his face shows that he does care about Vader's mindset, albeit in his twisted way. If all Vader meant to him was a tool to run his empire, then all he needs is a Vader who fears him and obeys him, which he already had. What was so special about that moment was that Vader was destroying the innocent medical droids (the ones that just saved him, in fact) out of anger, without being ordered to do so. He is happy for his apprentice finally letting go of his conscience and becoming a truly ruthless Sith.

Not to mention that if Vader does surpass him, he would most likely overthrow him. But it almost seems as if Sidious doesn't see that as a problem. The sentence he says just before that one is, "You will not stop me." He sees Vader as his successor, and his successor succeeding is the same as himself succeeding.

He did play nice for many years, but as soon as Anakin cut off Windu's arm, he immediately switched to bully mode, and it worked—Anakin obeyed his every command. I don't see the point of pretending to care about him at this time. And if he was trying to pretend, why would he do something that gives him more pain? I guess in the star wars universe, gently touching burnt skin just doesn't hurt.


My only argument against Sidious caring about Vader is that perhaps it's not Vader as a person that he cares about, but either of two things:
1. The Sith as a whole. To him, Vader represents the future of the Sith.
2. His own legacy. Had Vader not been crippled, he would have become the most powerful Sith in the history of the galaxy. In that case, Vader is like his proudest achievement, his masterpiece creation, like a gold medal to an athlete, the best painting to an artist, or a revolutionary discovery to a scientist. The personal/emotional connection may be minimal, but he's still everything to him, and he would be content dying as long as his creation remains. After getting crippled, Vader is no longer a masterpiece, but still his best work, one that he worked on for many years.
But of course, these three possibilities aren't mutually exclusive.

I agree that he didn't care about Dooku, that was just a temporary tool. I'm not so sure about Maul though, we don't get to see much interaction between him and Maul in TPM.


Regarding the OP's question, I'm going to say no. An emotional attachment to one or two people doesn't count as "good," it just means he's an intelligent life form with both thoughts and feelings.

 

In the novelisations, it's stressed that this touch is part of Palpatine using the Dark Side to keep Vader alive:

Adult ROTS novelization (Matt Stover)

A Naboo skiff reverted to realspace and flashed toward an alien medical installation in the asteroid belt of Polis Massa.
Tantive IV reentered reality only moments behind.
And on Mustafar, below the red thunder of a volcano, a Sith Lord had already snatched from sand of black glass the charred torso and head of what once had been a man, and had already leapt for the cliffbank above with effortless strength, and had already roared to his clones to bring the medical capsule immediately!
The Sith Lord lowered the limbless man tenderly to the cool ground above, and laid his hand across the cracked and blackened mess that once had been his brow, and he set his will upon him.
Live, Lord Vader. Live, my apprentice. Live.

Junior ROTS novelization (Patricia C. Wrede):

As the Imperial shuttle closed its wings and settled on the topmost landing platform, Darth Sidious saw a small starship fleeing from Mustafar. But he could not order the shuttle into pursuit—the uneasy urgency was stronger than ever, and it was tied to the planet, not the ship.
The clone troopers disembarked first, fanning out through the quiet building to make sure nothing would endanger their Emperor. They found only bodies. Then, as Darth Sidious inspected the control room, one of the troopers came in through an exterior door.
"There's something out here," he reported.
That's it. As quickly as he could, Darth Sidious followed the troopers outside, onto the black sand banks of the lava river. No, it can't be!
But it was. His promising new apprentice, who was to be the greatest Sith who'd ever lived—maimed and burned, perhaps dead. Darth Sidious ground his teeth in frustrated anger. Part of him wanted to turn on his heel and leave what was left of Darth Vader to burn to ashes in the rising lava. Even if he was alive, even if he could be saved, Vader would be crippled.
And not just with his mechanical limbs. The Force—dark side as well as light—was generated by living beings, and it took living flesh to manipulate it. Darth Vader would never be able to cast blue Force lightning; that required living hands, not metal ones. And with so much of his body replaced by machinery, he would never come close to the potential he'd had.
It was a great pity, Darth Sidious thought, controlling his anger, but perhaps not irreparable. Even diminished, Darth Vader would still be very strong, and there were no Jedi left to challenge him. Darth Sidious had seen to that himself. So he kept walking until he could bend over the body. And to his surprise, his apprentice was still alive.
Relief swept his doubts away. "Get a medical capsule immediately," Darth Sidious commanded, and clones ran off to do his bidding. Leaning down, he placed a hand on Darth Vader's forehead, using the dark side to keep him alive.

 

No he's evil to the core but he's not without his admirable qualities.

 

Ian McDiarmid did once said that he tried to look deep into Palpatine's soul to any semblance of good, and the closest he got was that Palpy is a "patron of the arts" and he likes "to go the opera".

It would explain his elaborate, evil plan to conquer the galaxy from within. If he's going to take over the galaxy, better do it with flair and style.

 

His intelligence and his love of the arts?

 

Intelligence, perseverance, and rationality are the ones that come to mind for me.

 

When the guy who played him says he’s basically the Devil/worse than the Devil, you know Palpatine was pure, 100% irredeemable.

 

Oh, yes. I can see that. Sidious does not get enough credit for his wisdom. Yes, he's selfish as hell, but he did have a point when he said, "Half of the galaxy can be persuaded to hate the Jedi, and the other half can be persuaded to ignore them." Whether he's lying or telling the truth, he usually makes a great point.

 

Is the Devil irredeemable, though?

 

Not to drag religion into this, but I’m pretty sure I don’t recall the Bible ever hinting that the Devil could ever be redeemed.