Emperor's Hands -- job descriptions, loyalties and other issues.

The Emperor had many in the position as Emperor's Hands, and we know that Mara was led to believe that she was the only one. If Palpatine had a "handful" of similar minions, he must have been very cautious to keep them from learning about each other, and keept them loyal. Was Mara's job description as Hand similar to all the other hands? Or did each hand have a certain role or jurisdictions to fill in the Emperor's schemes.

It seems that some Hands worked independently of the Imperial chain of command, while others were firmly entrenched into the Imperial military machine (they worked hand in hand so to speak).

Many Hands showed Force potential, but was it a requirement to become one? or could dark side powers be given to one who had proven loyal and cunning enough... some Hands seem to be people in Intelligence who then later develop dark side potential, and become hands after being good agents. did all Hands gets as close access to the Emperor as Mara Jade did? Palpatine seems to prefer using different approaches for handling them.. ie.. a hands-on approach for Mara, who reports directly to him, or a hands-off approach for others who fit into a larger command structure, or were handled by the Secret Order of the Empire.

were some of the positions more for ceremony or reward for loyal service than for job abilities expected in the future?

Overall, given that the Emperor's Hands were supposedly utterly loyal to the Emperor, some of them didn't turn out that way.

the good:

Blackhole: Emperor's Hand and spy, Force user. loyal, although disappeared after Endor.

Shira Brie / Lumiya -- loyal, developed Force powers after serving as a good COMPNOR and Intel operative.

Vess Kogo -- was he Force sensitive? hated the Alliance, turned into a killing machine..

Maarak Stele - TIE Pilot, helped to stop Zaarin's plot.

Tremayne - possibly a Hand, although promoted to a higher position.

Mara Jade: Emperor's Hand, force potential, spy and assassin -- loyal until after Endor. Probably one of the most loyal Hands, due to the fact that the Emperor could slip into her mind.

Roganda Ismaren - Force sensitive Hand, spy, loyal to the empire or just sought power for herself and her son at the expense of the New Republic?

Jeng Droga: Dark side adept and pilot of the Emperor's personal yacht, tried to commit suicide after Endor, loyal, although later went insane.

the bad:

Sarcev Quest - Hand and spy. did he have any Force abilities? tried to get Carnox Jax to rule the Empire instead of the Emperor's clones.

Arden Lyn: Emperor's Hand and teras kasi master, had force ability -- defected after Yavin, tried with Admiral Zaarin to kidnap Palpatine.


the ugly:

Bardak, Yasinda -- taken to be trained as a Hand due to her Force potential, but didn't become one because she refused to believe in the Force. slowly went crazy.

 

EDIT: nevermind

 

"Mara Jade: Emperor's Hand, force potential, spy and assassin -- loyal until after Endor. Probably one of the most loyal Hands, due to the fact that the Emperor could slip into her mind."

You mean...

Mara Jade: Helped old women across the road and only killed those really, nasty evil people who had it coming that Palaptine wanted dead.

And as for "most loyal," she failed nearly every task the Emperor assigned her, which she failed to tell him about (killed the wrong guy when commanded to kill Dequoc), and the Emperor ended up deciding to have her killed off for treason, but died before he could see it through.

 

The Emperor's Hand is for all intents and purposes a title that is bestowed on anyone that the Emperor can firmly trust to be his proxy in a situation and act without a shred of personal thought on his behalf.

Darth Maul was affectionatly referred to at least once as his personal Hand (capital) and Vader I think also was.

Emperor Palpatine seemed to have actually organized them into something of a set of "orders"

The Secret Order of the Emperor: The Prophets of the Dark Side seem Emperor Palpatine's first actual attemp to actually form an organization of his force using lunatics that he had assembled for what appears to be no other reason than he could.

A "anti-Jedi" knighthood so to speak. He gave the rank of Hand of the Emperor it seems as a replacement for Jedi Knight.

Maarek Steele I think qualifies for this and it seems that probably others do too.

The Daughters of the Emperor: Emperor Palpatine adopted Roganda Ismaren, Mara Jade, Shira Brie and a number of other young women (one who was in Craken's Rebel Operatives but not force sensetive) though these were not heirs but wards of the Empire.

Either he was a dirty old man or more likely took note women were underestimated and could prove quite deadly if utilized right.

A reward for exemplary service: This seems to be the case for High Inquisitor Tremayne whose hand status is apart from his status as already one of the force trained Jedi killers of the Emperor

Also High Inquisitor wasn't higher than a Hand, it was just more VISIBLE.

Mara Jade seems fairly clearly the first of the hands and its my opinion she was deliberately kept from knowledge of the Emperor's most vile actions (even if she did suspect them) as well as her special status

I think Yssane Isard was attempting to neutralize all of the Emperor's force sensetives that wouldn't bow to her will post-Endor since they were visibly one of the chiefest threats

Mara especially might go crazy and try and kill any pretenders to the throne

BTW on the subject Zhan may now say Mara was the only one but lets not forget Thrawn was the first to bring up the fact she was only one of them.

 

"Blackhole: Emperor's Hand and spy, Force user. loyal, although disappeared after Endor."

More than a spy, though. I don't know of many spies with an entire Star Destroyer's resources and the entire HoloNet at their disposal.

"Arden Lyn: Emperor's Hand and teras kasi master, had force ability -- defected after Yavin, tried with Admiral Zaarin to kidnap Palpatine. "

Wasn't just an attempt, the Emperor was in their hands until Stele disabled the shuttle he was aboard and kept Zaarin's fighters off of the rescue ship. I'm actually quite curious what means she used to kidnap him in the first place.

 

Well lets not sell Arden Lynn short, through meditation alone she achieved immortality. I imagine Zaarin also had access to a universal energy cage too....he probably invented it.

My guess is Palpatine was simply overconfident for once and actually underestimated his foes.

 

Charlemagne...
Not quite meditation alone...

"Arden now searches for the relic (the Kashi Mer talisman) that once allowed her to cow the galaxy and cheat death, and possibly return Xendor to life."

 

I imagine Zaarin also had access to a universal energy cage too....he probably invented it.

According to the unofficial encyclopedia, the universal energy cage was invented by Umak Leth. But Zaarin maybe worked with Leth or was part of his research staff.

But it probably won't be too difficult for a grand admiral to get one of those cages. Maybe from one of those dungeon ships.


Kam

 

True but invention hasn't been the product of single people for years. Even Edison had research staff.

But yes, basically the Emperor could just be cackling alone waiting to get into Zaarin's presence to force fry him when suddenly the interior of the shuttle becomes an energy cage.

"Didn't see that coming didja!?"

Or something like that after Arden Lynn holds him at gunpoint or something silly like that

 

According to the unofficial encyclopedia, the universal energy cage was invented by Umak Leth.

The first offical source that I know of to attribute the universal energy cage to Leth is the Dark Empire Sourcebook. Though the appendicies to the Dark Empire TPB may actually have been the first official source.

 

How did anyone manage to kidnap the Emperor? They'd have to get past his guards, and all kinds of wicked force powers.

 

In any case it was Arden Lynn, who was the Emperor's hand and already one of the most powerful force users/warriors in the galaxy.

She most likely simply killed the Royal Guard

Zaarin was a grand admiral and a legitamate genius after all

 

Mara Jade: Helped old women across the road and only killed those really, nasty evil people who had it coming that Palaptine wanted dead.

And as for "most loyal," she failed nearly every task the Emperor assigned her, which she failed to tell him about (killed the wrong guy when commanded to kill Dequoc), and the Emperor ended up deciding to have her killed off for treason, but died before he could see it through.

Hm, have an official source for that? I'm pretty sure ya don't especially since Mara even completed her mission to kill the Black Nebula leader after the Emperor was dead. If she wasn't loyal to him, why bother?


EDIT: been checking out the list and I didn't know even half of those people were Emperor's Hands. Oo;

 

Dark Empire sourcebook

"As for Mara Jade and the Noghri, they would be dealt with in due time."

 

Several thoughts...

Sarcev Qest was a member of the Jedi Order, but he was shunted sideways into talking to plants rather than allowed to become a Knight...

The Leth Energy Cage is, um... called a Leth Energy Cage somewhere in Dark Empire, I think...

And why didn't the Emperor just contact Mara at any time over the five years between Endor and Bilbringi? If the clone really was Palpatine, he must have known that her Force-power rose through proximity and contact to other Force-users - and came with a corresponding sense of loyalty and gratitude... which was why she'd served the Empire so innocently, and why she began to unwind around Luke.

But in Dark Force Rising or The Last Command, she could have slaughtered the entire Alliance high command - and brought Luke Skywalker to him...

If the clone Palpatine had been the real Palpatine...

- The Imperial Ewok

 

So... Many... Hand... Puns... [face_shocked]

 

When an Emperor's Hand killed someone, was it called a hand job?

 

DarkWoman...
"Hm, have an official source for that? I'm pretty sure ya don't..."

I have official sources for both. Emperor planning to kill a treasonous Jade was detailed in the Dark Empire sourcebook.

Jade failing her final mission as a Hand is ongoing, but was first shown in The Thrawn Trilogy, and revisited in nearly every post-TTT source. Notable mention related to this complete failure of her final mission is Union, where she marries her target and Rebirth where she gives birth to her target's child. Jade not telling the Emperor about her botched Dequoc mission is shown in Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand.

 

"Shira Brie / Lumiya -- loyal, developed Force powers after serving as a good COMPNOR and Intel operative."

Not exactly 100% loyal, she along with Vader had plans of overthrowing Palpatine. She was set up as Vader's Sith Apprentice plan B,if plan A(converting Luke to overthrow palpatine) failed.

Hee second Sith Apprentice Carnor Jax, even went as far to poison all of the Emperor's clones.

"tried to commit suicide after Endor"

Hmm? IIRC, he just went mad, when he heard Emperor call out to him to come to him, he lost control started attacking the crew, and ship controls, all the while yelling that he had to get to Palpatine, his mad destruction caused the crashed, but he wasn't trying to commit suicide.

"Maarek Steele"

It's Maarek Stele.

Like the greek "stele", "a usually carved or inscribed stone slab or pillar used for commemorative purposes."

 

I don't think Maarek Stele is truely loyal either, if you read the TIE Fighter Strategy Guide he seems to doubt or question the Emperor quite a bit. And add to the fact that the Empire is holding his father prisoner. (Or was he released?)

To me Maarek Stele seems to follow the Emperor loyaly under necessity.


I think the Emperor allowed his being captured cause he forsaw what was going to happen. Remember Darth Vader was Maarek Stele's wingman at the time on another mission, so the Emperor probably forsaw Darth Vader and Maarek Stele coming to his rescue. So he probably wanted to see personally what Maarek Stele was made of. Cause as you see Darth Vader and the other TIE's held back in the mission and allowed Maarek Stele to do everything.

 

"he seems to doubt or question the Emperor quite a bit."

This is true.

 

"And as for "most loyal," she failed nearly every task the Emperor assigned her"

Failure to complete a task is not a matter of loyalty, but of competence. She did follow up on Dequc even after Palpatine's death. And she did carry out Palpatine's final order and killed a Luke Skywalker.
--
"Emperor planning to kill a treasonous Jade was detailed in the Dark Empire sourcebook."

there's probably a good chance the emperor had some plan to kill nearly every person of his personal retinue simply on the chance that they might turn treacherous or no longer be useful.
--
"but he wasn't trying to commit suicide"
the unofficial encyclopedia entry makes it sound like he was trying to crash the ship intentionally to join palpatine in death.
i'm not familiar with the original source, so i paraphrased.

--
so, if Shira and Maarek weren't all that loyal either... (although i wouldn't blame Shira for Carnor's plans -- but Jax shouldn't bite the Hand that feeds him)

 

"final order and killed a Luke Skywalker."

Palpatine's order was to kill "Luke Skywalker", not to kill "Luuke Skywalker". She knows very well that she didn't complete the exact task that palpatine gave her. According to the DESB, and the NEGTC, palpatine had plans to punish her as a traitor because she failed to fulfill the command as he issued it, too. If she felt that she had fulfilled the exact task that palpatine gave her she was in denial.

"the unofficial encyclopedia entry makes it sound like he was trying to crash the ship intentionally to join palpatine in death."

It is a fan site, and capable of fanfic, and misinformation.

"although i wouldn't blame Shira for Carnor's plans"

Oh, it's highly possible she was in on it.

 

"Palpatine's order was to kill "Luke Skywalker", not "Luuke Skywalker". She knows very well that she didn't complete the exact task that palpatine gave her. According to the DESB, and the NEGTC, palpatine had plans to punish her as a traitor because of it, too. "

But the visions stopped after that i believe.
of course, at that time she believed the emperor dead, and since he had made no effort to contact her otherwise. Prior to Endor, she was loyal.. it was only after the death of the Emperor and Isard's actions against her that drove her from service to the empire, and yet she still went after Dequc.

 

I have official sources for both. Emperor planning to kill a treasonous Jade was detailed in the Dark Empire sourcebook.

I'll try to find that. Seems like an interesting plot since I hate Palpy. One more reason to.

Jade failing her final mission as a Hand is ongoing, but was first shown in The Thrawn Trilogy, and revisited in nearly every post-TTT source. Notable mention related to this complete failure of her final mission is Union, where she marries her target and Rebirth where she gives birth to her target's child.

After figuring out Vader was Luke's father and that the image that Palpatine sent her at the moment of his death was untrue she started seeing Palpatine for what he really was. It would have been very narrow on her part to continue wanting to kill him after knowing that. Also, before she did avoid killing Luke when she had several chances of doing which could easily be explained by the fact that the guys we see her having missions to eliminate are all criminals and Luke not being a 'bad guy' would definitly explain her not having it in her to killing him.

Jade not telling the Emperor about her botched Dequoc mission is shown in Mara Jade: By the Emperor's Hand.

IIRC, she told him she had succeded because she in fact thought she had. It was only after Palpatine's death that she found out she hadn't and even then she remedied the situation. Could be wrong though. My By the Emperor's Hand comic is elsewhere and I can't check.


When an Emperor's Hand killed someone, was it called a hand job?