How old was Palpatine?

I think this is an interesting topic. I have heard that palpatine was in his 80's during ROTJ, but I have also heard other theories that Palpatine could have been as much as a thousand years old. I think that Palpatine was much older than 80. It has been stated that Palpatine surpressed any information about his pre-political life. He did this after he became emperor. I don't think that he cared if the galaxy knew he was a sith, after all he was the emperor, so What was he trying to hide? He also talked about the "Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise", and I got the impression that this occured a long time ago. We also know almost nothing about the Sith who lived between the time of Darth Bane and the rise of Darth Sidious. There had to be Sith during this time, or the order would not survive. What if the Sith who followed Bane were Plagues the master, and Sidious the apprentice. Sidious would later kill his master and take his own apprentice Darth Maul. This means that Sidious would have lived from the time shortly after banes death until the end of ROTJ.

 

I think Sidious should have been as old as you're suggesting, but officially I think he was 50 in Episode 1, 60 in Episode 2, and 63 in Episode 3

 

I dont think it matters how old Palpatine was beacuse IMO the whole character of Palpatine was just a mask for Sidious.

I always hoped in ROTS Yoda would recognise Sidious from hundreds of years before when they met.

 

Hmmm...I deff. think he is much older than that. It is the Revenge of the Sith, and knowing the Sith if there were more of them after Bane and Plag. than at least some would have tried to to the revenge before Sid. It is not in their nature to "waste" their life away in hiding, unless there is a great plan on the way and knowing Sith, they would not let some "other" Sith reap all the glory while they lay the foundation. So, in conclusion I think Sid. is very, very old. Prob. over 1000. If we look at the EU (I think we can do that), we know he hid his past, we also know about his cloning facility on Wayland. He keeps cloning himself and therefore he found the fountain of youth/everlasting life. Thoughts?

 

Memory fails me. I read somewhere that he is between 80 and 120 years old. If some official material says otherwise then so be it.

 

We do, but I believe we know of at least 3 Sith in between Bane and Plagueis.

 

It's topics like this that give me so much hope for the upcoming live action star wars tv series... I would love to see the machinations, and further, why it was necessary for the Jedi Order to be destroyed (and then resurrected in a sense), of/by the Sith... It would be even more interesting if indeed it was presented as a tragedy... As though at the time of the end of the Sith legacy precluding Palpatine, it was the Jedi Order attempting to suffocate human spirit through its rigid doctrine, that necessitated the "Balance"... But I'm going way off the curb, but thank you for inspiring interesting thoughts... Cool, if not vague thread... Needs a different title... Like motivations of the Sith or something... Actually I should start a thread discussing the motivations/philosophy of the Sith for discussion... I think that is something that really needs to be fleshed out and I think our community here could do a superb job of offering viewpoints on such...
Cheers to the TFN community

 

ok, than...let's talk. At the beginning of TPM the Jedi were very surprised to hear of a new emergence of the Sith, according to them, they had been gone for many many years. We know now that that wasn't true. They were just waiting for the right moment. Now the question is: Why did they wait without doing anything for so long? Obviously they were waiting for the right moment, for the Chosen One, perhaps? But, again, knowing Sith would some of them let their life pass by without doing anything in their own lifetime?

 

Darth Bane taught his Apprentice who would pass this on to others, that they must wait in secret. Wait until the corruption that they would work on secertly, would destroy the Jedi and the Republic. Just blindly charging in would not work. It's failed too often in the past. So they waited and waited. Patience, which the Jedi uphold, became the mandate of the Sith. Palpatine is in his sixties by the end of ROTS.

 

at the risk of sounding like a broken record: don't Sith crave power, I mean it is Sith tradition to kill your Master so you'll be more powerful. Waiting patiently until some Sith figures out how to take care of the Jedi problem, or sacrificing ones own pride/self importance/glory so the next Sith can reap all the bennefits, doesn't seem very Sithly.

 

I know for certain that Ian McDiarmid was interviewed and stated that the Emperor is vastly older than most think. I know I have the magazine somewhere, but I cannot dig it up now. Hopefully someone will know the interview I am thinking of and be able to actually give a source.

But, beyond that, to me and most of those I know, given what we are shown in the films and films only (the only real things to go by), I would tend to also think he is much, much older than just your average human. I agree with nother response that said Palpatine was just a "mask" for Sidious. I know it has been debated to death, but it is quite clear that his Sidious face is his true face and not caused by the lightning. It changes his entire body and then he just stands up like nothing happens, doesn't even care. If he really *WAS* deformed, I an certain he would at least pause and, well, not be happy about his new look.

On top of that, we have a line of dialogue by Yoda that seems to be aimed directly at Palpatine/Sidious, "The dark side clouds everything." It can be taken on many levels, of course, and I believe one of those levels would be in regards to the guy sitting right in front of them. I tend to believe that Sidious is just much older and overwhelmingly more powerful than some here think. For example, some continue to argue and debate why Yoda left the fight at the end... Why? Yoda lost; it's that simple. Sidious whooped him.

And, in regards to that battle, another bit of dialogue, to me, sticks out, "I have waited a long time for this moment..." How it is said, just the FEEL I get, is one of just pure hatred where he has, literally, waited a **very** long time. I'd not be surprised if he is at least as old as Yoda, give or take a few decades.

 

He used to clone himself quite often, so he's probably very old. I'd say he's around the 200-300 years old bracket. He was in 82BBY -- What year was ROTJ set in?

 

ROTJ is BBY 4, so Palpatine would be 86("0" is counted as a year in the timeline).

 

Problem solved then.

I believe Palpatine was 86-years-old.

 

No longer true. It's been retconned that Palpatine was lying to Luke. He had clones made before ROTJ, but he didn't enter his first clone body until after ROTJ.

That's why Darth Bane manipulated Lord Kaan and the other Sith on Russan into using the Thought Bomb, which killed all of them. He then made sure that in his teachings, he stressed the importance of patience. Even if they could not be the one to rule the Republic, it would fall to the Sith eventually. Save for Darth Millenial, this was true for the next thousand years. Millenial went off to form the Prophets of the Dark Side.

 

No longer true. It's been retconned that Palpatine was lying to Luke. He had clones made before ROTJ, but he didn't enter his first clone body until after ROTJ.

Palpatine dies, and then he enters his first clone body? So how does that work when you're dead? I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm just confused. Please elaborate...

 

I think the point is that although we have official data on Palpatine's age, why does that mean Sidious was only as old - it is entirely possible that Sidious is centuries old and Palpatine (his latest host body/mask) was only middle aged.

 

"Dark Empire", published before the PT, revealed that Palpatine learned of a way to cheat death. But not the way Darth Plaugeis had claimed. Rather it was learning to turn himself into a form of energy, similar to the Force ghost, which would then allow to him retain his identity. But it was too unnatural for a Sith, which causes insanity. Palpatine used this method to transfer his essence into a clone body, which he would possess and thus control. However, the clones couldn't last that long and thus would rapidly age, eventually looking like he did in ROTJ. So he would have to repeat this, because the body would die. Unknowingly, Royal Guard Carnor Jax wanted to claim the Empire for himself, so he had the bodies tampered with. Which would prevent Palpatine from surviving. But this is all in the eu.

 

I know that I read a quote by either Lucas or McCallum that stated that Palpatine in TPM was no older than McDiarmid was when he was acting in TPM. I can't remember whether or not it was in the Insider or what.

 

EU is not considered canon By Lucas. i think when talking in context of the Films though ,Palpatine appears to be the age he looks , in his 60's or 70's . If you put it in context of his being a Senator of Naboo , and his story about Plagiues and his having his own Apprentice in Maul , it would seem a contradiction to have him being centuries old.
Firstly I doubt someone could just show up out of Nowhere and assume the identity of someone from Naboo , who becomes a Senator. he would have to very well known among his people , and i think if he lived many lifetimes longer than normal , people would notice. as for his Plagiues story, i think that it is very plausable that he did in fact learn from Plagiues then kill him and take on an apprentice. i believe it was Lucas himself that said Palpatine was the final result of the Rule of two, he followed that code until he was ready to take out the Boss and take on his own apprentice. given Mauls apparent Young age , he was taken as a child and raised/trained on Naboo or ata Sith Facility till he was ready to be unleashed on the Jedi.
I'm sure as was needed from time to time, Palps would leave Naboo to conduct Sith Business and to enlist accomplices in the Sith Cause. but i think it's safe to assume ( EU aside) that Palpatine was just a regular Force sensitive Human who ages as a Regular Human would.we already know the Lightning caused his deformation ( Or at least we should ) . IMO he's just a Regular human. a Very wicked and powerful in the Darkside human , who learned from his predecessors well. But Human none the less.

 

86 in 4ABY at time of first death.

 

My feeling is that it would be a grave mistake to make Darth Sidious 1000 years old. The point of part of the saga, at least, is that the only way to be "Immortal" is through the power of the light side of the force. 1000 years is not immortality but it most certainly is MUCH MUCH longer than the human species is supposed to live. Sure we have other species in the galaxy with much longer longevities (Yoda's species, Neti, etc...). It also puts emphasis on Sidious thinking that his path towards immortaility was through Anakin Skywalker. Sidious was vain, but I do not think he vanity overrode his his senses completely. He was wise and cunning - too wise to be a creature that would put the desire to be Master of the Chosen one above his desire to rule the galaxy FOREVER. It's possible that he was decieved by his Master Plagueis when Plagueis told him he knew the secret to immortality. Perhaps Plagueis knew that it was Sidious who would destroy the Jedi...not himself and needed a cattle prod to get the already Ambitious Sidious to act quicker and fulfill his destiny.

Carnage