Characters Path of Dark Persuasion-The New Palpatine Characterization Thread: New Challenge is up!

To Darth Fill-in-the-blank.

 

Actually, the name isn't changed, but the midi-chlorian count is... I PMed the sock with the link.

 

Ooh, I like that idea.

 

The only way I could think of the jedi not knowing about Palpatine being force sensitive is that for some reason they did not find out his true midi-chlorian count, and by the time any of them spent any time with him, he was already a Sith with the ability to shield his aura in the force.

 

Well, is it a fact that they would record things like midi-chlorian counts on birth certificates?

 

Not necessarily on a birth certificate, but I assume it would be on a computer file somewhere and ones that show a mid-count over 2500 or more per cell would be sent to the jedi so they can go try to convince the parents to give the baby to them to raise... or at least that is how I imagine it would work.

 

Interesting point.

I have a question for general consumption: How much intimacy/affection do you think is in-character for Palpatine? Is there any point at which he has genuine affection for someone in your mind or your story rather than a desire to manipulate?

More on this subject: Ian McDiarmid says that "Everything [Palpatine] does is an act of pure hypocrisy." Now, how do you write intimacy, which is potentially the most vulnerable and powerful state of a person's actions, and put it as an act of pure hypocrisy? If you give any intelligence to your characters, a part of them would recognize any falsity to a man who is not emotionally and purely committed to the intimacy.

 

It depends on what point in his life you are speaking about. I believe by the time we meet him in TPM he would pretty much look at anyone as someone he can manipulate.

 

Well, in the context I am looking at, it is literally just pre-TPM--the events of TPM are going to take place in 2 weeks.

 

This is just me, but I think by TPM, he'd pretty much purged any real affection from his soul. He'd view true affection, friendship, love, intimacy as weaknesses. That's not to say he couldn't use intimacy to manipulate and make it seem fully genuine. Palpatine would get many Oscars if he were an actor in RL.

 

I'd imagine that the official process for testing children for Midichlorians is wracked with laws upon laws, let alone the process for going about actually entering a household and requesting that a child be trained. There'd be a crapload of tricky problems involved with both of those things. Not to mention - different planets probably had different local rules about who was to be tested, or could choose to be tested, and why. So the odds were very much against the Jedi ever finding anything but a modest fraction of the Force Sensitives actually alive in the galaxy at any given moment. That Palpatine slipped through the cracks is really not that surprising.

 

If you give any intelligence to your characters, a part of them would recognize any falsity to a man who is not emotionally and purely committed to the intimacy.

Ahh, but how many people are really intelligent when it comes to choosing a love partner? Look at the 50% divorce rate and the number of parents who chose not to marry the father/mother of their child.

I tend to agree with Alexis Wingstar, WITH the caveat that neither GL nor IM understand people like Palpy as well as they think they do. Yeah, I'm making that thesis, and I'll defend it, too.

Palpy does view true caring as a weakness and doesn't even want to see it in himself, BUT he's also still human. It could happen. However, if it did, he'd be very disappointed in himself if he even recognized it consciously. Sabarte and I once did this in "His Ultimate Punishment" and had a whale of a time writing it.

If Palpy knew he had a soft spot for somebody, he'd run like a bat out of hell. Unless his ultimate objective made it impossible to part with the person. Then, to the extent he allowed himself to become aware of any deeper feelings, he'd be uncomfortable in the relationship indeed. And woe betide that person should they ever betray him--they'd get it 1000X worse than anyone else who betrayed him, without Palpy ever really even admitting to himself why!

Palpy's relationship with Sereine is like this, although you don't really get to see all of that just from "Midnight."

 

Ah, now there's an interesting storyline. Palpy at first pretending to care about someone for some nefarious reason, then finds himself actually caring for her... and cannot end the relationship because the reason for entering it in the first place hasn't been fulfilled. Hm... and once it is fulfilled, what would he do? Just leave... kill her so he won't be tempted to go back to her... very intriguing indeed.

 

Well, that's partly what I'm doing in Wife of Deceit. The entire marriage is, itself, arranged and for his political gain and eventually for other purposes as well, but there is a part of him that loves Amne.

 

In my scenario he ran like a bat out of hell.

 

Yes, but it was an in-character bat out of hell.

 

People have many different ways of running like a bat out of hell.

Here on Earth the most popular way (especially among males) is to just stop calling, stop coming around, and hope that they can somehow disappear from your life without you noticing.

 

So, here's a slightly philosophical question for the ranks:

What do you think happened to our boy Palpatine post-death? Is there a Force-hell? Did he go there? Was he cut off from the Force that he served in corruption?

What are your impressions of him getting what he deserved?

 

One, I don't think he served the Force. He used it... like everyone and everything else.

I think his personal hell would be him trying to connive and manipulate other dead beings and they all just ignore everything he says.

 

Well, semantics aside...

I think that's an interesting scenario, but would lose its effectiveness quickly.

 

According to the Dark Empire comic series (which I hate, but unfortunately there it is), Palpatine got lost in the dark side of the Force, and without a clone body to come back to, stayed there and went insane.

Oh, wait. The last time he died, his spirit was captured by another Jedi, Empatajayos Brand, who was able to report on Palpatine's state of mind. In two words, Very Bad.

I think Brand died right then, too. Whether Palpatine's otherwise-ultimate destiny (does that make sense?) was affected by his close association with this Jedi was unknown.

 

The Index has been updated.

 

If you took out the space in [face_shock ], the smiley would display correctly.

Just sayin'.

 

Bah, I do these edits when I haven't had sleep in 36 hours. I do my best.

 

Well, Darth Real Life (which is way more scarry than Palpatine will ever be...) has been kicking me in the backside for quite a while now...

This poor Palpy thread...

Perhaps we need a new discussion...

Here goes a question for all you Palpy folks to ponder and comment on...

How do you think Palpatine feels about the direction the Sith have taken say, in the Legacy comics seires?

Is he happy? Does he think they've all become a bunch of wussies? Are they more powerful than he was? Will his ghost come till Hett how to not make the same mistakes he made?

There... Have fun with it...