Lit What did Palpatine do with all his new free time?

After becoming Emperor, it couldn't have been politics and Jedi-hunting 24/7 for Palpatine anymore.

He had become Emperor so he only had to deal with the politics at his own leisure, and let Vader deal with the Jedi-hunting.

He didn't seem to be that involved in administrating the day-to-day activities of the Empire. It seemed like a huge surprise for Palpatine to suddenly take an active interest in even his own secret military superweapon, the second Death Star, whose purpose was to solidify his rule forever. Though Palpatine was proud enough to believe the rebellion was insignificant, and thought he already won on the day of Order 66.

So, what exactly did Emperor Palpatine do with almost 20 years of free time and no restraints?

 

Dark Side research was apparently his favorite past time, also of course all kinds of fun intrigues to keep himself in power.

 

Bingo.

Also I don't think we should attempt to guess at how much time/effort keeping the Empire going may have taken. He's the kind of guy who kept track of pretty much everything after all. I think there's a fair chance that outside of his personal research into the Force and training of whatever pupil, he was still monitoring everything else that happened in his Empire.

 

Yep, Dark Side research. Researching the ancient Sith. Techniques forgotten or yet to be discovered. Mediation. Continuing to grow even stronger in the Dark Side.

 

In a sense, I imagine he was cosying his nest, so to speak. The encouragement of feuds and petty schemes among his underlings would have added to the overall atmosphere of hatred, resentment, etc, - which in this universe is a metaphysical reality, not poetic description. Now the galaxy is his, he wants to truly make it his own, by wallowing in the darkness that he encourages, albeit ensuring that it remains in service to him, or symbiotic with him, and never threatens to usurp him. Which novel was it that discussed why the Empire gives its capital ships such unpleasant, venomous names? That novel made such a point, I believe - that the Emperor delighted in twisting everything, so that even as he insisted the Empire was nought but a force for good, he was encouraging the dissonance. So as well as investigating the dark side in terms of research, I imagine he was poisoning his Empire ever further, not enough to ever kill it - of course not - but to mould it, twist it.

 

If I remember correctly, he wrote a lot of books.

Mostly about Dark Side research.

 

Well he certainly spent a lot of time in his palace, looking out over the ruins of the Jedi Temple and gloated quite a bit. I also recall from some source that he would occasionally have Vader capture a Jedi or two and bring them to Coruscant so Palpatine could fight them for fun and then torture them to death.

I can imagine him having a Jedi prisoner brought to him, dismissing Vader and his guards and then detailing exactly how he came to power, mocking the Jedi for being so utterly deceived. Then he would hand the Jedi back his lightsaber and fight him for amusement, eventually killing the Jedi very slowly and painfully. I think this happens in some comic, where Palpatine has some Jedi brought before him, hands them lightsabers and then proceeds to kill them all by himself.

Palpatine probably spent a lot of time just basking in his victory and gloating over the fact that he basically beat every opponent he had and rules the galaxy virtually unopposed.

 

I imagine there was quite a lot of paperwork. Poor guy thought ruling the galaxy would be all fun and reveling in unlimited powah. Probably didn't expect it to be so much work. Then the Rebels start showing up, no wonder he was so grouchy.

 

Probably had himself one of these bad boys:



Vader, Bail, Mon Mothma, Mara, Boba Fett, Trachta, Thrawn; with round the clock surveillance on his agents, enemies, and future tools.

 

The Devaronian Version already covered this. He dons cool shades, and hangs out on tropical planets with babes.

 

We all know he'd really use that big display to peruse Beldorian's formidable library.

 

That is so wrong.

 

He had a list:

1. Screw the galaxy
2. Screw with Vader

(If bored, switch to the other.)

 

Sith-is-is.

Other than that, writing. His Dark Side Compendium was supposedly enormous.

Torturing people on weekdays, trips to Mount Tantiss and Byss on the weekends?

That's what Dangor and Pestage are for.

 

Palpatine was into anime girls???? I guess it could be worse. He could be looking at naked anime girls.

 

Don't open the files...

 

Hm, orphanages? Probably looking for host bodies.

 

I'm assuming a lot of his free time involved cackling evilly.

 

Opera. Reading--notably the works of the Croke poet Asenec. Collecting artwork. Sith pilgrimages.

 

On the topic of Sith pilgrimages:

When the sourcebooks came out with the bit regarding Mas Amedda running off to collect Sistros statues, I really wanted a short story to appear somewhere (Insider?) about him and Palpatine going on a fieldtrip together, especially because Amedda never struck me as the "adventurous" type but since we know he became obsessed with the dark arts, Palpatine must have really done a number on him to drive him into becoming his golden (statue) retriever.

A story like that could also play into the whole Palpatine/Plagueis relationship. Palpatine could never have the same master/apprentice relationship with Anakin that he had with Plagueis. I can't see Palpatine going on mystical fieldtrips with Vader. But he could do it with Mas Amedda. And even better, Amedda's not a Force-wielder so he doesn't pose the potential threat of overthrowing Palpatine when he least expects it.


But really I just want a story with Palps being all old-man-adventurous with dour nerdy Amedda trudging behind as they seek out lost Sith lore.

 

Also a good place to find potential assassin recruits.

 

I imagine at least part of his time was spent looking in the mirror and practicing new and more menacing Evil Overlord sneers.

 

Ships in bottles. Huge ships-in-bottles guy. It's kind of cheating when you have the Force, but he was never that big on fairness.