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Sheev Palpatine is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. He first appeared in the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back as The Emperor. He is also known by his Sith name, Darth Sidious, which was first used in the novelization of the 1999 film The Phantom Menace.
Darth Sidious, born Sheev Palpatine and also simply known as The Emperor, was a male human Dark Lord of the Sith and Emperor of the Galactic Empire, with his reign lasting from 19 BBY to 4 ABY.
Palpatine, known also by his Sith name Darth Sidious or simply as The Emperor, was a Force-sensitive Human male who served as the last Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic, holding the position from 32 BBY until 19 BBY, and was the first Emperor of the Galactic Empire from 19 BBY until his death in 4 ABY.
Emperor Palpatine (Darth Sidious) The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural, and Sheev Palpatine is the most infamous follower of its doctrines. Scheming, powerful, and evil to the core, Darth Sidious restored the Sith and destroyed the Jedi Order.
Apr 15, 2019 · Perhaps the biggest blow to the freedom of the galaxy in Star Wars was the fact that Sheev Palpatine eventually made himself the Emperor of what eventually became the Galactic Empire.
- Overview
- Portrayals
- Personality
- Powers and Abilities
- Possessions
- Victims
- Other Media
- Quotes
Emperor Sheev Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious or simply the Emperor, is the main antagonist of the Star Wars franchise.
He is the immensely powerful Dark Lord of the Sith as well as the master of Darth Vader, along with both Darth Maul and Count Dooku on previous occasions, who ruled over the Galactic Empire - which he formed from the Galactic Republic - in addition to secretly leading the Separatist Alliance, which he used to give himself autocratic powers as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. He is also the archenemy of the Skywalker family, Yoda, the Jedi Order, and his granddaughter Rey.
Palpatine had plotted to overthrow the Jedi by orchestrating and manipulating the events of the Clone Wars to bring himself to rule the whole galaxy; thus posing as the Chancellor throughout these events. This worked successfully when Palpatine initiated Order 66 to wipe out the Jedi, who beforehand were suspicious of him even after Dooku's death when they were unaware that Palpatine was actually Darth Sidious. However, Palpatine's reign was ended when he was killed by Vader with the help of Luke Skywalker.
Years later, Palpatine resurfaced upon being resurrected. It soon transpired that he was revealed to not only be the secret benefactor and founding cause of the First Order's existence, being the creator and puppeteer of Supreme Leader Snoke to the point of manipulating him as well as all the events behind the organization all along, but also the paternal grandfather of Rey; so much so that he even seduced Vader's grandson Ben Solo to the dark side from the shadows, especially through Snoke at the time.
•In the saga films, he was most famously portrayed by Ian McDiarmid in the original, prequel, and sequel Star Wars trilogies, after previously being voiced by Clive Revill (who also voiced Van Itch in the animated version of Dr. Seuss' The Butter Battle Book) and portrayed by the late Marjorie Eaton in the original version of The Empire Strikes Back; McDiarmid returned to voice Palpatine in the final season of Star Wars Rebels, Season 2 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and in one episode of Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi. He would later reprise his role for a small cameo in the finale of the Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries.
•In the radio dramatizations of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, he was voiced by Paul Hecht, who also portrayed Alex Merritt in Law & Order and Robert Sidarsky in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.
•In the opening scene of The Rise of Skywalker, he impersonates Darth Vader and Supreme Leader Snoke. While impersonating Vader, he was voiced by James Earl Jones, who also voiced Mara in Indiana Jones Adventure. While impersonating Snoke, he was voiced by Andy Serkis, who also played Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, Mr. Grin in Stormbreaker, Spike in Flushed Away, Capricorn in Inkheart, and Ulysses Klaue in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
•In Star Wars: Clone Wars, he was voiced by Nick Jameson, who also voiced Morbius and Richard Fisk in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Coach Morceau Oleander and Dr. Loboto in Psychonauts, and Mudslinger and Gigawatt in My Life as a Teenage Robot.
•In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, he was voiced by the late Ian Abercrombie and then by Tim Curry, who also played Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the Lord of Darkness in Legend, Wadsworth in Clue, Pennywise in the It television miniseries, Thaddeus E. Klang in TaleSpin, Taurus Bulba in Darkwing Duck, Hexxus in FernGully: The Last Rainforest, the Evil Manta in The Little Mermaid television series, Cardinal Richeliu in The Three Musketeers, Farley Claymore in The Shadow, Kilokahn in Super Human Samurai Syber-Squad, Drake in The Pebble and the Penguin, Dr. Anton Sevarius in Gargoyles, Long John Silver in Muppets Treasure Island, Simon Doonan in the Titanic TV movie, Maestro Forte in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, Slagar the Cruel in Redwall, Dr. Slicer in Recess, Ben Ravencroft in Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost, Big Brother in Johnny Bravo, the Mouse King in Barbie in the Nutcracker, Professor Calamitous in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, the Goblin King in Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King, Scarlet Fever and Nick O' Teen in Ozzy & Drix, Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck in Monk, Belial in The Legend of Atlantis, Rooster St. Regis in Annie, El Maléfico in ¡Mucha Luca!: The Return of El Maléfico, Von Talon in Valiant, Anatoly Cherdenko in Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3, Philippe in Barbie and The Three Musketeers, King Chicken in Duckman, and Billy Flynn in Criminal Minds.
•In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, he was voiced by Sam Witwer, who also voiced Galen Marek and Lord Starkiller in the same game, Starkiller and the Dark Apprentice in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Darth Maul in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Solo: A Star Wars Story, and portrayed Davis Bloome in Smallville, Neil Perry in Dexter, Mr. Hyde in Once Upon a Time, and Agent Liberty in Supergirl.
At first, Sheev Palpatine appeared to be a kind, compassionate, friendly, well-meaning public servant who had the best interest for the Galaxy. He was a skilled politician and a convincing orator who charmed billions during the Clone Wars, promising to bring an end the corruption across the Galactic Republic. A modest-seeming and affable man, Palpatine was well-liked by his fellow senators such as Padme Amidala.
However, this was nothing more than a public façade that he made up to hide his true nature as Darth Sidious: a violent, murderous, pitiless, despotic, cruel, power-hungry, sadistic, treacherous, megalomaniacal, manipulative, and arrogant psychopath who is obsessed with expanding his power all over the galaxy and doesn't care about anyone or anything other than himself.
Two-faced, dominant, hearthless, and downright tyrannical, those who weren't obedient to Sidious were destroyed, often tortured to death, as Sidious never held true feelings or attachment towards anyone, not even his apprentices and minions. His double identity allowed him to manipulate and deceive the Jedi, Galactic Republic, and the Confederacy of Independent Systems, and orchestrate numerous events, which resulted in war, corruption, deaths, and suffering.
He enjoyed killing his opponents in a prefably slow and painful death with electrocution rather than a quick death as well as torturing anyone he deems fit, as seen with Luke and Savage, the brother of Maul, as well as the victims of Ryloth. He even took his own time to watch Maul mourn his brother's death only for his own amusement. While reminding him of the Sith's "Rule of Two."
Despite his arrogance, Sidious was highly intelligent, patient, and manipulative, possessing some sense of humor as shown by his laughter. He was also known to be treacherous and deceptive, as he would kill his allies (including his own apprentices), or have them killed such as Count Dooku and Nute Gunray, as he had no desire to share his power with anyone, especially his apprentices. Like most Sith characters, friends and family were meaningless to him.
This was evident once more in Star Wars: Battlefront II, when he secretly engineered Operation Cinder, a top-secret scorched-earth policy directed against his own empire should he die - which happened at the hands of Anakin Skywalker - ultimate treachery to planets who remained loyal to the Empire and made great sacrifices for his cause. It did not matter to Sidious; in his own eyes, an Empire without him leading it was not worth existing. Unlike most of the other Sith Lords, he prefers using mental breaking and the Force over physical strength, and he dislikes fighting with lightsabers, preferring this option only as a last resort or when he clearly had the upper hand. During the early parts of his plan, Darth Sidious preferred to speak to servants such as Dooku via hologram. He gave orders for the Separatists' next move and then disappeared as quickly as he appeared.
The Force
Darth Sidious was considered by most Force users, including Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, to be the most powerful Sith Lord in the history of the galaxy. He is more powerful than Darth Krayt, Emperor Vitiate, Darth Revan, Darth Bane, Darth Caedus and Darth Plagueis, who are extremely powerful Sith in their own right. His power and skill in the usage of the Force even surpassed that of Grand Master Yoda, albiet slightly. While Yoda was the better duelist, Sidious was stronger in the Force. The only Force user to surpass him was Grand Master Luke Skywalker, the most powerful Jedi to ever live. •Lightning: He was extremely skilled in using Force lightning, which he often used as his signature attack in the same way Vader had the Force choke as his signature ability. He was known to use this power both as a deadly attack and as a means of torture. On several occasions on Ryloth, he used bursts of lightning which not only killed numerous Twi'leks but badly charred and scorched their carapaces, which were tough enough to repel heavy blaster fire. On another occasion, he used the ability to damage a Twi'lek freighter's engines badly enough to pull it out of the sky with telekinesis. Sidious could use Force lightning in a number of creative ways, including striking multiple enemies at once, with the bolts jumping from one victim to the other, like a chain and imbuing the ground around a victim's feet with energy, effectively electrocuting them. His Force lighting is powerful enough that even someone of Yoda's caliber had noticeable difficulty deflecting it using the Force. •Force Storm: At his strongest Sidious is capable of using lightning to destroy entire fleets of ships and scorch the surface of planets. In the Legends timeline, Sidious' Force Storms were not only capable of the previous feats but could also function as wormholes to other parts of the galaxy. •Dark Aura: Another more obscure ability that he possessed was the power to produce a dark aura, a miniature storm of force energy that slowed the movement of, and tortured all caught within its radius. •Telekinesis: He was also highly skilled with telekinesis; during his duel with Yoda, he levitated several Senate pods simultaneously, including the one he was standing on, with great dexterity and accuracy. Likewise, he was skilled enough with telekinesis that he was also able to remove Luke Skywalker's handcuffs while barely lifting his finger when meeting face to face on the second Death Star. On Mandalore, he casually telekinetically strangled two Mandalorians at once killing them, and easily pinned both Darth Maul and Savage Opress against a wall without them being able to break free before deliberately releasing them and later easily threw around Maul after disarming him telekinetically. He once telekinetically choked Count Dooku from hundreds of light-years away during a holo-transmission. He also proved capable of effortlessly telekinetically overpowering both Ben Solo and Rey, deactivating their lightsabers and forcing them towards him while keeping them restrained. These events show that Sidious' telekinetic abilities were so overpowering that they were capable of easily breaking through the Force shields of Force users who were powerful in their own right, as if they were nothing. •Foresight: Darth Sidious was highly adept at foreseeing the future, often utilizing the power to see his plots to fruition, ensuring that all would proceed as he had envisioned. His accuracy with this power can only be rivaled by that of Yoda. •Mystical Persuasion: The Dark Lord was also adept in the use of Force persuade, to the extent that he was able to take complete control of a subject's mind and force them to obey his commands. •Cerebrokinesis: He was also capable of telepathically communicating with Darth Vader over a distance of hundreds of light-years. Sidious also had a remarkably keen ability to sense the thoughts and feelings of others, including those of incredibly powerful Force adepts such as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. On a related note, he was also capable of hiding his thoughts and feelings from even such individuals as Yoda and managed to conceal his true dark nature from the entire Jedi Council for decades before deliberately revealing himself. •Animakinesis: Surprisingly, following his supposed death during the battle at Endor, using his mastery over the dark side of the Force, Sidious was able to bring himself back from the dead by transferring his spirit into a cloned body. Though it came with a price: His cloned body was unable to function as his original body, rendered him blind, being frail and he could only move with the help of machinery, as his immense power was so great that it nearly overwhelmed and left the body in a dying state. •Force Drain: With the ability of Force drain, he was able to drain the Force from both Rey and Ben, restoring his cloned body and becoming more powerful than ever; enough so that he was able to use Force lightning to nearly destroying the entire combined fleet of Resistance-allied ships that rallied in Exegol.
Lightsaber Skills
•Seven Lightsaber Forms: Despite his old age, Darth Sidious is immensely skilled in lightsaber combat and a gifted duelist. Sidious' lightsaber skills are such that he masters all the forms of lightsaber combat (Form I/Shii Cho, Form II/Makashi, Form III/Soresu, Form IV/Ataru, Form V/Shien/Djem So, Form VI/Niman, and Form VII/Juyo) and can shift from one combat form to another fluidly and without effort. Sidious' technique and fighting style is a combination of brutal aggression, lethal precision, and awesome acrobatics, making him an almost unstoppable opponent. Sidious' skills in lightsaber combat allow him to effortlessly kill Agen Kolar and Saesee Tiin with a single blow. He then swiftly overpowers and kills the formidable Kit Fitso while also engaged with Mace Windu. He proves capable of holding his own Windu in their duel and even initially seemed to have the upper hand, although he is defeated by the latter ultimately and loses one of his two lightsabers. He succeeds in killing Windu only because Anakin Skywalker intervenes. While Sidious was able to hold his own against Yoda in their lightsaber duel, he was ultimately overpowered and had to rely on his Force abilities. Despite his skill, Sidious ultimately disliked lightsaber combat, seeing it only as a game and a way to mock his opponents, and much preferred to use his intelligence and Force powers to get his way. •Jar'Kai: Although Sidious usually only used one lightsaber, he was also extremely skilled in the art of Jar'Kai, evidenced when he used both of his lightsabers against Darth Maul and Savage Opress with tremendous skill and efficiency and using a ferocious yet fluid fighting style, managed to duel both of them easily. He managed to separate them, then effortlessly killed Opress in mere seconds and proceeded to duel Maul also using two lightsabers. With only a little bit more of genuine effort, Sidious ultimately overpowered Maul and disarmed him of his two lightsabers by forcing his blades down toward the hilts of Maul's blades and then forcing them apart. Ultimately, the whole battle was merely a game and neither of his enemies stood a real chance.
Other Skills
•Genius-Level Intellect: Darth Sidious possessed a genius-level intellect, and was one of the smartest characters in the entire franchise, if not the smartest. His respect for the arts resulted in him becoming an expert craftsman. He designed his lightsabers with little if any help from others. He was also smart enough to create Snoke, have him create the First Order, and trick everyone before showing himself. This is despite him still recovering from the injures sustained after Vader's betrayal. •Master Tactician, Strategist and Leader: As the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic, and later Emperor of the Galactic Empire, he was a brilliant tactician, strategist, and leader. •Master Manipulator: He was master manipulator, as he was able to easily manipulate individuals directly or indirectly to achieve his goals. He orchestrated countless events in the galaxy, from the Invasion of Naboo to the Clone Wars, while deceiving the Jedi, Galactic Republic and Confederacy in the process, with the sole aim of increasing his own power. Sidious even managed to manipulate and deceive Anakin Skywalker, a genius in his own right, into becoming his apprentice and turning him against the Jedi Order. His ability to manipulate events were so great that often it never mattered which side won a battle, as Sidious would always have something to gain.
Lightsabers
Darth Sidious' valued weapon and possession were his two red-bladed lightsabers, whose hilts were inlaid with gold-colored Electrum metal and made of Phrik alloy, making them indestructible, even to other lightsabers. The weapons bore the same appearance to one another save for one being coated in an unknown black alloy. Being a patron of the arts, the lightsabers were elegantly crafted with an artisan's skill and were small enough that they could be easily hidden up his sleeves. While in office as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, Sidious always kept one of his lightsabers hidden inside a Neuranium statue on his desk in his office in case of emergencies. Both lightsabers were utilized together once in his duel on Mandalore against his former apprentice, Darth Maul, and Maul's brother, Savage Oppress. Regardless, he ultimately viewed lightsaber combat in general as beneath him, little more than a hobby and a way to mock the Jedi. •First Lightsaber: Darth Sidious built his first red-bladed lightsaber during his apprenticeship under Darth Plagueis. It would remain in his possession until his death, but what happened to it after Sidious' death is unknown. •Second Lightsaber: At some point, Darth Sidious had built a second red-bladed lightsaber. It would remain in his possession until his duel against Mace Windu when it was kicked out of his office window and lost on Coruscant. Since Sidious viewed the Sith's lightsabers as only existing to mock the Jedi's weapons, it is unknown if he ever carried, or even created, another lightsaber ever again.
•Two pedestrians
•Cosinga Palpatine
•His Mother
•His Two Brothers
•His Two Sisters
•Pax Teem
Darth Sidious made several other appearances in other TV shows. Some examples are Family Guy (when Cleveland tried to kill Quagmire), and the Mad Scientist once played as Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious in the Star Wars Robot Chicken special. When the developers made Family Guy episodes based on the original trilogy, Carter Pewterschmidt portrayed The Emperor, but he was instead known as "Emperor Carter". Darth Sidious is also briefly mentioned (though serving as the overarching antagonist) in the 2014 Disney special Phineas and Ferb: Star Wars and makes a cameo as a puppet in Darthenshmirtz's song.
Darth Sidious is portrayed by King Pig in Angry Birds: Star Wars and its prequel, where he retains his Force lightning from before, and when it is activated, he targets the area you tap. Also, as Darth Vader kills the latter quickly when they find that Sidious was the man called Palpatine, he and Mace Windu don't get a chance to duel at all. Ironically, he is still more sadistic in the game than King Pig himself is in his universe. He is also called "Darth Swindles" when he reincarnates in Angry Birds: Star Wars games. In an ad for Angry Birds: Star Wars II, Ian McDiarmid actually reprised his role as Palpatine.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom MenaceStar Wars: Episode II - Attack of the ClonesStar Wars: The Clone WarsStar Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the SithThe Bad BatchStar Wars Rebels- 2 min
Dec 23, 2019 · Learn how Palpatine rose from a Naboo senator to a powerful Sith master who manipulated the galaxy and turned Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side. Discover how he became Darth Sidious, Darth Vader, and the Emperor, and how he died and returned in Star Wars.
