"He dragged the most promising Jedi down to the fires of hell, returning him to the state of slavery he was born in, as a machine with a skull where his face used to be." That got me.
That's not even the worst of it. Because 25 years later, Palpatine tried to replace that skull-faced slave... WITH HIS OWN SON. The sheer evil of the man was... palpable. Teehee. ;)
@@kalleenstoddard357 no problems that are in the screenplay and others like wooden acting and thinly developed characters. For example Maul and Dooku are just cool boss battles but they hardly do anything and the audience barely knows anything about them. If you want more info you gotta go look up EU content 😑. Thats the problem with George's writing. He clearly needed help but surrounded himself with yes men
One thing I like about Darth Sidious is that he LOVES being evil. Many villains believe they’re doing the right thing, the greater good, and so on. Even Dooku falls under that. But Palpatine is pure evil, is well aware of it, and relishes every last ounce of it.
Does he though? Palpatine's a psychopath and the don't feel anything at all. If anything I think he loves power and has no qualms in doing whatever he can to get it. And if that includes the power to turn people into puppets.
@@vittoriacolonaI'd say that Palpatine does feel strong emotions, that's why he's so powerful in the use of the dark side. In one of the canon comics Palpatine tells Vader that he loves making and having enemies, because he loves always having someone to kill. He also says that the hate and rage that fuel his powers come from the fact that he sees almost everyone as below him, and everyone below him enrages him to the point that he thinks they don't deserve to live. I think he's truly a wretched evil fuck that enjoys doing harm as much as he does power.
@3 I was thinking the 3D animated and I watched it recently and it was a first. Didin't watch it when it came out. Aside from some cringy episodes I liked it. Waaay better than the "new trilogy".
A game of chess with only two pieces, and he's both pieces. He's also the board, the scorer, and the crowd, while everyone else are the hobos sleeping in the alley behind the building.
"The prequels are the story of an arrogant religion who get a hold of the messiah and accidentally hand him over to the devil." Damn. That's brilliant.
@@MonkeyGoatLicker because they feared him. They feared his power, they feared what he represented, they feared their lack of control over him. And fear, as they say, leads to the darkside.
@@MonkeyGoatLicker Because, after centuries of not fighting a single powerful enemy (the Sith) they lost their original purpose. Also, they didn't like the fact that Anakin had unstable emotions, like many fallen Jedi before him. They were wary of him, because he was unpredictable. But this only contributed to Darth Sidious' plan; After centuries of deterioration, a war that hardened them (driving some, like Sora Bulq, away from the Jedi way), and an unstable (and easy to manipulate) messiah, the Jedi were never in a position to win against the evolved Order of the Sith Lords. Their enemy this time was not another dark-sided empire emerging from Korriban, it was a subtle venom corrupting the heart of the Republic itself, something they never truly fought against.
The best thing is that Sidious wasn’t driven by malice or fear.. he was having the time of his life and enjoyed every moment of his villainy, constantly laughing and cackling like a madman
I'm not sure why you think that - the Sith revel in fear, anger, and hatred. They draw their power from these emotions and it gives them focus and this is portrayed in all of the movies. He was, however, able to conceal his fear, anger, hatred and motives from the Jedi with perfection. His laughing is cackling was perfect because it showed his perverse joy when finally confronting and destroying his arch nemesis.
I saw episode 3 in theaters when I was like 8 years old. One of the happiest memories of my life. I love Star Wars. Or at least I used to. Until Disney.
Seriously, the most underrated acting performance of my lifetime. Just the way he delivers his lines is nothing short of a masterclass in acting. Most of the Emperor's memorable dialogue is simple due to the acting choices that McDiarmid made. Simply brilliant.
“In many ways, the prequels are the story of an arrogant religion, who get ahold of the Messiah, and then accidentally hand him over to the devil” Perfect summary. Amazing quote.
@@captainfordo3969 yea thanos is a good villain but he lacks many things that palpatine has: manipulation, pure badass moments, and an epic theme song. this is all just "my opinion" btw so don't take it personally. they're really just differently great villains. thanos, the man who just wanted to execute a huge plan mostly by himself. he has a somber theme song that reflects his somber life and somber persona. on the other hand, palpatine manipulates, plans, and backstabs, while still being capable to destroy his most powerful opponents in direct combat, should the need arise. but yea, the "they won" argument still stands for both these cases.
And not only succeed but flourished ruling an empire spanning half of the galaxy for 20 years and all the while making himself appear as a frail old man with honor in the core worlds and inner rim systems
Many people overlook the shot of Palpatine's shuttle passing over Anakin on Mustafar, an iconic shot where the shuttle appears like a bird of prey going for its food.
But he saved Anakin he could have left him to die and go find another apprentice but he saved the dying Vader he also seemed genuinely worried when he saw anakin burned and dying From anakins point of view palpataine was his savior
the best part about Palpatine was that he actually won, there was no last minute "Good triumphs over evil" situation, literally the entire Jedi order was annihilated, the republic was reformed into a new rule under the iron boot of the galactic empire and the hero of the story became the worlds number one most remembered villain.
And what's funny is, palpatine dies not because of any massive oversight on his end, but by two things he could never have suspected. The first being the Luke Skywalker, a random moisture farmer with seemingly no concrete reasons to stay as a Jedi, when shown that his friends were being massacred and promised that joining palpatine would spare there lives, refused to turn to the dark side. The second being the Darth Vader, the man who killed his wife because of the dark side, who massacred children for palpatine, who struck down his master and dear friend in cold blood, was turned to the light side purely because his son had unwavering faith that he still had good in him. Dieing not because you Lost, not because your plan had a gaping holes in it, not because of masterful counterplan, but because of something nobody could have expected, is something very very few villans manage to come close too. Only one I can think of is Sauron, who was taken down because two hobbits walked across the world, went through a series of caverns guarded by the spawn of the gigantic spider which tied up and tortured Saurons Boss, then walked through the single most inhospitable environment on the planet, scaling a volcano, and managed to destroy a ring which was known for corrupting some of the greatest of men in the time it took them to scale a volcano. Sauron didn't even know hobbits existed until he found out that they were the things which held the ring.
@@Santisima_Trinidad And Grand admiral thrawn He had all the rebels, where he wanted them, he tricked them so many times. There was just one moment: He ignored Leia Organa, and helped her convincing the Noghri, people, who swore eternal respect, to turn against him. But his whole puzzle was just misding one tiny peace
One crucial thing about Palpatine that I love is that he isn't a sympathetic villain. Too many villains these days get written in a way where the audience feels sorry for them and that their actions are somewhat justified or understandable. But not Palpatine, he's straight evil and he loves it. Gotta respect that.
That's one of the things that make Palpatine the best of the best. In terms of pure evil, nobody short of Satan himself tops him. Aaravos in The Dragon Prince comes very close because he's another Satanic figure but I'm worried that Aaron Ehasz might fall into the trap of trying to make him sympathetic and relatable. We don't need that in all our villains. Complexity is wonderful but if we're looking purely in terms of who represents the Devil the most efficiently, without literally BEING the Devil, Palpatine is at the top of the list. The simplicity is what makes him so iconic, on top of Ian McDiarmid killing it in the role. No other actor could handle this character as well as him. Ian Abercrombie, may he rest in peace, was great but he was only doing the voice. Ian McDiarmid is a Shakespearean actor which perfectly suits Star Wars' tone and style and enabled him to bring the physicality and expressiveness that voice acting simply can't convey.
I hate to be that guy but it boils down to the fact that the people in charge of the media now don’t believe in traditional evil, they believe that tradition is evil. They attribute their beliefs to villains but dial it up to 1000 & just use the excuse that they were ridiculed or exiled & became vengeful & radicalized. It’s very rare that we get a flat out evil villain. Look at the MCU for example, they built up Thanos for 10 years just for the payoff to be shit. He was basically a big purple Leo DiCaprio eco-nut gone mad who we’re made to sympathize for. Then look at Guardians 3 as a good example, The High Evolutionary had a goal but reveled in his cruelty. He wasn’t relatable to anyone & they used a cheap gimmick like animal cruelty to show that, but still, the point is the same. It all went down the drain when people started trying to relate to their villains rather than their heroes.
That's because people want it both ways. They call villains that are evil just because, poorly written, cartoonish and boring. Then people like yourself say differently.
@@inadequis6132 he only lost power because palpatine had his suit created to inflict pain upon him consistently so he never had full control. He would have been stronger than palpatine and he knew this
@@budakbaongsiah isn't the story basically that them getting involved in the war was their downfall, rather than remaining peacekeepers? I don't see how that is them being too passive.
@@SelectHawk Whether they got involved or not is actually irrelevant (and I don't really see how they could avoid getting involved eventually once the war started). Their big mistake was in allowing the war to begin in the first place. Not only did they not detect the machinations of a Sith Lord who was right under their noses, they couldn't even be bothered to consider it a possibility, believing the Sith were "extinct". It's an incredible level of hubris on their part, knowing full well the lure of the Dark Side of the Force that every Force user has to actively avoid, to assume that there wouldn't eventually be some Dark Side acolyte with enough skill at manipulation and power in the Force to become the same as a Sith Lord of the past. Or considering the long history of the Sith to actually believe they could be made extinct in the first place. Ultimately the Jedi had one responsibility to the Republic; to guard against a return of the Sith or any other dark side force user that threatened it. But 1000 years of the absence of Sith basically turned the Jedi into an insular, feckless order that no longer paid attention to the events happening around it as if they were above such things, even going so far as gatekeeping who can and cannot be trained by them nearly guaranteeing a group of fallen Force users would spring up eventually. Their arrogance and aloofness created the opportunity that Palpatine used. And if you really want someone to blame, it's Yoda. As much as I love Yoda, the movies do a good job of showing him to be a very different person before and after the fall of the Republic. Something happened early in his time as a Jedi to lead the order down the wrong path and having such a long lifespan he alone kept it on that path instead of listening to wiser Jedi like Qui Gon and likely countless other long-dead Jedi during his tenure. By the time Luke meets him in ESB, Yoda has had plenty of time to reflect on his mistakes and has lost much of the arrogance he once had.
"practically everyone involved never knew that there was a plan at all." Count Dooku was in on it. The only thing he didn't know was that Anakin was to be his replacement.
@@jamesgravil9162 that’s why I said practically, and to be fair we don’t know the extent he was in on the plan. Like you said he probably didn’t know Anakin’s part, which is arguably one of the more important parts of the plan. The only other one that really knew there was a plan was maul and he didn’t know the extent of it. Only that Anakin was a big player.
*i love it when i join a two-man cult that opposes a bigger cult, where we are hidden, and then i betray the other guy by leaving him to die from the hands of the other cult and then having another guy and having a massive droid army and a droid general (yes he is a droid, hehe) with some spinny swords (oh yeah btw both the cults have laser swords) and then trick the majority into leaving yourself emergency powers betraying your other cult member by telling the other cult's most powerful member to " **_DEW IT_** " and then use that to get that powerful member as my new more permanent apprentice, and then use the emergency powers to destroy the other cult with their own clone army and then make myself an emperor of the new empire and then get thrown down a reactor shaft* (imma ignore the sequels, they were a failed abortion)
@@MrCoolguy425 what if the Emperor never got thrown down the shaft and actually had a plan, and that's Palpatine sending a loyal secret Sith Lord unbeknownst to Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker to spy on him and at the right time, assassinate him before he could oust the Emperor. This Sith Lord, who had already a contempt of Anakin Skywalker (as well as his former Padawan Ashoka Tano, who the Sith Lord has a eye on as well because of a little thing I like to call "a misconception" that the Sith Lord has, that makes him think Ashoka is unbeatable and un-killable.)
“The prequels are a story of an arrogant religion who get a hold of the messiah and accidentally hand him over to the devil” is one of the coolest descriptions I’ve heard
The problem is that it isn't true. It's Sidius and himself who did it. You can point mistakes of the Jedi, but the blame is on Sidius and Anakin himself.
@@sergiocortes125If you actually delve deep into it, you’ll realise the Jedi did much more work turning Anakin to the dark side and Palpatine only had to nudge him a little. So no, it is an accurate description.
@@roronoalaw7772 If you pay actual attention you'll learn is Anakin's wrong choices choices who lead him to his ruin. And you'll also learn his main flaw the inability to let go. By the way, the Jedi tried to help him fix the problem that led him to ruin while Sidius fed it for his own greed. I'm worried if having to repeat this much that a grown adult is responsible of his actions. I don't know if Tiktok and Insta are swallowing people's braincells are what the hell is happening here, but I'm terrified. Dude, it's a simple maniqueist story that even the author has explained, wake up.
@@roronoalaw7772 Honestly, with the Jedi being ignorant and short sided, Palpatine being a brilliant manipulator and Anakin simply having personal flaws which were never adressed (due to lack of a father figure and the contrast between hypercritical Jedi while the rest of the galaxy worshipped the ground he walked on) the whole thing was arguably a group effort.
@@sergiocortes125 The author has also admitted the Jedi were arrogant and short sighted. So your condescension is unwarranted, yes obviously an adult is responsible for their choices, however to deny outside influences had an impact on his is just plain ridiculous. They told him to be a robot and not give a shit about his family which is awful advice and something Luke took into account for the NJO in the EU.
Unless it is his plan. The Sith feed off fear and what's more terrifying than a powerful Emperor thought to have been dead to somehow come back? I actually enjoyed Disney's sequels. And the fan theories that were made before and after the release of each film.
@@cadeshanley218 Hmm, interesting point of view, the only problem I have with that is this: nobody really feared him, let me explain: in TLJ the other people from different planets didn't want to help the resistance against the First Order, but they show up for some reason when the First Order is combined with the Last Order, which is an even bigger threat
@@lionfan96 he didn't consider Vader his enemy. Luke defeating his father was in Palpatine "I got that covered" " Palpatinre having to kill a still defiant Luke, ditto. Vader regaining his humanity back in the very last moments of his life and defending his son, THAT is the only thing Palpatine couldn't.see-- because self sacrifice for love was utterly incomprehensible to the Emperor.
If you qualify YTPs, then Palpatine is also one of the few villains that attacks when their opponent is talking, as seen in 'The Tragedy of Darth Sand'. *Yoda:* If so powerful, you- *Palpatine: {blasts Yoda with force lightning}*
@@robertlehnert4148 I think that Palpatine knew that Vader was dangerous but what happened was extremely unlikely and as such Palpatine didn't prepare for it
Palpatine is proof that a villain can be pure evil without falling into the flat character trap. He's charismatic, is similar enough to real life villains while also having an element of fantasy and has a personal dynamic with the protagonist...while not having an ounce of actual humanity
Sure, can be, but it's very much the exception. Only thanks to a career-defining, singularly charismatic, once in a lifetime performance. Doesn't mean it's something writers should emulate, or that 98% of the time a more nuanced character with motivations beyond pure evil won't be more interesting and engaging.
That's because he doesn't do evil stuff for the sake of it, but he has a clear goal in mind and thus does things He has a personality, unlike so many other poorly written characters
@@jackstrawful That just exemplifies how talented George Lucas actually is at writing. The idiots who claim he didn't know what he was doing suffer from the Dunning Kruger effect. It takes a VERY good writer to make a fairly simplistic character into such an iconic villain. It would have been so easy to turn Palpatine into a Saturday morning cartoon villain - that's what Disney's trainwreck did - but because Star Wars is for all ages, George Lucas knew that there needed to be mature themes underneath the silliness in order for both children and adults to appreciate the story. It helped that he's knowledgeable about history, religion, politics and psychology so he knew how to to develop the story whilst keeping Satan as its core antagonist. Ian McDiarmid's performance elevated an already solid foundation.
@@tomnorton4277 He was a good creator of storys and a good editor, not a good writer, and certainly a terrible director, the star wars dialogues are are terribly written artocities
@@ericleal157 George Lucas saved The Empire Strikes Back. If he was a bad writer or director, Star Wars wouldn't have lasted for so long. If you want to see the work of terrible writers and directors, just watch the Disney Trilogy. Rian Johnson and JJ Abrams' dialogue is far worse than George Lucas' and on top of that, they have no clue how to write a logical and consistent narrative. George Lucas actually understands storytelling. Only idiots who suffer from the Dunning Kruger effect would call him a bad writer or director. And unfortunately, there are a lot of idiots in the world.
"Revenge of the Sith is like a Renaissance painting of judgement day, where the Republic's political and spiritual powers crumple into nothing. And its hero tries to murder his wife before crossing swords with his brother and being consumed by wrath. And when it's all over Palpatine swoops into Hell like the Angel of Death and Darth Vader is born, as the last person in the Galaxy that still believes he has any good in him dies" chills
Dooku didn’t care about Sidious or the Jedi. he just wanted to create his own Organisation with using the dark side, if he would succeeded he would kill Sidious that was his plan, sadly he was the one who got killed first.
@@elmaz46 Initially i tought Dooku was more of an antagonist than a villain, he had good intentions. Maul meanwhile is such a mess with his mind twisted and a lot of missery. He has Sith eyes all the time.
And when he finally lost, it was because love was the one thing that he couldn’t account for because he was I incapable of it himself... It was the love that Anakin had for his son that defeated him.
@@dabalma ofc theyre not theyre just disney trying to create their own star wars and the ratings have shown how badly that went. the only good thing about those movies was the graphics and the prequels had amazing graphics for their time too
EXACTLY, in both canon and legends, Palaptine ordered Maul to specifically kill Qui-Gon. He knew that he would be a grave threat as he is a rebel unlike the rest of the order and expose him one day as a sith lord. Once he met Anakin in person, he was releaved that he killed Qui Gon so he could forge Ani into the Monster we all know today, he forged the most gifted and loved Jedi knight into the deadliest and Hated sith lord Darth Vader.
It wasn't just a full circle. Really he had been a slave to everything in his life other than Padme. He was a slave on Tatooine. Freed from his slavery than turned a slave to the Jedi and at the end after paying so much he's back in the clutches of a master manipulator.
He has a slave mentality throughout the entire saga until he decides to save Luke in ROTJ. Whether it's Watto or the Jedi or Palpatine, he's blindly loyal and subservient to whoever his master is.
RyanGamingXbox - Gaming and more He was never a slave to the Jedi. They freed him, trained him, gave him a home, presumably clothes & food, & a new family. Just like the Devil, Palpatine works in half truths to make it seem like he was a slave to the Jedi (but he was free to leave at any time). Ironically Anakin left his position of freedom to re-join a position if slavery under Palpatine.
@@dmangelsm1188 Darkseid. He still had to call someone master, he was still punished if he did something wrong. Maybe it wasn't slavery, but to a child who had not known anything else, would he have known the difference? That is the problem, Anakin doesn't known the difference cause the Jedi didn't try and understand what he has been going through or help him through his problems. So mentally, he is still a slave
He was also a slave to the Jedi order. He only truly became free when he at last killed Palpatine. The savior of the galaxy, a slave his entire life. Only knowing freedom in his final minutes which he chose to spend looking at his son
"When Palpatine activates Order 66, the Jedi who scoffed at the idea of the Sith's returning from extinction are annihilated in a matter of minutes. Most of them never knowing how deep their failure truly went." *cuts to scene of Yoda* Brilliant.
I think Yoda is one of the few who truly understood, too late, the gravity of the situation. He senses the deaths of the Jedi trough the Force, and the shock makes him drop his cane.
@@something7641 I'm not sure what you're getting at. The point is that Yoda, being Grandmaster and a survivor of Order 66, is the one who more than anyone else understood "how deep their failure truly went".
A lot of villains are underrated Percival C. Mcleach from Rescuers Down Under is underrated Shan Yu from Mulan is underrated Zira from The Lion King 2 is underrated All For One from Boku No Hero Academia is underrated Morgoth from middle-earth franchise is underrated Randall from Monsters Inc. is underrated
I think one of the master strokes of the prequels is the fact that the Jedi are basically doing the bidding of the Lord of the Sith and are his puppets and they don't even suspect it.
The older I get. The more I appreciate Star Wars. As a kid , I was enthralled with the action, adventure, and special effects. As an adult, I absolutely love the story, and character arcs.
except for the disney stuff which has no soul. you could never make an analysis video like this about them, because you wont find any hidden or subtle messages in them
The way I understood the plot of TPM was, Palpatine was the Naboo senator for the Galactic Senate and wanted to become Chanceller, so by manufacturing a crisis that he would negotiate Naboo out of, he would gain a following that he could use to take Valorum's seat from him by calling him out on his corruption in a couple of years but when Queen Amidala successfully reached Coruscant he simply changed his plan to use her to declare the vote of no confidence that accomplished the same thing, and he does this pivot so seamlessly that you would think that was his plan from the start. It is like a late chess game where the master sees mate in 9 moves but a seemingly good move to fight back just gave the master mate in 2 moves instead.
Well Palpatine was the one who clouded the vision of the jedi with the dark side, so that they could not foresee what Palpatine could every step of the way. This foresight is emphasised by Palpatine himself in Episode VI, he said he had foreseen everything that had led him up to that point, everything. I can only interpret that this sentiment applied since early on. He literally played a game that he couldn't possibly lose. Even if he made an error here or a misstep there, it would always turn out in his masterplan's favor in the end.
@@averagejoeschmoe9186 I find this... Kinda weird, I remember the jedi commenting about something clouding their ability to sense the dark side or their vision relative to the darkside situation... But I never got the sense that they were deprived from "the power to see the future", if it were the case I think they would make a bigger deal out of this. Obviously Palpatine is able to foresee a lot of things but I always attributed this to dark side abilities.
@@BubblegobThey did make a bigger deal about their failing sight in AotC but concealed that info so they would not be seen as weak. The Force pulls at and decides your destiny, but it also will obey your commands if you are of strong enough mind. For Palpatine who is so attuned to the Force and is always manipulating it to his designs, there was not a single Jedi who could see Palpatine for what he was. It is also important to remember that almost all of the Jedi were not only too dependent on the Force for their insights but their sense in the force was severely dulled from their rigid dogmas and belief that the Sith were extinct.
@@Redpoppy80 When you describe it like this it sounds more like the Jedi being duped or barely realizing their power in the force is being impaired seldom for the masters worried but cautious as the force is sometime mysterious. Which is much more in line with the impression I got.
"He dragged the most promising Jedi down to the fires of Hell, returning him to the state of slavery he was born in as a machine with a skull where his face used to be." I never noticed that about Vader's helmet till right now and it gave me legit chills. You earned a subscriber!
Turning Anakin into a machine like slave was never Palpatine'a true intention. Anakin getting his legs chopped off and burning half to death was nothing but an accident.
Some people complain about the politics and Palpatine’s schemes in the prequels, but I think it’s the one component that makes them more compelling as you grow up.
As someone who grew up during the prequels, I was pretty young when episode 3 came out, 7 to be exact (I'm 22). At the time I loved the action but never really understood the gravity of the situation. Now that I dig deeper into the lore and watched the clone wars, I come to truly appreciate the absolute genius and pure evil of darth sidious. Not to mention how much raw force power he had, to the point where he worked among the most powerful jedi ever completely undetected. Could you imagine living in a society where you have prospered for literally 1000 years, for all of it to suddenly topple over night by ONE MAN. People tend to overlook just how cunning and powerful sidious really was. I truly believe he was the most powerful being ever in the star wars universe, even more so than Darth Vitiate and Darth Bane. He was so talented in the force and the arts of lightsaber dueling that he mastered all 7 forms, but yet he thought using a lightsaber was weaker than just using the force itself. Palpatine will always be one of my favorite characters ever just because of how calculated he was, yet at the same time had just raw power. I think its fucking awesome that he commonly stands among the most powerful jedi yet they are oblivious to the fact that they are literally right next to the most powerful being in existence, a man who is thought to be a selfless honorable politician that is for the people.
@@houndsmaster34 plus the fact he (along with plagueis) literally bent the force to his will so strongly that Anakin was spontaneously brought into existence by it. (Hence Anakin having no father) I never appreciated as a kid how absolutely ludicrous it is to create life with the force. Here we have Yoda and Luke barely lifting x-wings, meanwhile Sidious and plagueis are bending the force into the form of a living person. It's exactly like E=MC² 9 x 10^16 units of energy = 1 unit of mass Enough concentrated energy in one place will spontaneously bend into an actual tangible particle, e.g. an electron Sidious manipulated the force so strongly that it didn't just create a few particles, or atoms, or molecules, or proteins, it created a fucking human embryo in the womb of Anakin's mother That is such an absurdly massive amount of energy to collect into one spot, let alone to collect AND manipulate perfectly into a highly ordered and genetically viable embryo He had to shape the DNA The chromosomes The endoplasmic reticulum The mitochondria The phospholipid bilayer Every receptor and chemical compound that makes the cell capable of replicating into an actual baby Like literally wtf. You can't even say he just waved his hand and life just randomly appeared. Sidious even said specifically that it was accomplished through extraordinary knowledge. The dark side is fucking legit honestly
@@houndsmaster34 also Lucas based off Palpatines coup from Julius Ceasar and Augustus. Lucas always put some political elements during his reign making Star Wars
For as Sci-fi as Star Wars is , what I've always loved about Palpatines rise to power is how realistic it is. Many rulers in history have gained power by instigating a crisis in order to be granted more powers in a democratic society. And Palpatine does this not once , not twice , but THREE times. And by the time the Jedi realize it after the second time , it's too late
@@rolandfeussner1892 The take over of the banks, through the InterGalactic Banking Clan. After the Republic takes the world where the main vaults and headquarters the IGBC is located on, the formerly neutral planet of Scipio. The GAR defeats Separatists forces who arrive to take it for themselves. Then he calls a senate hearing, announcing that he took the banks over to ensure that these assets are used properly.
@@rolandfeussner1892 Which was near the end of the Clone Wars. And was the final part of him taking complete political control. Before destroying the Jedi Order. Reorganizing the Republic into the Galactic Empire, declaring himself Emperor of it. (Even though this already had happened before he even declared such.) Fully consolidating his power and hold over the galaxy.
You know, when you think about it, Palpatine is one of the few villains whose plan actually WORKS. And not just for a day or a year, it worked for 25 years! Even afterwards, the effects are still felt, reverberating through Legends and Canon. Even if we disregard the ‘sequels’, the Empire is still a threat, albeit a neutered one, the Jedi are all but extinct, and the galaxy may never recover. I don’t know how many villains actually win, but he certainly is one of them. EDIT: Wow, 2,000 likes? Thank you so much!
The only villain I can think of who had better success (in terms of stated-goal outcome) was Thanos; the Endgame movie paints the picture as optimistic because he was beaten with Earth-616, but that's just because we're not gonna talk about the other 14+ million universes that Dr. Strange watched fail. Thanos actually won 14+ million times. Even still, Palpatine became a revered icon through his actions. He succeeded in convincing a whole galaxy to change their way of life, wear the same clothes, and perpetuate a culture of his own creation. Thanos succeeded in his plan execution, but he expected everyone to thank him for his actions -- and he definitely didn't succeed at that. To be the villain while convincing your victims to praise you? That's Trump-level success.
@@extantsanity I really liked your comment until you had to get political, c'mon man, you're no better than Rian Johnson, shoving politics where it doesn't belong.
@@justint.2858 You say that, but George Lucas' prequel trilogy was excruciatingly political, too. It was about how you end up with a backsliding democracy, overthrown by people who were sold lies. As much as I'd have loved to omit a political slant to my comment, it would be a crime against George to do so.
@@extantsanity The difference is that Star Wars politics is not irl politics, so no, not including your Trump bashing wouldn't be a crime against George.
Sideous is just that villain you love to hate. He’s so wicked and evil but in a charming and subtle way. Ian McDiarmid kills it as the galaxy’s evil politician and he deserves all the praise.
It’s not like the Jedi were that great either. They were dangerous. What palpatine did was cold, sure, but it can be justified. The execution of the Jedi is nothing like if they were civilians, the Jedi had lightsabers and extreme force powers making them ridiculously overpowered.
@@KoopaMedia64 Hum, yeah. The jedi still valued life of others over their own. Palpatine created a dictatorship and did multiple genocides, the revenge against the jedi was just a step in his great evil plan. I don't understand why people are so keen on painting the jedi as evil characters. They weren't perfect but were mostly a good force for the galaxy, not some evil dictatorship that takes control of as many worlds as they can to exploit every living being to death. Like, you know, the empire.
I think that is one of the things missing in storytelling of the past twenty years - people want to write villains who are evil but who we understand and can think of as people, because they believe that this is somehow more real. But this is massively unsatisfying and also, I think, actually unconvincing. We want our villains to be devils, not people, and we want our heroes to be a little bit more than people.
@@morgen3369 They were a religious cult, taking three year olds to be trained as warriors. If you look at the empire from an unbiased perspective and listen to what people say in the mandalorian the empire isn't all that bad.
What makes Palpatine great, to me, is that he *enjoyed* himself. So many villains are really kind of depressing, or actually depressed. They're just focused on winning, without a real goal except domination, or some similar Nazi need... or focused on revenge, where afterwards there's little... or are simply horror villain evil, driven by their very destiny with little joy... or some variation. And, Palpatine is all of that. Except, he's actually happy when he wins. He's a happy, happy man. He's living his best life, and he has no self loathing. He is having more fun, and loving life more, with every win. The Joker is sometimes a figure in this vein, I suppose. Depending on the writer. But the joker is also quite crazy. Palpatine is not really crazy. He's just... he's just happily evil. Like, really happy, and really evil. Call it simplistic, it's also super sinister and from what I can think of super rare.
He is the ultimate bad guy. No remorse, no seeking attention, no sad back stories to sympathise with, no mental health issues. Nothing. Just purely cold, calculative, selfish desire to get to the top and rule over all by any means necessary. Just because HE himself wants it all.
It's interesting, and fitting that a sith with the concealed identity of a do-gooder politician is literally just a mastermind pathological power monger, this video added greater depth to a film that has embedded itself in my memory and everytime I watch it the ending is a brutal emotional experience.
I gush about my love for Palpatine as a villain pretty often and I always bring up just what a huge kick he gets out of being evil. He knows he's won and there's nothing anyone can do about it, so he's cackling his whole way through his fight with Yoda. The man finally gets the let loose after all his quiet scheming. The galaxy is his. It's as if he's walking on air with utter glee at just how diabolical he is.
You can't force the masses to give up their freedom but they _can_ be convinced into surrendering their freedom bit-by-bit if you exploit their fear of foreign threats That's why Palpatine's rise to power and later, maintaining that power for so long is so believable
I honestly feel sorry for Oscar, his face and body language are literally the embodiment of what Palpatine stands for, the hopelessness of it all. Somehow Disney was the real Palpatine all along.
That's a great line: "An arrogant religion who get a hold of the messiah and then accidentally hand him over to the devil." Brilliant and totally on point.
Well put. Regarding Anakin’s tragic fall from grace, I always view the prequel trilogy, especially Revenge of the Sith, in the same vain of a Shakespearean tragedy. So much pain and betrayal eloquently out of how love can be corrupted into obsession.
What also makes him such a great villain is the fact that he lost the exact same way Windu did. Just like the dark blinded the Jedi, the light blinded him. They both thought their final battle would go the exact same way it did last time. Unaware that the man standing next to them (the guy prophesized to bring balance to the force) had just become their enemy and the cause of their ultimate demise. It wasn't the power of friendship or the protagonists plot armor, it was exactly what Luke said it was, his overconfidence.
"Palpatine isn't the type to just announce his plan to destroy civiliazation". Meanwhile, in the Disney spin-offs... Palpatine literally broadcasts his plan to the entire galaxy... before his fleet of mini-deathstars are even ready to launch... And it wasn't a trap either like in ROTJ. Sigh. The Disney sequels are absolute garbage.
Agreed. I tried to defend the first one assuming they'd get better. I gave up after the second one I couldn't see the galaxy far away bastardized anymore.
If it makes you feel better, the original writer for that decision was fired and the sequel trilogy was de-canonized. I think... Disney's now working on another three wastes of money to replace them. 🙂
I always liked how despite being the emperor of the entire universe, Palpatine never dresses regally (Hell, his clothes as the chancellor are fancier). It really goes to show how he's in it for the power alone and not any of the luxuries.
I say that every time he appears in episode six. The most powerful man in the universe and yet he only wears black robes and a chain to hold it together
Not wrong lol. His plan is next level but I still have a soft spot for Vader. Without a doubt, he is the best and most iconic cinematic villain of all time. I just wish we would get a Vader movie while James Earl Jones is still alive.
@@Wigglystilts How does wooden dialogue and some questionable acting (not even every actor does a bad job) make the story hard to comprehend? You just have to pay attention
If you look at Palpatine's apprentices (Maul, Dooku, Anakin), the dark side, while giving them certain abilities through their anger, also seems to bring them a form of suffering in one way or another. But with Palpatine, there's no sense of that. He completely revels in the dark side, and it brings him nothing but pleasure. He IS pure evil.
"the prequels are the story of an arrogant religion who get a hold of the messiah and then accidentally hand him over to the devil" - this, this is good.
@tanio12 No I think Alexander got it pretty well spot on. The Jedi absolutely deserved to be wiped out after the way they treated Anakin. They were backwards and dogmatically stubborn in their thinking, refused to concede even the possibility that emotions might not lead to pure evil, and basically pushed Anakin to the dark side every step of the way. Miracle he didn’t turn sooner with some of the geniuses on the council constantly pushing his buttons. Especially Mace and Yoda, never seen two guys more full of themselves.
@@tommyl.dayandtherunaways820 the Jedi weren't great but anakin is down right a moron in ROTS, dude literally enslave the galaxy under someone who is clearly a psychopath because he had some dreams of his wife dying by CHILDBIRTH, in a universe like star wars with the kind of technology they have he really believes that she is going to die by childbirth, death by childbirth isn't even a problem in 3rd world countries in our world(and don't tell me it doesn't matter that much because it's the whole reason anakin sided with palp), and even if she was actually going to die, he is EXTREMELY egoistic, he goes to murder his comrades and literall children just so he can save his wife. Let's not talk about his best demonstration of intelligence, he know palpatine is a sith lord and he sees that palpatine is clearly not a good person nor mentally sane but he actually believes that the jedi order attacked palpatine because they wanted to overthrow the government. P.S The Jedi never deserved to be wiped away, the Jedi needed to be reformed
One thing I’d love to mention about palpatine is his actor, ian macdiarmid absolutely nails his part and really what turns him into such an amazing thing to see on screen
I think Ian is definitely putting in the work. In scene’s where he just gets to act and be subtle when talking to Anakin, he’s great. But the script after he reveals himself as Sidious in RotS doesn’t do him any favors. It’s hard to make some of those lines work.
Really?? I thought he always looked stupid/cringy af when he was fighting those Jedi masters. With those stupid facial expressions and screeching across the room
@@CommanderShepard-wq3wo What he meant was his general look, personality, and appearance throughout every film. For the fight scene, there are two details that you should know. 1, the scream he does while flipping is actually called a “Force Scream”, and it confuses and shocks enemies around the user, which is what aided Palpatine. Secondly, the stunt double actor that was supposed to perform the entire action sequence for Ian was out for the day they planned to shoot on, and so the scene had to be rehearsed again so that Ian himself could perform it. In the novelization, the fight scene is *far* better and cooler, and really shows the immense amount of power Palpatine held
"Palpatine's final victory is almost unmatched in it's scope. Revenge of the Sith is like a Renaissance panting of a judgment day, where the Republic's political and spiritual power crumbles into nothing and it's hero tries to murder his pregnant wife, before crossing swords with his sworn brother and being consumed by wrath (I HATE YOU!) And when it's all over Palpatine descents into hell like the angel of death and Darth Vader is born, as the last person in the galaxy who still believes he has any good in him dies. He dragged the most promising Jedi down to the fires of hell, returning him the the state of slavery he was born in, AS A MACHINE WITH A SKULL WHERE HIS FACE USED TO BE" This... is brilliant, thank you @So Uncivilized for one of the best summary of Star Wars Episode 3 greatness.
There is an additional point: Palpatine, like Sauron or Morgoth (who are in my opinion a much better comparison to Palps than Satan) is one of the few villains in literature or film who doesn't have any redeeming qualities. Not. A. Single. One. I once read in a fantasy novel of a German author that the ability to love is not what sets good and evil apart - it's what they have in common. If you look at Palps, he only loves two things: Himself and power. There is litteraly no tie to another person, which is, what you need for redemption. Other people, even entire species or civilizations are just a mere tool for Palps. All of them.
@@Zyrdalf Hm, loved? He manipulated her into his service with lies, and then she almost overcame him until Balrogs chased her away. Seems he only found her useful, no indication that he ever loved her. That's an interesting take though.
good point. you can even find sympathy in darth fuckin maul, an insane psychopathic murderer. despite all the terrible things hes done, you cant help but feel kinda sorry for him. he was taken as a child and made into a monster, left for dead by his master, and he always loses everything. first his apprenticeship, then his mind, and when he finally gained a person he cared about in his life, he gets murked by palpatine. even with the whole "master and apprentice" thing, you can tell he cares about savage oppress. he gains and loses everything, and its just to kill kenobi, which he cant even do. sad thing is, maul only gets peace during death. in his last words, "he will avenge us", he knows that luke will avenge not just the jedi, but everyone palpatine wronged, including him.
I think the real reason is because the most popular and iconic film he was in is "return of the jedi" and there he was just a plot device for Vader to turn into a good guy
Exactly! I'm always floored how Darth Vader always makes the top, if not THE top, of best cinema villains of all time list, and Palpatine almost never even makes the list. IMO, Palpatine is cinema's greatest villain.
No one notices either the language Palpatine uses when he has his talks with Anakin. It’s all words that seem to be pure but they were slowly corrupting Anakin.
Words aren't pure or evil It all depends on how you use them Manipulation is the art of guiding someone's thoughts, not pushing them in a certain direction (and that's why I never consider people who bring up painful memories to get what they want manipulators; that is closer to threatening than hidden guidance) Btw education is a kind of manipulation but it is accepted by society so it is not "evil"
yup. people hate on the prequels for how anakin was written and how stupid he seems, but when you notice palpatine's words and moves, and also realize that anakin started his life as a naive kid who lived as a slave on a desert planet his whole life you understand why he talks and acts the way he does. almost has parallels to michael jackson in our world, lived a completely different life from childhood that is easily misunderstood by the rest of us. i think all the movies were really well written and acted, people just choose to hate on them for some reason. maybe its how it reflects a lot of our own society and does it with such nuance that we want to reject what the movies really trying to say.
"I shouldn't have done that (killed Count Dooku) it wasn't the Jedi Way." "It was only natural. He cut off your arm, and you wanted revenge... It wouldn't be the first time Anakin. Remember what you told me about your mother, and the Sand People." Palpatine had brought up a painful memory, but certainly not in a threatening way.
If you think about it, all the star wars movies were about him. He masterminded so much of what happened on so many levels in the movies that he undeniably had a huge role in atleast the lore machinations. He had a hand in most everything that happened to some degree atleast in the first 6 movies and the clone wars.
The thing that makes him so good is the fact that when a lot of villains lose their most loyal accomplices they show feeling of sadness and remorse where palpatine on the other hand literally couldn't give a shit and shows no empathy whatsoever. When luke goes into a rage and defeats vader palpatine instructs luke to simply kill vader and take his place despite vaders decades of loyalty. He's truly vile
The Vader that Palpatine cultivated also died on Mustafar and the following quote is from Vader in the Revenge Of The Sith novel: “And you rage and scream and reach through the Force to crush the shadow who has destroyed you, but you are so far less now than what you were, you are more than half machine, you are like a painter gone blind, a composer gone deaf, you can remember where the power was but the power you can touch is only a memory, and so with all your world-destroying fury it is only droids around you that implode, and equipment, and the table on which you were strapped shatters, and in the end, you cannot touch the shadow. In the end you don't even want to. In the end, you do not even want to. In the end, the shadow is all you have left. Because the shadow understands you, the shadow forgives you, the shadow gathers you unto itself-And within your furnace heart, you burn in your own flame.”
Even Maul,who never cared about nothing but power,was saddened and showed compassion to Sauvage when Sidious killed him in that incredible duel. He tried to avenge him and fought valiantly but was overmatched by the dark lord and taken captive. He and Anakin were manipulated when young by the wickedest,most powerful being in the galaxy. How TF is Darth Sidious not on that list? Between him and Heath Ledgers Joker their scale of evil can't be measured!
@@orlandovazquez9662 Sidious is far more brilliant and powerful than the Joker ever could imagine being. His schemes were often stopped. Sidious his schemes never failed until Rey stupidly killed him in the dumbest way possible. Sidious wouldn't just stand there and let himself get destroyed by his own lightning. He would have force pushed her or jumped out of the way. He most likely would have given her the darth maul treatment. Throw her around like a rag doll and then when she begged for mercy he would have tortured her with lightning and if kylo tried to stop him, Sidious would have just blasted him with lightning, force choked him or thrown him again but even further and harder. Episode 9 should have ended with Rey becoming Sidious's apprentice because she had no choice or die. That would have been such a good ending snd leave a good ending to where the next sequels could have started off.
@@Theforsakenmedia Sidious has done things being crafty yes but also it's like having a cheat code when you're one with the Dark Side. Joker has also done things being crafty and his wicked ways and manipulation has taken him to heights in Gotham no other criminal can achieve. One is on a galactic scale,the other citywide. One is a Omniscient entity,the other a skilled, smart super criminal. But to me, equally entertaining to watch in action. You can't compare the two power wise, that's like comparing Yoda to Batman,ya dig? On screen,both are spectacular supervillains. Now, I agree with you JJ Abrams made Sidious in some scenes super powerful and when it came time to fighting Mary Sue Rey he was done in cheaply. That sucked! Even against Windu he put up a better fight. I would have rather seen all of them die in a battle. Thanks,Diss-ney!
@@orlandovazquez9662 the joker took over gotham.. a city. Sidious took over a galaxy and he did it while looking like the good guy the whole time. Now that is what you call a brilliant villain.
I love he look of realization and subtle opportunity on Ian’s face when Anakin tells him his trust in the Jedi is fading. George couldn’t have chosen a better actor.
@@tomnorton4277he's clearly always had a good cast aside from maybe choosing to make anakin a little boy in the phantom menace. every other actor was incredible in other works so star wars having worse performances is an exception to their careers
I've read interviews before where McDiarmid claimed he thought Palpatine was more evil than Satan himself, the claim ranging from, "At least Satan was once an angel" to "At least some have interpreted Satan as noble." That's how he views the character- he is evil, and has never, ever, for a single instant, been anything else.
@@nickelbutt its not weak, hes saying even at one point satan had good in him and fell, palpatine has always been that way, in essence it took time for satan to himself fall, and palpatine, hes evil to the very core of his being, right from the very get go. In that essence, hes perhaps the personification of evil
@@TC70 Look, Palpatine is not a poorly written villain, but a very very simple one. And that isn’t a bad thing, especially because there are several villains in Star Wars that do have moral complexities, leaving room for an epic evil emperor at the top. But Palpatine himself is only interesting because he moves the plot. He has no character foil, no true motive, no backstory. And I want to emphasize, these aren’t bad things, this type of villain works very well in a standard hero story like Star Wars. But calling him the greatest movie villain of all time is laughable and objectively wrong. “He’s so evil… *sniffle*… he’s so evil, that he is like, even more eviler than Satan.” -Some Child
20 years later, and my appreciation of the film grows. It took becoming a father to an abandoned son, and witnessing the thinly-veiled selfishness of real-life political machinations, to realize that all the themes and turning points are actually frighteningly plausible.
Well, balance in the Star Wars sense means the abundance of the light side. As Lucas himself said, the natural state of the Force (and of balance) is the light side. Just that the Jedi weren't in tune with this pure light side, it was their own corrupted version.
@@whydidimakethis111 It's pretty crazy when you take a step back and realize Dooku was 100% correct about the Jedi and why they had to be destroyed and rebuilt.
The problem was that the Jedi and the Sith were corrupted emulations of the force; and at the end of Episode 6, its what makes Luke's stand against Palpatine so powerful; his father may have brought balance to the force, but he has become the future of that very balance. He's everything his father wished he could be. and its that moment that allows Vader to see how far he has fallen.
I feel like people who said the prequels were just "boring politics" are the exact sort of people Palpatine was tricking. The poltics are supposed to be overly beurocratic and under systemic rot, it's being taken advantage of by a supervillain who managed to infiltrate it to the top seat thanks to the systems complacency. The jedi too, of course, the more I look back on it the more I realize you were never really supposed to like the jedi council, they are as much of a reason the Empire happened as Palpatine.
The politics in the prequels are not complex, can be understood by children easily and take a small amount of screen time. I've no idea why ''boring politics'' was ever seen as a valid criticism by some.
6:15 I think this is especially clever. Palpatine used the Separatists as his proxy “bad-guys” to force planets unwilling to join the republic to join for fear of getting wiped out. The defoliator tank and siege of Onderon episodes are great examples of that in the Clone Wars. Episodes with people who were neutral in the war between the Republic and Separatists. And both get attacked by the Separatists, forcing them into the Republic.
Once Disney took over and we saw how bad things could really be, I think we ALL gained a greater appreciation for the storyteller that is Jorge Lucazo.
Palpatin works great, because he doesnt need to use his force powers. An less experienced writer would have made him overuse his force mind trick to archieve his goals, but palpatin was most of the time just an ordinary eldery guy. Palpatin sets the gold standard for villains that stay in the background
Don’t get me wrong, Palps is one of my top 3 best villains of all fiction but Lucas did really dumb down the Jedi and republic and really make them incompetent for Palp to win.
Pure evil can be more fun sometimes as well. Their charisma makes them likeable and it's just as fun to watch them succeed as it is to watch them fail (see 99% of Disney villains or my personal favourite, Frieza from Dragon Ball Z as some good examples).
Another great pure evil character: Melkor/ Morgoth from the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (basically prequels to LotR except that these prequels were written first) Similarly, in the same book, his apprentice Sauron shows his brilliance similar to what palatine does. Befriending your worst enemy, gaining their trust by hiding in plain sight and then overthrow them. Although Sauron is only successful in the destruction part, he doesn't really get to rule anything.
The Sith never went extinct. Hence the rule of two created by my personal favorite Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Bane, 1000 BBY. The rule of two allowed the Sith to convince the Jedi that they were extinct while orchestrating a plan through powerful lineage to one day take over the Galaxy and wipe out the Jedi order. The rule of two, "One to embody power, and the other to crave it"
Yes. However, to the Jedi, they believed the Sith were extinct, and the Council even says so at the prospect of their return. Going as far as to say “The Sith have been extinct for a millennium”.
Satan will also use the greatest false-flag in space-time record, to eventually rule the planet under a singular government and singular religion, and attempted singular Hivemind. But it will only last a short time as he is a snake biting its own tail, and the destruction of such a system will be like a house of cards.
Yeah, but Palpatine is as one-dimensional as can be. His motive is power, he's sadistic, lacks redeeming qualities, has no personality besides being evil, doesn't act as a foil to any protagonist and is generally just not very interesting as a character. He works as a plotpoint to drive the story forward. Vader is a much better villain.
@@trafalgarlaw8373 I would argue that Palps is a very interesting character, for the simple fact that . . . Without him, there is no Vader to be begin with
@@thomasedsall7699 That's more of an action line really, plot. It makes him important to the narrative, at least in the prequels, but in itself isn't really interesting. This is because it tells us nothing about himself beyond the usual motive for power and evil. It could make him interesting if the motive or method was different. Perhaps he wants to be a father figure, or sees himself in Anakin etc etc, but no such options are explored. Its just another calculated part of gaining power.
@@trafalgarlaw8373 I mean honestly, in a world where so many villains have complex traits that are integral to the character being the character . . . Take Thanos, he doesn't just want power, he wants to save the universe (as misguided as the way he does it is) he thinks himself the hero. Idk maybe it's just me but having a villain like Palps, where his only motive is complete power . . . Not chaos, but power. It's nice. Sometimes I don't want to think about how the villain is like the heroes in his own misguided way, sometimes I just want the villain to be evil, for the sake of being evil.
Its not an active thing like the jedi mind trick. Palpatine has a special trait of Presence, he is a living shadow in the force, the stronger he is the wider and darker it becomes. When he becomes a senator he basically covers all of coruscant. When he becomes chancellor, and sith master having killed Plagueis on election night, he reaches through the galaxy.
@@RDR911there’s another Sith Lord from the knights of the old republic games that had a similar gift in the force, he was a force black whole able to absorb it out of all living creatures around him. An almost off shoot of the Sith Lords goals to make themselves immortal. Darth Nihilus I think it’s spelled
Palpatine has a more complete victory than even Thanos. He reminds me a lot of Augustus, a brilliant politician who eventually becomes emperor because of him playing 12D chess against his 3D oppononents. Only Palpatine is objectively far more evil, and the intentions of his plan more villainous than just making himself emperor.
Yeah Augustus turns the Roman Republic into the Empire and ends up applauded by the majority of the population. Augustus even kind of did the Order 66 thing with his soldiers executing many senators and army officers that would have opposed him.
@@harrambou9468 that's because he's the complete evil villain type 110%. With all the other evil villains, they're either inspired by Palpatine or just not formidable or smart. The weird dark elf from Thor 2 was completely evil, also completely boring, dumb and weak. There's just no beating a villain who leads both sides of an intergalactic civil war with the purpose to grind down both factions until he can seize ultimate power, which he actually does.
@@nerd_5615 He did miss out on one thing. Vader's loyalty and conflict. That's what caused his defeat. As for the battle on Endor and the space battle, he had the right to be confident/overconfident. His fleet was going to win according to his plan.
A friend of mine and I had a realization watching Game of Thrones, and it very much applies to Star Wars. What's the #1 cause of death in Westeros? The same as in the Star Wars galaxy: winning too much
He took a galaxy spanning order of force users, spread them out in a war he fabricated and played both sides of and arranged to have said order all unceremoniously shot in the back simultaneously. Meanwhile, he was insanely powerful himself. GOAT villian and no one even comes close imo
@@ryanm.8720 Not so much revenge as it is he's pissed off his plan to de-throne God got him a Sparta kick out of the heavenly realms to Earth like a bolt of lightning. Palpatine and Satan have a common history that both had talent and became Prideful because of it - seeing others as tools that stand in their way. Both ended being booted out of their respective places - one down a reactor shaft and the other from heaven. Though Ian does make a point that Palps never had a moment of goodness.
@Anakin Skywalker Hard to say. I'm not sure how the Force would stack up against Magic in Middle Earth. Would Palpatine or Melkor be stronger? Palpatine has an insane amount of power but Melkor was around since Middle Earth was created.
@@mish375 the force doesn't allow to directly control people while Sauron could Also Sauron is actually immortal but Palpatine shouldn't Sauron also could create new nazgûl which are, in fact, immortal; you can only interfere with their interaction with reality through the clothes they had, which is also why they fled when Aragon (I think; I don't remember the names that well) set them on fire Against the army of the Empire Sauron would certainly lose but if we put them in a place with the same technology Sauron would probably win (in a fight between armies) while against Palpatine we cannot guarantee the winner
@@tuluppampamI think only 2 Nazgul were named. But if we were putting Melkor and Palpatine in a battle and let's assume they're drawing on the same power source of darkness, then it would be hard to say. Both are pure darkness so they might be evenly matched.
Thanks for making that comparison of sidious to Satan, because besides the name he is the devil. The way he operates in secret. Approaching anakin not as a grotesque fiend but as a friendly old man only to reveal himself when he has won. It’s all so compelling to see how evil can sometimes succeed, if everyone is blind to it. “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convince the world that he didn’t exist”
It's so true. Lucas confirmed in behind the scenes interviews that Palpatine is supposed to be Satan in the Star Wars Universe. In the Bible, there's a verse that states that the Devil disguises himself as an Angel of Light to deceive. Palpatine did just that: pretended to be the father figure Anakin desperately needed and emotionally validated/manipulated him for years, before seducing him to the Dark Side in a bid for power. Also consider Anakin's name: it's very close to the Anakim, a race of Giants in Genesis that were believed to be part Nephilim. So Anakin's fall is literally the fall of a Giant.
If you watched The Clone Wars, Palpatine can be seen as even greater villain. In the last seasons you can see, how he is manipulating the senate, slowly turning the republi into a police state, where clones aren't just soldiers, they're Palpatine's private police force. This guy fully controled everything even before Republic became The Empire.
This. Since the Mandalore arc you could get the feeling that Palpatine was gaining more and more power over the galaxy, and after the wrong jedi... He prety much had the galaxy where he wanted it. Almost every episode in season 6 and cancelled episode in 7 involves someone in similar situations to Ahsoka. Ventress, Quinlan, Dooku, Maul, Fives, even Yoda... They all get very close to reveal Sidious identity, but end up beung chased by clones, while some characters inside the "chasing side" (most of the time, Yoda, Rex or Obi-Wan) just get the feeling that there is something so wrong in all of this, but no one actually listens to them. There is also the political plots, like him taking over the banks and using both the separatist and the republic army to attack Scipio or him invalidating the pacifist by using figuires like Satine or Barris to acuse those movements of being separatists
I like the part in the ROTS book and their looking for the Sith Lord Windu says the only reason Palps isn’t being investigated is because he already controls the galaxy.
What I love about Palpatine aswell is his giddiness. When he starts fighting Yoda for example, his laughing in Yodas face is actually throwing him off a bit.
Sidious was literally playing chess with himself. He had all the pieces he had all the pawns and knew exactly where and how to move. edit: thanks for all these likes😭
It's more like he was playing chess with a guy who had previously been super good at it but hadn't played in 50 years, and manipulated him into playing by *his* rules instead.
and the only wild card he didnt see comming, is the love of a father to his son wich is poetic as F or the hope and will to choose the rigth way of his own family(rey) ps: dont really like the sequels ..also dont hate them, but they are cannon so....
This doesn't even take into account the events of Return of the Jedi, where we get to see Palpatine attempt to replace that skull-faced machine with the slave's own son, using nothing more than is own sheer manipulative personality. The man was Pure Evil on so many levels, it's simply amazing.
Dooku left the jedi order because he too saw the hypocrisy and arrogance and brokenness in the system and wanted to fit it He was a political idealist And we then see him leader of a nation who sees the flaws of the Republic and wants to start anew, the right way Dooku was trying to be a good guy
@@ovencake523 But he wasn't. He was also lying and concealing Palpatines identity and going along with whatever Palpatine said. He was committing genocide and war crime and playing his part as a puppet. He wasn't good. He just played the good guy for the separatists, much like politicians today.
@@ovencake523 Dooku did a pretty terrible job of trying to be the good guy lmao. He isn't even an anti hero, dude is clearly evil. Which is a shame because he just ends up becoming a pawn then tossed aside once he served his use but the dark side has a funny way of corrupting. No good deed goes unpunished.
@@MonstersNotUnderTheBed Exactly. By telling the Jedi the actual truth, he caused them to dismiss the idea because it came from an untrustworthy source.
"Wait... he's not even on the list?"
*Impossible, perhaps the archives are incomplete.*
nice
No! No! No! He is The List!
Whoever made that list is as short sighted as the Jedi once was!
Deleted maybe they were.
Forget the list. He goes to the block.
"He dragged the most promising Jedi down to the fires of hell, returning him to the state of slavery he was born in, as a machine with a skull where his face used to be." That got me.
That literally made my eyes brim with tears ... and with the music and images... 🥺
That’s the most Metal description of the birth of Darth Vader ever.
That and the line before, that the last person in the galaxy that believes there is still good in him, dies.
@@Comkill117 metal?
That's not even the worst of it. Because 25 years later, Palpatine tried to replace that skull-faced slave... WITH HIS OWN SON. The sheer evil of the man was... palpable.
Teehee. ;)
“Revenge of the Sith is like a renaissance painting of Judgement Day”
I’m gonna remember this one for a long time
“The prequels are a story of an arrogant religion who get a hold of the messiah, and then accidentally hand him over to the devil”
Satan: "I like to say I am a huge fan"
*Proceeds to send him to the final movie*
Ehh that movie is overrated. It is the good one but still had the same problems as the other two prequels
@@BobPantsSpongeSquare97 So if by problems, do you mean flawlessness I agree.
@@kalleenstoddard357 no problems that are in the screenplay and others like wooden acting and thinly developed characters. For example Maul and Dooku are just cool boss battles but they hardly do anything and the audience barely knows anything about them. If you want more info you gotta go look up EU content 😑. Thats the problem with George's writing. He clearly needed help but surrounded himself with yes men
One thing I like about Darth Sidious is that he LOVES being evil. Many villains believe they’re doing the right thing, the greater good, and so on. Even Dooku falls under that. But Palpatine is pure evil, is well aware of it, and relishes every last ounce of it.
While at the same time, knowing how to hide this until the time is right
Exactly he’s the perfect scopayh
Does he though? Palpatine's a psychopath and the don't feel anything at all. If anything I think he loves power and has no qualms in doing whatever he can to get it. And if that includes the power to turn people into puppets.
@@vittoriacolonaI'd say that Palpatine does feel strong emotions, that's why he's so powerful in the use of the dark side. In one of the canon comics Palpatine tells Vader that he loves making and having enemies, because he loves always having someone to kill. He also says that the hate and rage that fuel his powers come from the fact that he sees almost everyone as below him, and everyone below him enrages him to the point that he thinks they don't deserve to live. I think he's truly a wretched evil fuck that enjoys doing harm as much as he does power.
That's why he's so compelling. He just does not care. He murdered two people to embarrass his dad.
Palpatine is playing a game of chess.. but he is controlling both sides, he wins either way.
And this is presented very well in the Clone Wars series.
@3 I was thinking the 3D animated and I watched it recently and it was a first. Didin't watch it when it came out. Aside from some cringy episodes I liked it. Waaay better than the "new trilogy".
A game of chess with only two pieces, and he's both pieces. He's also the board, the scorer, and the crowd, while everyone else are the hobos sleeping in the alley behind the building.
"What is this game, I win."
Yes i get it after seeing this 500 times
"The prequels are the story of an arrogant religion who get a hold of the messiah and accidentally hand him over to the devil." Damn. That's brilliant.
So trueee. Why did the Jedi not trust him!
kinda resembles warhammer
@@MonkeyGoatLicker because they feared him. They feared his power, they feared what he represented, they feared their lack of control over him. And fear, as they say, leads to the darkside.
@@wiseforcommonsense I thought about that last sentence while reading this before I read the last sentence. Very true.
@@MonkeyGoatLicker Because, after centuries of not fighting a single powerful enemy (the Sith) they lost their original purpose. Also, they didn't like the fact that Anakin had unstable emotions, like many fallen Jedi before him. They were wary of him, because he was unpredictable. But this only contributed to Darth Sidious' plan; After centuries of deterioration, a war that hardened them (driving some, like Sora Bulq, away from the Jedi way), and an unstable (and easy to manipulate) messiah, the Jedi were never in a position to win against the evolved Order of the Sith Lords. Their enemy this time was not another dark-sided empire emerging from Korriban, it was a subtle venom corrupting the heart of the Republic itself, something they never truly fought against.
The best thing is that Sidious wasn’t driven by malice or fear.. he was having the time of his life and enjoyed every moment of his villainy, constantly laughing and cackling like a madman
Like the joker
Woah never tought about it . He never yelled screeched a monologue. He really is a good experienced villan after all
Damn bro
Finally someone understood
I'm not sure why you think that - the Sith revel in fear, anger, and hatred. They draw their power from these emotions and it gives them focus and this is portrayed in all of the movies. He was, however, able to conceal his fear, anger, hatred and motives from the Jedi with perfection. His laughing is cackling was perfect because it showed his perverse joy when finally confronting and destroying his arch nemesis.
Ian McDiarmid did a phenomenal job portraying him on screen.
He's still killing it in the spin off shows. He's been reprising his role lately
I saw episode 3 in theaters when I was like 8 years old. One of the happiest memories of my life. I love Star Wars. Or at least I used to. Until Disney.
@@funtimeflorian1643 Far from the first time he did.
@@Ethan_Alexandur
Same here, friend. Same here.
Seriously, the most underrated acting performance of my lifetime. Just the way he delivers his lines is nothing short of a masterclass in acting. Most of the Emperor's memorable dialogue is simple due to the acting choices that McDiarmid made. Simply brilliant.
It's so fitting that the greatest villain of all time is a politician.
A COMPETENT politician.
long live the empire
@@Diego-zz1df A SEXY politician
Lmao
Too true
“In many ways, the prequels are the story of an arrogant religion, who get ahold of the Messiah, and then accidentally hand him over to the devil”
Perfect summary. Amazing quote.
I agree!! 👏👏👏
That's perhaps the most beautiful thing to explain the Prequels.
Amazing statement!!!
And then the devil accidentally hands over the Messiah's children to that same religion. lol
One of the reasons why I'm not actually that bothered by Order 66, at least not when it comes to the Jedi Council. Complacent idiots the lot of them.
One of the reasons makes him so great was that he actually succeeded
True, at the end of most movies the villain is defeated, but in ROTS he actually succeeded
For a time, until the end of ROTJ and {cough, cough} ROS.
Palpatine and Thanos are favorite villains for that reason. They actually won.
@@captainfordo3969 yea thanos is a good villain but he lacks many things that palpatine has: manipulation, pure badass moments, and an epic theme song. this is all just "my opinion" btw so don't take it personally. they're really just differently great villains. thanos, the man who just wanted to execute a huge plan mostly by himself. he has a somber theme song that reflects his somber life and somber persona. on the other hand, palpatine manipulates, plans, and backstabs, while still being capable to destroy his most powerful opponents in direct combat, should the need arise.
but yea, the "they won" argument still stands for both these cases.
And not only succeed but flourished ruling an empire spanning half of the galaxy for 20 years and all the while making himself appear as a frail old man with honor in the core worlds and inner rim systems
Many people overlook the shot of Palpatine's shuttle passing over Anakin on Mustafar, an iconic shot where the shuttle appears like a bird of prey going for its food.
pov: the bishop heard there were children in hell
But he saved Anakin he could have left him to die and go find another apprentice but he saved the dying Vader he also seemed genuinely worried when he saw anakin burned and dying From anakins point of view palpataine was his savior
The Prequals are just Palpatine playing 5d chess with himself
nice one
Damn you stole my comment
He played chess when the others played checkers
Thrawn > Creamy Sheeve.
Prequel
the best part about Palpatine was that he actually won, there was no last minute "Good triumphs over evil" situation, literally
the entire Jedi order was annihilated, the republic was reformed into a new rule under the iron boot of the galactic empire and
the hero of the story became the worlds number one most remembered villain.
And what's funny is, palpatine dies not because of any massive oversight on his end, but by two things he could never have suspected. The first being the Luke Skywalker, a random moisture farmer with seemingly no concrete reasons to stay as a Jedi, when shown that his friends were being massacred and promised that joining palpatine would spare there lives, refused to turn to the dark side. The second being the Darth Vader, the man who killed his wife because of the dark side, who massacred children for palpatine, who struck down his master and dear friend in cold blood, was turned to the light side purely because his son had unwavering faith that he still had good in him. Dieing not because you Lost, not because your plan had a gaping holes in it, not because of masterful counterplan, but because of something nobody could have expected, is something very very few villans manage to come close too. Only one I can think of is Sauron, who was taken down because two hobbits walked across the world, went through a series of caverns guarded by the spawn of the gigantic spider which tied up and tortured Saurons Boss, then walked through the single most inhospitable environment on the planet, scaling a volcano, and managed to destroy a ring which was known for corrupting some of the greatest of men in the time it took them to scale a volcano. Sauron didn't even know hobbits existed until he found out that they were the things which held the ring.
@@Santisima_Trinidad And Grand admiral thrawn
He had all the rebels, where he wanted them, he tricked them so many times.
There was just one moment: He ignored Leia Organa, and helped her convincing the Noghri, people, who swore eternal respect, to turn against him.
But his whole puzzle was just misding one tiny peace
@@smartlinus2592 A very small wrench can break a very large machine.
@@kraigisboss that's right
Everyone in the comments on this video: you know im something of a philosopher myself
Obi wan: "Sith lords are our speciality"
Literally 3 sith lords in the same room
Obi wan is the only one who isn’t one lol
@@thelordshrek2938 Ehh, he's the greatest master of Dun Moch in the movies, so who knows...
Yeah, but all sith will fail against the high ground
Speciality*
Yep
One crucial thing about Palpatine that I love is that he isn't a sympathetic villain. Too many villains these days get written in a way where the audience feels sorry for them and that their actions are somewhat justified or understandable.
But not Palpatine, he's straight evil and he loves it. Gotta respect that.
That's one of the things that make Palpatine the best of the best. In terms of pure evil, nobody short of Satan himself tops him. Aaravos in The Dragon Prince comes very close because he's another Satanic figure but I'm worried that Aaron Ehasz might fall into the trap of trying to make him sympathetic and relatable. We don't need that in all our villains. Complexity is wonderful but if we're looking purely in terms of who represents the Devil the most efficiently, without literally BEING the Devil, Palpatine is at the top of the list. The simplicity is what makes him so iconic, on top of Ian McDiarmid killing it in the role. No other actor could handle this character as well as him. Ian Abercrombie, may he rest in peace, was great but he was only doing the voice. Ian McDiarmid is a Shakespearean actor which perfectly suits Star Wars' tone and style and enabled him to bring the physicality and expressiveness that voice acting simply can't convey.
I hate to be that guy but it boils down to the fact that the people in charge of the media now don’t believe in traditional evil, they believe that tradition is evil. They attribute their beliefs to villains but dial it up to 1000 & just use the excuse that they were ridiculed or exiled & became vengeful & radicalized. It’s very rare that we get a flat out evil villain. Look at the MCU for example, they built up Thanos for 10 years just for the payoff to be shit. He was basically a big purple Leo DiCaprio eco-nut gone mad who we’re made to sympathize for. Then look at Guardians 3 as a good example, The High Evolutionary had a goal but reveled in his cruelty. He wasn’t relatable to anyone & they used a cheap gimmick like animal cruelty to show that, but still, the point is the same. It all went down the drain when people started trying to relate to their villains rather than their heroes.
Villains can be allegories without being boring but very interesting and fun and threatening
Thanos is practically the hero in the Avengers movie
That's because people want it both ways. They call villains that are evil just because, poorly written, cartoonish and boring. Then people like yourself say differently.
That moment when you realize that Vader isn't Palpatine's apprentice, He's his trophy.
A magnificent jewel box created both to display and preserve the greatest treasure of the Sith.
That was known in 80s already, you know?
Yeah, Palpatine didn't like him after he got dismembered and lost so much power because he was no longer a worthy successor
@@inadequis6132 he only lost power because palpatine had his suit created to inflict pain upon him consistently so he never had full control. He would have been stronger than palpatine and he knew this
F**k that’s great!! I never thought of that! Damn..
Jedi: "We don't like politics"
Palpatine: "Gooooooood...."
This. Them being too passive is actually the trouble.
@@budakbaongsiah isn't the story basically that them getting involved in the war was their downfall, rather than remaining peacekeepers? I don't see how that is them being too passive.
@@SelectHawk Whether they got involved or not is actually irrelevant (and I don't really see how they could avoid getting involved eventually once the war started). Their big mistake was in allowing the war to begin in the first place. Not only did they not detect the machinations of a Sith Lord who was right under their noses, they couldn't even be bothered to consider it a possibility, believing the Sith were "extinct". It's an incredible level of hubris on their part, knowing full well the lure of the Dark Side of the Force that every Force user has to actively avoid, to assume that there wouldn't eventually be some Dark Side acolyte with enough skill at manipulation and power in the Force to become the same as a Sith Lord of the past. Or considering the long history of the Sith to actually believe they could be made extinct in the first place.
Ultimately the Jedi had one responsibility to the Republic; to guard against a return of the Sith or any other dark side force user that threatened it. But 1000 years of the absence of Sith basically turned the Jedi into an insular, feckless order that no longer paid attention to the events happening around it as if they were above such things, even going so far as gatekeeping who can and cannot be trained by them nearly guaranteeing a group of fallen Force users would spring up eventually. Their arrogance and aloofness created the opportunity that Palpatine used.
And if you really want someone to blame, it's Yoda. As much as I love Yoda, the movies do a good job of showing him to be a very different person before and after the fall of the Republic. Something happened early in his time as a Jedi to lead the order down the wrong path and having such a long lifespan he alone kept it on that path instead of listening to wiser Jedi like Qui Gon and likely countless other long-dead Jedi during his tenure. By the time Luke meets him in ESB, Yoda has had plenty of time to reflect on his mistakes and has lost much of the arrogance he once had.
Jedi: “We don’t care about politics.”
Palpatine: “I care!”
It’s treason then
That moment when your plan is so good, practically everyone involved never knew that there was a plan at all.
"practically everyone involved never knew that there was a plan at all."
Count Dooku was in on it. The only thing he didn't know was that Anakin was to be his replacement.
@@jamesgravil9162 that’s why I said practically, and to be fair we don’t know the extent he was in on the plan. Like you said he probably didn’t know Anakin’s part, which is arguably one of the more important parts of the plan.
The only other one that really knew there was a plan was maul and he didn’t know the extent of it. Only that Anakin was a big player.
*i love it when i join a two-man cult that opposes a bigger cult, where we are hidden, and then i betray the other guy by leaving him to die from the hands of the other cult and then having another guy and having a massive droid army and a droid general (yes he is a droid, hehe) with some spinny swords (oh yeah btw both the cults have laser swords) and then trick the majority into leaving yourself emergency powers betraying your other cult member by telling the other cult's most powerful member to " **_DEW IT_** " and then use that to get that powerful member as my new more permanent apprentice, and then use the emergency powers to destroy the other cult with their own clone army and then make myself an emperor of the new empire and then get thrown down a reactor shaft* (imma ignore the sequels, they were a failed abortion)
@@waltuh2.3bviews3secondsago3 thanks for ignoring the failed abortion!
@@MrCoolguy425 what if the Emperor never got thrown down the shaft and actually had a plan, and that's Palpatine sending a loyal secret Sith Lord unbeknownst to Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker to spy on him and at the right time, assassinate him before he could oust the Emperor. This Sith Lord, who had already a contempt of Anakin Skywalker (as well as his former Padawan Ashoka Tano, who the Sith Lord has a eye on as well because of a little thing I like to call "a misconception" that the Sith Lord has, that makes him think Ashoka is unbeatable and un-killable.)
“The prequels are a story of an arrogant religion who get a hold of the messiah and accidentally hand him over to the devil” is one of the coolest descriptions I’ve heard
The problem is that it isn't true. It's Sidius and himself who did it. You can point mistakes of the Jedi, but the blame is on Sidius and Anakin himself.
@@sergiocortes125If you actually delve deep into it, you’ll realise the Jedi did much more work turning Anakin to the dark side and Palpatine only had to nudge him a little. So no, it is an accurate description.
@@roronoalaw7772 If you pay actual attention you'll learn is Anakin's wrong choices choices who lead him to his ruin. And you'll also learn his main flaw the inability to let go. By the way, the Jedi tried to help him fix the problem that led him to ruin while Sidius fed it for his own greed.
I'm worried if having to repeat this much that a grown adult is responsible of his actions. I don't know if Tiktok and Insta are swallowing people's braincells are what the hell is happening here, but I'm terrified. Dude, it's a simple maniqueist story that even the author has explained, wake up.
@@roronoalaw7772
Honestly, with the Jedi being ignorant and short sided, Palpatine being a brilliant manipulator and Anakin simply having personal flaws which were never adressed (due to lack of a father figure and the contrast between hypercritical Jedi while the rest of the galaxy worshipped the ground he walked on) the whole thing was arguably a group effort.
@@sergiocortes125 The author has also admitted the Jedi were arrogant and short sighted. So your condescension is unwarranted, yes obviously an adult is responsible for their choices, however to deny outside influences had an impact on his is just plain ridiculous. They told him to be a robot and not give a shit about his family which is awful advice and something Luke took into account for the NJO in the EU.
"Palpatine wouldn't drop out of the sky and just announce his plan."
Yeah Disney. He wouldn't...
Unless it is his plan. The Sith feed off fear and what's more terrifying than a powerful Emperor thought to have been dead to somehow come back? I actually enjoyed Disney's sequels. And the fan theories that were made before and after the release of each film.
@@cadeshanley218 Hmm, interesting point of view, the only problem I have with that is this: nobody really feared him, let me explain: in TLJ the other people from different planets didn't want to help the resistance against the First Order, but they show up for some reason when the First Order is combined with the Last Order, which is an even bigger threat
@@VibingMeike Very true.
@@cadeshanley218 He's not stupid. Or not supposed to be anyway. If the excuse you want to make for the Sequels is that he's stupid, that's fine.
@@inarencommander4663 *Shrugs* Was trying to figure out things from their point of view.
One of very few villains who never underestimated his enemies, and faced them with awareness and caution.
except in return of the jedi.
@@lionfan96 he didn't consider Vader his enemy. Luke defeating his father was in Palpatine "I got that covered" " Palpatinre having to kill a still defiant Luke, ditto. Vader regaining his humanity back in the very last moments of his life and defending his son, THAT is the only thing Palpatine couldn't.see-- because self sacrifice for love was utterly incomprehensible to the Emperor.
If you qualify YTPs, then Palpatine is also one of the few villains that attacks when their opponent is talking, as seen in 'The Tragedy of Darth Sand'.
*Yoda:* If so powerful, you-
*Palpatine: {blasts Yoda with force lightning}*
@@robertlehnert4148 I don’t think it was incomprehensible for him, but more that he thought Vader’s only loved one had died.
@@robertlehnert4148 I think that Palpatine knew that Vader was dangerous but what happened was extremely unlikely and as such Palpatine didn't prepare for it
Star Wars is basically 'Palpatine: The Documentary'
Have you ever heard The tragedy of Anakin Skywalker
This actually makes sense right
Nice heavy pfp
nah more like edgy boy anakin who was supposed to save the galaxy ends up fucking it up because of love and power yada yada yada
*Anakin: The Documentary
Palpatine is proof that a villain can be pure evil without falling into the flat character trap. He's charismatic, is similar enough to real life villains while also having an element of fantasy and has a personal dynamic with the protagonist...while not having an ounce of actual humanity
Sure, can be, but it's very much the exception. Only thanks to a career-defining, singularly charismatic, once in a lifetime performance. Doesn't mean it's something writers should emulate, or that 98% of the time a more nuanced character with motivations beyond pure evil won't be more interesting and engaging.
That's because he doesn't do evil stuff for the sake of it, but he has a clear goal in mind and thus does things
He has a personality, unlike so many other poorly written characters
@@jackstrawful That just exemplifies how talented George Lucas actually is at writing. The idiots who claim he didn't know what he was doing suffer from the Dunning Kruger effect. It takes a VERY good writer to make a fairly simplistic character into such an iconic villain.
It would have been so easy to turn Palpatine into a Saturday morning cartoon villain - that's what Disney's trainwreck did - but because Star Wars is for all ages, George Lucas knew that there needed to be mature themes underneath the silliness in order for both children and adults to appreciate the story. It helped that he's knowledgeable about history, religion, politics and psychology so he knew how to to develop the story whilst keeping Satan as its core antagonist. Ian McDiarmid's performance elevated an already solid foundation.
@@tomnorton4277 He was a good creator of storys and a good editor, not a good writer, and certainly a terrible director, the star wars dialogues are are terribly written artocities
@@ericleal157 George Lucas saved The Empire Strikes Back. If he was a bad writer or director, Star Wars wouldn't have lasted for so long.
If you want to see the work of terrible writers and directors, just watch the Disney Trilogy. Rian Johnson and JJ Abrams' dialogue is far worse than George Lucas' and on top of that, they have no clue how to write a logical and consistent narrative. George Lucas actually understands storytelling. Only idiots who suffer from the Dunning Kruger effect would call him a bad writer or director. And unfortunately, there are a lot of idiots in the world.
"Revenge of the Sith is like a Renaissance painting of judgement day, where the Republic's political and spiritual powers crumple into nothing. And its hero tries to murder his wife before crossing swords with his brother and being consumed by wrath. And when it's all over Palpatine swoops into Hell like the Angel of Death and Darth Vader is born, as the last person in the Galaxy that still believes he has any good in him dies" chills
Yes
Sheeeeeeeeeit
im glad at least some people realise how awesome this movie was.
@ its my all time favorite movie not just favorite star wars movie but of all movies this is my favorite
SAME HERE!!
Sidious is so villainous, that even the villains of the movies are used, abused, and even come to hate Sidious as well. (Maul and Dooku)
Maul also fears Sidious as well.
Isn't that a great description of the devil. The ultimate deceiver.
Dooku didn’t care about Sidious or the Jedi. he just wanted to create his own Organisation with using the dark side, if he would succeeded he would kill Sidious that was his plan, sadly he was the one who got killed first.
@@elmaz46 Initially i tought Dooku was more of an antagonist than a villain, he had good intentions.
Maul meanwhile is such a mess with his mind twisted and a lot of missery. He has Sith eyes all the time.
And Vader and Kylo!
Lol imagine if they brought him back out if nowhere saying "oooh he actually survived the fall!!" Now that would be so silly!
oh wait...
It's truly a shame there are no new SW movies after episode 6.
(Excluding Rogue one)
@@freekjobse7051 I see that you also don't count the sequals as Canon. Lol at least I won't be alone
Surviving being blown up twice XD *ONE OF WHICH WAS THE DEATH STAR BLOWING UP*
Don't be so silly
The dark side is a pathway to many abilities that some consider to be unnatural.
the entire saga can be summarized as Palpatine playing chess with himself, and winning.
And when he finally lost, it was because love was the one thing that he couldn’t account for because he was I incapable of it himself... It was the love that Anakin had for his son that defeated him.
@@infinitedonutsI love the fact you see that scene as the moment when Palpatine was truly defeated. sequels are not canon. they can't be
@@infinitedonutsI think it was more so being chucked down 1000 feet that defeated him but you've got the spirit and I'm here for it 😂
@@dabalma ofc theyre not theyre just disney trying to create their own star wars and the ratings have shown how badly that went. the only good thing about those movies was the graphics and the prequels had amazing graphics for their time too
When you think about, the moment Qui-Gon Jinn died was the moment that started off Palpatine's victory. From then on, nothing would stand in his way
Exactly
Except for Darth maul in the clone wars
EXACTLY, in both canon and legends, Palaptine ordered Maul to specifically kill Qui-Gon. He knew that he would be a grave threat as he is a rebel unlike the rest of the order and expose him one day as a sith lord. Once he met Anakin in person, he was releaved that he killed Qui Gon so he could forge Ani into the Monster we all know today, he forged the most gifted and loved Jedi knight into the deadliest and Hated sith lord Darth Vader.
Thats why the duel theme was called 'duel of the fates'
Except for the very son of his apprentice
The full circle of Anakin's slavery was something I hadn't even noticed.
It wasn't just a full circle. Really he had been a slave to everything in his life other than Padme. He was a slave on Tatooine. Freed from his slavery than turned a slave to the Jedi and at the end after paying so much he's back in the clutches of a master manipulator.
He has a slave mentality throughout the entire saga until he decides to save Luke in ROTJ. Whether it's Watto or the Jedi or Palpatine, he's blindly loyal and subservient to whoever his master is.
RyanGamingXbox - Gaming and more He was never a slave to the Jedi. They freed him, trained him, gave him a home, presumably clothes & food, & a new family.
Just like the Devil, Palpatine works in half truths to make it seem like he was a slave to the Jedi (but he was free to leave at any time). Ironically Anakin left his position of freedom to re-join a position if slavery under Palpatine.
@@dmangelsm1188 Darkseid. He still had to call someone master, he was still punished if he did something wrong. Maybe it wasn't slavery, but to a child who had not known anything else, would he have known the difference? That is the problem, Anakin doesn't known the difference cause the Jedi didn't try and understand what he has been going through or help him through his problems. So mentally, he is still a slave
Slave to watto and the hutts
Slave to the jedi and republic
Slave to palpatine and the Empire
Oh shoot, I never realized the poetry of Anakin starting and ending life as a slave.
Downright beautiful.
Well he didn't end his life a slave because he killed palpatine. Just that he ended his Jedi saga a slave
@@themoshpit8341 Fair enough, I should have said "Spent most of his life as a slave"
Why do you think George said it was like poetry
It… really isn’t when you put it like that… That’s actually horrible.
He was also a slave to the Jedi order. He only truly became free when he at last killed Palpatine. The savior of the galaxy, a slave his entire life. Only knowing freedom in his final minutes which he chose to spend looking at his son
Palpatine is so underrated. Not only did he fight Yoda to a standstill, but he, through manipulation and intrigue, CONQURED THE GALAXY
"When Palpatine activates Order 66, the Jedi who scoffed at the idea of the Sith's returning from extinction are annihilated in a matter of minutes. Most of them never knowing how deep their failure truly went."
*cuts to scene of Yoda*
Brilliant.
Yoda knew about order 66, watch clone wars season 6
I think Yoda is one of the few who truly understood, too late, the gravity of the situation.
He senses the deaths of the Jedi trough the Force, and the shock makes him drop his cane.
@@something7641 I'm not sure what you're getting at. The point is that Yoda, being Grandmaster and a survivor of Order 66, is the one who more than anyone else understood "how deep their failure truly went".
@@TheUrizen Yeah, that's why the cut was brilliant. Yoda survives and ends up being the one who understood his failure probably more than anyone else.
A lot of villains are underrated
Percival C. Mcleach from Rescuers Down Under is underrated
Shan Yu from Mulan is underrated
Zira from The Lion King 2 is underrated
All For One from Boku No Hero Academia is underrated
Morgoth from middle-earth franchise is underrated
Randall from Monsters Inc. is underrated
I love how he sat at his desk with the Jedi and asked, "Master Yoda, what do you think?" Such a Palpatine move.
That's a great way to disarm your enemies. Keep them close and let them think their opinions are valued.
Amazing
I think one of the master strokes of the prequels is the fact that the Jedi are basically doing the bidding of the Lord of the Sith and are his puppets and they don't even suspect it.
The older I get. The more I appreciate Star Wars. As a kid , I was enthralled with the action, adventure, and special effects. As an adult, I absolutely love the story, and character arcs.
Same
I definitely resonate with this. 🤟🏽
Same
except for the disney stuff which has no soul. you could never make an analysis video like this about them, because you wont find any hidden or subtle messages in them
This is why Star Wars matters so much, as one evolves so does the interpretation of SW does.
The way I understood the plot of TPM was, Palpatine was the Naboo senator for the Galactic Senate and wanted to become Chanceller, so by manufacturing a crisis that he would negotiate Naboo out of, he would gain a following that he could use to take Valorum's seat from him by calling him out on his corruption in a couple of years but when Queen Amidala successfully reached Coruscant he simply changed his plan to use her to declare the vote of no confidence that accomplished the same thing, and he does this pivot so seamlessly that you would think that was his plan from the start. It is like a late chess game where the master sees mate in 9 moves but a seemingly good move to fight back just gave the master mate in 2 moves instead.
Palpatine is truly a master of manipulation. I'd love to shake the hand of the man that planned this
Well Palpatine was the one who clouded the vision of the jedi with the dark side, so that they could not foresee what Palpatine could every step of the way.
This foresight is emphasised by Palpatine himself in Episode VI, he said he had foreseen everything that had led him up to that point, everything. I can only interpret that this sentiment applied since early on. He literally played a game that he couldn't possibly lose. Even if he made an error here or a misstep there, it would always turn out in his masterplan's favor in the end.
@@averagejoeschmoe9186 I find this... Kinda weird, I remember the jedi commenting about something clouding their ability to sense the dark side or their vision relative to the darkside situation... But I never got the sense that they were deprived from "the power to see the future", if it were the case I think they would make a bigger deal out of this. Obviously Palpatine is able to foresee a lot of things but I always attributed this to dark side abilities.
@@BubblegobThey did make a bigger deal about their failing sight in AotC but concealed that info so they would not be seen as weak. The Force pulls at and decides your destiny, but it also will obey your commands if you are of strong enough mind. For Palpatine who is so attuned to the Force and is always manipulating it to his designs, there was not a single Jedi who could see Palpatine for what he was. It is also important to remember that almost all of the Jedi were not only too dependent on the Force for their insights but their sense in the force was severely dulled from their rigid dogmas and belief that the Sith were extinct.
@@Redpoppy80 When you describe it like this it sounds more like the Jedi being duped or barely realizing their power in the force is being impaired seldom for the masters worried but cautious as the force is sometime mysterious. Which is much more in line with the impression I got.
Palpatine is not on the List.
“It’s treason then.”
Underrated comment
He's not on the list, cause there is only a place 1 and that's not good enough.
Palpatine is not on the list.
He is the list.
@@plumeater1 not yet
@@Chad_Milk It is treason, then.
"He dragged the most promising Jedi down to the fires of Hell, returning him to the state of slavery he was born in as a machine with a skull where his face used to be." I never noticed that about Vader's helmet till right now and it gave me legit chills. You earned a subscriber!
Turning Anakin into a machine like slave was never Palpatine'a true intention. Anakin getting his legs chopped off and burning half to death was nothing but an accident.
It's like poetry it rhymes
@@bluepearl_22 I mean, yeah. But that's what happened in the end.
@@bluepearl_22 I think another way of looking at it was that Anakin dragged himself to the fires of Hell.
@@bluepearl_22 He was always going to use him like a slave though
He’s one of the greatest examples of “Show, don’t tell.”
True
Best thing about Palpatine is that you can clearly see how much fun Ian McDiarmid had playing the part
Some people complain about the politics and Palpatine’s schemes in the prequels, but I think it’s the one component that makes them more compelling as you grow up.
As someone who grew up during the prequels, I was pretty young when episode 3 came out, 7 to be exact (I'm 22). At the time I loved the action but never really understood the gravity of the situation. Now that I dig deeper into the lore and watched the clone wars, I come to truly appreciate the absolute genius and pure evil of darth sidious. Not to mention how much raw force power he had, to the point where he worked among the most powerful jedi ever completely undetected. Could you imagine living in a society where you have prospered for literally 1000 years, for all of it to suddenly topple over night by ONE MAN. People tend to overlook just how cunning and powerful sidious really was. I truly believe he was the most powerful being ever in the star wars universe, even more so than Darth Vitiate and Darth Bane. He was so talented in the force and the arts of lightsaber dueling that he mastered all 7 forms, but yet he thought using a lightsaber was weaker than just using the force itself. Palpatine will always be one of my favorite characters ever just because of how calculated he was, yet at the same time had just raw power. I think its fucking awesome that he commonly stands among the most powerful jedi yet they are oblivious to the fact that they are literally right next to the most powerful being in existence, a man who is thought to be a selfless honorable politician that is for the people.
@@houndsmaster34 plus the fact he (along with plagueis) literally bent the force to his will so strongly that Anakin was spontaneously brought into existence by it. (Hence Anakin having no father)
I never appreciated as a kid how absolutely ludicrous it is to create life with the force. Here we have Yoda and Luke barely lifting x-wings, meanwhile Sidious and plagueis are bending the force into the form of a living person.
It's exactly like E=MC²
9 x 10^16 units of energy = 1 unit of mass
Enough concentrated energy in one place will spontaneously bend into an actual tangible particle, e.g. an electron
Sidious manipulated the force so strongly that it didn't just create a few particles, or atoms, or molecules, or proteins, it created a fucking human embryo in the womb of Anakin's mother
That is such an absurdly massive amount of energy to collect into one spot, let alone to collect AND manipulate perfectly into a highly ordered and genetically viable embryo
He had to shape the DNA
The chromosomes
The endoplasmic reticulum
The mitochondria
The phospholipid bilayer
Every receptor and chemical compound that makes the cell capable of replicating into an actual baby
Like literally wtf. You can't even say he just waved his hand and life just randomly appeared. Sidious even said specifically that it was accomplished through extraordinary knowledge.
The dark side is fucking legit honestly
The prequels had to explain how Palpatine took over and stablished a galaxy wide dictatorship, there had to be politics involved.
I was very little when revenge of the sixth came out wasn’t alive for phantom menace but grew up with these lol
@@houndsmaster34 also Lucas based off Palpatines coup from Julius Ceasar and Augustus. Lucas always put some political elements during his reign making Star Wars
For as Sci-fi as Star Wars is , what I've always loved about Palpatines rise to power is how realistic it is. Many rulers in history have gained power by instigating a crisis in order to be granted more powers in a democratic society. And Palpatine does this not once , not twice , but THREE times. And by the time the Jedi realize it after the second time , it's too late
Which three times do you mean?
Invasion of naboo, beginnig of the clone wars on geonosis and another time i guess?
Really interesting point btw. :)
@@rolandfeussner1892 The take over of the banks, through the InterGalactic Banking Clan. After the Republic takes the world where the main vaults and headquarters the IGBC is located on, the formerly neutral planet of Scipio.
The GAR defeats Separatists forces who arrive to take it for themselves. Then he calls a senate hearing, announcing that he took the banks over to ensure that these assets are used properly.
@@rolandfeussner1892 Which was near the end of the Clone Wars. And was the final part of him taking complete political control. Before destroying the Jedi Order. Reorganizing the Republic into the Galactic Empire, declaring himself Emperor of it. (Even though this already had happened before he even declared such.) Fully consolidating his power and hold over the galaxy.
Kind of like the Biden admin rn lol
@@jh_24 i wish Biden had this much competency. He can barely hide the fact that Ukraine laundered money to him through his son.
You know, when you think about it, Palpatine is one of the few villains whose plan actually WORKS. And not just for a day or a year, it worked for 25 years! Even afterwards, the effects are still felt, reverberating through Legends and Canon. Even if we disregard the ‘sequels’, the Empire is still a threat, albeit a neutered one, the Jedi are all but extinct, and the galaxy may never recover. I don’t know how many villains actually win, but he certainly is one of them.
EDIT: Wow, 2,000 likes? Thank you so much!
The only villain I can think of who had better success (in terms of stated-goal outcome) was Thanos; the Endgame movie paints the picture as optimistic because he was beaten with Earth-616, but that's just because we're not gonna talk about the other 14+ million universes that Dr. Strange watched fail. Thanos actually won 14+ million times.
Even still, Palpatine became a revered icon through his actions. He succeeded in convincing a whole galaxy to change their way of life, wear the same clothes, and perpetuate a culture of his own creation. Thanos succeeded in his plan execution, but he expected everyone to thank him for his actions -- and he definitely didn't succeed at that. To be the villain while convincing your victims to praise you? That's Trump-level success.
@@extantsanity won 14+ million times how did i not realize that fact sooner it was right in front of meヾ(•ω•`)o
@@extantsanity I really liked your comment until you had to get political, c'mon man, you're no better than Rian Johnson, shoving politics where it doesn't belong.
@@justint.2858 You say that, but George Lucas' prequel trilogy was excruciatingly political, too. It was about how you end up with a backsliding democracy, overthrown by people who were sold lies. As much as I'd have loved to omit a political slant to my comment, it would be a crime against George to do so.
@@extantsanity The difference is that Star Wars politics is not irl politics, so no, not including your Trump bashing wouldn't be a crime against George.
Sideous is just that villain you love to hate. He’s so wicked and evil but in a charming and subtle way. Ian McDiarmid kills it as the galaxy’s evil politician and he deserves all the praise.
I appreciate how unapologetic Palpatine is. No sob story, no revenge, he is literally just evil.
It’s not like the Jedi were that great either. They were dangerous. What palpatine did was cold, sure, but it can be justified. The execution of the Jedi is nothing like if they were civilians, the Jedi had lightsabers and extreme force powers making them ridiculously overpowered.
@@KoopaMedia64 Hum, yeah. The jedi still valued life of others over their own. Palpatine created a dictatorship and did multiple genocides, the revenge against the jedi was just a step in his great evil plan. I don't understand why people are so keen on painting the jedi as evil characters. They weren't perfect but were mostly a good force for the galaxy, not some evil dictatorship that takes control of as many worlds as they can to exploit every living being to death. Like, you know, the empire.
I think that is one of the things missing in storytelling of the past twenty years - people want to write villains who are evil but who we understand and can think of as people, because they believe that this is somehow more real. But this is massively unsatisfying and also, I think, actually unconvincing. We want our villains to be devils, not people, and we want our heroes to be a little bit more than people.
@@morgen3369 They were a religious cult, taking three year olds to be trained as warriors. If you look at the empire from an unbiased perspective and listen to what people say in the mandalorian the empire isn't all that bad.
Palpatine knew his purpose so he didn't need any apologies.
That's why I like Darkseid for the same reason.
Anakin's story is honestly a shakespearian level of tragedy
or biblical even
No
@@raimiallpowerful2020 yes
@@rockyseverino9230 Anakins story is way better than some biblical stories
Someone never read Shakespeare...
What makes Palpatine great, to me, is that he *enjoyed* himself.
So many villains are really kind of depressing, or actually depressed. They're just focused on winning, without a real goal except domination, or some similar Nazi need... or focused on revenge, where afterwards there's little... or are simply horror villain evil, driven by their very destiny with little joy... or some variation.
And, Palpatine is all of that. Except, he's actually happy when he wins.
He's a happy, happy man. He's living his best life, and he has no self loathing. He is having more fun, and loving life more, with every win.
The Joker is sometimes a figure in this vein, I suppose. Depending on the writer. But the joker is also quite crazy.
Palpatine is not really crazy. He's just... he's just happily evil. Like, really happy, and really evil.
Call it simplistic, it's also super sinister and from what I can think of super rare.
This is why I love HISHE (especially the Villain Pub). The Bar keep's Palps while Voltamort, Joker, Loki, even Zod are the regular customers 😆
He is the ultimate bad guy. No remorse, no seeking attention, no sad back stories to sympathise with, no mental health issues. Nothing. Just purely cold, calculative, selfish desire to get to the top and rule over all by any means necessary. Just because HE himself wants it all.
I mean when he fighted maul and savage he was laughing and always with a smile
It's interesting, and fitting that a sith with the concealed identity of a do-gooder politician is literally just a mastermind pathological power monger, this video added greater depth to a film that has embedded itself in my memory and everytime I watch it the ending is a brutal emotional experience.
I gush about my love for Palpatine as a villain pretty often and I always bring up just what a huge kick he gets out of being evil. He knows he's won and there's nothing anyone can do about it, so he's cackling his whole way through his fight with Yoda. The man finally gets the let loose after all his quiet scheming. The galaxy is his. It's as if he's walking on air with utter glee at just how diabolical he is.
You can't force the masses to give up their freedom but they _can_ be convinced into surrendering their freedom bit-by-bit if you exploit their fear of foreign threats
That's why Palpatine's rise to power and later, maintaining that power for so long is so believable
Sounds a lot like these days
Ye I agree
look at hitlers rise to power, because of the destruction from WW1 and its aftereffects it allowed him amongst other fascists to rise to power
Oh that's good!
JJ Abrams: Say it
Oscar Isaac: I can't
Abrams: Say it!
Isaac: Somehow Palpatine returned
*tHeY fLY nOw*
@@Kanthannic My GOD!! That was stupid! Utterly stupid. "They fly now?" Sigh i hate it so much
I honestly feel sorry for Oscar, his face and body language are literally the embodiment of what Palpatine stands for, the hopelessness of it all.
Somehow Disney was the real Palpatine all along.
That's a great line:
"An arrogant religion who get a hold of the messiah and then accidentally hand him over to the devil."
Brilliant and totally on point.
I knew someone in the comments was gonna point it out, I love it
@@paxxisticks Someone pointed it out 1 year ago in the comments.
Well put. Regarding Anakin’s tragic fall from grace, I always view the prequel trilogy, especially Revenge of the Sith, in the same vain of a Shakespearean tragedy. So much pain and betrayal eloquently out of how love can be corrupted into obsession.
Brilliant
Yeah but Jesus had to die in order to save us so I can't blame the jews or anything. Idk if that's what you were getting at
anakins life in a sentence.
was a slave until his son freed him.
*From life.*
@Loopy but so ironic and beautiful
Death bed repentance is shallow and non effective.. check out larry flint publisher of hustler magazine.
@@roymadison5686 it's different when you repent after sacrificing yourself to save your son and kill the man that enslaved you.
What also makes him such a great villain is the fact that he lost the exact same way Windu did. Just like the dark blinded the Jedi, the light blinded him. They both thought their final battle would go the exact same way it did last time. Unaware that the man standing next to them (the guy prophesized to bring balance to the force) had just become their enemy and the cause of their ultimate demise. It wasn't the power of friendship or the protagonists plot armor, it was exactly what Luke said it was, his overconfidence.
I never thought that Malefica screaming "Imbecilles" could be such a great gif
I really need it right now.
ObiWan: “Chancellor Palpatine.. Sith lords are our speciality! 🙂”
Sith Lord in front of him: “IDIOTS 🥲”
"Palpatine isn't the type to just announce his plan to destroy civiliazation".
Meanwhile, in the Disney spin-offs... Palpatine literally broadcasts his plan to the entire galaxy... before his fleet of mini-deathstars are even ready to launch...
And it wasn't a trap either like in ROTJ. Sigh. The Disney sequels are absolute garbage.
Agreed. I tried to defend the first one assuming they'd get better. I gave up after the second one I couldn't see the galaxy far away bastardized anymore.
@@IAmTheDoctor00 Same. Exactly the same here. I defended TFA against the haters, promising the sequel would be worth it.
yeah disney pretty much eviscerated this series
It’s downright criminal what the new Lucasfilm under KK did to Star Wars… Look at what they did to my boy… :’(
If it makes you feel better, the original writer for that decision was fired and the sequel trilogy was de-canonized.
I think...
Disney's now working on another three wastes of money to replace them. 🙂
The prequels, especially Revenge of the Sith, have aged like a fine wine.
Well... I’d say just Revenge of the Sith and maybe kinda The Phantom Menace
@@tam2237
All three of them.
Stop being a toxic fanatic.
Ima watch them the rest of my life and show my grand children
Not really ROTS is fine but the others are dog shit no one can say otherwise
The first half hour of Revenge of the Sith is the best Star Wars. Period.
I always liked how despite being the emperor of the entire universe, Palpatine never dresses regally (Hell, his clothes as the chancellor are fancier). It really goes to show how he's in it for the power alone and not any of the luxuries.
The man's too badass for something as superficial and meaningless as fashion.
@@tomnorton4277damn straight
I say that every time he appears in episode six. The most powerful man in the universe and yet he only wears black robes and a chain to hold it together
"Revenge of the Sith is like a Renaissance painting of Judgement Day." I don't know why, but I absolutely love the way you phrased that! :D
Because it's so true. lol
@@charlinethom1624 I know right!
No. It was judgement day for the galaxy. It’s descent into 20 years of pain, enslavement, and agony under the rule of Emperor Palpatine.
Because that phrase has a lot of big sounding words that ring nice together.
@@celestialspartan1176 What do you mean "no"? You just disagreed with what he said and then rephrased his point all over again.
Frankly, he makes thanos’s plans look like a three year old’s plan to steal cookies
Holy shit
lmfao
now this one ... this one was good
@@mihailazar2487 '
Not wrong lol. His plan is next level but I still have a soft spot for Vader. Without a doubt, he is the best and most iconic cinematic villain of all time. I just wish we would get a Vader movie while James Earl Jones is still alive.
@@larry2281 i totally read all that
@@nyantroller6527 If you can't read 4 sentences then you won't make it very far in life.
This is one of the things I love about the prequels. People stop at the weird dialogues and dont realize the amazing story it is telling.
How can you expect someone to comprehend a 2 hour long movie with shitty dialogue and even worse acting?
I honestly can’t think of a better summary for how a lot of people view the prequels. It’s really pretty hard for us prequel fans
@@Wigglystilts so you expect an ancient space civilization billions of light years away from ours to talk and act like we do?
@@Wigglystilts How does wooden dialogue and some questionable acting (not even every actor does a bad job) make the story hard to comprehend? You just have to pay attention
@@Wigglystilts why do I have the feeling this isn’t even your own idea just something you’re regurgitating .
If you look at Palpatine's apprentices (Maul, Dooku, Anakin), the dark side, while giving them certain abilities through their anger, also seems to bring them a form of suffering in one way or another. But with Palpatine, there's no sense of that. He completely revels in the dark side, and it brings him nothing but pleasure. He IS pure evil.
"the prequels are the story of an arrogant religion who get a hold of the messiah and then accidentally hand him over to the devil" - this, this is good.
@tanio12 No I think Alexander got it pretty well spot on. The Jedi absolutely deserved to be wiped out after the way they treated Anakin. They were backwards and dogmatically stubborn in their thinking, refused to concede even the possibility that emotions might not lead to pure evil, and basically pushed Anakin to the dark side every step of the way. Miracle he didn’t turn sooner with some of the geniuses on the council constantly pushing his buttons. Especially Mace and Yoda, never seen two guys more full of themselves.
@tanio12 It's about a man who was forced to show his ugly side to a religion which was a shadow of it's past.
@@tommyl.dayandtherunaways820 the Jedi weren't great but anakin is down right a moron in ROTS, dude literally enslave the galaxy under someone who is clearly a psychopath because he had some dreams of his wife dying by CHILDBIRTH, in a universe like star wars with the kind of technology they have he really believes that she is going to die by childbirth, death by childbirth isn't even a problem in 3rd world countries in our world(and don't tell me it doesn't matter that much because it's the whole reason anakin sided with palp), and even if she was actually going to die, he is EXTREMELY egoistic, he goes to murder his comrades and literall children just so he can save his wife.
Let's not talk about his best demonstration of intelligence, he know palpatine is a sith lord and he sees that palpatine is clearly not a good person nor mentally sane but he actually believes that the jedi order attacked palpatine because they wanted to overthrow the government.
P.S
The Jedi never deserved to be wiped away, the Jedi needed to be reformed
@@MC-yg1mq you fucking drongo, did you forget that force visions are a thing and are directly addressed in the movie?
@@MC-yg1mq Anakin's my second favourite character in Stars Wars but I have to agree with you.
He just wanted peace, for a safe and secure society…..
as long as he was the one and ONLY ruler!
Peace freedom justice
I love how he pointed out the contrast of palatine's speech and its promises with the same promises, now broken, to the Separatists at Anakin's hand.
Well... He DID keep that promise, and made the empire into a place of high quality of life as well.
@@chazzerine7650 This is why he's not on the list. He's not a villainous brainwashing order that kidnaps children unnecessarily.
"ROTS is like a Renaissance Painting of Judgement Day".. couldn't have said it better.
His plan went so perfectly that he only needed to intervene directly 1 time: to kick Darth Maul’s ass
But Maul ended up outlasting him anyway. Makes sense why Palpatine needed to go in person.
@@procyon6370 Maul died while Luke was still a kid though...
What are you talking about? Darth Maul was in Episode VII.
@@procyon6370 he was in solo, not ep7.
No, he was in Episode VII. He was the Sith master, and Darth Talon was his apprentice.
prequels: let me manipulate for years until the perfect time
sequels: hmmm, lets tell the entire galaxy my grand plan
"SOMEHOW PALPATINE HAS RETURNED"
@@ThePunisherSpider somehow, hitler has returned
Somehow the Star Wars fans are being toxic again.
@@a.j.gibson6717 toxic for criticizing mary sues?
@@a.j.gibson6717 Don't know how anything said so far has been toxic in anyway it's just criticism of a poorly written character.
One thing I’d love to mention about palpatine is his actor, ian macdiarmid absolutely nails his part and really what turns him into such an amazing thing to see on screen
I think Ian is definitely putting in the work. In scene’s where he just gets to act and be subtle when talking to Anakin, he’s great. But the script after he reveals himself as Sidious in RotS doesn’t do him any favors. It’s hard to make some of those lines work.
I still can't believe that he was less than 40 when he did the ROTJ emperor, which somehow seems older than the emperors he played when he was older.
Really?? I thought he always looked stupid/cringy af when he was fighting those Jedi masters. With those stupid facial expressions and screeching across the room
100% facts. Every single casting choice in the original Saga is golden
@@CommanderShepard-wq3wo
What he meant was his general look, personality, and appearance throughout every film.
For the fight scene, there are two details that you should know. 1, the scream he does while flipping is actually called a “Force Scream”, and it confuses and shocks enemies around the user, which is what aided Palpatine. Secondly, the stunt double actor that was supposed to perform the entire action sequence for Ian was out for the day they planned to shoot on, and so the scene had to be rehearsed again so that Ian himself could perform it. In the novelization, the fight scene is *far* better and cooler, and really shows the immense amount of power Palpatine held
"Palpatine's final victory is almost unmatched in it's scope. Revenge of the Sith is like a Renaissance panting of a judgment day, where the Republic's political and spiritual power crumbles into nothing and it's hero tries to murder his pregnant wife, before crossing swords with his sworn brother and being consumed by wrath (I HATE YOU!)
And when it's all over Palpatine descents into hell like the angel of death and Darth Vader is born, as the last person in the galaxy who still believes he has any good in him dies.
He dragged the most promising Jedi down to the fires of hell, returning him the the state of slavery he was born in, AS A MACHINE WITH A SKULL WHERE HIS FACE USED TO BE"
This... is brilliant, thank you @So Uncivilized for one of the best summary of Star Wars Episode 3 greatness.
There is an additional point: Palpatine, like Sauron or Morgoth (who are in my opinion a much better comparison to Palps than Satan) is one of the few villains in literature or film who doesn't have any redeeming qualities. Not. A. Single. One.
I once read in a fantasy novel of a German author that the ability to love is not what sets good and evil apart - it's what they have in common. If you look at Palps, he only loves two things: Himself and power. There is litteraly no tie to another person, which is, what you need for redemption. Other people, even entire species or civilizations are just a mere tool for Palps. All of them.
I still think Morgoth loved Ungoliant, even if they betrayed each other. It wasn’t a healthy relationship but it was still a relationship.
@@Zyrdalf Hm, loved? He manipulated her into his service with lies, and then she almost overcame him until Balrogs chased her away. Seems he only found her useful, no indication that he ever loved her. That's an interesting take though.
@@WinsteadB73 that’s why it isn’t a very healthy relationship, but yeah it is just a take.
No.
good point. you can even find sympathy in darth fuckin maul, an insane psychopathic murderer. despite all the terrible things hes done, you cant help but feel kinda sorry for him. he was taken as a child and made into a monster, left for dead by his master, and he always loses everything.
first his apprenticeship, then his mind, and when he finally gained a person he cared about in his life, he gets murked by palpatine. even with the whole "master and apprentice" thing, you can tell he cares about savage oppress. he gains and loses everything, and its just to kill kenobi, which he cant even do. sad thing is, maul only gets peace during death.
in his last words, "he will avenge us", he knows that luke will avenge not just the jedi, but everyone palpatine wronged, including him.
Palpating is overlooked as a villain because people are genuinely too smooth brained to understand him as a character.
I think the real reason is because the most popular and iconic film he was in is "return of the jedi" and there he was just a plot device for Vader to turn into a good guy
Exactly! I'm always floored how Darth Vader always makes the top, if not THE top, of best cinema villains of all time list, and Palpatine almost never even makes the list. IMO, Palpatine is cinema's greatest villain.
I hated this palpatine at first but he grow on me later
Amen
@@nra3zehuti781 and in the pt Vader is a plot device. poetry.
No one notices either the language Palpatine uses when he has his talks with Anakin. It’s all words that seem to be pure but they were slowly corrupting Anakin.
They were pure. Pure evil.
Words aren't pure or evil
It all depends on how you use them
Manipulation is the art of guiding someone's thoughts, not pushing them in a certain direction (and that's why I never consider people who bring up painful memories to get what they want manipulators; that is closer to threatening than hidden guidance)
Btw education is a kind of manipulation but it is accepted by society so it is not "evil"
yup. people hate on the prequels for how anakin was written and how stupid he seems, but when you notice palpatine's words and moves, and also realize that anakin started his life as a naive kid who lived as a slave on a desert planet his whole life you understand why he talks and acts the way he does. almost has parallels to michael jackson in our world, lived a completely different life from childhood that is easily misunderstood by the rest of us.
i think all the movies were really well written and acted, people just choose to hate on them for some reason. maybe its how it reflects a lot of our own society and does it with such nuance that we want to reject what the movies really trying to say.
"I shouldn't have done that (killed Count Dooku) it wasn't the Jedi Way."
"It was only natural. He cut off your arm, and you wanted revenge... It wouldn't be the first time Anakin. Remember what you told me about your mother, and the Sand People."
Palpatine had brought up a painful memory, but certainly not in a threatening way.
@@ryanm.8720 Palpatine is exactly that.
If you think about it, all the star wars movies were about him. He masterminded so much of what happened on so many levels in the movies that he undeniably had a huge role in atleast the lore machinations. He had a hand in most everything that happened to some degree atleast in the first 6 movies and the clone wars.
The title isn't certainly wrong. He truly is the greatest villian in media
The thing that makes him so good is the fact that when a lot of villains lose their most loyal accomplices they show feeling of sadness and remorse where palpatine on the other hand literally couldn't give a shit and shows no empathy whatsoever. When luke goes into a rage and defeats vader palpatine instructs luke to simply kill vader and take his place despite vaders decades of loyalty. He's truly vile
The Vader that Palpatine cultivated also died on Mustafar and the following quote is from Vader in the Revenge Of The Sith novel:
“And you rage and scream and reach through the Force to crush the shadow who has destroyed you, but you are so far less now than what you were, you are more than half machine, you are like a painter gone blind, a composer gone deaf, you can remember where the power was but the power you can touch is only a memory, and so with all your world-destroying fury it is only droids around you that implode, and equipment, and the table on which you were strapped shatters, and in the end, you cannot touch the shadow. In the end you don't even want to. In the end, you do not even want to. In the end, the shadow is all you have left. Because the shadow understands you, the shadow forgives you, the shadow gathers you unto itself-And within your furnace heart, you burn in your own flame.”
Even Maul,who never cared about nothing but power,was saddened and showed compassion to Sauvage when Sidious killed him in that incredible duel. He tried to avenge him and fought valiantly but was overmatched by the dark lord and taken captive. He and Anakin were manipulated when young by the wickedest,most powerful being in the galaxy. How TF is Darth Sidious not on that list? Between him and Heath Ledgers Joker their scale of evil can't be measured!
@@orlandovazquez9662 Sidious is far more brilliant and powerful than the Joker ever could imagine being. His schemes were often stopped. Sidious his schemes never failed until Rey stupidly killed him in the dumbest way possible. Sidious wouldn't just stand there and let himself get destroyed by his own lightning. He would have force pushed her or jumped out of the way. He most likely would have given her the darth maul treatment. Throw her around like a rag doll and then when she begged for mercy he would have tortured her with lightning and if kylo tried to stop him, Sidious would have just blasted him with lightning, force choked him or thrown him again but even further and harder. Episode 9 should have ended with Rey becoming Sidious's apprentice because she had no choice or die. That would have been such a good ending snd leave a good ending to where the next sequels could have started off.
@@Theforsakenmedia Sidious has done things being crafty yes but also it's like having a cheat code when you're one with the Dark Side. Joker has also done things being crafty and his wicked ways and manipulation has taken him to heights in Gotham no other criminal can achieve. One is on a galactic scale,the other citywide. One is a Omniscient entity,the other a skilled, smart super criminal. But to me, equally entertaining to watch in action. You can't compare the two power wise, that's like comparing Yoda to Batman,ya dig?
On screen,both are spectacular supervillains. Now, I agree with you JJ Abrams made Sidious in some scenes super powerful and when it came time to fighting Mary Sue Rey he was done in cheaply. That sucked! Even against Windu he put up a better fight. I would have rather seen all of them die in a battle. Thanks,Diss-ney!
@@orlandovazquez9662 the joker took over gotham.. a city. Sidious took over a galaxy and he did it while looking like the good guy the whole time. Now that is what you call a brilliant villain.
I love he look of realization and subtle opportunity on Ian’s face when Anakin tells him his trust in the Jedi is fading. George couldn’t have chosen a better actor.
The sheer joy he must have been feeling at that moment, Anakin himself admitting this thing to him
... cast TWENTY YEARS before that scene no less!
There are still idiots who unironically claim that George Lucas didn't know what he was doing when he chose his cast.
Timestamp?
@@tomnorton4277he's clearly always had a good cast aside from maybe choosing to make anakin a little boy in the phantom menace. every other actor was incredible in other works so star wars having worse performances is an exception to their careers
I've read interviews before where McDiarmid claimed he thought Palpatine was more evil than Satan himself, the claim ranging from, "At least Satan was once an angel" to "At least some have interpreted Satan as noble." That's how he views the character- he is evil, and has never, ever, for a single instant, been anything else.
“More evil than Satan” has got to be one of the weakest description of a character I have ever heard. I can literally only picture a child saying it.
@@nickelbutt its not weak, hes saying even at one point satan had good in him and fell, palpatine has always been that way, in essence it took time for satan to himself fall, and palpatine, hes evil to the very core of his being, right from the very get go. In that essence, hes perhaps the personification of evil
@@TC70 Look, Palpatine is not a poorly written villain, but a very very simple one. And that isn’t a bad thing, especially because there are several villains in Star Wars that do have moral complexities, leaving room for an epic evil emperor at the top.
But Palpatine himself is only interesting because he moves the plot. He has no character foil, no true motive, no backstory. And I want to emphasize, these aren’t bad things, this type of villain works very well in a standard hero story like Star Wars. But calling him the greatest movie villain of all time is laughable and objectively wrong.
“He’s so evil… *sniffle*… he’s so evil, that he is like, even more eviler than Satan.” -Some Child
@@nickelbutt but he does have a backstory.
@@TC70 Then what is it? And you can’t cite a book btw. This is about the greatest MOVIE villain of all time.
20 years later, and my appreciation of the film grows. It took becoming a father to an abandoned son, and witnessing the thinly-veiled selfishness of real-life political machinations, to realize that all the themes and turning points are actually frighteningly plausible.
The damnn people that hated on the prequels and caused Lucas to sell Star Wars away and Disney ummm.... doing what Disney does in the past 15 years
Also sorry to hear about your struggles man. These themes are unbelievably relive in today's age.
@@I_dcdthe fact that the sequels are trash doesn’t make EP1/2 any less trash 😂
The prophecy was that Anakin would *bring balance* to the force. Obi Wan naively thought that meant the same thing as “bring peace”.
Well, balance in the Star Wars sense means the abundance of the light side. As Lucas himself said, the natural state of the Force (and of balance) is the light side.
Just that the Jedi weren't in tune with this pure light side, it was their own corrupted version.
@@whydidimakethis111 It's pretty crazy when you take a step back and realize Dooku was 100% correct about the Jedi and why they had to be destroyed and rebuilt.
The problem was that the Jedi and the Sith were corrupted emulations of the force; and at the end of Episode 6, its what makes Luke's stand against Palpatine so powerful; his father may have brought balance to the force, but he has become the future of that very balance. He's everything his father wished he could be. and its that moment that allows Vader to see how far he has fallen.
@@TheJiminatorHS and then it’s all throne out the window as he attempts to kill a kid in his sleep.
@@TeamASGTS yeah thats a big reason i thought the st is dumb
Im glad some people can see how epic the prequel finale was
Watching clone wars made me really appreciate prequels so much more. Such a shame that Lucas' vision and dialogue were kinda limited
@@finesseandstyle Yeah. That’s why The Clone Wars is so good. It delivered on George’s concept without ever letting him near the script.
Awesome.
It kinda sad because the story of the prequels is incredible but it’s execution was… questionable at best
It isn’t ”some” people anymore. Damn I hate the new prequel bandwagon fans...
I feel like people who said the prequels were just "boring politics" are the exact sort of people Palpatine was tricking. The poltics are supposed to be overly beurocratic and under systemic rot, it's being taken advantage of by a supervillain who managed to infiltrate it to the top seat thanks to the systems complacency. The jedi too, of course, the more I look back on it the more I realize you were never really supposed to like the jedi council, they are as much of a reason the Empire happened as Palpatine.
The politics in the prequels are not complex, can be understood by children easily and take a small amount of screen time. I've no idea why ''boring politics'' was ever seen as a valid criticism by some.
@@legrandliseurtri7495it made perfect sense to me at 10. Most kids of this generation thou... not so sure
@@I_dcd I mean I understand the politics perfectly and im only 16!
@@walidbentaher Keep that intuition strong man. You really never know what you can believe
@@I_dcd Yeah its sad when I try to explain stuff like that to other kids my age they would say something like:
"What is bro babbiling about? 💀
6:15 I think this is especially clever. Palpatine used the Separatists as his proxy “bad-guys” to force planets unwilling to join the republic to join for fear of getting wiped out. The defoliator tank and siege of Onderon episodes are great examples of that in the Clone Wars. Episodes with people who were neutral in the war between the Republic and Separatists. And both get attacked by the Separatists, forcing them into the Republic.
Which inevitably led to a larger empire in the long run.
Took years for general audiences to fully appreciate the grandeur of ROTS
Once Disney took over and we saw how bad things could really be, I think we ALL gained a greater appreciation for the storyteller that is Jorge Lucazo.
My dad took me to see it in theaters. I wept while he said it was a chick-flick. It takes some people time to understand greatness.
Palpatin works great, because he doesnt need to use his force powers. An less experienced writer would have made him overuse his force mind trick to archieve his goals, but palpatin was most of the time just an ordinary eldery guy. Palpatin sets the gold standard for villains that stay in the background
@John mmm
@user-if5qw1ed3u I mean, he couldn't exactly do anything else. What was he supposed to do? Convince them to surrender?
Don’t get me wrong, Palps is one of my top 3 best villains of all fiction but Lucas did really dumb down the Jedi and republic and really make them incompetent for Palp to win.
@@Saulgoodman67677 the jedi dumbed themselves down out of pride
@@epicdude999 To a certain extent yes but they were dumbed way too hard in the prequel movies to the point it becomes kind of unbelievable.
Dude, this writing. You gave me chills with, “Returning him to the slavery he was born into.”
honestly same literal chills so fucking poetic
I fell chills too!! Incredible.
well he's not the first who came to this conclusion
Fr I never really thought about it like that before 😱
Anakin wasn't born in slavery you mfs
I love seeing palpatime onscreen being a menace because you just know the actor was having a good time
Palpatine is a rare example of a villain who doesn't need to ''fleshed out'' to be good. He is just pure evil and that's fine
I agree in this Chase pure evil works because we already have a tragic Villian (Darth Vader)
Pure evil can be more fun sometimes as well. Their charisma makes them likeable and it's just as fun to watch them succeed as it is to watch them fail (see 99% of Disney villains or my personal favourite, Frieza from Dragon Ball Z as some good examples).
Another great pure evil character:
Melkor/ Morgoth from the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (basically prequels to LotR except that these prequels were written first)
Similarly, in the same book, his apprentice Sauron shows his brilliance similar to what palatine does. Befriending your worst enemy, gaining their trust by hiding in plain sight and then overthrow them.
Although Sauron is only successful in the destruction part, he doesn't really get to rule anything.
@@sebastianjost never read it, but I've been meaning to give it a go for a while, might start ASAP now
I don’t think palpatine is the best
The Sith never went extinct. Hence the rule of two created by my personal favorite Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Bane, 1000 BBY. The rule of two allowed the Sith to convince the Jedi that they were extinct while orchestrating a plan through powerful lineage to one day take over the Galaxy and wipe out the Jedi order. The rule of two, "One to embody power, and the other to crave it"
@Waeron That was such a good book!
This. Heck, the trilogy of Bane books would make a brilliant trilogy of movies - if done right.
@@131313chemistry I guarantee that Disney would fuck it up.
The rule of two was never actually truly followed tho....you have asajj who was an apprentice to dooku amongst others i can't remeber the names of.
Yes. However, to the Jedi, they believed the Sith were extinct, and the Council even says so at the prospect of their return. Going as far as to say “The Sith have been extinct for a millennium”.
"Who is palpatine's competition exactly? Satan?" Truer words have never been spoken
Satan will also use the greatest false-flag in space-time record, to eventually rule the planet under a singular government and singular religion, and attempted singular Hivemind.
But it will only last a short time as he is a snake biting its own tail, and the destruction of such a system will be like a house of cards.
Yeah, but Palpatine is as one-dimensional as can be. His motive is power, he's sadistic, lacks redeeming qualities, has no personality besides being evil, doesn't act as a foil to any protagonist and is generally just not very interesting as a character. He works as a plotpoint to drive the story forward. Vader is a much better villain.
@@trafalgarlaw8373 I would argue that Palps is a very interesting character, for the simple fact that . . . Without him, there is no Vader to be begin with
@@thomasedsall7699 That's more of an action line really, plot. It makes him important to the narrative, at least in the prequels, but in itself isn't really interesting. This is because it tells us nothing about himself beyond the usual motive for power and evil.
It could make him interesting if the motive or method was different. Perhaps he wants to be a father figure, or sees himself in Anakin etc etc, but no such options are explored. Its just another calculated part of gaining power.
@@trafalgarlaw8373 I mean honestly, in a world where so many villains have complex traits that are integral to the character being the character . . . Take Thanos, he doesn't just want power, he wants to save the universe (as misguided as the way he does it is) he thinks himself the hero. Idk maybe it's just me but having a villain like Palps, where his only motive is complete power . . . Not chaos, but power. It's nice. Sometimes I don't want to think about how the villain is like the heroes in his own misguided way, sometimes I just want the villain to be evil, for the sake of being evil.
When Yoda said the future is clouded, I realized that it's palp who used his sith mind trick to cloud the Jedi council's judgment the whole time.
Its not an active thing like the jedi mind trick. Palpatine has a special trait of Presence, he is a living shadow in the force, the stronger he is the wider and darker it becomes. When he becomes a senator he basically covers all of coruscant. When he becomes chancellor, and sith master having killed Plagueis on election night, he reaches through the galaxy.
@@cpob2013 sounds very intriguing. Where can I read more about this?
@@OnyxLeenowhere since it’s likely fanfiction (”legends”).
@@RDR911there’s another Sith Lord from the knights of the old republic games that had a similar gift in the force, he was a force black whole able to absorb it out of all living creatures around him. An almost off shoot of the Sith Lords goals to make themselves immortal. Darth Nihilus I think it’s spelled
Palpatine has a more complete victory than even Thanos. He reminds me a lot of Augustus, a brilliant politician who eventually becomes emperor because of him playing 12D chess against his 3D oppononents. Only Palpatine is objectively far more evil, and the intentions of his plan more villainous than just making himself emperor.
Palpatine has traits of Satan, Stalin, Hitler, Augustus, and Napoleon in his character.
Yeah Augustus turns the Roman Republic into the Empire and ends up applauded by the majority of the population. Augustus even kind of did the Order 66 thing with his soldiers executing many senators and army officers that would have opposed him.
A lot of people are getting tired of unapologetically evil villains, and understandably so, but we can all agree Palpatine is the exception. 😎
@@harrambou9468 that's because he's the complete evil villain type 110%. With all the other evil villains, they're either inspired by Palpatine or just not formidable or smart. The weird dark elf from Thor 2 was completely evil, also completely boring, dumb and weak. There's just no beating a villain who leads both sides of an intergalactic civil war with the purpose to grind down both factions until he can seize ultimate power, which he actually does.
why do you bring your avanger shit here?
The Greatest Movie Villain Ever? This title is a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one! You can make the award check out to "The Senate."
I would like this comment but it's at 66 likes and I can't bring myself to change that
@@battletoaster. A wise decision. Most wise.
My lord *kneels and bows head*
I would like this comment but it’s at 111 and I can’t bring myself to it
@@eightan9589 Dew it.
Palpatine lost in the same way the Jedi lost, overconfidence.
Well to be fair, his confidence was kinda warranted, no?
@@nerd_5615 Somewhat
"Your overconfidence is your weakness"
- Luke Skywalker.
@@nerd_5615 He did miss out on one thing. Vader's loyalty and conflict. That's what caused his defeat. As for the battle on Endor and the space battle, he had the right to be confident/overconfident. His fleet was going to win according to his plan.
A friend of mine and I had a realization watching Game of Thrones, and it very much applies to Star Wars. What's the #1 cause of death in Westeros? The same as in the Star Wars galaxy: winning too much
He took a galaxy spanning order of force users, spread them out in a war he fabricated and played both sides of and arranged to have said order all unceremoniously shot in the back simultaneously. Meanwhile, he was insanely powerful himself. GOAT villian and no one even comes close imo
Its no contest
Yes, we know. We watched the video too 😂
"He's essentially the Devil." - George Lucas on who Palpatine is in ROTS interviews.
"(Palpatine) is more evil than the Devil. At least Satan fell; he has a history, and it's one of revenge."
- Ian McDiarmid
@@ryanm.8720 Not so much revenge as it is he's pissed off his plan to de-throne God got him a Sparta kick out of the heavenly realms to Earth like a bolt of lightning. Palpatine and Satan have a common history that both had talent and became Prideful because of it - seeing others as tools that stand in their way. Both ended being booted out of their respective places - one down a reactor shaft and the other from heaven. Though Ian does make a point that Palps never had a moment of goodness.
@Anakin Skywalker Hard to say. I'm not sure how the Force would stack up against Magic in Middle Earth. Would Palpatine or Melkor be stronger? Palpatine has an insane amount of power but Melkor was around since Middle Earth was created.
@@mish375 the force doesn't allow to directly control people while Sauron could
Also Sauron is actually immortal but Palpatine shouldn't
Sauron also could create new nazgûl which are, in fact, immortal; you can only interfere with their interaction with reality through the clothes they had, which is also why they fled when Aragon (I think; I don't remember the names that well) set them on fire
Against the army of the Empire Sauron would certainly lose but if we put them in a place with the same technology Sauron would probably win (in a fight between armies) while against Palpatine we cannot guarantee the winner
@@tuluppampamI think only 2 Nazgul were named. But if we were putting Melkor and Palpatine in a battle and let's assume they're drawing on the same power source of darkness, then it would be hard to say. Both are pure darkness so they might be evenly matched.
Thanks for making that comparison of sidious to Satan, because besides the name he is the devil. The way he operates in secret. Approaching anakin not as a grotesque fiend but as a friendly old man only to reveal himself when he has won. It’s all so compelling to see how evil can sometimes succeed, if everyone is blind to it.
“The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convince the world that he didn’t exist”
Masterpiece
Exactly!!!!
My thoughts exactly. Ignore the fedora tippers
It's so true. Lucas confirmed in behind the scenes interviews that Palpatine is supposed to be Satan in the Star Wars Universe. In the Bible, there's a verse that states that the Devil disguises himself as an Angel of Light to deceive. Palpatine did just that: pretended to be the father figure Anakin desperately needed and emotionally validated/manipulated him for years, before seducing him to the Dark Side in a bid for power. Also consider Anakin's name: it's very close to the Anakim, a race of Giants in Genesis that were believed to be part Nephilim. So Anakin's fall is literally the fall of a Giant.
@@mish375 yes i find alot of biblical references in the star wars
If you watched The Clone Wars, Palpatine can be seen as even greater villain. In the last seasons you can see, how he is manipulating the senate, slowly turning the republi into a police state, where clones aren't just soldiers, they're Palpatine's private police force. This guy fully controled everything even before Republic became The Empire.
This. Since the Mandalore arc you could get the feeling that Palpatine was gaining more and more power over the galaxy, and after the wrong jedi... He prety much had the galaxy where he wanted it. Almost every episode in season 6 and cancelled episode in 7 involves someone in similar situations to Ahsoka. Ventress, Quinlan, Dooku, Maul, Fives, even Yoda... They all get very close to reveal Sidious identity, but end up beung chased by clones, while some characters inside the "chasing side" (most of the time, Yoda, Rex or Obi-Wan) just get the feeling that there is something so wrong in all of this, but no one actually listens to them. There is also the political plots, like him taking over the banks and using both the separatist and the republic army to attack Scipio or him invalidating the pacifist by using figuires like Satine or Barris to acuse those movements of being separatists
I like the part in the ROTS book and their looking for the Sith Lord Windu says the only reason Palps isn’t being investigated is because he already controls the galaxy.
As Maul said himself "Too late? For what? The Republic to fall? It already has and you just can't see it!"
It's odd that people were ok with it. Most levels of Coruscant had their own police departments.
@@twistedyogert probably cuz of war they fear that some separratist terrorist attack might happen. That and also endless propaganda from the senate
What I love about Palpatine aswell is his giddiness. When he starts fighting Yoda for example, his laughing in Yodas face is actually throwing him off a bit.
Sidious was literally playing chess with himself. He had all the pieces he had all the pawns and knew exactly where and how to move.
edit: thanks for all these likes😭
It's more like he was playing chess with a guy who had previously been super good at it but hadn't played in 50 years, and manipulated him into playing by *his* rules instead.
and the only wild card he didnt see comming, is the love of a father to his son wich is poetic as F or the hope and will to choose the rigth way of his own family(rey) ps: dont really like the sequels ..also dont hate them, but they are cannon so....
Palpatine was playing 5-D chess while the Jedi council was playing go fish
He was playing chess while everyone else was playing checkers
He played Chess with himself, playing both sides, knowing the outcome - That *HE* would win no matter what, no matter the cost... Sheer brilliance.
This doesn't even take into account the events of Return of the Jedi, where we get to see Palpatine attempt to replace that skull-faced machine with the slave's own son, using nothing more than is own sheer manipulative personality. The man was Pure Evil on so many levels, it's simply amazing.
I like how Dooku literally tells obi-wan that the Jedi are being led astray by a Sith Lord and yet almost no one bats an eye at the idea
Dooku left the jedi order because he too saw the hypocrisy and arrogance and brokenness in the system and wanted to fit it
He was a political idealist
And we then see him leader of a nation who sees the flaws of the Republic and wants to start anew, the right way
Dooku was trying to be a good guy
@@ovencake523 But he wasn't. He was also lying and concealing Palpatines identity and going along with whatever Palpatine said. He was committing genocide and war crime and playing his part as a puppet. He wasn't good. He just played the good guy for the separatists, much like politicians today.
@@ovencake523 Dooku did a pretty terrible job of trying to be the good guy lmao. He isn't even an anti hero, dude is clearly evil. Which is a shame because he just ends up becoming a pawn then tossed aside once he served his use but the dark side has a funny way of corrupting. No good deed goes unpunished.
@@MonstersNotUnderTheBed Exactly. By telling the Jedi the actual truth, he caused them to dismiss the idea because it came from an untrustworthy source.
One of the best videos in yt. The editing and the analyses about the script were phenomenal.
Correction: Why The Senate Is The Greatest Movie Villain Ever
It's treason then.
@@eliaspeter7689 *autistic screeching*
*kills 3 jedi in a matter of 1 minute*
@@gameral4235 in a matter of 1 second
Dew it