Villain Therapy: PALPATINE

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Ian McDiarmid absolutely understood the meaning of the term "deliciously evil"

Hayden Christiansen gets a bad rap for a lot of the prequels but he acted the script very well. He pulls off "whiny, angsty, adolescent who thinks he knows everything" beautifully.

I love how Palpatine at the end of RotJ is the first person to call Luke "Jedi" and mean it. He spits it out like an insult. But to me it always carried the realization that "Yes, young Skywalker is a Jedi." Up to that point everyone either told him he's not ready or laughed at the idea of him becoming a space paladin.

Palpatine also engages in whataboutism. He deflects the ways in which the Sith do evil by saying the Jedi are just as guilty. He justifies the actions of the Sith by bringing up the ways the Jedi are bad or wrong. He uses whataboutism to absolve his whole ideology from any moral guilt they may have and shifts the conversation over to how the Jedi are guilty. He doesn't want Anakin to believe the Sith are good, he wants him to distrust the motives and morality of the Jedi.

They're doing our boy Palpy? A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one!

The prequels do have their flaws but I feel them fleshing out Palpatine rise to power was definitely something the prequels had going for them.

One of the reasons Anakin is so shunned by the Jedi-Community is his stubbornness and unwillingness to ever consider others PoV. He basically outright objected to and dismissed everything that didn’t ‘feel right’, without ever learning to consider pros and cons of a viewpoint. And as a result, in the face of a skilled manipulator, he has no tool, no technique, no experience available to balance the words of the other person with his own considerations and memories.

I love the idea that Palpatine HATES Padmé (I guess as a sith hated is, like, the default emotion, but still.) She is constantly ruining his plans in E1. He wants to use her as a political prop, the poor 14 year old queen unjustly blockaded on her planet. But she escapes. Fine, we can pivot. Keep her visibly on Corusant where she can visibly generate sympathy. But NOOO she has to go back to Naboo, join with the gungans, and takes back her planet. And now Palpatine has to find a new apprentice. Palpy underestimating this 14 year old girl is the reason his evil plan had 37 steps and not 30. His plan ultimately worked out, but he would have gotten away with it sooner if it wasn't for that stubborn kid. So the look of deepest hatred Palpatine gives Luke is because he's Padmé's son, ruining complicated plans. (One of the best things of the prequels imo is things like that that make moments in the OT more fun- like obviously Palpy's look of hatred could not have been an intentionally portraying "ugh he's Padmé + the best of Anakin," but it fits and it's so funny)

Palpatine’s such a villain that “If He tells you snow is white he’s lying”

Hard to believe Ian McDiarmid was only in his late 30s when he was in Return of the Jedi.

The way I took it when Palpatine says “It was only natural” isn’t so much him trying to convince Anakin it was his idea to kill Dooku, but rather that he was trying to get Anakin to think that wanting to kill him was okay. I read the Revenge of the Sith novelization (I would argue the greatest Star Wars novel of all time), and they provide some interesting context in their version of those events. Anakin has a moment of realization when Palpatine tells him to kill Dooku. He interprets Palpatine’s “do it” not as a command, but PERMISSION. He takes Palpatine saying that as Palpatine knowing he wants to kill Dooku, to take his revenge for maiming him and trying to execute him, his mentor/best friend, and lover, but is hesitating because the Jedi told him it’s wrong. To Anakin, Palpatine is basically saying Anakin’s feelings about wanting to kill Dooku is correct. And then when he does it and seems to regret, Palpatine is less trying to convince him it was his idea all along, but more so trying to help Anakin justify it to himself. “Yeah, you did the right thing, kid. Don’t worry about it. Totally natural to feel that way. He had it coming. You were right.”

I would like to point out something in the meadow scene: when Anakin says he doesn't think the system works, he SOUNDS like Palpatine. He literally subconciously imitates his tone. That scene is more layered than people realize,and that's why it works. And mad respect for Hayden Christensen for that small detail.

I still remember you guys describing Palpatine as the scuzzy boyfriend always looking to trade up.

Another contrast to Anakin and Luke is that Palpatine had years of whispering into Anakin's ear. Anakin was growing up in an unhealthy environment as a slave to Watto. Even when he got freed, he was just under "new management" under the Jedi. So Palpatine became Anakin's father figure. Luke had an actual father figure in Owen.

I forget where I heard this, but someone described the brilliance of Palpatine's plan as "The jedi lost the clone wars the moment they chose to fight in it."

A visual parallel I have noticed throughout SW is the image of a Palpatine goading his new apprentice to kill a defenseless person. He does it with Dooku and Yaddle, Anakin and Dooku, and finally Luke and Darth Vader (Anakin). Each time he encourages them to do something that goes against their morals (killing a friend, a defenseless person, or their father) and the choice they make is telling to who they will become in the future. Luke is the person to break this cycle when he refuses to kill his father after seeing Vader’s mechanical hand. He looks to his own hand and realizes that to destroy his father is to become him. He holds fast to his ideals in the face of Palpatines attempts to change them. It’s a nice way to keep consistency with Palpatine’s character and form of manipulation.

Palpatine is one of those characters that's just flat-out irredeemable. In Legends, it was explained that even as a child, Sheev was a monster of a kid. A bully, a black sheep, a character that saw everyone as "below" him, and took advantage of his dad's wealth and influence. He murdered his own family to prove himself towards the Dark Side, and grew his influence from there. He has no attachments, no people to love or care about, no... redeeming qualities. Just a monster, in and out, thriving in the murder and torture of others. Putting up a kind, polite, decent font to hide his intense sadism and disdain towards life in general. I'm not sure if therapy would even help for this guy. He's only gonna try and carve out that need for power further. It's only when he rules the universe, when he's truly content. That being said; how would you guys feel about doing a Hero Therapy for Mace Windu? What could this stone-cold bastard have done different to save the universe?

Palpatine is probably my favorite example of a Machiavellian character in all of cinema.

"I am a Jedi. . . Like my father before me." Always gives me chills ❤