Darth Sidious

✔

This villain named Darth Sidious is Pure Evil -
This certain villain is pure evil, meaning it has no any reedeming qualities. Dark deatails may follow.

## General Information

### Alias(es)

Darth Sidious
The Emperor

### Affiliation

Sith Order
Galactic Republic (formerly)
Galactic Empire (formerly)
Final Order

### Citizenship

Naboo
Corusanti

## Biographical Information

### Date of Death

1981 (4 ABY) (original body)
Late 2012 (35 ABY) (clone body and spirit)

### Place of Death

Death Star II, Endor System (original body)
Exegol (clone body and spirit)

## Behind the Scenes

### Movie

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (indirectly mentioned)
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker

### TV Series

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Star Wars: Rebels
Obi-Wan Kenobi
Andor (indirectly mentioned)

### Portrayed by

Ian McDiarmid
Marjorie Eaton

### Voiced by

Clive Revill
Ian Abercrombie
Tim Curry
Sam Witwer
Ian McDiarmid

**Darth Sidious**, born as **Sheev Palpatine** and also simply known as **The Emperor**, is the main antagonist of the *Star Wars* franchise.

He serves as the main antagonist of the *Skywalker Saga*, as the overarching antagonist of the 2008 animated stand-alone film *Star Wars: The Clone Wars*, its 2008-2014 animated TV series of the same name, and the 2014 animated TV series *Star Wars Rebels*; and as the unseen overarching antagonist of both the 2016 stand-alone film *Rogue One: A Star Wars Story* and the 2019 video game *Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order*.

He also appears as the main antagonist, as the overarching antagonist, and/or as a posthumous antagonist in several novels and comic books within both the *Star Wars* Legends continuity and the Canon continuity.

He is an immensely powerful Sith Lord and the ruler of the Galactic Empire, which he formed from the Galactic Republic, who was also the de-facto ruler of the CIS, which he used to give himself autocratic powers as Chancellor of the Galactic Republic. As the Dark Lord of the Sith, Sidious plotted to overthrow the Jedi by manipulating the events of the Clone Wars to bring himself to rule the whole galaxy; thus posing as the Supreme Chancellor of the Republic throughout these events. He is the Jedi's archenemy and they were suspicious of him even just after Count Dooku's death when they were unaware that he was Darth Sidious.

Sidious is also later revealed to be the secret benefactor and true leader of the First Order, and that he is the paternal grandfather of Rey.

In the saga films, he was most famously portrayed by Ian McDiarmid, after previously being voiced by Clive Revill and portrayed by the late Marjorie Eaton in the original edition of *The Empire Strikes Back*. In *Star Wars: The Clone Wars*, he was voiced by the late Ian Abercrombie, and later Tim Curry; who also played Pennywise the Clown in the 1990 adaptation. McDiarmid returned to voice Sidious when he appeared in the final season of *Star Wars Rebels*.

## History

### Star Wars Movies

####

### Season 1

#### The Beggining

Darth Sidious appears at the end of the episode, when he is contacted by Darth Vader. Sidious points out that they need more on their team, if they want to win the fight.

#### Assembling

Sidious appears as a hologram, after Vader requits the Joker and Agent Smith. Sidious tells Vader that they can not win the war with them, they need stronger villains. Vader requits Sauron and Lord Voldemort, but Sidious tells him that their armies are still not enough, so Vader requits Loki.

## Powers and Abilities

### The Force

Despite his old age, Darth Sidious was immensely powerful and had an amazingly strong connection to the dark side of the Force, considered to be the most powerful Sith ever. His power and skill in the usage of the Force exceed that of Darth Vader after he was badly burned in Mustafar and Count Dooku and can only be matched, if not slightly surpassed, by Yoda.

His Force lighting is powerful enough that even someone of Yoda's caliber had noticeable difficulty deflecting it using the Force. Another more obscure ability that he possessed was the power to produce a dark aura, a miniature storm of force energy that slowed the movement of, and tortured all caught within its radius. He was also highly skilled with telekinesis; during his duel with Yoda, he levitated several Senate pods simultaneously, including the one he was standing on, with great dexterity and accuracy. Likewise, he was skilled enough with telekinesis that he was also able to remove Luke Skywalker's handcuffs while barely lifting his finger when meeting face to face on the second Death Star.

Darth Sidious was highly adept at foreseeing the future, often utilizing the power to see his plots to fruition, ensuring that all would proceed as he had envisioned. His accuracy with this power can only be rivaled by that of Yoda. The Dark Lord was also adept in the use of Force persuade, to the extent that he was able to take complete control of a subject's mind and force them to obey his commands. He was also capable of telepathically communicating with Darth Vader over a distance of hundreds of light-years. Sidious also had a remarkably keen ability to sense the thoughts and feelings of others, including those of incredibly powerful Force adepts such as Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. On a related note, he was also capable of hiding his thoughts and feelings from even such individuals as Yoda and managed to conceal his true dark nature from the entire Jedi Council for decades before deliberately revealing himself.

Surprisingly, following his supposed death during the battle at Endor, Sidious was able to use the Force to revive himself through his great mastery over the dark side of the Force along with the knowledge on how to cheat death by manipulating the midi-chlorians, though it came with a price: rendered him blind, his body being frail and he could only move with the help of machinery. He would later use these skills to hide himself from public while creating the First Order as a means of rebuild his empire under the shadows. With the ability of Force drain, he was able to drain the Force from both Rey and Ben, restoring his body and becoming more powerful than ever.

## Relationships

### Family

* Dathan † - Cloned Son
* Rey's Mother † - Daughter-in-law
* Rey Skywalker - Granddaughter and Indirect Victim

### Allies

* Confederacy of Independent Systems - Former Subordinates
	+ General Grievous †
* Galactic Empire - Former Subordinates
	+ Mas Amedda
	+ Sly Moore
	+ Grand Moff Tarkin †
	+ Grand Admiral Thrawn
	+ Grand Inquisitor †
* Contingency - Former Subordinates
	+ Gallius Rax †
* First Order - Subordinates
	+ Snoke † - Puppet
* Final Order - Subordinates
	+ General Pryde †

### Enemies

* Darth Plagueis † - Former Master and Victim
* Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader † - Former Apprentice, Killer and Victim
* Jedi Order
	+ Jedi High Council
		- Yoda † - Attempted Victim
		- Mace Windu † - Attempted Killer and Victim
		- Obi-Wan Kenobi †
		- Ki-Adi-Mundi †
		- Plo Koon †
		- Stass Allie †
		- Kit Fisto † - Victim
		- Agen Kolar † - Victim
		- Seasee Tiin † - Victim
* Galactic Republic
	+ Padme Amidala †
	+ Bail Organa †
* Confederacy of Independent Systems - Former Subordinates
	+ Count Dooku/Darth Tryannus † - Former Apprentice
	+ Trade Federation
		- Nute Gunray †
		- Rune Haako †
	+ Techno Union
		- Wat Tambor †
	+ Intergalactic Banker Clan
		- San Hill †
	+ Genonosians
		- Poglee the Lesser †
* Shadow Collective
	+ Maul † - Former Apprentice and Rival
	+ Savage Opress † - Victim
* Rebel Alliance
	+ Luke Skywalker † - Attempted Victim
	+ Leia Organa †
	+ Han Solo †
	+ Chewbacca
	+ C-3PO
	+ R2-D2
* Cylo † - Former Ally
* Resistance
	+ Poe Dameron
	+ Finn
	+ BB8
* Ben Solo/Kylo Ren † - Temporary Ally

## Killed Victims

* Darth Plagueis (His master)
* Count Dooku (Not committed though ordered by Sidious)
* Agen Kolar
* Saesee Tiin
* Kit Fisto
* Mace Windu (With help from Anakin)
* Most of the Jedi Order (Not committed though ordered by Sidious)
* The Separatist Council (Not committed though ordered by Sidious)
* Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader
* His son (Rey's father)
* His daugther-in-law (Rey's mother)
* Rey Palpatine/Skywalker (Later revived)
* Ben Solo/Kylo Ren (Indirect, gave his life to save Rey)

## Trivia

* Darth Sidious is often considered one of the most evil villains in television and film history - as his reign of terror in addition to his tyrannies have led to billions of casualties and the destruction of countless planets, thus devastating the galaxy altogether. Watchmojo ranked Sidious as number 1 in Top 20 Evil Characters.
* Historical leaders such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Julius Caesar, Richard Nixon and Alberto Fujimori served as the main influences for his character.
* In the original script of *The Empire Strikes Back*, Sidious was named Cos Dashit, a puppet leader who was controlled by the Moffs. He had no connection to the Force at all. The novelization of *A New Hope* even hinted at this plot point. However, George Lucas had replaced him as the main mastermind of the *Star Wars* saga.

* According to Cory Barlog, a former LucasArts developer, George Lucas originally intended to reveal what exactly happened in Sidious' life that turned him into the monster he later became in an unproduced live-action television show which never got ahead due budgetary concerns. Reportedly, Lucas wrote an episode that featured a once sympathetic Sidious falling in love with a heartless woman who wronged him, which caused him to become the ruthless tyrant he is shown to be in the films. Unfortunately, this story, as well its details, hasn't been released as of yet, and thus it isn't currently considered canon.
* Since the first release of the films, Darth Sidious has become an iconic villain, along with Darth Vader. He's the most recurring villain of *Star Wars* behind Darth Vader.
* Even though Darth Sidious is the overarching antagonist of *Star Wars: The Clone Wars*, his Sith persona was only seen in 17 episodes out of 121 episodes total. Sidious was only seen in hologram in 1 episode of Season 1 (*Cloak of Darkness*), 3 episodes of Season 2 (*Holocron Heist*, *Children of the Force* and *Duchess of Mandalore*), 2 episodes of Season 3 (*Nightsisters* and *Ghost of Mortis*, the latter as a future vision to Anakin), 2 episodes of Season 4 (*Escape from Kadavo* and *Shadow Warrior*), 2 episodes of Season 5, including *Revival* where he smiles after learning Maul's survival, implying his identity (and the other one being *The Lawless*), and 7 episodes of Season 6 (*The Unknown*, *Orders*, *An Old Friend*, *The Rise of Clovis*, *Crisis at the Heart*, *Voices* and *Sacrifice*,) the last one that served the series finale until new episodes were announced.

* In the PS2 and Xbox version of *Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith*, in an alternate ending of level 17, after murdering Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader takes over the galaxy by stabbing Sidious, who unlike the films, apparently succeeds in killing Yoda who can't threaten the empire if alive. In the vs mode in said game, Windu fighting Vader on the Death Star implies Windu lived in place of Kenobi and ultimately takes Vader's life. Of course, this version of the events is not canonical either for the Legends and Canon continuities.
* In an ironic way, Darth Sidious has a better relationship with his apprentice (at least before his betrayal) in the new Canon continuity unlike in the Legends continuity. In the Legends continuity, Sidious didn't continue Vader's training following his defeat on Mustafar, took any opportunity to torture him physically and physiologically and made sure Vader's armor was made with painful outdated technology to punish him for his failure to kill Obi Wan; whereas in the Canon continuity, Sidious often provided Vader with advice and details about the Sith he didn't understand, didn't belittle him too much and allowed him to modify his armor if he wanted. That being said, his crimes and level of heinousness remain mostly the same anyway and Sidious in Revenge of The Sith is seen enjoying Vader's pain.

* From a certain point of view, Darth Sidious did win at the end of *The Rise of Skywalker* by destroying the Skywalker family, given that Rey had to sacrifice her life to destroy Sidious and thus Ben Solo sacrificed his own to revive her, becoming one with the Force. As Ben was the last member of the Skywalker bloodline and never had descendants, even if he was killed for good, Sidious was in some ways successful in destroying Anakin Skywalker's lineage. However, as Rey ultimately disowns her birth surname and adopts that of the Skywalkers, it can be argued that the Skywalker family's legacy will live through Rey and the actions of their members will always be remembered by all in the galaxy, whereas no one will remember Sidious in a positive way and all will repudiate him and his legacy for his heinous actions.
* Although Sidious never succeeded in becoming immortal, it should be noted that while he didn't live for long like Yoda or Maz Kanata, he did live long for "human" standards. He is confirmed to have been born eighty four years before *A New Hope*, so Sidious was at least 120 years old when he was finally killed in *The Rise of Skywalker*.
* Some have speculated Darth Sidious created Anakin Skywalker given that the final issue of the *Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith* comic book series seemed to suggest that Sidious was behind Anakin's mysterious conception. Indeed, George Lucas originally intended to reveal in *Revenge of the Sith* that Darth Sidious or Darth Plagueis manipulated the midi-chlorians to conceive Anakin, so in some ways, Sidious could be considered Anakin's father. The idea was dropped from the final cut, and Lucasfilm has affirmed since then that this isn't the case.
* Ian McDiarmid, Darth Sidious' actor has claimed Sidious is worse than Satan, seeing as moral agency issues prevent Satan from fitting pure evil, Sidious is probably worse.