Darth Sidious

Ian Abercrombie *(Clone Wars)*

**Darth Sidious**, born as Sheev Palpatine, is a main character and an antagonist in the Star Wars saga. He served as the last Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and the first Emperor of the Galactic Empire. A Dark Lord of the Sith in the Order of the Sith Lords, recorded by history as the most powerful who had ever lived, his entire life was the culmination of a thousand-year plan to overthrow the Republic and the Jedi Order from within, by staying undercover as a simple senator and later the supreme chancellor. He serves as the primary antagonist over the course of the prequel trilogy and the original trilogy.

## **Biography**

* Before
* Episode I
* II
* CW
* III
* V
* VI

**Early Life**

To Be Added

**The Phantom Menace**

Palpatine is depicted as a middle-aged Galactic Senator from the planet Naboo who is secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. As Sidious, he influences the corrupt Trade Federation to blockade and invade Naboo. Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo flees to the planet Coruscant with help of two Jedi's to receive counsel from Palpatine, unaware that he actually engineered the invasion. After a plea for help from the senate results in bureaucratic delays, Palpatine persuades the queen to call for a motion of no confidence against Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum.

When Padmé attempts to liberate Naboo, Sidious sends his Sith apprentice Darth Maul there to capture her. The invasion is eventually thwarted and Maul is defeated in a lightsaber duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Sidious uses the crisis to be elected as the new supreme chancellor.

**Attack of the Clones**

Palpatine exploits constitutional loopholes to remain in office even after the official expiration of his term. Meanwhile, as Darth Sidious, he continues to manipulate events from behind the scenes by having his new Sith apprentice Darth Tyranus, lead a movement of planets in seceding from the Republic to form the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

Since the Separatists are secretly building a battle droid army, Palpatine uses the situation to have himself granted emergency powers. Palpatine feigns reluctance to accept this authority, promising to return it to the Senate once the crisis has ended. His first act is to allow the creation of a clone army to counter the Separatist threat; this results in the opening salvo of the Clone Wars. With the galaxy now at war as Sidious planned, Tyranus brings him the secret plans for a new super weapon.

**Negotiatons with the Hutts**

A few months after Anakin Skywalker's knighthood as a Jedi master, Palpatine helped engineer a Separatist plot to turn Jabba the Hutt against the Republic by kidnapping his son Rotta and framing the Jedi for it. Padmé came to him and learned that Anakin was being framed by the Hutts and though Palpatine advised against it, she left to contact Ziro, Jabba's uncle. Padmé learned that Ziro conspired with Dooku and explained the situation to Jabba. The plan failed as a result, but the outcome also suited Sidious' ends, since Jabba placed Hutt hyperspace routes at the Republic's disposal.

**Revenge of the Sith**

Palpatine is captured by cyborg Separatist General Grievous, as part of a plan devised by Sidious. Palpatine is rescued by Anakin and Obi-Wan, but not before the Jedi confront Count Dooku again. A duel ensues in which Anakin defeats Dooku. Palpatine orders Anakin to kill the unarmed Dooku; after some hesitance, Anakin kills Dooku in cold blood. Palpatine then escapes with his Jedi rescuers and returns to Coruscant. By this point, Palpatine has become a virtual dictator, able to take any action in the Senate. He makes Anakin his personal representative on the Jedi Council, who deny Anakin the rank of Jedi master and order him to spy on the Chancellor. Palpatine tells Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis, a powerful Sith Lord who was able to manipulate life and death but was killed by his own apprentice. Eventually, Palpatine reveals his secret identity as a Sith Lord to Anakin; he knows that Anakin has been having prophetic visions of Padmé, his pregnant secret wife, dying in childbirth, and offers to teach him Plagueis' secrets to save her life.

Anakin informs Jedi Master Mace Windu of Palpatine's treachery. With three other Jedi masters at his side, Windu attempts to arrest Sidious, but the Dark Lord produces a lightsaber from his sleeve and quickly dispatches all but Windu. Sidious engages Windu in a duel and fires Force lightning at him, but Windu deflects the lightning back at its source, deforming Sidious' face into the gray, wizened visage seen in the original trilogy. Just as Windu is about to dispatch Sidious, Anakin appears and intervenes on the Sith Lord's behalf, allowing Sidious to kill Windu with another blast of lightning. Anakin then pledges himself to the dark side as Darth Sidious' new Sith apprentice, Darth Vader.

Sidious orders the clone troopers to turn on their Jedi generals, while dispatching Vader to kill everyone inside the Jedi Temple and then murder the Separatist leaders on the planet Mustafar. Sidious then reorganizes the Republic into the Galactic Empire, with himself as Emperor. Jedi Master Yoda confronts him in his Senate office and engages the Emperor in a lightsaber duel that ends in a stalemate. Sensing that his new apprentice is in danger, Sidious travels to Mustafar and finds Vader near death following a duel with Obi-Wan. After returning to Coruscant, he rebuilds Vader's burned, mutilated body with the black armored suit from the original trilogy. Sidious then tells Vader that Padmé was killed in the heat of Vader's anger, breaking what remains of his apprentice's spirit. Sidious is last seen watching the original Death Star's construction, with Vader and Wilhuff Tarkin at his side.

**The Empire Strikes Back**

Following a major victory in capturing a Rebel base on Hoth in 3 ABY, Sidious demanded to the de jure head of Death Squadron, Admiral Firmus Piett, to tell Vader to make contact with him. After getting out of Hoth's asteroid field, Sidious, after delaying his communicating with Vader due to a foul mood, then told Vader that his son, Luke Skywalker, was becoming a grave threat to the Sith due to his growing Force potential and training, and that he must not become a Jedi, also informing him that he is Vader's son. Vader convinced Sidious that it would be beneficial for both of them if Luke was converted to the dark side. In actuality, Vader already knew by that point that Skywalker was Force-sensitive as well as alive, and had been actively searching for him, secretly planning to use Luke to help him overthrow his master.

**Return of the Jedi**

Hoping to put an end to the Rebellion and solidify his rule once and for all, Sidious crafted an intricate plan to lure the entirety of the Rebel Alliance into an inescapable death trap. A second, more powerful Death Star was being built over Endor, a forest moon orbiting a gas giant of the same name, protected by a shield generator on the moon's surface. During this time, he also orchestrated various Rebel victories to get them to become overconfident enough to walk into his trap when the time is right, including an assault on the Fondor Shipyards that resulted in the destruction of a prototype Super Star Destroyer with cloaking abilities.

Sidious turned this temporary setback to his advantage and allowed other Rebel spies to learn of the Death Star's location while planting disinformation which suggested the superweapon was not yet operational. In reality, the station's prime weapon was complete and fully functional, and an enormous contingent of the Imperial Navy was there to protect it. Darth Vader and later Darth Sidious himself went on board the battle station, believing that if the Rebels thought they had a chance to destroy the Empire's new superweapon and kill the Emperor in the process, they wouldn't pass up an opportunity to launch an all-out attack, and they were correct. In addition, as he was completely confident of the Empire's victory against the Rebel Alliance, he also dismissed reports of the Rebel Fleet massing near Sullust as being of no concern when Vader inquired if he was to respond to that information. He also anticipated the possibility that the Rebel Alliance would send a strike team to the forest moon to take down the Death Star II's shield, and made sure that both the main entrance and back-door bunker for the shield generator were under close guard, also having the forces near the generator be guarded by an entire legion of his best troops belonging to the various primary branches of the Imperial Military specifically to ensure the strike team failed to destroy the generator before the Rebel fleet arrived. Despite this, however, he failed to sense Luke Skywalker on board the shuttle Tydirium. When Darth Vader, disobeying his prior orders to remain on the Executor, returned to the Death Star in order to tell him about Luke being on the vessel—although he was aware of Tydirium managing to land on Endor—he was genuinely surprised that Vader sensed Luke on the vessel whereas he himself had not. However, when making sure Vader's thoughts were clear on the matter, Sidious assigned him to capture Skywalker, stating that he would come to Vader.

Subsequently, Luke Skywalker, who was convinced that his father could be turned back to the light side, allowed himself to be captured and brought to the Death Star—just as Sidious had foreseen. Upon meeting Luke, Sidious learned about Yoda's recent death from probing Luke's mind, and proceeded to mock the late Jedi master. In addition, as a demonstration of his power, he also removed Luke's binders by barely lifting his finger, citing that he no longer needed them, before dismissing his royal guard, before making it clear that he intends to make Luke his Sith apprentice. When Luke insinuated the imminent death of all on board the Death Star, Sidious revealed how he was well aware of the Alliance's plans, both to Luke's surprise and his own amusement. The Emperor further taunted the Jedi aspirant with the revelation that he had manipulated the Rebels into a trap of his own design; the Rebels had been allowed to discover the location of the new battlestation, and thus Sidious anticipated their infiltration of Endor. Sidious had also ordered Fleet Admiral Firmus Piett to not have the Star Destroyer fleet attack the Alliance Fleet when they arrive, as he intended to unveil a surprise for the Rebels, and only wanted the Star Destroyers to prevent them from escaping. When the Alliance Fleet arrived, Sidious unveiled his surprise: the Death Star's superlaser was operational, contrary to what the Rebels had expected. As Luke's frustration grew with the Alliance's desperate situation, the Emperor manipulated him into a duel with Darth Vader. Sidious also ordered Moff Jerjerrod to blow up Endor if the shield is taken down by the rebels, regardless of who got caught in the crossfire. Luke initially restrained himself at first, until Vader probed his mind and learned that Leia was his own daughter. With this knowledge, Vader speculated that he could corrupt her instead, but the threat enraged the young Jedi and drove him to attack Vader in a frenzy.

Although he nearly killed Vader and cut off his mechanical right hand, Luke controlled his anger at the last minute; realizing that he was dangerously close to suffering his father's fate, he discarded his lightsaber and turned to face the Emperor, stating that he was a Jedi, like his father before him. Sidious, full of anger, started killing Luke with his Force lightning. Vader then realized that Luke was his son and grabbed Sidious from behind, pinning his upper arms to his torso. The Emperor struggled against Vader's grip, his hands forced high into the air, shooting bolts in all directions, electrocuting himself and damaging Vader's life-support systems beyond repair. Sidious also screamed upon being lifted up, both out of shock at Vader's sudden action, and out of pain for being hit by his own bolts due to no longer being completely in control as a consequence. Vader carried him to the edge of the shaft, lifted him high over his head, and, with the last of his strength, hurled the Emperor into the abyss. He plummeted kilometers down the shaft, and even as he fell, he refused to admit defeat. Shortly after hitting the reactor, still discharging his force lightning, he then exploded into dark side energy, with it encompassing the throne room before eventually falling back down the shaft.

## **Appearances**

* "The Phantom Menace"
* "Attack of the Clones"
* "Star Wars: The Clone Wars"
* "Revenge of the Sith"
* "The Empire Strikes Back" (Hologram)
* "Return of the Jedi

## **Gallery**

* Episode I
* Episode II
* The Clone Wars
* Episode III
* Episode V
* Episode VI

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