This is why I like the new EU dropping that crap in favor of the original, he's an evil douche and the Death Star is about scaring everyone into bowing down before him.
The Death Star in Rogue One
- Thread starter DaddlerTheDalek
- Start date
This is why I like the new EU dropping that crap in favor of the original, he's an evil douche and the Death Star is about scaring everyone into bowing down before him.
You say that like they had much of a choice.
Palpatine didn't turn a Republic into an Empire with some made-up boogieman or the faint threat of fringe insurgents. He did it by promising people a bright new future. Safe, secure and free of the decadence and corruption of the old decaying Republic.
If anyone feels this is unrealistic, I'd invite to pick up a history book covering the early 20th Century. There's more than a few examples of just this sort of thing and I'm not just talking about Germany in the 1930's.
From some of the new books that have come out post EU purge, they've hinted that Palpatine was playing a longer game than "Kill all Jedi. Become Emperor. Work on cackling skills."
Indeed, they've portrayed him as a very distant, uninterested ruler. Hardly seen in public, or even within his palace (previously known as the Jedi Temple, which I thought was a nice touch.) Indeed, he seems more interested in some ancient Sith site buried deep beneath the old temple, which leads me to speculate he was going after his old master's goal of conquering death.
It seems perfectly in character that he had no intention of passing his knowledge and power onto his apprentice. And that he fully intended to outlive them all. it ties into the notion that the key difference between the Jedi and Sith (perhaps even the cause of their ancient schism) is that the Sith don't buy into the netherworld and the cosmic force. That oblivion is oblivion and they'd do anything to avoid it.
Last edited:
Nah. I always felt that the "explanation" was an attempt to add moral complexity to the actions of THRAWN, who allied with a genocidal maniac. Zahn likes to burnish the reputation of his characters, and he spent a great deal of time explaining Thrawn's motivations and actions.
Admiral- Hey! Vader's going on a business trip for a month. He's looking for someone named Luke! He put me in charge!
That's fine, as long as this guy is working there too.
Thrawn might.
But Tarkin is an example of the man who is perfectly content to be a cog in a wheel. He isn't DeSaad groveling Darkseid's feet. A place for everything and everything in its place. He was the Empire's Nick Saban.
He would have been right at home in the Romulan Bridge in Balance of Terror.
He prepared the galaxy for the Vong.
Got the Republic on a wartime footing. Scared the citizens like Oppenheimer. Leaving people wiser.
Similar sentiment from one of JLB's most chilling characters
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsches_Requiem_(short_story)
Last edited:
Reminded me of :
Or it's the whole dark side thing.
Never gets old, virtually every single line is a howler.
"What the hell is an Aluminum Falcon?"
You're really determined to make missing the point an Olympic sport, aren't ya?
I don't watch the show, is that Seth MacFarlane?
It's the means, not the end itself.
A side effect of their fundamental theological schism. The Sith use the Dark Side because they believe it makes them more powerful and they would use any means to attain power.
It's all fairly well summed up with Yoda's brief exchange with Sifo Dias's image: -
"Captivated by the physical realm the Sith are."
"What else is there?"
That is Seth MacFarlane doing the voice of Palpatine, yes. Unlike Family Guy, American Dad, and The Cleveland Show, Robot Chicken is not actually produced by MacFarlane, but he does provide regular voice work for it.
Yeah, the voice of Palpatine is very Quagmire-like. I've seen bits of the show, like this one, but not enough to see credits.
Star Wars is a rather simplistic (but highly enjoyable) moral fantasy tale - this idea of a long political plan to fight alien invaders from another galaxy sounds like it's ripped off from something else like Dune.
No offence to anyone who likes those old books but I'm glad it's been shitcanned.
No offence to anyone who likes those old books but I'm glad it's been shitcanned.
What you don't like the Honored Matres or the Thinking Machines waiting just outside the galaxy, twisting their mustaches as the truly Bugs Bunny cartoon villains come to life?
The Dune comparison is interesting as it quite neatly pins down what really irked me about the whole "Palpatine was preparing the galaxy" concept.
In Dune, the pitfalls and traps of trying to predict and change the future are a recurring theme, so it's consistent when the distant threat is revealed in the last Dune novel (I'm not counting the KJA novels, because they're hot garbage.) When the concept of the Golden Path is broached, it's in GEoD where Leto is in the unique position of being both the protagonist and antagonist of his own story. We're supposed to simultaneously sympathise with his plight and hate his parental tyranny. It's not meant to be a justification after the fact. It's there from the get-go and so woven throughout his characterisation.
Palaptine was never a protagonist of anything, least of all his own story. Indeed he's one of the few characters for whom the adage "every villain is the hero of their own story" doesn't really apply. So making him out to be a great architect that created an Empire of fear and internal oppression in order to "prepare" it for an external attack is contrary to just about everything he's ever said or done.
He's in this for his own power and longevity. He's a Sith. They're fundamentally selfish beings. They couldn't give a crap about the rest of the galaxy weighed against their personal self-interest and he's the Sithyest Sith that ever Sithed. Evil through and through.
In Dune, the pitfalls and traps of trying to predict and change the future are a recurring theme, so it's consistent when the distant threat is revealed in the last Dune novel (I'm not counting the KJA novels, because they're hot garbage.) When the concept of the Golden Path is broached, it's in GEoD where Leto is in the unique position of being both the protagonist and antagonist of his own story. We're supposed to simultaneously sympathise with his plight and hate his parental tyranny. It's not meant to be a justification after the fact. It's there from the get-go and so woven throughout his characterisation.
Palaptine was never a protagonist of anything, least of all his own story. Indeed he's one of the few characters for whom the adage "every villain is the hero of their own story" doesn't really apply. So making him out to be a great architect that created an Empire of fear and internal oppression in order to "prepare" it for an external attack is contrary to just about everything he's ever said or done.
He's in this for his own power and longevity. He's a Sith. They're fundamentally selfish beings. They couldn't give a crap about the rest of the galaxy weighed against their personal self-interest and he's the Sithyest Sith that ever Sithed. Evil through and through.
