Palpatine

Appearances

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II[]

In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II, Palpatine appears in an alternative ending, in which Starkiller’s clone chooses to eventually kill Vader and the Dark Starkiller encounters and kills him along with the rebel troopers and Generak Kota. Then Vader sends his disciple to destroy the Rebelion on Endor.

On the Death Star, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader sense the defeat of the Rebels on Endor. With the bunker secured and the shield generator still active, any chance that the Rebel fleet had of destroying the battle station with the two Sith Lords on it was gone. Just after, Palpatine declares that the end of the Alliance marked a new golden age of peace for the Galactic Empire, he reveals his awareness of his apprentice’s latest act of treachery. True to his nature, Palpatine gloats about how he knew about Vader’s attempts to clone the original Starkiller since the beginning of the secret project on Kamino. In a desperate attempt to rid himself of his master, Vader activates his lightsaber in order to strike down the Emperor. But, Palpatine anticipates his apprentice’s intention and countered with Force lightning, calling him Skywalker before doing so. Unable to bear the pain and the damage that the lightning caused to his armor’s life support systems, Vader quickly falls to his knees in submission. The Emperor then commands Captain Sarkli to take his forces to Endor and kill the clone, seeing no more use for him

Trivia

• He is voiced by Sam Witwer in the Season Two premiere «The Siege of Lothal». In Season Four, in the episodes «Wolves and a Door», «World Between Worlds» and «Family Reunion — and Farewell» he is voiced by Ian McDiarmid, who portrayed him in the films. Witwer’s lines as the Emperor were later re-recorded by McDiarmid, and this version of the Siege of Lothal is how it has been shown in subsequent reruns.
• When the Emperor appears on the viewscreen in «Empire Day», the HoloNet News depicts him as young and handsome instead of his current deformed state, a practice employed by many real-life tyrants using state-run media. He would later alter his appearance in a similar fashion via the Force when he appeared in hologram form in «Family Reunion — and Farewell».

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed[]

«Yes! Kill him, Lord Vader!»

After killing the Jedi Master Shaak Ti on Felucia, Marek returns to Vader’s ship, the Executor where he learns that the Emperor’s fleet had arrived. But Vader had not lured him — his spies had followed Galen. Without warning, Vader stabs Galen in the chest as Palpatine tells him to kill his apprentice. The Emperor, watching the former apprentice’s supposed death through PROXY, enjoys seeing Galen getting beat up. After thrashing the powerful Dark Jedi around, despite his pleas that they could defeat him together, Vader throws Galen out the window. Convinced that Starkiller is dead the Emperor looks at Vader and leaves. Vader later dispatched a droid to recover his body.

Palpatine in Force Unleashed

After capturing Rahm Kota, Mon Mothma, Garm Bel Iblis, and Bail Organa on Corellia, Vader take’s them to the incomplete Death Star, where the Emperor is. Palpatine declares them traitors to the Empire and tells them that the will be interrogated, tortured and after they reveal the names of their friends and allies, they will be publicly executed as an example to the rest of the galaxy. After Starkiller discovered by Palpatine, Vader is sent to take care of him. Fighting his way through the battle station, Marek made his way to the throne room, where he encountered Darth Vader, and the two of them dueled. Marek crushed Vader with several metal girders, before throwing him into the throne room. As Darth Vader lay clinging to life before him, Palpatine attempted to influence Marek to murder Vader and become Palpatine’s new apprentice. Rahm Kota, attempted to distract the Sith Lord, is struck with Force lightning, and Galen intervenes. He defeats Palpatine in a duel, but decides not to kill him; Palpatine, is feigning defeat. To save the Alliance from Palpatine as they escape, Marek sacrifices himself. Later, the Rebel Alliance is formed formally, and they decide to use Galen’s family crest as their symbol.

Alternative Ending

«Lord Vader was a broken shadow of his former self. I knew that one day, you would replace him.»

Insted of helping Kota and the other prisoners Starkiller rushes to finish the injured Vader. After a final duel Marek manages to stike down the Sith Lord and take his revenge. Returning to Palpatine, he found Kota lying at the feet of the Dark Lord, charred from Sith lightning. Palpatine decreed that Marek’s final test was to kill Rahm Kota, thus severing all his ties to the Jedi. Instead, Marek turned to attack the Emperor. Palpatine deflected the attack easily, and said he had foreseen the attack. He threw Marek through the observation window. Marek saw the bodies of Bail Organa and the other rebel leaders. Juno Eclipse attempted to save Marek with the Rogue Shadow. Palpatine gripped the ship with the Force, and with Juno Eclipse still inside the ship, he threw it on top of Marek. Starkiller wakes up on an operating table, beeing reconstucted as the Emperor stands over him. Starkiller looked down at his hands. To his horror, they matched the vision he had at the Jedi Temple. Then the Emperor tells hims that he could have been his successor, but until he finds a new apprentice, he will use him to find and destroy his remaining enemies and after that he, like Vader will be cast aside. Then orders the operation droids to finish him. After the operation is complete , Palpatine sends Lord Starkiller to Jabba´s Palace to find the droids with the Death Star plans and later to Hoth, to destroy the Rebelion once and for all and bring before him Luke Skywalker to convert him to the Dark Side.

Manipulating the Queen

Vote of no confidence.

Queen Amidala of Naboo is 14 years old. Palpatine is sure he can manipulate her. That was not so easy.

Also, not every single detail went on as he expected. Starting with Chancellor Valorum dispatching two Jedi Knights as ambassadors to solve the crisis. That was unexpected. Sidious ordered the Trade Federation to kill them, in which they failed.

He also ordered the Trade Federation to occupy the planet.

This part of the plan is the most questioned by fans that criticize Episode I. What’s up with the treaty? Once the Trade Federation occupies Naboo, the Queen must sign a treaty that will make the occupation official, making it legal.

However, if the treaty is signed, the crisis is “solved”. Palpatine would not get the ‘vote of no confidence’ he wanted Amidala to issue. The lack of solution to the crisis was fundamental to take Chancellor Valorum down.

So, why does he insist so much? Let’s see how obsessed with the treaty everybody is.

The fact that Qui-Gon acknowledges that there is no logic in this is a signal that indeed the treaty meant nothing.

Sidious insists that the Trade Federation must get the treaty signed at all costs.

Now, even talking to his Sith Apprentice, Sidious is still focused on the treaty.

This exchange also reinforces the REVENGE aspect. That is the ultimate goal. All the rest are tools to achieve the final objective.

Also, it shows that Sidious still feels everything is going as planned. He is not concerned that the treaty still hasn’t been signed.

This part maybe explains it. Perhaps Palpatine is so in control of everything, maybe he already knows Queen Amidala so well, that he is 100% sure that she will never sign the treaty under any circumstance. So, he pushes everyone in the direction of the treaty. He wants this crisis to go on forever, until he can use it in his favor.

This happens when she arrives in Coruscant. She speaks to the Senate. The Senate is so corrupt and filled with bureaucracy that they are incapable of solving anything in a practical way. Democracy has its problems, and Palpatine wants to eradicate it.

Palpatine finds his opportunity window.

Queen Amidala issues her Vote of No Confidence. Chancellor Valorum is impeached. Palpatine wins the election. The whole Naboo crisis has resulted in many sympathy votes for Senator Palpatine.

Palpatine becomes Chancellor. Another step of the plan is completed!

Battlefront II[]

«I’m here… and I’m NOT amused!»

In Star Wars: Battlefront II, Palpatine appears as a hero for the Empire and, CIS in non-story modes on the Death Star, Naboo, Coruscant and Polis Massa maps, as well as the Mos Eisley assault mode.

He is armed with a lightsaber and floats over the ground instead of walking normally. Because of this, he is quite fast and maneuovrable, and his sprint attack is especially dangerous: unlike other Jedi and Sith, he won’t lose momentum when hitting enemies on the way, and thus will only stop when he misses.

His two special abilities are Force Lightning and Force Choke. On the Xbox 360, it is possible to gain an infinite length of time using Force Choke, if you will quickly hit the switch power button while holding down the right-click. Finally, he has so-called Lighting Storm, a power similar to the Mace Windu’s jump attack and activated in the same way: you need to do a double jump, then immediately press the primary attack button. You will get a momentary ring of Lighting around him that will do heavy damage to your enemies and throw them around.

Biography[]

Born in 82 BBY on the planet Naboo, Palpatine was discovered by Hego Damask, a Muun businessman who was in reality the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis. Under Plagueis’s manipulation, Palpatine killed his father and pledged himself to his new Master’s dark side teachings as Darth Sidious. Palpatine lived a double life for many years, serving an untarnished career as Naboo’s ambassador in the Galactic Senate while learning from his master and training a young Zabrak as the Sith assassin Darth Maul. Plagueis and Sidious, both exceptionally skilled and powerful in the Force, were able to conceal their identities from the Jedi for decades. As Plagueis privately searched for the key to eternal life, Sidious manipulated galactic politics, culminating in the blockade of Naboo by the Trade Federation. In the wake of the political crisis, the Galactic Senate voted to elect him as Supreme Chancellor, and around the same time, in accordance with Bane’s Rule of Two, Palpatine murdered Plagueis and usurped the role of Sith Master.

As Chancellor of the Republic and Dark Lord of the Sith, Palpatine orchestrated the outbreak of the devastating Clone Wars ten years after the Naboo Crisis. He himself headed both the Galactic Republic and, secretly, the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The public leader of this splinter faction was former Jedi Master Count Dooku, Sidious’ second apprentice as Darth Tyranus in the wake of Maul’s presumed death on Naboo. In 19 BBY, following Tyranus’s demise, Palpatine revealed his identity as Darth Sidious to the Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, telling that the dark side teachings that Plagueis had pursued could help Skywalker to save his wife, whom Skywalker had foreseen dying untimely. A failed attempt by the Jedi High Council to arrest Palpatine ensued, and Skywalker pledged himself to Sidious’s teachings as Darth Vader. All members of the Jedi Order were accused of treason and betrayed by their clone troopers to the point of virtual extermination. Without the Jedi to oppose him, Palpatine declared himself Emperor of the first Galactic Empire, bringing an end to the Republic that had stood for over 25,000 years.

As Emperor, Palpatine effectively wielded absolute control over the entire galaxy and virtually everyone who lived within it. He progressively abandoned his facade of being an enlightened leader and began to rule through terror symbolized by the Death Star, a superweapon that could annihilate entire planets. However, he later discovered that Vader was training Galen Marek, an exceptionally powerful Force adept as a secret apprentice «Starkiller.» When Palpatine discovered Starkiller’s existence in 3 BBY, he forced Vader to fake Starkiller’s death and then request that Starkiller assemble the most influential traitors in the Empire in a rebellion in order to highlight and destroy them all. Palpatine’s plan backfired when Starkiller, healed from his near-fatal injuries and espousing the teachings of the light side, vowed revenge against Palpatine and confronted him on the Death Star, ultimately sacrificing himself in an act that inspired the dissident senators to create the Alliance to Restore the Republic.

In 4 ABY, Palpatine gambled his chances in order to annihilate the Rebel Alliance once and for all, allowing Rebel spies to learn of the existence of a second Death Star and its secret location near Endor. As expected, the Alliance fell for the bait and dispatched its fleet to destroy the Emperor, Vader, and the incomplete Death Star. With the Alliance soon falling for his trap, Palpatine brought Luke Skywalker, the son of Darth Vader, before him in order to turn him over to the dark side and replace Vader with an apprentice who was younger and more powerful. After goading Skywalker to give into his frustrations with thoughts of the Alliance’s defeat and the death of his friends, Palpatine eagerly watched as father and son fought one another. However, Skywalker refused to submit to the dark side and spared his father, prompting Palpatine to unleash all of his rage and hatred on Skywalker. Unwilling to stand by and watch his son die from the agonizing effects of Palpatine’s Force lightning, Vader finally redeemed himself, throwing his astonished Master down the Death Star’s shaft, a sacrifice that fulfilled the prophecy of the Chosen One and brought about the end of the Order of the Sith Lords.

Empire at War[]

«Even death bows before my will!»

The Emperor attacking a Droid Foundry on Sullust.

Palpatine appears as the Tier 3 Empire hero in both the original game and its expansion Forces of Corruption. He can be purchased at the Command Center for 3000 credits.

He is quite slow, but very powerful. Like Darth Vader and Obi-Wan, he has a lightsaber, which is instant-kill to infantry and does heavy damage to vehicles. He can also use the Force to rattle the buildings’ foundations, dealing respectable timed damage to them. This kind of melee, however, pales in comparison to his two abilities.

The Force Lighting will kill all enemy infantry at close range after 3 second-long electrocution animation, whereas his Force Corrupt will turn hostile infantry and vehicles to the Empire side, although they will receive over-time damage and will eventually stop moving or following orders and die soon afterwards. With this ability, you can easily gain the MPTL-2a and even the overpowered T4-B Heavy Tanks at no cost.

Finally, his very presence intimidates the personnel on your planet into working harder, meaning that you can construct units, buildings and upgrades 25% cheaper. The importance of this is obvious. All in all, he is a must-have for the Empire once they reach Tier 3.

There are few counter-strategies for the Rebels. Using infantry against him is simply suicidal, while the vehicles will almost certainly be Corrupted onto his side. He is also more powerful then your other heroes, and will defeat them in battle The best way to kill him is to use Snowspeeders, since they’re immune to all his attcks, if you don’t have them, you can make him waste Force Corrupt on a single, cheap vehicle like T2-B or Swamp Speeder, then unleash the rest of your mechanised force.