The details of how Palpatine came to study under the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis are known by very few. Palpatine kept a shroud of absolute secrecy around his alternate identity as a Sith Lord. As he grew more powerful in the dark side, Sidious found it easy to advance his career as Palpatine, the seemingly innocent politician from Naboo. In time, Sidious acquired his own apprentice in Darth Maul, and murdered his master Darth Plagueis.

Appearing as a mysterious, hooded presence, Darth Sidious contacted the galaxy's most powerful beings via hologram and convinced them to do his bidding with promises and threats. Nute Gunray, viceroy of the Trade Federation, followed Sidious' instructions and blockaded Naboo, an act that made the Republic's current chancellor look weak. Sidious then ordered the Trade Federation to invade the planet with an army of battle droids.

Naboo fell quickly, but Padmé Amidala, the planet's young Queen, escaped with help from the Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Realizing that the time had arrived to unleash his Sith apprentice, Sidious dispatched Darth Maul to Tatooine to intercept the Queen and her protectors.

Darth Sidious ordered Nute Gunray to wipe out the Queen's opposition army, but a young boy named Anakin Skywalker destroyed the Droid Control Ship and disabled the Trade Federation's battle droids. Despite this apparent setback, great progress had been made on Coruscant with Palpatine's election to the post of Supreme Chancellor. The Sith takeover of the galaxy had begun without anyone noticing.

In his guise of Chancellor Palpatine, Sidious became the beloved face of the Republic. He set other plans in motion behind the scenes, including the creation of a clone army on Kamino and the recruitment of former Jedi Count Dooku into the ranks of the Sith. After giving Dooku the Sith title of Darth Tyranus, Sidious ordered him to create a breakaway Separatist movement to threaten galactic security.

Though Sidious now controlled both sides of the Clone Wars, he still needed to control the flow of information. When Trade Federation viceroy Nute Gunray was captured by the Republic, it threatened to expose Sidious' larger scheme. Count Dooku's agent Asajj Ventress freed Gunray before he could reveal too much, leaving the Republic with only cryptic hints from Gunray that a greater villain was pulling the war's strings.

Sidious used every asset to further his goals, even hiring top bounty hunter Cad Bane to kidnap Force-sensitive children so they could be trained to serve Sidious as his spies. The Jedi Knights prevented the plot, but overall the war continued to work to Darth Sidious' advantage.

When Asajj Ventress became a liability in Sidious' eyes, he ordered Count Dooku to eliminate her. The dark side assassin survived and fled to her own people, the Nightsisters of Dathomir. Her actions set in motion the creation of the warrior Savage Opress who would become a tool of the Sith.

As the Clone Wars reached their end, Darth Sidious arranged for a massive Separatist strike on Coruscant. General Grievous kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine, setting up a charade that moved Anakin Skywalker deeper into Sidious' web when he executed Count Dooku at Palpatine's request. Eventually Sidious revealed his true self to Anakin, who informed Jedi Master Mace Windu of the shocking news.

Mace Windu arranged a posse of Jedi Masters to confront Darth Sidious and arrest him. The Sith Lord did not go willingly, springing into action and killing three Jedi Masters before before engaging Windu in an intense lightsaber duel. Mace cornered Sidious, and the Sith Lord unleashed torrents of dark Force lightning at his opponent, some of which were deflected back at Sidious, forever scarring his face.

Anakin, afraid that the knowledge to save his love Padmé would be lost if Windu killed the Sith Lord, interfered in their fight and gave Sidious the opening he needed to blast Windu through a window. Realizing he could no longer turn away from the dark path he had chosen, Anakin knelt before Darth Sidious to receive his induction into his service. He arose as Darth Vader, Lord of the Sith.

Sidious, his face scarred from his fight with Mace Windu, appeared before the Republic Senate and declared himself Emperor. Master Yoda made a last-ditch attempt to stop him, and their fight spilled over into the now-empty Senate rotunda. Darth Sidious overwhelmed Yoda with the destructive energy of the dark side, and the Jedi Master fled Coruscant.

Darth Sidious traveled to Mustafar to retrieve his apprentice, who had lost a duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Vader lay on the edge of a lava lake, limbs missing and lungs barely able to draw breath. Sidious took him back to Coruscant, where the Empire's surgical droids fitted him with a cybernetic life support system.

Sidious knew that Vader's broken body would make him weaker than before, but tested his apprentice's connection to the dark side by telling him that he had caused Padmé's death. The intensity of Vader's anguish and self-hatred made it clear that he still possessed great power.

Over the next two decades, Darth Sidious transformed the galaxy into the Empire, eliminating rivals and ruthlessly directing the Imperial war machine to subjugate planets that had been beyond the Republic frontier. Sidious mostly ruled through underlings, but sometimes dealt directly with resistance to his rule. He engineered a trap to draw out the Free Ryloth movement, then joined Darth Vader to decimate the Empire’s enemies.

The scattered cells opposing Palpatine’s rule eventually coalesced into the Rebel Alliance, and destroyed Sidious’s ultimate weapon, the Death Star.

At Endor, the Empire neared completion on a second Death Star to replace the one lost at Yavin. The Emperor arrived at the battle station to oversee the final phases of its construction, and to serve as bait for a trap with which he would finally wipe out the Rebel Alliance.

The Emperor took up residence in the Death Star's control room, attended by his advisors and his red-robed Royal Guard. When Vader expressed concern about the movements of the Rebel fleet, the Emperor assured him that he had the situation well in hand.

Luke Skywalker soon surrendered himself into Imperial custody. The Emperor had the young Jedi brought into the Death Star's throne room, and he freed him from his manacles. His goal wasn't to kill Luke, but to turn him to the dark side, and the Emperor launched into a verbal assault of taunts and orders.

Sidious revealed that he had masterminded the Rebel attack, and that the ground crew raiding the Death Star's shield generator would be wiped out by his best troops. When the Alliance fleet arrived, Imperial Star Destroyers began their surprise assault. The Emperor then played the biggest card of all. Giving the Death Star's gunners the order to fire the battle station's superlaser, the Emperor watched with glee as Rebel warships exploded one by one.

The pressure proved to be too much for Luke. He gave in to his rage and lashed out at the Emperor, but Darth Vader intercepted Luke's lightsaber blade. Luke and Vader fought while the Emperor looked on approvingly.

But despite his foresight, the Emperor had misjudged the offspring of Anakin Skywalker. Luke knocked Vader onto his back and severed his sword hand, but then he brought his emotions under control and tossed his weapon aside. "You've failed, your highness," he told the Emperor. "I am a Jedi, like my father before me." Knowing he would gain no prize today, the Emperor fired a surge of Force lightning designed to torture and kill.

Struck by the intensity of Emperor's power, Luke crumpled to the floor in pain and begged his father for help. As he watched his son's agony, some remnant of the hero who had once been Anakin Skywalker resurfaced within Vader. Seizing his master around the waist, Vader lifted him high and stepped to the edge of the abyss leading to the Death Star's reactor. Vader threw Sidious to his death.

As the Rebels celebrated their victory on the Endor moon, news of the Empire's defeat traveled fast. On Coruscant, crowds thronged the streets to cheer the Emperor's death, toppling a statue of the despot to mark the end of his evil reign.

But Sidious was not so easily destroyed. He returned from death on the legendary Sith world known as Exegol, body broken but spirit unbowed. Buoyed by the faith of Exegol’s Sith Eternal cultists, he plotted his return to power, manipulating the New Republic and forging the remnants of the Empire into the First Order.

He also worked to corrupt Ben Solo, using his puppet Snoke to ensnare the last Skywalker and leave him vulnerable to the dark side of the Force. When all was ready, he declared himself to a terrified galaxy, vowing revenge. He promised Ben – now Kylo Ren – control of his Sith armada and the galaxy if he killed the scavenger Rey and destroyed the Jedi Order.

But Sidious’s real target was Rey – his granddaughter. He had sought her in childhood, sending the Sith huntsman Ochi of Bestoon to retrieve her from his son. But Rey’s parents had hidden her away on Jakku, foiling Ochi and denying Sidious his prize. Sidious planned to have Rey kill him in a Sith ritual that would allow his spirit to pass into her, uniting them and allowing him to rule anew.

After Kylo Ren returned to the light as Ben Solo, Sidious turned to Allegiant General Pryde, giving him charge of the Sith armada and cementing an unholy alliance between Exegol’s Sith cultists and the First Order. Once the Sith fleet escaped Exegol’s turbulent atmosphere, it would be invincible.

Rey made her way to Exegol, and was joined by Ben. But their defiance presented an opportunity for Sidious. The two were a rare and powerful dyad in the Force. By draining their life energy, Sidious could restore his own body as the one true Emperor. Instead of ruling in spirit, he would dispense with puppets and claim dominion of the galaxy for himself.

Sidious blasted the Resistance fleet with Force lightning and boasted that Rey, a mere scavenger, was no match for him – he was all the Sith. But Rey was aided by the spirits of all the Jedi. She reflected Sidious’s destructive power back at him, destroying him and ending his decades of plotting and scheming.