Emperor Palpatine (Darth Sidious)

Little is known of Palpatine's early life, other than his Naboo origins and his secret apprenticeship to Darth Plagueis. Because the Sith Order existed under absolute secrecy, Palpatine kept his public life separate from his role as Darth Sidious. Palpatine could use his secret persona to advance his ambitious political career without any suspicion of wrongdoing.

In time, Palpatine came to represent his homeworld as a Republic senator and served as an advisor to Naboo's young ruler, Queen Padmé Amidala. She turned to him when her planet was invaded by the Trade Federation, an act secretly engineered by Darth Sidious.

After Padmé escaped to Coruscant, Palpatine urged her to demand stronger leadership at the top to prevent future tragedies like the one that had befallen Naboo. Padmé called for a Vote of No Confidence in the leadership of Supreme Chancellor Valorum.

Delighted that Padmé had created a power vacuum at government's highest level, Palpatine lobbied his fellow politicians for support. Palpatine knew that the attack on Naboo would win him widespread public sympathy. While Padmé and the Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi returned to Naboo to fight the Trade Federation's battle droids, the Senate held a vote that elevated Palpatine to the post of Supreme Chancellor.

With the Trade Federation defeated and Naboo free once more, Chancellor Palpatine returned to his homeworld to congratulate Padmé on her victory. He learned that a Force-strong boy, Anakin Skywalker, had played a critical role in winning the day. Having lost his Sith apprentice Darth Maul during the battle, Palpatine decided to keep a close eye on Anakin. Greeting the boy for the first time, he promised to watch his career "with great interest."

Over the next decade Palpatine grew more secure in his power. During two back-to-back terms as chancellor he hired loyal aides including Mas Amedda, and transformed elite members of the Senate Guard into his red-armored bodyguards. As Palpatine's second term came to an end, mounting fear of Count Dooku's new Separatist movement kept him in office to deal with the threat.

Palpatine, however, had planned Count Dooku's rebellion from the start. As Darth Sidious he had lured Dooku to the dark side, and then encouraged him to rally star systems and mega-corporations to form the breakaway government of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. With Dooku on one side and Palpatine on the other, a war could now take place that would wipe out the Jedi in its crossfire.

Chancellor Palpatine kept up appearances as war grew closer. He claimed to want peace and even invited senators such as Padmé Amidala and Bail Organa to advise him as members of his Loyalist Committee. Palpatine held regular meetings with Yoda, Mace Windu, and other top-ranking Jedi, and even the greatest Jedi Masters failed to see the evil Sith Lord lurking beneath the good-natured politician.

Obi-Wan Kenobi uncovered a clone army on Kamino, one which Palpatine had secretly set in motion years before. At the same time, the discovery of Count Dooku's battle droid factories on Geonosis seemed to leave the Republic with little choice but to fight back. In a tense meeting in the chancellor's office, Bail Organa and others agreed that the clone army should be used by the Republic before the Separatists grew too powerful.

Representative Jar Jar Binks agreed to introduce a motion before the Senate that would give Palpatine emergency powers, and allow him to use the Kamino clone troopers in open warfare. The Senate, shocked at the thought of Count Dooku's battle droids attacking the Republic, agreed. Accepting his new authority, Palpatine reassured the Senate that he would surrender his power as soon as the threat had ended.

Of course he had no such intentions, and now he had the ability to direct a galactic war and destroy anyone who opposed him. As the Senate cheered, Palpatine announced the formation of the first Grand Army of the Republic. Massive waves of Republic troopers prepared to clash with Separatist battle droids in the Clone Wars, and Palpatine prepared to gain new powers that would effectively make him a dictator.

The Clone Wars required careful management to prevent neither the Republic nor the Separatists from gaining too much momentum during the early stages. Palpatine kept up his act, issuing commands to Count Dooku and General Grievous as Darth Sidious while setting the Republic's war strategy in meetings with the Jedi Council in the Supreme Chancellor's office. The war proved costly for the Republic, with even the victories often coming with a great loss of life.

A more subtle conflict took place when Separatist agents kidnapped Jabba the Hutt's nephew Rotta. Believing that the Republic was behind the crime, Jabba threatened to cut off access to the Hutt hyperspace lanes. Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano rescued Rotta, and exposed Count Dooku as the guilty party. Palpatine expressed his gratitude to the two Jedi for their help, and the Republic remained on good terms with the Hutt cartels.

As the war progressed, Chancellor Palpatine took every opportunity to assist Anakin Skywalker. He recognized that Anakin's skill with the Force would make him a powerful Sith apprentice, and Palpatine assumed a role as Anakin's mentor and father figure.

On Malastare, fighting between the Republic and the Separatists accidentally awakened the legendary Zillo Beast. Palpatine gave his approval to Anakin Skywalker's suggestion that they knock out the creature and transport it offworld, believing that Republic scientist Sionver Boll could learn new biological secrets by examining the Zillo Beast in a laboratory on Coruscant.

The Zillo Beast escaped from its captivity after Palpatine ordered its death. The beast struck back by seizing Palpatine's shuttle in its claw, trapping the chancellor along with Padmé, Anakin, and the droids R2-D2 and C-3PO. Palpatine escaped certain death thanks to R2-D2's rocket jets, and the Zillo Beast perished when struck with toxin bombs. In the aftermath, Palpatine ordered Dr. Sionver Boll to secretly clone the dead animal for scientific study.

On Mandalore, the Death Watch threatened the population and Palpatine saw an opportunity for the Republic to take an active role. He introduced a doctored holorecording before the Senate that urged for immediate Republic intervention on Mandalore to stop the Death Watch. Duchess Satine Kryze of Mandalore, realizing that the recording had been faked, worked with Padmé Amidala to uncover the untampered original. The Senate cancelled the invasion in a public embarrassment for Palpatine.

When Cad Bane made a bold strike on the Senate building, he seized a group of senators and demanded that Palpatine release Ziro the Hutt from prison in exchange for the lives of his hostages. Palpatine gave in to the bounty hunter's demands.

Near the end of the war, Darth Sidious arranged for General Grievous to launch a massive assault on the capital, using the chaos as cover so Grievous could land on the surface and capture Chancellor Palpatine as a prisoner of war. Palpatine waited for rescue aboard Grievous' flagship. Before long, Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi penetrated the Separatist starfighter screen and landed aboard the flagship, fighting their way to Palpatine's location.

When Count Dooku intercepted them, he lost both of his hands in Anakin's furious counterattack. Now utterly at Anakin's mercy, Dooku listened helplessly as Palpatine urged the young Jedi to take his enemy's life. Anakin did as the chancellor asked, beheading his beaten foe and taking another step toward the dark side of the Force.

After freeing Palpatine, Anakin and Obi-Wan tried to escape the damaged dreadnought as General Grievous tried to cut them off. But the Republic warships above Coruscant had inflicted severe damage on the flagship, and Grievous decided to flee in an escape pod. The stricken dreadnought slowly slid into Coruscant's atmosphere. Anakin somehow steered the vessel into a miraculous crash landing on the surface.

Once he had recovered from the adventure, Palpatine took in a performance at the Coruscant opera house with Anakin as his guest. Palpatine spoke about the war's progress and of Anakin's recent appointment to the Jedi Council, which had been pushed through at the chancellor's request. Anakin had been suffering from nightmares about losing his love Padmé, and took interest as Palpatine related a story about his Sith Master Darth Plagueis.

Palpatine carefully framed the tale as an "old Sith legend," but the revelation that dark powers could prevent the death of a loved one opened Anakin's mind to the possibility that he might need to disobey the Jedi Order and pursue forbidden knowledge to save those he cared about.

Later, Anakin visited the chancellor in his offices and the truth came out. Palpatine admitted that he possessed the power of the dark side, and Anakin realized that the chancellor was the sinister mastermind the Jedi had been hunting since before the start of the Clone Wars. Stunned by the revelation, Anakin returned to the Jedi Temple to inform Mace Windu.

Master Windu ordered Anakin to remain behind in the Temple, while he and a hand-picked team set out to apprehend the chancellor for his crimes. Mace Windu arrived in Palpatine's offices and announced his arrest. Palpatine scoffed at the news that the Senate would determine his fate, and with a roar of "I am the Senate," he ignited a red-bladed lightsaber.

Before the Jedi could react, Palpatine sprang into action and killed all of them except Mace Windu. Anakin, tormented by the thought that the ability to save Padmé might be lost with Palpatine, traveled to the chancellor's office and burst in as Mace Windu pointed his lightsaber at Palpatine's heart.

Palpatine fired Force lightning in defense, but Windu used his lightsaber blade to reflect it back on its wielder. The energy crawled over Palpatine's face, leaving it a melted, sunken mask. Knowing that Windu would kill Palpatine, Anakin interfered and severed Windu's hand. Palpatine took action, unleashing a barrage of lightning that blasted Windu through a window to his death.

Palpatine went before the Senate to deliver an emergency address. With his disfigured face hidden in the shadows of a hood, Palpatine claimed to have survived a Jedi assassination attempt. He denounced the conspiracy of the Jedi, and delivered the good news that victory in the Clone Wars had at last been achieved. Palpatine declared that he was marking the triumph by inaugurating the first Galactic Empire, with himself as its leader.

The Senate responded with cheers, its members taken in by Palpatine's play for sympathy and grateful to the chancellor for winning the war. Senators Bail Organa and Padmé Amidala looked on, with Padmé remarking, "This is how democracy dies. With thunderous applause." Now possessing ultimate power, Palpatine had no further need to cultivate two identities. Despite his public title of Emperor Palpatine, he was Darth Sidious in thought and action from this point forward.

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.