Emperor Palpatine was originally just a pawn in Star Wars

Yes Chris Snelgrave
| Publish 19 seconds ago

In Star Wars, Emperor Palpatine serves as a terrifying big bad in a galaxy far, far away, with his malevolent influence spanning three different trilogies. Because of this, and because of the persistent myth that George Lucas planned every hero and story beat far in advance, most fans believe that Palpatine was always meant to be our heroes’ archenemy. However, the official novel for the first Star Wars movie confirms that the Emperor was more of a puppet controlled by other people in the beginning.

The original emperor

The Star Wars prequels did a great job portraying Emperor Palpatine as a master manipulator who managed to turn the two halves of the galaxy against each other in a successful bid to take control of the old republic. However, long, long before the prequel trilogy came out, Alan Dean Foster’s new novel about the first Star Wars gave us a completely different description of this man. According to this book, Palpatine was effectively “controlled by the very aides and funnels he appointed to high office.”

This book features a very different Emperor Palpatine that was more in line with George Lucas’ original vision. In an early 1974 draft Star Warsthe emperor was a young man named Kos Dashit. He was actually just the last in a long line of emperors in this project and had no powers which made it easy Darth father try to mock him and otherwise undermine his legal authority.

Until then Star Wars Released in 1977, Vader was written as more of a flunkie. Not only did Grand Moff Tarkin successfully run him over, but other Imperial officials weren’t afraid to mock the Sith Lord’s religious beliefs during work meetings (let’s hope the Death Star has a not-so-human resource department). However, Tarkin and the other officers seem properly seconded to the emperor in this film as they discuss Palpatine calmly dissolving the senate. It is interesting that this short scene in the A new hope paints a very different picture than the novel’s conception of Palpatine as a weak-minded sycophant.

It’s not entirely clear when George Lucas decided to make Emperor Palpatine a formidable threat on his own terms, but the director more prominently featured the big bad school The Empire Strikes Back And firmly established that Darth Vader – the most feared guy in the Galaxy – is afraid of his boss. Until then Return of the Jedi came out, Lucas decided to make Palpatine a powerful user of the dark side forces, and everything from his ability to defeat Luke Skywalker to his ability to terrorize everyone on the death star cemented his supreme power. The main boss remained forever, replaced by the ultimate evil that our heroes had to defeat.

The tale of Emperor Palpatine going from the low end of his own empire to becoming a big bad sci-fi franchise shows how much Star Wars has evolved over time. Regardless of what he’s said and hinted at in previous interviews, George Lucas has never been paid to see the future of his franchise perfectly. Instead, he found that Yoda Luke Skywalker would later be taught: that the future is always in motion, and even the smallest decisions can have major consequences for this beloved fictional world.