Palpatine
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Sheev Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious or simply the Emperor, is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the Star Wars franchise. The character is played by actor Ian McDiarmid.
Character history
He is the immensely powerful Dark Lord of the Sith as well as the master of Darth Vader, along with both Darth Maul and Count Dooku on previous occasions, who ruled over the Galactic Empire - which he formed from the Galactic Republic - in addition to secretly leading the Separatist Alliance, which he used to give himself autocratic powers as Supreme Chancellor of the Republic. He is also the archenemy of the Skywalker family, Yoda, Mon Mothma, and his granddaughter Rey.
Palpatine had plotted to overthrow the Jedi by orchestrating and manipulating the events of the Clone Wars to bring himself to rule the whole galaxy; thus posing as the Chancellor throughout these events. This worked successfully when Palpatine initiated Order 66 to wipe out the Jedi, who beforehand were suspicious of him even after Dooku's death when they were unaware that Palpatine was actually Darth Sidious. However, Palpatine's reign was ended when he was killed by Vader with the help of Luke Skywalker.
Years later, Palpatine resurfaced upon being resurrected. It soon transpired that he was revealed to not only be the secret benefactor and founding cause of the First Order's existence, being the creator and puppeteer of Supreme Leader Snoke to the point of manipulating him as well as all the events behind the organization all along, but also the paternal grandfather of Rey; so much so that he even seduced Vader's grandson Ben Solo to the dark side from the shadows, especially through Snoke at the time.
Pop culture
Since the initial theatrical run of Return of the Jedi, Sidious has become a widely recognized symbol of evil in popular culture, and since the prequel movies, also one of sinister deception and the subversion of democracy. The Star Wars Databank describes him as "the supreme ruler of the most powerful tyrannical regime the galaxy had ever witnessed". Aside from the movies, Palpatine appears in various canon and non-canon Star Wars media, including Clone Wars (2003–5), The Clone Wars (2008–14, 2020), Rebels (2014–18), The Bad Batch (2021–), Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022) and Tales of the Jedi (2022–), all set before the original trilogy.
Palpatine Media
Chancellor Palpatine's robes from Episode III – Revenge of the Sith
Sam Witwer originally provided the voice for Palpatine in Rebels
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