MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD THROUGHOUT THE FILMS AND EU!

Introduction To The Series

The Emperor. From a scant reference in A New Hope, we wondered at what he might be. Who could be so powerful as to hold sway over both Tarkin and Vader, who at the time were the pinnacle of evil we had been introduced to? From that moment we wondered, and we waited. In the Empire Strikes Back, especially in the now restored DVD version, we got our first glimpse at him, and the webs he wove. Yet we still knew little about this man who was so powerful as to make Vader himself bow before him. In Return of the Jedi, we learned of the lightning power of the Dark Side, and we saw what he was capable of, we saw what we thought was his true power. But pieces were missing, and we waited until 2005 for the puzzle to near completion. But with new answers came new questions. The name of Darth Plagueis haunts our dreams, whispers of a nameless plot to create, yes CREATE Anakin to become a servant of the dark side! Now the time has come to fully reveal and explore the nature of the most mysterious character of all, the one who like a sculptor to clay, molded the galaxy as he saw fit.

Palpatine is not from Star Wars, Palpatine IS Star Wars. He created everything, touched every event from the opening scroll of The Phantom Menace through to the credits of Return of the Jedi. Now the puzzle will be completed, and we will learn everything about him. I will be your guide, and my extensive research into official Lucasfilm and licensed sources is both accurate and complete. While much of the period between ANH and ROTS is still being crafted and has yet to be seen, we will focus on the events within and surrounding the six films themslves, drawing on both onscreen and offscreen, canon and approved and current EU. We will see the rise of Palpatine in I, II, and III. We will also see his fall in IV, V,and VI.

Sorry about the extensive thesis and intro, but I wanted to make clear what I am doing, and to make clear that I draw only on real sources, nothing invented or fan-based will be consulted. This is the real deal. In part one, we look at the earliest known dealings of Palpatine, and how he set the stage for the events that would change the galaxy. This covers his earliest years. And now I present......

Part I: The Nature Of The Sith

The earliest days of Palpatine are much clouded, but concrete facts remain. He was born for certain in Theed on Naboo in the year 82 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), making him 82 years of age during ANH. At some point in his youth, most likely before his election as Senator at the age of thirty in 52 BBY, he began a dual life.

It was within his younger days in which he came under the hold of the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis. It remains to be seen under what methods Palpatine was brought under the sway of the Sith Lord, but it can be postulated that in this time he began to develop the earliest stages of his grand scheme to destroy the Jedi once and for all. Palpatine realized that the ways of the Sith were both great and at the same time weak. Force, terror and the sheer power of the Dark Side were mighty tools, yet they alone could not destroy the Jedi. The Sith had tried many times to take the galaxy by force, and each time, though in many cases on the edge of victory, they were defeated.

The Sith were not destroyed because the Jedi were better, they were not undone by the superiority of the Light Side. They destroyed themselves! Though bred and trained to be powerful, the Sith were inherently weak. Their ideals of survival of the fittest, the rivalry for power, and the nature of serving only the self were flawed. They destroyed themselves, whether physically through annihilating each other, or through their weaknesses being exploited by the Jedi. That is not to say the Jedi were not weak as well. But their weaknesses stemmed from inaction, from accepting the status quo, from lack of evolution. The reason why the Jedi won is because their strengths and weaknesses were separate: they took power from compassion, selflessness, comradeship, and a desire to preserve the good in all things. The Sith, on the other hand, drew their power from that which destroyed them: their greatest strengths were also the source of their greatest weaknesses. For a time, their ruthlessness would let them conquer, but in the end, it always was their undoing.

So it was that Palpatine came to develop his plan: a plan of cunning and wisdom, a plan of strategy. He would move the dejarik pieces across the board of time, and would enhance his position, waiting patiently, oh so patiently, for the time when his opponent made the mistake that would expose his weakness and enable Palpatine to strike. Palpatine would echo Darth Bane, who had wisely hid the Sith and started a tradition of biding time in order to survive. But in this case, there would be not biding to no end. The time to strike would come, and the power of the Sith would be unleashed.

It becomes clear that Palpatine was a Sith and yet not a Sith: he took their strongest traditions, their greatest power, yet none of their weaknesses. He possessed the Sith trait of selfishness, as he wanted the galaxy for himself, but he possessed many traits all his own. His master plan was far more complex than the simpleton tactic employed by Dark Lords of old. He wanted to establish a new regime for Sith rule, yet at the same time was concerned chiefly with his own power and keeping it. This comes into play in future installments, but for now, we must move on.

Now we have the earliest vision of Palpatine: a man of absolute ambition, who sought to combine the greatest teachings of the Sith and the greatest machinations of his own mind and daunting willpower. He took the best of both, answering his personal weaknesses with the strengths of the Sith, and answering the weaknesses of the Sith with his own resolve. His plan was forming and his path was set before him. But first, there was the matter of Darth Plagueis to deal with. Surely his master would not want his apprentice to take the galaxy and not himself.....

Next time: Part II: The Dark Arts Of Darth Plagueis