I don't write blogs looking at an "in universe" perspective very often mostly because I think it has already been said or the reader should try to figure out why character x did action y for their self. Maybe this is the wrong perspective though... I suppose I'll violate the policy this time and see how things feel
_________________________________________

"Who's the more foolish, the fool, or the fool who follows him?" - Obi-Wan Kenobi

Now you can easily apply this to Dooku, Maul, or perhaps even Vader...

Indeed we often find several blogs in the post-prequel world sympathizing with Vader and sometimes Dooku... Maul not so much, but that's a topic for another time (Sure he looked cool, but he had no character depth dagnabit!)... ((Note to self: dagnabit is reported as a misspelled word in Microsoft Word... This must be a Microsoft conspiracy against old timey people like me consarnit! Ack! They don't like consarnit either!))

What about our good old friend the Emperor though?

We don't know his background other than the almost certain fact he was trained by a Darth Plagueis. He then later killed this Darth Plagueis perhaps due to Sith teachings taught by Plagueis himself.

So Dooku is sympathetic because he was brought in by lies of power and betrayed by Palpatine... Of course he was elderly and had plenty of morals inside his head to know better than to join the Dark Side and help start a war.

AniVader is sympathetic due to obvious reasons. Tragic life, deceived by Palpatine, never had a dog. Blah blah blah, you've heard that one before too.

So what about our good old friend Palpatine, bringing order to the galaxy through force! Deciding what's in the best interest of all the people and then doing it! Releasing the galaxy from the shackles of the Jedi dogma!

What if he was to an extent like Maul, meaning that he was brought in to be a Sith young. Just as an example let's say he was only two years old. He's bouncing toddler of an innocent boy likely from Naboo that somehow comes under the influence of Darth Plagueis "The Wise". Taught in all aspects of the Force and trained to retake the galaxy so wrongly stripped from the wise Sith over a millennia ago by the hypocritical Jedi Order.

So working under the assumption of Palpatine being trained from before he had any ideas of his own to operate under the Sith ideals... Isn't he more sympathetic than Dooku who knew better and Anakin who did too? And perhaps slightly less than Maul, the "feral" animal who also knew nothing other than the way of the Sith and was sent to his death by an uncaring Sith Lord.

If Palpatine knew no better and was trained in a method similar to the clones he controlled... Would the tale of Episodes -3 through -1 turn Palpatine into a sympathetic character that never had a chance to redeem himself because there was nothing to redeem? Our Star Wars perceptive has shifted from IV-VI "The Adventures of Luke Skywalker" to I-VI "The Tragedy of Darth Vader"... Could it again shift to "The Sad Tale of Darth Sidious"? Could the very embodiment of evil (Lucas goes as far to say point-blank that he represents Satan) of Star Wars be turned into a simple pawn if we knew his past?

Or was he always a dark soul lusting for power?

Personally I think I liked it better when Darth Vader was the ultimate bad guy and Palpatine was the epitome of evil. If we're going to keep revealing backstories though... Whose fault is it that the "Dark Times of the Empire" occurred in the end? Vader? Palpatine? Plagueis? Bane? Kun?

Basically: Assuming Palpatine was just short of brainwashed into becoming what we know him today, which isn't unlikely considering how he operates himself... Is it fair that Vader got to be redeemed and stand valiantly as a Jedi Spirit next to Ben and Yoda... While Palpatine just gets thrown down a reactor shaft to be forgotten (Well... And cloned and such, but let's not dip into that aspect of the EU).

"Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny"
... Even if you didn't choose it yourself...

Should he be blamed for having a bad teacher? For being shackled as in the chair above in a frame of thought he didn't choose?

Was Palpatine just another follower in a long line of fools? Or is he really an unforgivable, unsympathetic, Satan of the Galaxy Far Far Away as Lucas says?

________________________________________________________________________
◄Rive Caedo►
-Blog Index-
-Star Wars TV Show Guide-