20 Things Wrong With Palpatine That We All Choose To Ignore

In a film franchise filled with memorable villains like Darth Vader, Jabba the Hutt, and Boba Fett, Emperor Palpatine stands as one of the most iconic. His calculated malice, unbridled lust for power, and penchant for evil monologues make him a classic villain on par with Satan from Paradise Lost or Iago from Othello, though it's really the magnetism of character actor Ian McDiarmid that makes him so ghoulishly compelling. Palpatine even manages to provide dramatic heft to some of the franchise's weaker entries.

That said, if one truly mulls over the franchise, it's hard not to notice some major flaws in it's writing, and a large number of them relate to Palpatine. For the most part, these flaws are either exclusive to, or derived from, the much-maligned prequel trilogy, so lovers of the beloved original trilogy can rest assured that the classic Star Wars films won't be targeted here (much). Furthermore, just because there are some logical problems with Palpatine's portrayal doesn't change the fact that he is a fascinating character. While some of these plot holes are addressed in the media's other works of the Star Wars canon or the Expanded Universe (also known as Star Wars Legends), this list is going to focus exclusively on the live-action Star Wars films, as those are the aspects of the long-running saga that people are generally the most familiar with and where Palpatine left his biggest impact. With that in mind, we are counting down 20 Things Wrong With Palpatine That We All Choose to Ignore.

His Weird Transformation

In one of the most tense scenes in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker has a choice: he can save the life of his evil father figure, Palpatine, or save the life of Jedi Master Mace Windu. During this fight, Anakin ultimately decides to save Palpatine, but not before Palpatine's face is deformed with Force lightning. Why was his face deformed, though? In Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker is attacked with Force lightning, but that did not deform him in any way. Furthermore, why did George Lucas feel the need to explain why Palpatine's face was so haggard in the original trilogy? People just assumed that he was really old, perhaps hundreds of years old, like Yoda.

Why Did Everyone Believe Him

According to Star Wars, the Jedi stood as the guardians of peace and justice for over a thousand generations. Because he is a Dark Lord of the Sith, Palpatine ordered his Stormtroopers to terminate every Jedi they could. As Palpatine is Chancellor of the Republic, that's a very risky move, as people could see that as an extreme abuse of power. Palpatine manages to spin this massacre into something positive by telling the Senate that the Jedi are evil and plotting to take over the Republic. They fall for this hook, line, and sinker. Why weren't they concerned that Palpatine took no one to trial and had children who were training to be Jedi eliminated? Why did everyone go from loving Jedi to hating them in a matter of seconds based on an unproven claim?

Why Put Anakin On Tatooine?

The Star Wars saga heavily implies that Palpatine manipulated the Force to impregnate Shmi Skywalker with her son Anakin. For the first several years of his life, Anakin lived with his mother on the desert planet, lightyears away from the Jedi and their temple. Palpatine's grand scene in the prequels is to have Anakin get trained as a Jedi before turning to the Dark Side. This plan rested on two major variables: Anakin being brought to a different planet and Anakin turning evil. Since those variables were so major, why not just cut out the middlemen? Palpatine could have abducted Anakin and secretly trained him as a Sith from birth. He certainly had no difficulty keeping secrets.

His Relationship With the Neimoidians

In The Phantom Menace, Palpatine enlists a group of alien businessmen called the Neimodians to aid in his incredibly complicated scheme. Why did the Nimoidians bother to help him? In order to remain a phantom menance, Palpatine hid his identity from the Neimodians, meaning that he can't really promise the Neimoidians anything, as that would reveal his true identity. So the Neimoidians lose numerous ships and robots while gaining nothing. How did they become such powerful businessmen if they are this gullible? The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result which is exactly what happens when the Nimoidians decide to aid Palpatine for the entirety of the Clone Wars with nothing to show for it. Head Neimoidian Nute Gunray helps out Palpatine for so long and all he gets is decapitated.

Why Couldn't He See That Darth Vader Was Turning On Him?

Two of the signature abilities of both Jedi and Sith Lords are prophecy and the ability to sense the emotions of others. Despite being the most powerful Sith Lord in the entire Star Wars saga, Palpatine had neither the supernatural intuition nor the prophetic powers to realize that his closet ally, Darth Vader, was considering turning on him. In Revenge of the Sith, he was able to manipulate the minds of powerful Jedi like Yoda and Mace Windu, but he couldn't read Anakin Skywalker. He could use his mind powers to manipulate numerous people to become a Senator, and then a Chancellor, and then an Emperor, yet the seemingly easy task of reading Vader was somehow too difficult for him.

His Presence At The Battle of Endor

The Star Wars films frame Palpatine as a quintessential evil genius as he was able to manipulate politicians, Jedi, fellow Sith, and everyone involved with an interplanetary war to his advantage. In Return of the Jedi, he must have been having an off day. In that film, he decided to arrive on the Death Star shortly before a rebel attack on it that he knows is going to happen. This risk has no benefit. Palpatine isn't directing the counterattack, so his only reason to be there is because he wants to watch the Rebel Alliance get destroyed and to taunt Luke Skywalker with the Rebel fleet's destruction. If he were a little more pragmatic, he might have had someone record the battle for him.

Why Couldn't He Become A Force Ghost?

After passing on, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and Anakin Skywalker all become Force ghosts. Palpatine, despite being just as powerful or more powerful than those four men, does not. Why? Can only light side users become ghosts? Did Palpatine forget to transform into a ghost after his death for some reason? Did he realize that he failed in his quest to control the galaxy and decide that he should just throw in the towel? Until one of the numerous planned Star Wars films or television series decides to address this issue, all fans can do is speculate. At the very least, this loose plot thread provides Palpatine fans with a new hope that he could someday return to the Star Wars film franchise.

His Overt Evil

When Palpatine was a Senator and a Chancellor, he prudently decided that broadcasting his role as a Dark Lord of the Sith would only hurt his chances at recruiting people to his political causes. Once he becomes Emperor, however, he stops being sneaky and wears his Sith robes to work while funding doomsday weapons called Death Stars. One could argue that, given his new power, Palpatine no longer needs to mask his malevolence, but being openly evil like Palpatine could lead to people rebelling against him and forming some sort of alliance. Even the most despicable rulers in history usually cared about making their regimes appear righteous to their countrymen, but Palpatine is too proud of his Sith credentials not to wear those robes.

Why Can He Pull Some People's Force Senses But Not Others?

As previously stated, Palpatine was able to diminish the Force ability of the Jedi council at some point during Revenge of the Sith. This raises the question— why didn't he diminish Yoda's abilities later in the same film when he fought him? Why didn't he do the same to Obi-Wan Kenobi when he was trying to get him eliminated earlier in the same film? His power to "cloud" people's minds using the Dark Side is never discussed much, which raises questions. What are this power's limits? Why doesn't he use it more often? Why does no one else in the franchise have a comparable power? Questions like this are why the Expanded Universe was created in the first place.

Why Did He Only Create One Child?

Numerous Star Wars fans despise midi-chlorians because they feel that they replace the supernatural majesty of the Force with boring pseudoscience. A less widely-held opinion about midi-chlorians is that they make Palpatine look a touch shortsighted. If Palpatine was able to manipulate those microscopic lifeforms to create an extremely powerful Force user that he could take on as an apprentice, why not do that multiple times as a back-up plan? After all, Anakin could have never made it past childhood as he was born into servitude on an extremely dangerous planet. Or perhaps Anakin could have resisted Palpatine's temptations and not turned to the Dark Side, meaning that Palpatine's plan and years of hard work wouldn't pay off as he intended.