Let's talk Galactic politics

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OK, Emperor Palpatine is wanting to get rid of the Imperial Senate, which is now largely stacked with idealists who think they could reason with the Emperor and/or are secretly supporting the Rebellion. The previous highly corrupt Galactic Senate became less corrupt as the Imperial Senate, largely because those Senators who were in Palpatine's web of corruption got moved to other positions in the Empire and were working to undermine the Senate. So the Imperial Senate now was staffed with annoying people who would interfere with Palpatine's grab for absolute power. This was most evident in the first Star Wars film when an officer expressed concern to Darth Vader what the Senate's reaction would be to Princess Leia's arrest.

So Palpatine's got this Death Star thing going, and he is wanting to implement the Tarkin Doctrine, named after the Grand Moff that commanded the Death Star and came up with the doctrine. It basically goes like this: We've got this big Death Star that can blow up your planet! Make sure to keep watch for yourself and others on your planet not to get too uppity, or we'll send the Death Star to blow you all up! With that, he didn't need the Senate any more to keep the systems in line, so he dissolved it.

To pass this message along, the Emperor approved the destruction of Princess Leia's home planet Alderaan, known for its dissent to the Empire, to serve as an example to the rest of the Galaxy. With the anticipated destruction of the Rebel Base on Yavin IV, the Emperor initially planned to take full responsibility for the destruction of Alderaan and the Rebel Base, meaning to send an example to the whole Galaxy.

Unfortunately for the Emperor, things didn't quite go as planned. The Rebels managed to destroy the Death Star before their Base could be blown up, removing the Emperor's threat. So the Emperor had to backtrack a little bit in his propagandizing.

First, Imperial propaganda stated that the Rebels and Alderaanians were working together on a secret weapon that accidently blew up their planet. Well, the Rebels were in-system at the time and had taken satellite shots of the Empire's Death Star blowing the planet up, putting the lie to that propaganda.

Then the Empire changed their story, with the government taking full responsibility for the destruction of Alderaan. This disgusted and horrified many Imperial citizens who now saw a government that had gone too far.

Then the Empire changed their story again, now blaming the destruction of Alderaan on a group of rogue officers, but hardly anyone believed them at this point.

With the demonstrated military success of the Rebel Alliance in destroying the Death Star, many financiers became willing to back the Rebels and even bought for them that huge ion cannon for use on Echo Base in the Hoth system. Also, the disgust and horror at the Empire's policies helped swell the ranks of the Rebels. Many Imperials defected because of all this.

So that was the beginning of the end for Emperor Palpatine.

Allegorical to many who rise and then fall, is Palpatine's flaw of hubris, as Luke tells Palpatine, "your over confidence is your weakness".

Palapatine practiced the Sith tenet that strength is the means to achieve superiority (per the Sith Code, "through strength I gain power"), so underlying the politics was his true motives of desiring to become personally more powerful.

However, such devotion to strength can make one view others as weak, and pathetic, thus reinforcing one's confidence that one is superior to others. As well as instilling the belief that admitting possible failure - not matter how small - is weakness.

Palpatine, viewing the rebels as weak and pathetic, as well as failing to acknowledge the rebels chance at success , was so confident that he boldly provided the rebels with the Endor moon shield generator codes that would later be used to destroy the second Death Star. He provided the enemy with the means to destroy his flagship vessel.

Thus, hubris became his flaw.

Interestingly, Palpatine never believed himself to be evil, as he told Anakin, "evil is just a label we put on those who threaten us".

He likely felt his actions benefited everyone in the galaxy. One may wonder, how can blowing up worlds, killing Jedi children, subverting democracy, starting numerous battles benefit people ?

Well, first you have to understand the Sith code. The Sith code teaches that the true nature of existence is to live for oneself, and never for others. The Sith hold this as being self-honest, which is why one may overhear a Sith say, "don't believe the lies of the Jedi". These "lies" are the Jedi contention that existence is meant to be lived for others.

The Sith philosophy is that it is "better to teach a man to fish, then to give him a fish" , and it is even better to "let a man starve, if he can't or won't fish", because starvation may finally encourage him to better himself, or at least his death will serve as an example for other 'wretches' ". This is how the Sith believe they are "helping people"; they are teaching people to become self-reliant, and not be "pathetic" and "weak". They are teaching people to realize the self-honesty of living for oneself, and not have concern for the welfare of others.

So Palpatine likely believed his actions were righteous. They were a means to an end, to secure his ambitions, and rid the galaxy of the "weak" and "pathetic". Thus, making the galaxy a better place.

Depicted: Palpatine's "I am not Evil" campaign poster

LoveNotHate,

Have you read Darth Plagueis? It's really an interesting read and goes a lot into Palpatine's early life and how he came to be a Sith Lord in the first place.

No, however, I watched all the youtube videos of Darth Plagueis vs other Sith Masters, and i read the wiki page for Darth Plagueis.

"Plagueis, on the other hand, seemed to trust his apprentice completely" [source]. You would think the Sith masters would realize that killing one's master is like a rite of passage.

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Pl ... ncepts.jpg

Plagueis's own master Tenebrous trusted him completely. It seems that Sith Masters often think they've finally brought the Rule of Two to an end and they try to get their apprentices to not carry on the tradition. Tenebrous fell for it and died by Plagueis's hand. Plagueis fell for it and died by Sidious's hand.

Sidious was smarter, however, as he would never sleep and would hinder the training of his apprentices to make sure they were not strong enough to overthrow him. Sidious may have wanted Vader to carry on the Rule of Two, because he was so impressed that he felt Vader might have deserved the right to overthrow him and become Master himself, but after Vader's strength in the Force became diminished when he fried at Mustafar, Sidious started treating him like his previous apprentices. He may have intended Luke, however, to be the one that would overthrow him, but Luke refused to commit the murder of his father that would have made him into a Sith Lord, ruining Sidious's plan.

Lest anyone forget, in The Empire Strikes Back, Vader had tried to tempt Luke to join him in overthrowing the Emperor, thus replacing Sidious with himself as master, and Luke as his apprentice. I always thought it a strange turn of events when Vader chose to deliver Luke to the Emperor as a new apprentice in Return Of The Jedi. I think Vader should have guessed the faithless Sidious was planning to replace him.

I'm not sure how this discussion is in anyway related to our daily lives. It takes place in a whole other Galaxy, far far away from here.

These events also took place A long time ago too..........

This is an extreamly outdated historical allegory at best.

This thread is just filled to the brim with typical Separatist propaganda. It's only a matter of time before the Rebeltarian's come out of the woodwork and start espousing the social darwinist free market "wisdom" of the Hutt Cartel. It didn't work on Mandalore, it's not going to work here.........

Sith think of their own passions with little concern for others. In this galaxy, we call these people "sociopaths", so they are among us.

People argue Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Saddam, Mao, Pol Pot, Quaddafi, Kim Jong II etc, could all be classified as sociopaths.[source 1]



Palpatine's vision of exterminating his enemies as well as efforts to impose "social Darwinism" is known to our galaxy.

"Nazi Germany's justification for its aggression was regularly promoted in Nazi propaganda films depicting scenes such as beetles fighting in a lab setting to demonstrate the principles of "survival of the fittest" as depicted in Alles Leben ist Kampf (English translation: All Life is Struggle)." [source 2].

sources
1. http://taboojive.com/the-sociopath-next ... tout-ph-d/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Darwinism

DAMMIT MAN!! !! !! !! !! SOMEBODY STOLE MY STARSHIP!! !! !

Then, out of no where, a huge, sphere-like spaceship flies out of a flash of light in the sky. But could it...could it really be another Death Star? Luke quickly mounts his ship,ready to go to battle. But little did he know that this was no Galactic Empire ship, no no, this was something far worse, a species yet unknown on this side of the universe. As Luke would soon find out, resistance is futile, the Borg had arrived.

That's not quite the meaning of the Sith philosophy we see from Plagueis and Sidious. The code gets mentioned a lot but it doesn't really epitomize the ideas of Bane's Order, doesn't adequately explain the rule of Two. "The code" is simply one piece of Sith philosophy and there isn't a consensus on it or a number of other issues.

In Palpatine's case here, as is quite evident if you've ever read the book Plagueis, there is a fine distinction between this idea of living for one's self and what is actually going on. Palpatine and his master lived not for themselves but the dark side of the force. If they had lived for themselves then self denial and asceticism wouldn't have been a part of Palpatine's training (not a lot of Star Wars fans would think of an ascetic Sith but it's true, read a few more books on the Sith). Here are the tenets:

1. The force is amoral. There are merely those who limit their use of it and those who surrender themselves to it.
2. The force is first and foremost a great catalyst of the process of evolution. Autocratic systems of government breed competition, competition accelerates natural selection, and natural selection breeds excellence. They use terms like pathetic and weak, which can be misleading because what they really mean is "less evolved".
3. Force users must be atheistic as a rule. The force must be seen as an impersonal phenomenon of nature that merely chooses those whom it anoints as a greater vessel in order to be an evolutionary catalyst. Whether or not deities exist that control the force is immaterial to the Sith because it cannot be proven true or false (many Star Wars fans might be interested to know that there are actual deities in the Star Wars universe, as well as other dimensions roughly similar to heaven and hell, look up the nexus, the order of the Whills, the Celestials, and The Ones), and it is ultimately inconsequential. The force can only be understood as having one goal and purpose.
4. Individuals, including one's self, are mere peons of the force. That an apprentice must kill his master is necessary to the evolution of the Sith. That the apprentice craves what the master has is positive as these emotions fuel excellence.

That is basically Hego Damask's philosophy as inherited by Palpatine. But let's remember most of all that there are a number of different traditions in Sith philosophy and this is just one tradition. In Palpatine's Book of Sith we can see a great variety of viewpoints held by different Sith, the Code doesn't even begin to cover it all, folks.

Now, from our friend beneficii:



I think it's all too easy to say that Tenebrous trusted Plagueis and Plagueis trusted Sidious, but both of them had their own reasons for not carrying on with the Rule of Two. Tenebrous wanted to use Bith science to live forever by possessing clones (something Sidious had some success with). Plagueis of course performed extensive tests on Tenebrous' secret apprentice Venamis and learned to manipulate the midichlorians and prolong life without consuming it like Vitiate. So, it wasn't so much that they trusted their apprentices, as it was the case that they didn't see them as a threat. Both Tenebrous and Plagueis left notable gaps in the education of their apprentices. If Plagueis had trusted Sidious he would have taught him much more than how to transfer his shade.

Oh yeah, Palpatine's training was hell. It started off with him being transported to a frozen, inhospitable planet, completely exposed to the elements, given the task of climbing a bunch of rocks above a frozen lake that were pretty much impossible to climb except by using the Force, all in order to reach his Master who was already at the top. It took him several weeks to finally accomplish that task, all the while being deprived of food, water, and rest until he succeeded. Sidious would keep slipping up and falling as he struggled his way up the mount. The training was all about making Sidious take control of the Force and to bend it to his will (and to use it to keep himself alive for so long without food, water, or rest while being exposed to the inhospitable conditions of the planet). Then Plagueis taught him pain.

Shortly after Sidious reached the top, Plagueis told Sidious that his training was not to last less than a standard decade. Now I don't know if Palpatine and Plagueis/Damask didn't return to Naboo at times during this period. It seems like they must have had, in order to maintain the political connections Palpatine and Damask had on Naboo that were calculated to eventually thrust Palpatine into the Senate and after a longer period into the Chancellorship, where Damask aimed to be "Co-Chancellor" (but Palpatine stabbed Damask in the back on this one).

Either way, we next see Palpatine at the age of like 27 or 28, after 10 years of training, being a successful ambassador who represented Naboo throughout the galaxy, pretty much already the designated successor to Vidar Kim as the Senator from the Chommell Sector.

What do you mean by "transfer his shade"?

Sidious spent time at Naboo during this period. The book Plagueis, which you seem to have had the pleasure of reading as well good for you friend, doesn't detail the period all that much but it is made clear that there was some tension with the law there after Palpatine murdered his family and became Sidious. He also had the family estate and holdings to manage, not to mention that Palpatine said in some ways Vidar Kim was a greater mentor than Plagueis for him, especially when it comes to politics on a more local level and the social graces involved.

Plagueis was brilliant politically but then again at the same time he didn't have to be as tactful, he didn't have to entertain others and compromise so much because he could pretty much act like a bull in a china shop. He had the liberty of politicking this way and it was actually necessary as you can see in his support of the Trade Federation and his participation in the breakdown of society and living conditions in the Rim. Palpatine's political career at the start was compromise and compromise some more, say something insubstantial and not seem to at the same time in order to please your opponents, stab enemies in the back literally or metaphorically and don't make it public or provide a scapegoat.

But Plagueis' more blunt efforts in monopolizing exports in the Mid and Rim, and his strong arm attitude towards the Senate and it's support of the Trade Federation, was necessary to get the ball rolling in the first place and neither Sith Lord's efforts could be compared between each other as clumsy, just different. This is why Kim was more important in a lot of ways in cultivating Palpatine, as Palpatine couldn't just treat dignitaries, emissaries, senators, and ambassadors like clients, he couldn't be less then endearing and just turn around and say "well you can't bite the hand that feeds you", he had to distract people, please them, cajole them, pit them against each other, play innocent, instead of propping himself up he had to try and show little self importance and take every opportunity given to him even up to the point of amending the constitution to give himself more emergency war time powers, all as if he was just a public servant.

Now regarding the force power transfer essence: http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Transfer_essence

This was a technique whose first recorded use was by Darth Andeddu, it is used to possess a host body or artifact (if you are interested in the possession of artifacts take a look around wookieepedia here and visit the pages on Sith alchemy and Sith sorcery as well as the Muur talisman). Exar Kun actually used this technique to anchor his spirit to a temple, and dark siders who stayed in the same dimension as the living (there are other dimensions) as force shades were known to be able to possess those unlucky enough to find them. Sometimes the process is unsuccessful, in which case either the maxichlorians of that individual reside within the intended host (semi-conscious midichlorians that carry a certain amount of the dark sider's consciousness, this happened when Tenebrous tried to possess Plagueis) or the physical body disappears if there is one and the shade/apparition finds itself in a dimension called Chaos (which is somewhat similar to hell).

One of the things that weirded me out about the EU was Cloak of Deception by James Luceno, which sets up the events of Star Wars Episode I. Here, we get to see Palpatine's introspection, and the thoughts the book showed us were idealistic, like favoring equality for all species. He was not depicted as having any "evil" thoughts.

Of course, in that book you can still tell Palpatine was the bad guy, if you read closely enough. It is strongly implied that he was the man behind those "baseless accusations of corruption" that so mired Chancellor Valorum; if you follow the trail of the aurodium ingots, you can see it. There is also the spot where Palpatine sent his Senate aide Sate Pestage to hack into another Senator's computer.

So there's a bit of Jekyll and Hyde here.

I wish I knew more about Star Wars to actually make a similarly in depth post, but instead I'll at least bump the topic back to the top because I think it should get more views. Also, humans, your planet will need to be demolished by the Vogon constructor fleet, sorry about that. All the details are posted at your adjacent galactic civil service complex located in orbit of proxima centauri. Good luck humans.