Darth Sidious

Darth Sidious, also known as Palpatine or the Emperor was the supreme ruler of the most powerful tyrannical regime the galaxy had ever witnessed, yet his roots seem extremely humble, traced back to the peaceful world of Naboo.

When he became a Senator representing his homeworld of Naboo, Sidious was trained in the Dark Side by Sith Lord Darth Plagueis The Wise. After learning his master was planning an experiment to create a new apprentice, Sidious murdered his master in his sleep, deciding he had learnt all he could from his master. From there, he took his first apprentice, Darth Maul, and over the next decade, he set in motion the events that would topple the Jedi Order and reinstate the Sith. When Maul was killed by Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, Sidious chose ex-Jedi Master Count Dooku as his new apprentice, bestowing upon him the name Darth Tyranus. Dooku and Sidious engineered the Clone Wars together, with Sidious taking power as Supreme Chancellor Palpatine of the Galactic Republic, and Dooku creating a puppet rebellion, the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

After Dooku was slain by the hand of Jedi Anankin Skywalker, Sidious, with careful manipulation, managed to begin the Jedi Purge, corrupting Anakin to the Dark Side, christening him as Darth Vader. Sidious slew Mace Windu, and ordered the Clone Army to carry out Order 66, a series of executive orders forcing the clone troopers to assasinate their Jedi Generals. Many Jedi fell, and few survived, among them Grand Master Yoda and Obi Wan Kenobi. After declaring the Republic an Empire, with himself as Emperor, Sidious was confronted by Yoda, who was determined to destroy him and abolish the Empire. With no way of escape, Sidious was forced to engage Master Yoda in a duel to the death, which wound through the new throne room and the destruction forced them to take higher ground, using the Chancellor' s podium to move into the Senate Assembly Hall. His movements confined, he was forced to maneuver his red lightsaber to shield himself as Yoda battered at his defenses with his emerald-green lightsaber. After Yoda disarmed the Dark Lord, Sidious took higher ground and began levitating Senate Pods and hurling them at the ancient Jedi, which Yoda was forced to avoid. After knocking Sidious from his pod, Yoda followed him onto another pod. With a first blast of lightning, Sidious disarmed Yoda, and expected the second blast to kill the Jedi Grand Master.

Yoda blocked and deflected the blast, and the energy increased, until neither Master could hold on, and they were blasted apart, ending the duel. Yoda went into exile, knowinng his destiny wasn't to kill the Sith Lord, but to train the initiate who would.

After finding and ressurecting Vader in a cybernetic black suit, Sidious enforced his tyrannical reign, using Vader as his Chief Enforcer. History In 3 BBY, Galen Marek's training was nearly complete, and Darth Vader sent him to various missions to prove himself ready: killing rogue Jedi and dueling the simulated Sith spirits of Darth Desolous and Darth Phobos. In order to keep his presence hidden from the Emperor, Galen had to eliminate all witnesses--Imperials as well as resistance fighters. His final mission was to find Jedi Master Shaak Ti, the last surviving member of the Jedi High Council other than his former master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda and Lord Vader himself, and kill her. Marek was successful, but, upon his return to the Executor, he and Vader were surrounded by the Emperor's fleet. Vader stabbed his secret apprentice and, under Sidious' orders (through Starkiller's holodroid, PROXY), used the Force to throw Galen out of the viewport.[59] This, however, was a ruse, as a droid picked up Galen's body and took him to recover.

6 months later, the resurrected Galen was sent by Vader to assemble an army of the Emperor's enemies to oppose the Sith Master. Unfortunately for him, Vader captured the Rebels and revealed to Galen that it was all a ruse to have them reveal their treachery. Galen soon proved resistant after escaping and defected to both the Jedi and the Rebellion, this time of his own volition. He confronted the Sith Lords aboard the nearly completed Death Star, and stunned Sidious by defeating Vader in combat.

Darth Sidious, who generally used his allies until they outlived their worth, was actually pleased that Galen was the victor of the duel. Ever since Mustafar, the Emperor had viewed Vader as a broken shadow of his former self: Anakin Skywalker. For years, Sidious was bitter about the fact that he had spent a lifetime trying to obtain an apprentice of Skywalker's caliber, and just as he succeeded, his prized pupil was forced to become "more machine than man," thus dashing any hopes the Emperor had of making Vader a powerful Sith Lord.

In Galen, Sidious finally saw an opportunity to rid himself of his hobbled disciple. Galen, by defeating his own master in combat, proved that he had the potential to be the perfect apprentice that Sidious had been searching for. Sensing what the Dark Lord had in mind, Kota telekinetically snatched Sidious' lightsaber and attempted to cut him down with it, but the Emperor unleashed a barrage of Force lightning upon the charging Jedi.

Using the Force, Galen hurled bits of broken transparisteel and debris at the Emperor, who was forced to break off his attack. Galen's ranted as he came to the conclusion that Sidious was behind Vader's every move ever since his discovery on Kashyyyk. Sidious confirmed this, telling Marek that Vader never plotted alone.[60] Cackling, Sidious abruptly dropped to his knees and goaded Marek into striking a death blow. With Kota's urging, however, Galen resisted the seduction back to the Sith way and spared the Emperor's life. As Galen turned to leave, Sidious leapt to his feet and again attacked Kota with Sith lightning for speaking out. Galen, in response, dove in front of his friend and deflected what he could. With his dying breath, Galen caused an explosion with the Force, staggering Sidious long enough for a group of captured Rebel leaders to escape.

Sidious took no joy in the death of Galen Marek. He had envisioned a far different future for the boy, as he once had with Anakin. Galen was meant to root out the rebels so that they could all be revealed and destroyed, yet Sidious bitterly admitted that Galen's sacrifice would only inspire them to fight a full-scale war against the Galactic Empire. On a more personal note, the Emperor had lost what was supposed to be Vader's successor as his new apprentice. To have lost someone of Galen's potential and having to still make do with a cyborg apprentice was a frustrating setback. All in all, the combination of Galen's death and the survival of the Rebel leaders led Darth Sidious to the wise conclusion that unless he destroyed every single rebel now, the Rebellion which he and Vader unwittingly helped to create, would be the undoing of the Empire and even the Order of the Sith Lords itself.

The Emperor, left with no alternative now that Galen was dead, was forced to keep Darth Vader as his slave until he could find a new apprentice, and then, like Darth Tyranus, Vader would be swept aside. However, the incident with Galen also served to drive the master and his apprentice even further apart then they already were. Like Tyranus before him, Vader had been betrayed by his master in favor of an apprentice far younger and more powerful. And it would not be the last time that the Emperor would try to replace the half-mechanical Sith Lord with a worthier apprentice, as the encounter between the Sith Lords and Luke Skywalker would later reveal.