Star Wars: 10 Original trilogy characters made better by The Clone Wars series
By Hayden Mears
Emperor Palpatine
If the prequels didn’t give you enough of a reason to hate Sheev Palpatine, then The Clone Wars absolutely will. From insisting that the Zillo Beast be killed (and subsequently cloned) to traveling to Mandalore because Sith doctrine stupidly doesn’t teach strength in numbers, Palpatine (with Darth Sidious working as an acceptable and rightly pejorative alternative) becomes even more of a deliciously deplorable character as the war rages on and the bodies continue to stack.
He really is a cruel dude and not always in a “you love to hate to him” kind of way. He uses his distinction as Supreme Chancellor to orchestrate some of the most terrible crimes in the galaxy. He becomes untouchable and he knows it. It honestly makes his role in Revenge of the Sith even more of a payoff for fans of the character. Not a great guy and you don’t ever want him to be.
Regardless, watching him work behind the scenes is a blast and threads the Skywalker Saga together expertly and compellingly. Palpatine’s villainy is the biggest, most frustrating constant in the series and the story wouldn’t work any other way.
Too bad The Rise of Skywalker brought him back only to waste him horribly. That movie is a travesty. But we digress.