# ROTJ, in 1983 what did people think Palpatine was? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 11, 2013, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rotj-in-1983-what-did-people-think-palpatine-was/652621 "2013-03-11T08:19:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rotj-in-1983-what-did-people-think-palpatine-was/652621/81 "2013-03-16T03:22:03Z")
There was a great throw away line in the Clone Wars show about midichlorians, in a dive bar this ditzy looking barfly says “oh I should get his midichlorian count”. 😛 Making it seem as if it is the SW universe equivalent of a horoscope. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rotj-in-1983-what-did-people-think-palpatine-was/652621/82 "2013-03-16T03:40:35Z")
I didn’t really know what he was before I saw the movie or even after. Not until the third prequel is where things are finally cleared up. From things Vader says we know that he has the clairvoyant powers of the other Jedi, but we don’t see him do anything until ZAP! he’s shooting fricking lightning out of his fingers. Maybe he’s like a Force capacitor or a Force induction coil or merely dragged his feet over a Force infused carpet. ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rotj-in-1983-what-did-people-think-palpatine-was/652621/83 "2013-03-16T07:13:04Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > I’d say it’s pretty well established that **Force users** are a tiny tiny minority of the galaxy and that the average person had little knowledge of what they were even capable of before Order 66. (bolding mine) I would change that to “_trained_ Force users”. Two points: 1. I heard/read, somewhere, a mention of a species of animal on some planet that, it was discovered, used the Force to hunt. 2. Young Anakin in _The Phantom Menace_ In the first case, we have a (presumably) non-intelligent animal that inherently uses the Force to detect prey. In the second case, we have a human who, until he’s discovered by actual Jedi, uses the Force _completely unconsciously_ … the same way those animals do. Heck, Luke himself was completely ignorant of the Force until Obi-Wan told him about it. Prior to that, he was simply really good at blasting womp rats from a fast-moving landspeeder in Beggar’s Canyon. Leia, as was revealed in one of the EU novels, was remarkably skilled at diplomacy, likely due to her own inherent Force sensitivity. That suggests to me that there are plenty of untrained Force-users who are completely unaware of what they’re doing. The effect is that they appear, to themselves and other “normal” people, to simply be very good at something. In Anakin’s case, he had an uncanny knack for dealing with mechanical things, as well as a bit of prescience/clairvoyance. But to the untrained eye, he was simply remarkably bright for his age, and had really good reflexes. That suggests that there were probably millions of “ordinary” Force-users spread throughout the galaxy, simply living their lives and excelling at something, going about their business none the wiser until/unless somebody with training stumbles across them and gives them some training (for better or worse). ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rotj-in-1983-what-did-people-think-palpatine-was/652621/84 "2013-03-16T08:41:56Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > (bolding mine) > > I would change that to “_trained_ Force users”. Two points: > > 1. I heard/read, somewhere, a mention of a species of animal on some planet that, it was discovered, used the Force to hunt. > > 2. Young Anakin in _The Phantom Menace_ > > In the first case, we have a (presumably) non-intelligent animal that inherently uses the Force to detect prey. In the second case, we have a human who, until he’s discovered by actual Jedi, uses the Force _completely unconsciously_ … the same way those animals do. Heck, Luke himself was completely ignorant of the Force until Obi-Wan told him about it. Prior to that, he was simply really good at blasting womp rats from a fast-moving landspeeder in Beggar’s Canyon. Leia, as was revealed in one of the EU novels, was remarkably skilled at diplomacy, likely due to her own inherent Force sensitivity. > > That suggests to me that there are plenty of untrained Force-users who are completely unaware of what they’re doing. The effect is that they appear, to themselves and other “normal” people, to simply be very good at something. In Anakin’s case, he had an uncanny knack for dealing with mechanical things, as well as a bit of prescience/clairvoyance. But to the untrained eye, he was simply remarkably bright for his age, and had really good reflexes. That suggests that there were probably millions of “ordinary” Force-users spread throughout the galaxy, simply living their lives and excelling at something, going about their business none the wiser until/unless somebody with training stumbles across them and gives them some training (for better or worse). Not if they are in the Republic, then the Jedi psychically find them as infants and come and kidnap them from their parents. It is mentioned in TPM and there were some episodes of TCW that featured it too, Palptatine acquires a list of every person with force potential in the galaxy in TCW and I guess we as viewers are to believe he is going to go a cullin’ once the Jedi are dead.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2013, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rotj-in-1983-what-did-people-think-palpatine-was/652621/85 "2013-03-16T14:27:50Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Yeah, it’s a genetic explanation for why it’s stronger in the Skywalker family line. I"m not sure if it can be called a “line”, more like a root node with two child nodes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rotj-in-1983-what-did-people-think-palpatine-was/652621.md?page=4)