I was wondering, was Senator Palpatine a fake identity created by Darth Sidiious to facilitate his plans, or was there once a real Senator Palpatine who was mrudered and replaced by Sidiious? I’m a little fuzzy on the whole thing, seems there would be problems either way you go.
Remember when Prince used that symbol for a name? Same thing.
So far as I know they didn’t really flesh out Palpatine’s past until The Phantom Menace. I haven’t followed the StarWars Extended Universe since 1995 so I’m going to have to go with Palpatine being a real senator whose secret identity was Darth Sidious. Just like Peter Parker and Spider-Man.
Marc
Remember, the Sith take a new name when they become a Sith Lord. Count Dooku --> Darth Tyranus, Anakin Skywalker --> Darth Vader. Darth Sidious had to be somebody before he became Darth Sidious, and there’s no reason to think that his name wasn’t Palpatine.
I’m going with “it’s his real identity” as well. The guy got himself elected to the Senate; politics being what it is, that probably means that Palpatine comes from a prominent and well-connected family. His political opponents would have torn him apart (metaphorically) if he was some mysterious guy with no past.
Prince is a Sith Lord?
It would explain a lot!
Darth Buttpants
She wore a raspberry beret,
The kind that matched my lightsaber blade
A raspberry beret.
I guess I’ll force-choke her.
So, the take is, Palpatine starts out normal, then gets seduced by the Dark Side, hooks up with the Sith Lord and becomes Darth Sidious in secret?
I’m guessing then that, being a political person, the Sith Lord must have been someone who is close to him, whose presence could be easily explained, or better yet, needed no explanation.
Well typically Sith Lords would start training their apprentices from a very early age, so it’s likely that Palpatine wasn’t kidnapped by his master if he was raised by a noble family on Naboo. Most likely his master recognized his high force potential and decided to become a tutor-by-day sith-master-by-night.
That’s just my guess though.
He was a senator, not a prince or princess. They could have very different standards for the two.
He get recruited as an apprentice when he’s young, and some point moves to Naboo and again at some point, kills his master, uses his abilities to rise up the political ranks, recruits his own apprentice, etc. He was kinda already an old fart as a senator. He could be a native Naboo-ian or could have just lived there for a really long time, right?
Minor note: Naboo was the seat of sectoral representation. As a planet, it was wildly over-representeted, but hey, in this world we’ve got Monaco sitting side by side with Morroco and Malaysia in the U.N., so let’s not get picky. he wouldn’t have had to come from Naboo.
However, it’s quite possible he could have. If the previos Sith Lord had sufficient influence, he might have kept tabs on children noted as possible Jedi canidates. It would not have been out of his power to erase those records and offer a scholarship to some “exclusive boarding school” to young Palpy’s parents.
Even barring that, it’s not a stretch to assume that a wise, force-empowered, utterly sadistic amoral Sith Lord could have kidnapped a padawan and broken him - and 30 years later, who’d remember? Or Palpatine might have been tapped for the young Senatorials program (note that Naboo apparently likes having well-educated but inexperienced idealists nominally lead its government). A Sith Lord could easily prey on such a boy’s confusion and loss of place in the halls of power, taking the boy “under his wing,” and pushing him to ever-more-unsavory acts under the pretense of “teaching him how the Senate works.” Thus simultaneously playing on a young man’s sense of outrage over the way business gets conducted to build up his anger and frustration while schooling him in manipulation…
Did Darth Tyrranus and Darth Maul exist as Sith Lords simultaneously?
Wasn’t that against the Highlander + 1 rule?
Doubtful since Palpy/Sidious followed the Sith “One Master, One Apprentice” rule. I think Dooku was seduced in between Episodes 1 and 2. This is all Expanded Universe stuff, obviously.
Born on the planet Naboo 82 years before the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977),[2] he is a key politician in the Republic who claims to represent peace and democracy. In reality, Palpatine is Darth Sidious, a powerful lord of the evil Sith sect who practices the dark side of the Force. He initiates and manipulates the Clone Wars to destroy the Jedi and usher in the totalitarian Galactic Empire.
It would appear that he was born “Palpatine” but developed the “Darth Sidious” persona later in life.
The really mind-blowing part is that Palpatine was not only from Naboo, but he was Gungan, and through his Sith training was able to disguise himself as a real person and not some oafish cartoon.
“Your overconfidence is your weakness.”
“Yousa faith in you friends isa yours!”
Why am I picturing Darth Xavier right now?
Brilliant