Star Wars fans divided over young Palpatine's 'tragic backstory'

Star Wars’ Emperor Palpatine is a power hungry, narcissist.

That’s something I’d say is obvious to all of us but beyond that, have you ever stopped to ponder the undercurrents of what motivates his pursuit of evil?

There’s no shame if you haven’t; I probably fall into that category.

You see, it’s easy to get caught up in Star Wars’ rapid current, but perhaps now is an apt time to examine what was going on beneath the surface of Palpatine’s regime.

Well, according to the more knowledgeable Star Wars fans amongst us, many answers can be found in the Darth Plagueis novel.

ICYMI: Andor returns for its second and final season next month.

“Plagueis more or less fosters Palpatine’s worst tendencies, including his hatred for his father and disdain for his family,” Reddit user HighMackrel began.

“But while Palpatine was always ambitious and full of hate, one should remember that the Dark Side is like a drug. It poisons and taints you. It brings about the absolute worst traits of yours to the surface and makes you act out on those worst instincts,” he added.

“He’s supposed to be the personification of evil and all human sin. He’s kind of the Devil, but George Lucas thinks he’s worse because at least the Devil fell. Palpy was born evil, no justification, tragedy or redemption. Just a super twisted meatbag,” drunk-at-noon explained.

User Safe_Leader_7580 wrote, “He was a young, ambitious human who was Force sensitive and somehow evaded detection by the Jedi before meeting who he would eventually learn is the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis. He would train in the ways of the Sith and, discovering all the power it would give him, devote himself to the Sith, and believed absolutely in their tenants and teachings.”

It makes a lot of sense.

Sometimes there doesn’t need to be a tragic backstory. Simple feelings of rejection and isolation can drive someone to do terrible things, and it seems like that’s what happened with Palpatine.