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djregular · 6 years ago

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RPG Ephemera: Star Wars - Lo Ko’en

After a conversation with my homey @knitmeapony about our respective Star Wars RPG characters, I went digging around for some old stuff for mine, a Scoundrel named Lo Ko’en. I described him to people as like Han Solo through a noir filter rather than a pulp one, complete with a Wookie partner that one of the other PCs played. I can’t find his sheet or some of the other material I put together for him (I did a whole wardrobe break down for him, along with a small family tree) but I did find the very short intro fic I wrote for him, and tracklistings for the two soundtracks I put together for him. One for the first campaign, and another for the second. These were both burned onto CDs, just to let you know how long ago this was.

Definitely one of my most enjoyable times at a gaming table, with a character I’d love to revisit some time.

“Ko’en! Ko’en!”

It’s funny the things you start to realize when you’ve got your commanding officer yelling at you. No matter where it is, so long as it’s not home, the air always seems to be cleaner. Or at least that was how I tended to see things. The life my parents’ had set out for me wasn’t really hard by any means. There were linguistics and etiquette classes to be taken. Ceremonies to be in attendance for and dignitaries to be pleasant around. In short, for a young kid, it was boring as all hell. There were pluses here and there, mostly that you got to see a lot of different parts of the world without ever having to go anywhere. All of the different cultures and customs that I was exposed to were valuable in my upbringing and worldview. We’re all the same when you get down to it. We’ve all found ways to get comfortable with lying to one another.

The first time I saw my parents undercut some Twi’lek traders for a surplus of medical grade ryll, I recognized that our livelihood was based on how well we could manipulate others. It wasn’t about whether or not I liked it, it was simply the family’s way of things, so I adapted. After a short while that became the status quo and while I didn’t become so cynical that I assumed everyone around me was a conniving bastard, it did have a tendency to stick out when someone that wasn’t related to me was being genuine.

Dashar’amaven, or Dasha as I called her did stick out in that fashion. I was no more than 9 or 10 when we first met. Her parents would regularly visit Ord Mantell to shore up a long term ryll trade with a pharmaceutical firm, and when we weren’t participating in some other activity to be kept busy we were made to keep each other company. Initially I suppose I was a bit confused by what seemed to be her inability to lie, but eventually it got to be comforting. In-between helping each other with our native languages and making the general mischief that kids do (I had to be the one to handle our parents whenever we went off somewhere we weren’t supposed to be), I confided in her about life as I’d come to know it. Just because I had adapted to it well enough didn’t mean that I felt okay with it. She helped the unease and let me find a balance. There were more than a few tipping points along the way where I could’ve ended up like my parents. More tightly wound than bedsprings and not able to convey much beyond veiled disdain for the average person.

We moved out of Ord Mantell just before I hit my teen years and started moving around. Home was getting to be quite the haven for black market supplies and all the sort of clientele that black market supplies tend to attract, so they took the show on the road. We met up with Dasha’s family a lot over the years, business deals and socialite functions had us crossing paths quite often. Dasha never changed…aside from getting more and more attractive. Always attentive, always kind. An oasis of honesty in a desert of the duplicitous. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t fallen for her just a bit. I’d also be lying if I said we hadn’t done anything about my falling. Several times. Alas, no matter how fondly, we always parted.

The last time we saw each other, coincidentally one of the last times I made concessions toward what my parents wanted for me, she made a pretty big deal about reminiscing on the times we’d spent together. The reason? She was being put into slavery. Not slavery out and out, mind you, her folks had been grooming her to be a consort for years. Pretty much ever since we’d known each other.

I learned from it. I learned that in my parents’ world that honesty only got you used by the people who had the good sense enough to lie. I needed another world to belong to, and the military seemed like a good enough fit. I was used to travel, and in theory I would finally get a chance to be around real people. In theory. In practice, there were fewer phonies, but the lies were more potent and the more real things got, the more grim they were. It was very rare that we had any truly good days. Just days that where we were doing better than the other guy.

So that brings us to today, with my commanding officer yelling at me. I’m standing in front of group of locals on a planet where we’re attempting to beat back a religious cult that’s armed themselves and is hell bent on making the planet into their own image. These locals are poor as all hell, but they’re the most likely ones to know where our target is. My CO wants me to pull it from them because I speak their language. In another layer of something that I’m not quite sure is irony, all but one of them is high on a drug that allows one to erase their memories. The component parts? Glitterstim and ryll.

Today I know this will be the last time I lie for someone else, but I still do it. As I make with the sweet words, I tell myself yet again that I need a new world to live in. In my parents’ world, people avoid the truth. In this world, the truth is harsh and to be survived, not learned from. I’d like to find a place where the truth is good, and people can be themselves without paying for it.

“Good job Ko’en! Dumar, get your team together for the demo.”

I have a sick feeling that I’m going to have to lie a lot to get there.

And now the soundtracks. When I burned the CDs I actually wrote out liner notes with titles for each of the songs so you could get an idea of what they represented. I was going to try and link to each of these in YouTube, but the very first track isn’t available on it or any streaming service I can find. If you’re interested and ask me nice, maybe I’ll figure out a way to share them.

Trap Music - The Lo End Theory

I made this one as more of a biographical thing, meant to act as a musical version of the events of his life up to our first game session. The only PC that’s referenced is Shemkal, his Wookie buddy that he meets on his way out of military service. At track 14 is the point where they become couriers/bounty hunters.

What You'd Like (Johnny Five - Sky Scrapers)

What You Have (Handsome Boy Modeling School feat. Pharrell Williams and Julee Cruise)

Dasha: Muse, Friend and Confidant (Maker - Tomorrow by the Ocean)

Dasha: Teacher, Victim and Turncoat (Atmosphere - Lift Her, Pull Her)

My Parents the Drug Traffickers (Despot - Substance D)

The Final Dinner Party (El-P - The League of Extraordinary Nobodies)

Leaving Home (Prefuse 73 feat. Aesop Rock - Sabbatical With Options)

Interlude - On the Deck at His First Battle (Prefuse 73 feat. DJ Nobody- L.A. Connecion Exchange)

In the Thick of It (El-P - Smithereens)

The Responsibility of Life and Death (El-P - Run the Numbers)

Dasha's Ryl Lessons (Pigeon John - Matter 101)*

End of the Tour (Blackbird - Survivor)

Interlude - On the Transport with Shemkal (Prefuse 73 feat. Claudia and Alegandra Deheza - Pastel Assassins)

New Path in Life (Cool Calm Pete - Lost)

"We're good at what we do." (Felt - Employees of the Year)

First Big Bounty (Felt - Morris Day)

Nightlife Pt. 1 (Cool Calm Pete - Two A.M.)

Nightlife Pt. 2 (Talib Kweli feat. Norah Jones - Soon the New Day)

Interlude - It's A Trap (Prefuse 73 - Gratis)

Where You're Going (Cool Calm Pete - Lost Interlude)

*The chorus is actually a rhyme that Dasha and Lo taught each other as kids in order to practice other languages with one another. Dasha herself actually came up with the words in reference to the lifestyle of constant advancement and ambition that their parents' subscribed to. Later Lo would use this to calm his nerves and keep steady on the occasions that he had to act as his company's sniper.

Trap Music Vol. 2 - Empire State of Mind

This one is after our first campaign, which was set just as the Galactic Empire was becoming the status quo. I can’t quite recall the precise timeline but it was somewhere between episode 3 and 4, because a big part of the campaign involved the aftermath of Jedi Order 66. This tracklist covers some of the big personal events of Lo’s life, including (obviously) having the rest of the PCs join him and Shemkal, running into Dasha again, and discovering some secrets of his ancestry.

Farewell to the Past (Prefuse 73 w/Broadcast, Piano Overlord, & Café Tecuba – And I’m Gone)

Welcome to the Future or The Rise of the Empire (DJ Krush – Slit of Cloud feat. Akira Sakata)

Interlude – The Drudgery of Intergalactic Travel or “You plotted a course to what System?” (Flying Lotus – Golden Diva)

A Land of Opportunity (Oddisee – Detroit)

Our Clientele (Mos Def – The Tournament)

The Return of The Two (Felt – Protagonists)

“…and we brought some friends along…” (Cage feat. The Weathermen – Left It To Us)

Job Well Done (Black Milk – Play The Keys)

Payday (Steve Spacek – Dollar)

Finally Letting Go or “My man Shem mentioned you had a sister…” (Cool Calm Pete – Gitty Up Baby!)

Interlude – Enlightenment Is Where You Find It or Nightlife Pt. 3 (Jose James w/Flying Lotus – Code)

Becoming A Dynasty (Daedelus – Order of the Golden Dawn)

Becoming Apart of Everything (Exile – The Sound Is God)

Including the Ugly Parts (Flying Lotus – Camel)

Having Trouble Getting to Sleep (Gil-Scott Heron – Me And The Devil)

A Terrible Dream (8th W1 – A Fool’s Lullaby)

A Comfortable Nightmare (The Black Keys w/Jim Jones, Billy Danze, and Nicole Wray – What You Do To Me)

Interlude – Back to the Grind (Flying Lotus – GNG BNG)

A Guiding Light…and a Drink (Gonjasufi – Ancestors)

#star wars #rpg #i wrote a thing #rpg ephemera

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naatta42 · 7 years ago

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Battle of the Mental Images

Battle of the mental images (a sexual comedy)

“What are you doing?” A familial male voice brushed over her mind as she looked over the burgundy fabric in her hands. She tried to ignore the black human shadow standing just over her shoulder and practically looming over her with his sheer height.

“Trying to buy some new clothes.” She said flatly, giving him no more information on the subject, grabbing another fabric, this one a deep mossy colored green.

“The red one’s better.” He offered, a simple statement as neither encouragement, nor insult. She looked at him, a man who cast no shadow (as he wasn’t actually there), hands tucked behind his back, looking at the items in her hand.

“I like the green one.” The brunette said, holding it up to the light.

“Then get it. It’s your money.” He drolled, black eyes staring off at something in the distance, probably looking at something on his side of the connection. “Waste it how you want.”

With an exaggerated sigh she held the burgundy fabric up in the light. Damn it he was right, it did look better. Begrudgingly she put the green one back and paid the vendor, who had said nothing about the woman who’d just then been talking to herself. She put the cloth in her bag and flung it over her shoulder, staff in hand as she weaved through the marketplace, her mind’s shadow following her.

“Don’t you ever wear anything but black?” She asked him, her question seeming to cut him off guard.

He steadied the hiccup in his stride and kept up with her. “Sometimes I wear gray. Once, my cape was blood red on the inner lining.”

She tried to imagine him in such an ensemble and shook her head. “I can’t see it.”

Heading to the docks her mind seemed to be stuck on this topic, wondering what kind of things her mind mate might look good wearing. Her thoughts put him in several outfits: a basic storm trooper, a general’s uniform, it kept her busy all the way up the gangplank of the falcon until she passed the wookie growling something at BB-8 as it and R2 loaded the ship with supplies. Kylo didn’t see him, or if he did, he didn’t say anything, but a thought struck her. Pausing mid step she looked back at the wookie, trying to imagine Kylo dressed in fur like one. The image looked ridiculous and she had to contain her laughter as she scuttled aboard and towards her bunk.

“What’s so funny?” He demanded his tone sharp and agitated. “I can feel the humor radiating off of you.”

“Nothing, just a funny mental image, that’s all.” She admitted behind closed doors. Pulling the tunic from her bag she spread it over her bunk to really look at it, enjoying the small pleasure of having the money to actually buy something nice like that. She heard him scoff from his spot in the corner, killing her mood. “What now?”

“Leave it to a scavenger to consider that rag ‘nice’.” He grumbled. “If you’d taken me up on my offer I could have given you whole wardrobes of clothes if you wanted.”

She rolled her eyes and sighed, putting her things away and hopping up on the bed, crossing her legs into a meditative pose and letting her eyes slip closed. “I don’t need wardrobes of clothes, Ben. Now go away, I’m going to meditate for a while.”

“Meh.” He grumped, but said nothing else. She could still feel him, moving about his space on whatever ship he was on, finally sitting in a chair and watching her through their bond.

It was annoying the snot out of her. “Ben, I can’t concentrate with you watching me like that.”

“Stop calling me Ben.” He grumped, but still refused to let the connection close. He was curious about something, and it was itching at her like a hair up her nose. “What was the mental image you found so funny?”

Rey cracked an eye open to look at him, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees, watching her. If she didn’t know him as well as she did, she’d have almost been flattered as how intently he watched her. Finally she shrugged and looked him in the eye. “Your head on Chewie’s body.”

His eyes narrowed at the thought, growing irritated at how the edges of her lips twitched with humor. “That’s not funny.”

“Would you prefer C-3PO’s body instead?” She couldn’t help the grin sweeping over her face, her fingers digging into her knees to keep from laughing.

As if on command her mental image of him changed, shifting to fit her mind’s eye. His body, still in that position but made of shiny gold metal with only his human head and mane of black hair still remaining. She snorted, especially when he looked down. Apparently he could see what she saw, which just made him madder.

With a brush of his hand, like dusting off dirt he made the image fade away, back to his normal attire, glaring his black eyes at her. “I said it’s not funny!”

“I’m sorry,” she admitted. “Truly, no one deserves to look that bad. I just wondered what you looked like not wearing black.”

“I think you’d look good in black.” He said, pointing down. Rey looked at her person to see herself wearing black clothing near identical to his own. The idea killed her humor and nearly made her sick. In her minds eyes she stood, doing the same brushing movement and removed the clothing choice from her person, returning it back to her own usual sandy brown tunic and pants. In rebuttal she flicked her hand and threw an image at him. He looked down to find him dressed in traditional Jedi robes much like his uncle Luke had.

He made a disgusted face. “Not my style. Never was.”

“How about this then?” She threw another image at him, shifting him to black pants and a grungy white shirt, complete with dark vest and a blaster at his hip. His father’s clothing style.

Dark eyes seemed to get even darker as he looked down and tried to remove the idea but couldn’t seem to pull it loose, Rey’s own hand outstretched towards him to hold it there. He snarled and threw one back, her clothes turning to a high collared white linen dress, she could feel her hair shift this time too. Reaching up she touched two buns, one on each side of her head and turned to look in the small mirror hanging on the wall. “What’s with the hair? I look ridiculous!”

“You made me look like Han. I made you look like Leia.” Kylo said simply, darkly amused. “He said she wore that hair style when they first met.”

Rey tried to pull her hair free from the buns but they were stuck like that. She glared at him, releasing her grip on his image to try to fix her own. She could feel him move closer, keeping a grip on her like she had done him. She finally got the hair to come free but by then he was nearly toe to toe with her. To her surprise he hadn’t changed back into his usual black yet but instead was staring down at her, his own face amused albeit focused on her from the neck down. Looking down she squealed in horror at the slave girl look he’d put her in, feeling the icy metal of the bikini pinching in the wrong places and a breeze coming up between her legs under the long maroon loincloth making her clench her legs tightly shut. “What kind of outfit did you put me in?!”

“Just a passing fancy I’d been thinking on.” He looked her up and down, amused at how she tried to cover herself. Lowering his hand he grabbed at a chain that appeared tethered to a collar around her neck and pulled her into his arms. “Something my father told me about but never really appreciated until now.”

“You’re a pervert.” She snapped, trying to push him away, very uncomfortable at just how warm his arms were in such a cold and skimpy outfit. “Let me go. NOW!”

“Maybe I should imagine you like this every time we meet. I’d enjoy our visits together so much better…” He chided, tugging on that metal leash just a breath more, bringing her lips almost to his. Those black pools he called eyes seemed bottomless at this proximity and that hand on her lower back seemed to be getting lower and lower.

“Ben, let me go!” She demanded, palms firmly on his chest, shifting her feet in readiness to kick him where it hurt.

“I told you to stop calling me that!” He snarled back, tugging the leash so hard it was starting to dig into the back of her neck and really hurt.

“Ben Ben Ben Ben Be-mph!” Her voice was cut off by his lips pressing against her own. Brown eyes went wide in surprise as he held her there, still dressed like his father and doing the one thing she never honestly expected him to do. He held her there, squirming, wiggling to get out and away from him until the wiggling subsided, those hands trying to push him away instead wrapped around his neck and tangled in his hair, pulling him closer, making the kiss deeper.

He turned her, backed them up against the wall where he pinned her with his body. When she whimpered from the cold of the metal wall he simply slipped his tongue into her mouth, blindsided her resistance. When he could feel her barriers crack he barreled through with a nuzzle to her throat, a lick to her pulse and very firm grip to her ass. He kissed at the pulse in her neck, letting her pull the vest from his person and untuck the shirt from his pants. She wrapped her legs around his waist like python, locking her ankles on the other side at the base of his spine while he pulled that thin linen layer away from her bottom half and wiggled a few choice fingers in just the right places.

Rey let out a cry, looking down their bodies, he could feel her barriers trying to rebuild, trying to push him away but he barreled through them, over them, until she was swept up in the same primal lust pulsing through his veins. He could see how her eyes glazed over with it, reveled in how she kissed him back with equal force as he’d given. Where was this coming from? Was all this pent up from somewhere deep within? Was this coming from him or her? Or both?

Oh who the fuck cares.

She moaned against his lips and he lost it, pulling at the workings of the front of his pants and letting his own body free of its confines. Within a single, well aimed thrust he was inside her and his whole body practically sang with pleasure. She pulled him in tighter, moved with him as they rutted against the wall. He braced a palm against the cold surface of the wall behind her and shifted the balance, burying deeper, egged on by her sounds, her moans, her voice calling him over and over.

Pulling the metal top from her body her stole a kiss from her breasts, making her arch, and grip at his head, everything a swirl of lust and pleasure until nothing else could get in. He moved up to nip at her ear, grinning a little as how she tugged at his hair and scrapped her nails across his scalp. When she was close he slowed, trying to keep her on the edge as long as possible despite her complaints until at last he came with her.

She screamed.

She came screaming HIS name.

He’d never forget that for as long as he lived.

The pleasure began is ebb and they looked at each other, off the wall and back in their original seats from across the room. He was leaning back in his chair, dressed in his usual black and dripping in sweat. She wasn’t much better off, pressed back against the bunk wall, as far away from him as she could physically get, legs still crossed and covering her mouth with her hands in horror.

What had they just done?!

“I told you not to call me Ben.” He reminded her flatly, the crook of his lips sliding up into a victorious smirk. “Although I must admit I liked it when you screamed it. Next time maybe I’ll just make you naked so we can get right down to business.”

“Get out.” She demanded, pulling her hand away from her mouth, pulling her legs up against her, wrapping her arms about herself in protection. “Get out of my head!!!”

He said, but simply stood and walked away, vanishing from her view, severing the connection with a victorious grin on his long, smug face. He left her to her thoughts, curled and rocking in place on her bunk trying to shake the feeling of her body impaled on his own. She gulped, trying to center her thoughts. Instead all she could see was him dressed like his father, leaning back in that same chair and twirling a blaster in his hand with that damned cocky smile of his. It hit her right between the legs and nearly ended her all over again.

Getting to her feet she looked at her reflection, noting the little red welts on her skin where from where he’s kissed over her neck and shoulders. Biting the inside of her cheek she pulled the new tunic from her cubby space and dawned it, making a face before pulling it free and tearing it in half and grabbing a needle and thread to rehem it. Putting it back on the bottom of the top half now barely covered the bottom half of her breasts, one good wind or any movement and she’d be exposed. She grinned just a bit to herself as she turned the rest into a short skirt, complete with slits on either side that were laced together just a hint too far apart to show a strip of pale flesh underneath.

“We’ll see who’s ready for who next time, Ben Solo.” She mumbled softly, cutting the final string with her teeth.

This means WAR!

~_~_~_~_~_~

AN. War is hell, but sexual war is so much more fun to write about. Hehehehehehehehehe. Also, if anyone wants to ever do fan art based off my work please feel free. I’d be honored! T_T

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#reylo #reylo fanfic #reylo fandom

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jedimaesteryoda · 6 years ago

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Palpatine: The Greatest Villain in Star Wars History

For Star Wars Day, I will focus on one of the best villains, if not the best villain, of the Star Wars saga. I’m not talking about Darth Vader, but the man who turned him: Sheev Palpatine. A Dark Lord of the Sith who served as Senator from Naboo, followed by Supreme Chancellor of the Galactic Republic and later ruled as the tyrannical Emperor of the Galactic Empire. Palpatine will always be the main villain of the Star Wars saga from Episodes I-VI. He was introduced as the Emperor in Empire Strikes Back, the head of the evil Empire, someone even Vader kneels to. He is the sci-fi version of an evil wizard, the Dark Side counterpart to Yoda. In Episodes I-III, his backstory and rise to power is one of the few aspects the prequels get right. The prequels are his story as much as Anakin’s. The character we see in the prequels helps to cement him as one of the best villains on any screens.

Rise to Power

In Phantom Menace, we are introduced early on to Darth Sidious, who is pulling the strings behind the Trade Federation’s blockade of Naboo that is driving the plot. Going by his black cloak, raspy voice and the fact that he is a Sith, one can clearly figure out that this is the future Emperor we see in Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Of course, the viewer never really sees his face other than the lower half given the upper half is always covered in shadow and we never see his eyes.

We are later introduced to Palpatine, the friendly Senator representing Naboo who first greets Amidala’s party when she lands on Coruscant. He appears to show sympathy towards Amidala and their planet, and comes off as a decent man who is repulsed by what he sees in the halls of power, lamenting “The Republic is not what it once was. The Senate is full of greedy, squabbling delegates. There is no interest in the common good.” He also laments the ineffectiveness of the Supreme Chancellor. By the end of the film, Palpatine becomes Supreme Chancellor, the head of state of the Old Republic.

In Attack of the Clones, Palpatine is trying to deal with the problem of the Separatists led by Count Dooku, and seems at a loss up until he is given emergency powers by the Senate, which he accepts in public reluctantly, if not grudgingly. At the end of the film, we see Dooku, who a first-time viewer would usually be led to believe is the main villain of the film, meet in secret with Darth Sidious from the first film to tell him the war has begun as it is revealed Sidious is actually the one pulling the strings.

In Revenge of the Sith, the Jedi Council becomes increasingly concerned about where the Republic could be headed to the point they have Anakin reluctancly spy on Palpatine. The Senate keeps voting to give the Supreme Chancellor more power, and Palpatine has stayed in office as Supreme Chancellor long after his term has expired. As Obi-wan told or rather tried to tell Anakin “Something is out of place.” Meanwhile, with Count Dooku dead, the Separatists leaders are now taking orders directly from Darth Sidious. Later, we finally learn that Palpatine and Darth Sidious, the leaders of the Galactic Republic and Confederacy of Independent Systems respectively, are actually the same person. He was behind everything from the Trade Federation’s blockade of Naboo to the Clone War.

How come it wasn’t figured out before?

“Palpatine appears to be a hard-working politician -- and when you say the word politician, immediately you think about equivocation, which is the nature of the job. But at the same time, I know that underneath all that is an evil soul. The undercurrents are always there in his mind and in his gut. Everything he does is an act of pure hypocrisy, and that's interesting to play. I suppose it's rather like playing Iago. All the characters in the play -- including Othello until the end -- think that ‘Honest Iago’ is a decent guy doing his job, and he's quite liked. But at the same time there's a tremendous evil subconscious in operation.”

-Ian McDiarmid

The answer is that on the surface, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and Darth Sidious appear to be two completely different people. You can tell almost immediately that Darth Sidious is the villain by his black robe, sinister demeanor, and harsh, raspy voice giving orders. Palpatine, on the other hand, is warm, friendly and charming. We never see him badmouth anyone, and is always polite, professional and friendly towards the people he interacts with, especially a young Jedi named Anakin Skywalker. Basically, he is everyone’s favorite politician. Of course, that is just the mask he wears in public. Palpatine is just the performance while Sidious is his real identity. After his battle with Mace Windu, he dons a cloak that he wears in public showing that from then on, Palpatine and Sidious were one and the same. It could be argued that up to Revenge of the Sith, there were signs pointing to who Palpatine actually was.

Firstly, in Phantom Menace, we see Sidious talk with Maul on Coruscant, and in Attack of the Clones, we see Dooku land on Coruscant at an isolated facility to meet with Sidious. In other words, Sidious dwells on Coruscant, which would seemingly be a strange place for the leader of the Separatists to reside.

(Palpatine in Episodes I-III, left to right)

Secondly, let’s look at Palpatine’s wardrobe in Episodes I-III. Lucas often uses black and white colored clothing to show where characters are on the moral spectrum with Luke and Leia wearing white, Vader all in black and Han in black and white in A New Hope as one example. Look at the prequels, and you see Palpatine’s wardrobe get progressively darker with each installment, with Palpatine wearing the colors of red and black, and it is also the color scheme of his office. Both colors are associated with the Sith.

Finally, one must look at Palpatine’s scenes throughout the prequels beginning with the Phantom Menace.

PALPATINE: If I may say so, Your Majesty, the chancellor has little real power. He is mired by baseless accusations of corruption. The bureaucrats are in charge now.

AMIDALA: What options have we?

PALPATINE: Our best choice would be to push for the election of a stronger supreme chancellor, one who could control the bureaucrats and give us justice. You could call for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum.

AMIDALA: He has been our strongest supporter.

When Palpatine first suggests removing Supreme Chancellor Valorum, Queen Amidala refuses. However, he does plant seeds of doubt by highlighting Supreme Chancellor Valorum’s scandals and supposed weakness.

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Note the scene above after Valorum fails to get any concrete action taken over ending the Trade Federation’s blockade. Palpatine, by whispering the words to a frustrated Amidala “This is where Chancellor Valorum’s strength will disappear,” manages to get her to do what he originally suggested, and call for a vote of no confidence to remove Valorum from office. He is then conveniently nominated to run for Valorum’s office at the same time, and then perhaps more conveniently, manages to win thanks to the sympathy vote over the situation of his planet being the one suffering from the blockade.

One scene in Attack of the Clones has the viewer focused on the giant millipedes in Padme’s room sent to kill her, usually missing Obi-wan’s words on Palpatine in the background: “I have observed that he is very clever in following the passions and the prejudices of the senators.” Kenobi’s words suggest that there is more to this man than just the polite, warm face we often see, but a cunning political operator who manages to successfully gauge the members of the Galactic Senate and win their favor.

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Lucas also places a subtle hint at the end of Attack of the Clones. We see Palpatine overlooking the deployment of an army of clone troopers (who by their clear resemblance are the precursors to the stormtroopers) after he has been given greater power by the Senate, demonstrating the magnitude of the power he has now. Viewers can miss that the Imperial March from the original trilogy is playing in the background of this scene. It’s practically as if Lucas is saying “This is the beginning of the Empire.”

Then there is Kenobi’s talk with Dooku after he is captured.

DOOKU: He knew all about the corruption in the senate... but he would never have gone along with it if he had learned the truth as I have.

KENOBI: The truth?

DOOKU: The truth. What if I told you that the Republic... was now under the control of the dark lord of the Sith?

KENOBI: No, that's not possible. The Jedi would be aware of it.

DOOKU: The dark side of the Force has clouded their vision, my friend. Hundreds of senators are now under the influence... of a Sith lord called Darth Sidious.

Dooku stated that Darth Sidious controlled the Republic with the Senate under his influence. As to who Sidious could be and how he controls the Republic, well, who usually leads the Republic? Answer: the Supreme Chancellor. Take into account Obi-wan’s observation about Palpatine earlier in the film, and Palpatine undoubtedly knew how to make himself popular among the Senators and increase his influence. It was seen when he successfully managed to get the Senate to grant him emergency power with the measure being greeted with applause.

By the end of the prequels, Palpatine manages to turn Anakin, wipe out the Jedi Order and turn the Old Republic into the Galactic Empire. In short, he’s effectively won. He is one of the few villains whose evil plan actually succeeds.

Reign as Emperor

When he becomes emperor he proves to be a megalomaniacal, repressive tyrant. His empire could best be described as a human-supremacist, fascist dictatorship. He overturned many of the norms and taboos of the Old Republic when he turned it into the Empire. The Old Republic outlawed slavery while Palpatine regularly employed it in the Empire as the Wookies can attest to. The Old Republic, like any modern democracy, guaranteed certain rights to its citizens like due process whereas the Empire engaged in indefinite detention and extrajudicial execution. Darth Vader demonstrated that not even Imperial soldiers and high-ranking officers were safe from being extrajudicially executed. The Senate had representatives for every system and nearly every race in the Republic to ensure that every group had their voice heard, whereas Palpatine banned the Senate with nothing in the form of a representative body to replace it, and the powers of the Senate went to the Imperial military and governors who were overwhelmingly human males with practically no aliens or women within their ranks.

Like many rulers throughout history, Palpatine would go on to build a kind of monument to his rule. In ancient Egypt, the pharaohs’ rule was epitomized by grand projects like the Pyramids to ensure both a good journey to the afterlife, and a demonstration of their wealth and power. Palpatine went even further with his rule being epitomized by the Death Star, a gargantuan space station the size of a small moon capable of destroying entire planets that served as both a demonstration of his power, and for the more practical, if not evil, purpose of ruling the galaxy through the direct threat of force with any disobedient worlds potentially being punished with complete annihilation. He tellingly banned the Senate, the last vestige of the Old Republic, shortly after completion of the Death Star’s construction. He effectively sent the message that the Republic and its rule by representation had completely ceased to exist, and been replaced by the Empire with its “rule by fear.” By that point, his rule had become naked tyranny.

Fall

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Palpatine comes to Endor to ostensibly oversee the completion of the second Death Star, when in truth it is a plan to get the Rebel Alliance to launch an all-out assault and crush the Rebellion, and turn Luke to the dark side, making him his new apprentice. In the former, he underestimates the resourcefulness of the Rebels. In the latter, he misjudged Luke and perhaps, more grossly, he misjudged Vader. He had successfully manipulated people his whole life, and it came as a surprise when for perhaps the first time, one of his machinations failed. He was of course enraged at Luke’s rejection. With his “you’re either with me or against me attitude,” he then decided that if Luke wouldn’t turn then he had to die. To kill him, Palpatine used Force lightning as opposed to Force choking like Vader often did, simply because he wanted Luke to suffer for the bruising Luke did to his ego.

While Palpatine is an intelligent mastermind, he is still human, and actually slips in this scene, as he is overcome with uncontrollable rage to the point that it clouds his better judgement. Namely, he forgot that Vader was still there. In that moment, he failed to take into account how a man he knew slaughtered an entire village over his mother’s death and was willing to wipe out the Jedi Order to save his wife, would respond to seeing his son writhing and screaming in agony. It doesn’t take a genius to see that Vader wouldn’t feel comfortable witnessing that, and if Vader wanted it to stop, he would have no choice, but to turn on the Emperor since Palpatine was completely set on killing Luke, and wouldn’t have stopped even if Vader pleaded him to do so. Palpatine unwittingly put Vader in a position where he’d have to choose between his master and his son, and Vader ultimately chose his son. Palpatine’s reign ends up coming to an end when he is killed at the hands of his own apprentice.

Personality

Palpatine has some of Yoda’s qualities in that he is patient, calm, disciplined and intelligent. Both wear robes, and devote themselves to the Force, although Palpatine devoted himself to the dark side. Yoda used his abilities to devote his life in service to the galaxy while Palpatine used his abilities to devote his life to taking over and dominating the galaxy. He is the embodiment of the Dark Side of the Force. The end goal of the Dark Side is to dominate and control others. Palpatine has been about control his whole life with his ultimate goals being to dominate the galaxy, and his apprentice, Vader. However, in the end he proved he couldn’t achieve total control over either.

"He has a black irredeemable heart. There's nothing that can be said about him that's good. When we first saw Vader in the original trilogy we thought he was the heart of darkness, and nobody could be darker. But now we understand what happened to him. And one of the exciting things about seeing this movie is that you can follow Vader through Anakin's journey every step of the way even if you don't agree with the choices he's making. In part, his decisions stem from his traumatic childhood, and his impatient lust for power. And it's that which my character takes and then uses against him . . . I've been trying to find a redeeming feature to Palpatine, and the only one I've got so far is that he's clearly a patron of the arts because he goes to the opera"

-Ian McDiarmid on Palpatine

As a character, unlike his apprentice Darth Vader, Palpatine is a completely black villain with no redemptive qualities. We never see him show any compassion or empathy, and his aims are completely selfish, even willing to put others in harm’s way to achieve his goals. Palpatine is the personification of what psychologists call the dark tetrad. When psychologists were trying to list the traits of evil they came up with three, and later four traits:

Narcissism- The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual states that narcissists tend to act with grandiosity and self-importance, with a fixation on unlimited success, control, brilliance, or beauty, among many other things. Palpatine had grandiose plans for being the Emperor of the entire galaxy, as the actor who portrayed him, Ian McDiarmid, stated "Palpatine's an interesting character; he's conventional on the outside, but demonic on the inside -- he's on the edge, trying to go beyond what's possible." He sees himself as inherently superior, never seeing others as equals, but either as tools for or impediments to his own schemes. In Dr. Marie-Line Germain’s Narcissism at Work: Personality Disorders of Corporate Leaders, she states that narcissists often look attractive in a workplace setting, because they tend to be workaholics, clever, charming, and charismatic. They also excel at managing crises and at developing a brand. Palpatine possesses these traits as he manages crises well, albeit the ones he manufactured, and manages to sell himself to the Senate and public, appearing to be charming and charismatic. Dr. Germain further says "That is, power, influence, wealth, and fame — and beauty when it’s the case — reinforce their perception that they are exceptional individuals with exceptional talent and qualities and therefore, they deserve the best of everything," or in other words, when narcissists rise in power, their narcissistic traits increase. After Palpatine becomes Emperor, he basically acts like he owns the galaxy. He makes himself royalty complete with a palace. Dr. Germain also notes that "Once they get what they want from [employees] or if they call on them for their bad behaviors, they will discard them," and we see Palpatine basically do this to everyone involved in his schemes, particularly in Revenge of the Sith. After Dooku and the Separatists have served their purpose in his plans he literally discards them by having Anakin dispatch them. He does this to the Jedi, and later in A New Hope, the Senate, albeit, by disbanding the Senate rather than killing off the Senators.

Psychopathy- Psychopaths life often, using conning and manipulation for their own gain. Palpatine practically lied to everyone in the Galactic Senate, the Jedi and the Separatists, giving them false impressions when he had clearly different plans in mind. He doesn’t appear to express any empathy or compassion towards anyone, the only times he appears to do so, it is clearly insincere. Palpatine was willing to have his own planet blockaded and invaded to become Supreme Chancellor, and was willing to start a galactic civil war that resulted in the death and suffering of billions just to become Emperor. Palpatine, like psychopaths tend to do, thinks he is superior to everyone else, treating them as tools to be used and discarded at will. Psychopaths are also known to have short-tempers, and can display excessive anger, but only if challenged or someone gets in the way of their goal. When we see Luke refuse Palpatine’s offer of becoming his apprentice, that is when we see the normally controlled Palpatine go into a rage. Of course, Palpatine for the most part is a controlled psychopath.

Machiavellianism- People with this trait are pragmatic and manipulative. Palpatine had this in spades as he was shown in the prequels to be pragmatic by playing the long game to become Emperor of the galaxy. He was also shown to be incredibly manipulative from manipulating Padme into calling for a removal of the Supreme Chancellor and turning Anakin to the dark side to manipulating the Separatists into starting a war and the Senate into making giving him more power. Machiavellians prize power and wealth over relationships, focusing only on their own ambitions and interests. They often lack principles and values, and lie and deceive when required. McDiarmid commented “It's not so much about not having a moral center, it's just that the only thing that mattered is increasing power.” We’ve never seen Palpatine have much of anything in the way of a real relationship, and he prioritizes taking over the galaxy and his own self-aggrandizement over anything else. The actual Machiavelli would have given Palpatine praise for his machinations in his rise to power, but not for his actions after he became Emperor.

Sadism- In Return of the Jedi, after Palpatine utters the line “And now young Skywalker, you will die” he gives a little smile, showing that he is enjoying torturing Luke with Force lightning. One sees him smiling and laughing after Yoda is lying on the floor from a blast from his Force lightning in Revenge of the Sith. This is someone who clearly enjoys inflicting pain.

Palpatine is a bit like Han Solo in that he is out solely for himself, but unlike Solo, he doesn’t feel any real loyalty or care towards anyone. His line in Return of the Jedi: “His compassion for you will be his undoing,” shows that he regards compassion as a weakness, and he betrayed practically everyone who ever worked with him from the Separatists and his apprentices to his home planet and the Galactic Republic. One can judge just by looking at his treatment of his apprentices that he treats people as tools to be used for achieving his personal aims, and willingly discards them for the same reason. He has his apprentices killed off as soon as a younger, stronger candidate appears, and he has the Separatists pool their resources to support his plan, only to have them murdered in the end. He has the Senate make him Emperor, only to ban it after the completion of the Death Star so as to rule more directly through military force. You can find tyrants like him throughout history.

Historical Parallels:

Palpatine turning the Old Republic into the Empire in the prequels draws from actual history. History is full of republics turning into dictatorships and monarchies from Rome of antiquity to Germany of modern-day.

(Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus)

First, let’s look at Ancient Rome. Rome turning from a republic into an empire is well-known to anyone who has a basic understanding of Western history. The Old Republic borrows from the Roman Republic as evidenced by a unicameral legislature known as the Senate. Palpatine takes his name from "Palatine" the center of the seven hills of ancient Rome, which served as a site of several Roman imperial palaces. During times of crisis, the Senators would pick a dictator who was given emergency powers for a temporary period of time, and he was expected to return his power after his term expired or the crisis was resolved. Eventually, you had someone like Julius Caesar who maintained popularity and an army to make himself dictator for life. In Star Wars, the Galactic Senate gave emergency powers to the Supreme Chancellor with the expectation that he would return them when the crisis in the form of the Clone War ended, but like Caesar, Palpatine never gave up his power but made himself dictator for life. Julius Caesar, as well as his nephew Augustus, maintained control over the Roman Republic by commanding the personal loyalty of the Roman legions, since it is a cardinal rule that any government cannot survive without a monopoly on armed force. Palpatine likewise had control over the government through his popularity among the Senate, and commanding an army of clone troopers that he had under his direct control as Commander-in-Chief. As he said "I am the Senate” given the amount of influence he had among the Senate as well as executive power he had, and with the Grand Army of the Republic, he had the military power to effectively challenge any opponent to his rule, including the Jedi.

"Germany in the 1920s was you know the most civilized, at the peak of Western civilization, in the arts, in the sciences, highly democratic, functioning democratic institutions. A decade later, it was, you know, the pits of human history.”

- Noam Chomsky

Let’s look at a more modern example with the transformation of the Weimar Republic into Nazi Germany. Lucas borrowed a lot from the Nazis to create the Empire from the black uniforms with skullcaps of the Imperial officers to the name of Imperial troops coming from the paramilitary of the Nazi Party. The Empire had a fascination with superweapons like Death Stars while the Nazis worked on building weapons Europe hadn’t seen before like V rockets, early construction on an atom bomb and a massive multi-chamber gun, the V-3. That is without mentioning that in a galaxy with multitudes of intelligent species, the Imperial military is seemingly made up entirely of white men. Both are also fascist, bigoted regimes as Palpatine’s Empire was speciest just as Hitler’s was racist and anti-Semitic.

Like Palpatine, Hitler became Chancellor before becoming dictator. Hitler drummed up fear through the threat of Jewish and Communist subversion just as Palpatine played on the fears of a galactic civil war. As with any dictatorship, the first targets for persecution are the ones most likely to oppose the regime. In February 27, 1933, Hitler had the Reichstag burned down, blamed it on the German Communists in an attempt to take over the German government and then used the false flag attack to target the left-wing Strasserites of the Nazi Party who were purged in the Night of the Long Knives, and the German Communists who became the first ones put into concentration camps. Palpatine engineered the “assassination attempt” on himself so he could enact a campaign against the group most likely to effectively oppose his rule when he made himself Emperor: the Jedi. He pushed the tale that the Jedi were trying to overthrow the Republic, and used it to justify his campaign to wipe out the Jedi. He would have many Jedi killed off through Order 66, where like the Night of the Long Knives, the element of surprise was crucial. One month after the Reichstag fire, Hitler passed the Enabling Act, which dissolved the Reichstag, ended democratic rule and effectively turned Germany into a dictatorship. Palpatine likewise made himself Emperor turning the Republic into a dictatorship, and would go on to disband the Senate. After Hitler gained power, he violated the Treaty of Versailles which restricted the German military to no more than 100,000 men with no heavy guns, armored vehicles submarines or capital ships, by expanding and rearming the German military. Palpatine had to deal with the fact that the Republic had no military when he first became Supreme Chancellor, and subsequently had a clone army built. After he became Emperor, Palpatine would go on to expand the Imperial military, going so far as to create a certain planet-destroying superweapon to cement his rule (Hitler likewise was obsessed with V rockets). Hitler would go on to replace his title of Chancellor with Fuhrer (Leader) while Palpatine would replace his title of Supreme Chancellor with Emperor.

The events that led to the turning of republics into dictatorships was often war, and it has been noted that in any republic, including the US, the executive branch is most powerful during war. Palpatine knew this, and started the Clone War resulting in the Senate giving him emergency powers. As the war dragged on, the Senate voted increasingly to give the office of the Supreme Chancellor more power, and extend his term in office, in effect removing the limitations on the power of the Supreme Chancellor until eventually he became a dictator.

If you think it couldn’t happen today, take into account that in the United States, the executive branch has been noted to become increasingly more powerful over the decades. Presidents have been able to engage in military action in other countries without approval from the legislative branch, Congress, from Truman getting involved in the Korean War and Nixon bombing Cambodia and Laos to Obama engaging in regime change in Libya and Trump firing missiles into Syria. After the 9/11 attacks, the PATRIOT Act was passed that infringed on the Fourth Amendment with the NSA monitoring citizens’ phone calls without so much as a warrant. President Obama managed to authorize the killing of Anwar al-Awlaki with a drone strike despite being an American citizen entitled to due process, and not convicted or charged with a crime. In France, the emergency measures taken after terrorist attacks resulted in emergency measures that were arguably intended to be temporary, but were voted to be made permanent. The measures increase the powers of executives over surveillance, public space and searches at the expense of the rights of French citizens. Human Rights Watch criticized the move, saying:

The bill would grant increased powers to prefects, the interior minister’s local representatives, to designate public spaces as security zones, limiting who could enter and leave them; to limit the movement of people considered a national security threat; to close mosques and other places of worship; and to search private property.

The courts would have no role in approving the use of the first three powers, although there would be a limited right of appeal for orders limiting where a person has to live and for closing places of worship. A judge will have limited oversight of search powers. The lack of time limits and the bill’s vague definitions of terrorism and threats to national security exacerbates the concerns.

When the executive branch increasingly gains more power, and the government passes measures that sacrifice the principles and rights to its citizens it was founded on, then it is a republic potentially on a path towards a dictatorship. Once a government or authority figures is/are given increased power, they will be reluctant to give up that power. Even if they know the new powers given are only meant to be temporary, the temptation to retain them is great, even after the emergency or crisis is resolved. If they don’t want to give up their power, then taking it back will have already been made more difficult given handing over more power to them usually results in widening the gap in power that exists between the government and its people, or the executive branch and the other branches.

Final Thoughts

Palpatine is easily one of the most memorable and entertaining characters in Star Wars. You got to see all sides of him as a villain: happy, charming, manipulative, angry and menacing. He was menacing and devious in one moment, and charming and likable in the next. He managed to be one of the blackest of villains without the viewer knowing for two and a half films. Having a situation where a seemingly good character turns out to be a hidden villain can have mixed success, but in the Star Wars prequels it absolutely works. Palpatine proves to be so successful precisely because he was the threat that no one saw coming. His story effectively manages to serve as a cautionary tale about the dangers inherent in increasing government power at the expense of democratic principles, given there will always be ambitious people like Palpatine willing to exploit it. He is an enjoyable character, and I’m sorry to say that I don’t think that there will ever be a villain in Star Wars as impactful as him. He will always be an indispensable part of the Star Wars mythos.

May the Fourth be With You.

Sources:

Keen, Tony. (2012). I, Sidious: Historical Dictators and Palpatine's Rise to Power. In Astore, William; Decker, Kevin; Leidl, Janice, Star Wars and History (p. 125-150). Hoboken: Wiley.

Langley, Travis. (2015). The Good, the Bad and the Scruffy: Can We Define Good and Evil?. In Langley, Travis, Star Wars Psychology: Dark Side of the Mind (popular Culture Psychology) (p. 10). New York: Sterling.

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