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One interesting idea I've read is that in Nazi Germany, Hitler was in some respects a "moderate" National Socialist. He was a genocidal totalitarian warmonger, but in some aspects, such as dealing with non-Jewish/Communist/Roma/etc. populations, he largely let conquered peoples be unless they were involved in resistance movements. Apparently, Goebbels and Roehm were worse, and Himmler was worst of all, a radical Nazi.

Similarly, was Emperor Palpatine truly the worst top Imperial of all? In an Infinities AU, could there be more totalitarian, more bloodthirsty, more evil contenders? In some ways, Palpatine ended up being an old husk of a Sith, distracted by court politics and allowing entities such as the corporations to continue without harassment. So who would have been more horrible successors to him?

Tarkin is probably a good example. A true believer in the New Order, the rule of the Galaxy by fear, a genocidal technocrat through and through. He's someone who took Palpatine's NO beliefs to further extremes. I'm not sure if there were any others.

Did Palpatine have any Dark Side cultists who were more radical in their beliefs of the Sith?

There was some Moff or another who cruised the Outer Rim looking for primitive species to dissect - all of them. A veritable Space Mengele.

Palpatine could hardly be described as a husk, he built the Empire in the image of the Sith: the powerful competing for greater strength at the peril of the weak, and the improvement of the whole through this. He rewarded the strong and loyal with favor, and generally saw to it that the strong and overambitious were either watched or killed. By setting up and encouraging a system that allowed abhorrent beings like Tarkin to run free, one might easily argue Palps is a far worse guy.

Palpatine's largely hands-off approach to governing seems more a PR stunt than anything: up until Alderaan, I gather he was viewed as an aging old man who was being taken advantage of. In this manner, he didn't endanger the love of the citizens, but got to set up his domain in the ruthless image he wanted, cackling all the way, no doubt.

If you want to include the (stupid) EU Palpatine, there's little doubt he was a monster unparalleled, what with his ambition of basically eating the galaxy.

ArcturusMengsk wrote:There was some Moff or another who cruised the Outer Rim looking for primitive species to dissect - all of them. A veritable Space Mengele.

The man you speak of is Grand Admiral Pitta.

He's pretty much the worst there is in the Empire. COMPNOR is a notoriously wretched lot.

For what i saw (very few: here in Italy we didn't see a SW novel from ten years), Palpatine was a very ambitious politician that actually FORGED his men, as Tarkin limited himself to formalize the Imperial terror doctrine simbolized by the Death Star (whose initial project was made for Dooku and his master Palpatine). The so-called 'space Mengele', the teeth addicted governor Nereus of Bakura and other crazy warlords were the extreme conseguences of the New Order, but the New Order was the ideal of Palpatine, born from his mind and his vast plot. Perhaps they were the worst of the New Order, but all Moffs and some planetary governors were personally chosen by the Emperor, by Palpatine.

If you believe the original ANH novelization, Palpatine was manipulated by the people he appointed to fix the Republic and Palpatine wasn't the supreme "evil"

Warsie wrote:If you believe the original ANH novelization, Palpatine was manipulated by the people he appointed to fix the Republic and Palpatine wasn't the supreme "evil"

Of course you know that was a great big lie. Episodes I - III show how much Palpatine loves to pull the strings in the background. As long as he keeps up the I'm nice act the better.

Probably Tarkin. He was one of the brain childs for the death star and squashed protesters with no regret [he got a promotion for this]. Though I am unsure how the Palpatines force users would fair [Jerec would be an interesting choice]?

Warsie wrote:If you believe the original ANH novelization, Palpatine was manipulated by the people he appointed to fix the Republic and Palpatine wasn't the supreme "evil"

Palpatine was clearly a beloved leader, and at first the people cannot believe that he was the one to blame. Simpler blame Tarkin, Vader and his other brainchildren.

Isolder74 wrote:

Warsie wrote:If you believe the original ANH novelization, Palpatine was manipulated by the people he appointed to fix the Republic and Palpatine wasn't the supreme "evil"

Of course you know that was a great big lie. Episodes I - III show how much Palpatine loves to pull the strings in the background. As long as he keeps up the I'm nice act the better.

okay.

lord Martiya wrote:
Palpatine was clearly a beloved leader, and at first the people cannot believe that he was the one to blame. Simpler blame Tarkin, Vader and his other brainchildren.

Hmmm...but Imperial Propaganda and news showed Vader to be a hero, as he stood up to the "Traitorus Jedi"(well technically he did), and much of the Galaxy liked the Empire (as well as that most of the bad things happened in the Outer Rim, which many of those worlds and territories went CIS in the CW, so the Core Worlds might not care or say it's payback for what Griveous and the CIS did to them.

Palpatine's public role in the Empire is in some sense comparable to that of the Tennō in late 19th/early 20th century Japan. Like the Tennō, he had enormous prestige; "Who's Who in Star Wars Galaxies" says he is "known to the citizens of the Galactic Empire as a frail, beloved old man" for whom "the support of the ignorant masses" is "unwavering" (Coruscant and the Core Worlds adds that many Imperial subjects "regard Palpatine as a demigod"). And like the Tennō, he was remote; Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker calls him a recluse "seen only by those who needed to see him," to which The Ultimate Visual Guide adds that he "seldom leaves his palace on Coruscant."

Like the Tennō, he is removed from the day-to-day management of the Empire's affairs. The Death Star Technical Companion and The New Essential Guide to Characters establish in no uncertain terms that senior advisors like Ars Dangor and Grand Vizier Sate Pestage controlled the Imperial State, functioning in much the same way as the Tennō's prime ministers (the Dark Empire Sourcebook even says that "major decisions made by ministers or advisors had to be personally ratified by his chosen servants," who answered on his behalf). The Death Star Technical Companion shows that Dangor replied to holomessages addressed directly to the Emperor, and that it was he that actually approved the Death Star Project and implemented the Tarkin Doctrine.

The prologue of Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker makes clear that Palpatine's "assistants and boot-lickers he had appointed to high office" were publicly seen to be manipulating him, and that "Imperial governors and bureaucrats" were seen to use "the imperial forces and the name of the increasingly isolated Emperor to further their own personal ambitions." There was a successful divorce of the person of the Emperor from the acts of the State; oppression was not blamed on the Emperor, but rather on his self-serving ministers and proconsuls (in Star Wars: From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker, Biggs Darklighter, a recent recruit to the rebel Alliance, tells Luke Skywalker that "the Empire may have been great and beautiful once, but the people in charge now -- ").

The truth of the matter, however, is different. Palpatine was very involved in controlling his empire; Darksaber shows that he was closely involved in the details of the Death Star Project, despite the fact that there is no actual paper trail tying him to it (as noted, Dangor actually approved the project). In Return of the Jedi, he reflects on his everyday dealings with "traitorous lieutenants who betrayed their superiors for favors," "weak-principled functionaries who gave himt he secrets of local star systems' governments," "greedy landlords," "sadistic gangsters," and "power-hungry politicians." This is not surprising; as Darth Sidious he had long been at the center of a vast network of informers, spies, and agents-in-place, which the Dark Empire Sourcebook reveals he continued to control for decades, even after his acclamation as Galactic Emperor. Simply put, he never stopped using his para-state spynet, and continued to exert his influence invisibly, manipulating people and events behind the scenes even as others believed themselves to be manipulating him, the "sick old man."

Publicly, Palpatine was not involved in the Imperial State's many (and often egregious) crimes. Indeed, the large majority of his crimes would never be provable in any credible court of law. Nevertheless, it is misleading to call him a "moderate" or to claim he was altogether blameless. He was intimately involved in countless crimes, ranging from simple blackmail to outright genocide. He created and manipulated a system in which he allowed power-hungry psychopaths and mass-murderers like Wilhuff Tarkin, Lord Hethrir, and Danetta Pitta to indulge their murderous whims. Adalric Brandl's teacher once commented that -- like the Tennō -- Palpatine had little blood on his own hands. That does not, however, absolve him from responsibility for the sanguinary state of his hand-picked servants' hands.

When it comes to the question, "Was Palpatine the worst?", one must first take into full account the extent of the man's crimes. He was guilty of a truly staggering number of crimes, including treason, war crimes, murder, grand larceny, fraud, malfeasance in office, criminal negligence, tax evasion, espionage, sabotage, kidnapping, racketeering, corrupt influence, aiding and abetting terrorism, and large-scale conspiracy to commit all of the above. Based on the out-of-universe knowledge, one can say with confidence that he was guilty of all four of the classic Nürnberg offenses -- conspiracy to commit crimes against peace, waging war of aggression, war crimes, and crimes against sapience -- on a galactic scale.

He knowingly and deliberately set into motion a conspiracy that resulted in a vast civil war resulting in trillions of deaths and incalculable property damage. He approved the creation and use of weapons of mass destruction as part of a concerted policy of state terrorism. He created and actively used agencies of religious persecution and political repression, including the creation of a gulag archipelago. He manipulated and subsidized the creation of a totalitarian political party that made liberal use of thought police tactics (up to and including outright brainwashing). He perpetrated cultural rape, murder, and plunder on a vast scale, and he played an active part in encouraging (and benefitting from) gross irresponsibility in some of the galaxy's largest multistellar corporations.

Palpatine of Naboo is guilty of crimes on a scale that literally boggles the mind. He has ties to organized crime, terrorism, political and religious repression, and outright kleptocracy. As egregious as his many crimes of commission are his even more numerous crimes of ommission; he did nothing to prevent the practices of slavery, bigotry, and genocide -- illegal even under his own laws -- by his subordinates. Not only did he not lift a finger to punish such prodigious malefactors as the Prince Xizor, Wilhuff Tarkin, Lord Hethrir, Danetta Pitta, Delvardus, and Yittreas, he actively worked to increase their power, giving them ever greater freedom to indulge their blackest appetites.

One must remember that Palpatine's ultimate ambitions were far beyond "mere" totalitarianism. He was a malignant narcissist whose conception of a Sithian theocratic utopia involves the actual consumption of his unwitting thralls; the fully matured politics of Palpatine is ultra-totalitarian, a sort of perverse anarchy. He identified himself as the ultimate arbiter of good and evil, and regarded anyone who was not a Sith as being objectively inferior. It is difficult to conceive of anyone as having "more radical" beliefs than he.

Thank you for the comprehensive answer.