Do you read Clone Palpatine as the same character?

[Q99]

Thinking about Dark Empire and the Clone Emperor, and... I realized I kinda think of them as pretty separate characters.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I do buy Clone-Palps has Palpatine's spirit, but going through death (perhaps multiple times), and clone degradation.... He comes off as a very, very changed person to me (in a way I'd believably buy as a character change). His plans are more nihilist, wanting to drain life from the galaxy, and eschewing politics in favor of raw destruction. Sure, he was the maker of the Death Star to begin with, but while the DS was 'rule by fear of force,' by Dark Empire it came across as more as 'force for it's own sake.' Anyone else get that vibe?

Darth Krayt, quite notably, underwent a not-dissimilar change upon his return from death.

[Galvatron]

Not surprising since the clone Palpatine was written long before the prequels fleshed out his character. Before then, all the writers had to base him on was the deformed and cackling guy we all saw in ROTJ.

[Abacus]

I always figured that by bathing in the pure *stuff* of the Dark Side via the process of transferring his essence each time just made him further and further mad.

[Galvatron]

Like Ra's al Ghul?

[Q99]

Not surprising since the clone Palpatine was written long before the prequels fleshed out his character. Before then, all the writers had to base him on was the deformed and cackling guy we all saw in ROTJ.

True, though even then he was definitely more extreme. The addition of the PT and other novels just added to that.


And the death and rebirth does give us a nice break point to explain such differences- he seems to have grown more destructive, less focused on ruling, as well as gained some new force powers (planetary life drain, force storm).

[Solauren]

I go with the 'he's going insane' at this point.

Maybe the Dark Side version of an age related mental disorder.

[Q99]

One thing I find kinda interesting is he's been even more open on training more dark-side force users (that is, he had the Inquisitors, but this time he pretty much announces to the galaxy he's training dark side forceusers).. but even then before the RoT was *really* codified, there was a definitely difference between the ironically named Dark Side Elite, and a proper apprentice, of which he was clearly all about Luke and none of the 'elite' were even candidates worth considering.