Star Wars creator George Lucas' conceptualization of Palpatine and the role the character plays in his space-fantasy saga has changed over time. Initially, the character was a corrupt politician turned ruthless ruler inspired by Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, Adolf Hitler, and Richard Nixon, with a dash of Flash Gordon's Ming the Merciless for good measure.
He became much more than that — an icon of American pop culture symbolizing the corrupt, greedy, and sinister among us.
He represents the pure evil — the Dark Lord of the Sith who is purely out to get more power. As noted in Laurent Bouzereau's Star Wars: The Annotated Screenplays , "The Emperor had barely been dealt with in the first movie, and the intention in the sequel was to deal with him on a more concrete level. He may be the one who is saved for the end. When you get rid of the Emperor, the whole thing is over.
The final episode is the restoration of the Republic. By November , Lucas had produced a handwritten treatment that's similar to Empire's final script, minus one major revelation. In Brackett's first draft, based on the treatment, Luke's father appears as a ghost to instruct his son. Unfortunately, Brackett died of cancer before a second draft could be written, leaving Lucas to pen the next draft alone. In this draft, he introduced a new plot twist: Vader as Luke's father. In , Lucas commissioned Lawrence Kasdan to write the next drafts with additional input from director Irvin Kershner.
In Lucas' new backstory, the Emperor wasn't just a power-hungry bureaucrat but a Dark Lord of the Sith — an evil Force wielder who rose to power, in part, by corrupting Anakin Skywalker and rebranding the fallen Jedi as his Sith apprentice, Darth Vader.
In the finished film, the Emperor makes his on-screen debut, albeit in hologram form. The Emperor appears to inform his apprentice that they have a new enemy: Luke Skywalker. The son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi. This change also provided a springboard to the "Tragedy of Darth Vader" storyline that would serve as the backbone of the Prequel Trilogy.
Palpatine becomes the ultimate personification of evil in Star Wars , replacing Vader as the central villain. Vader has dignity, but the Emperor in Jedi really has all the power. It is written "Emperor Palpatine". As soon as I heard about the Senator Palpatine I automatically made the link.
This said and all of the other answers, there were many ways to get the information about episode 1,2 and 3 before episode 1 came out. The name was first mentioned in the prologue to a novelization of Star Wars and Luke uses the name once in the novelization of Return of the Jedi.
So he had his name at least as early as Up the post Nikie is right. It told the story of the Star Wars characters including Palpatine. Not only was it told that Palpatine became the Emperor but I believe it also mentioned a very important Star Wars lore point which many have forgotten. In the booklet it mentioned that Emperor Palpatine foresaw his own death and that it was Anakin Skywalker who would kill him.
I hope someone else remembers this cause apparently Lucas took this out of Star Wars lore. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How did people know Emperor Palpatine's name before the release of Prequel Trilogy?
Ask Question. Asked 7 years ago. Active 1 year, 7 months ago. Viewed 40k times. Improve this question. ChaseMedallion ChaseMedallion 1 1 gold badge 5 5 silver badges 5 5 bronze badges. As a side-line to this: His name is now officially Emperor Sheev Palpatine. It seems he gets a new part of his name in each generation of movies. Emperor in the originals, Emperor Palpatine in the prequels and Emperor Sheev Palpatine in preparation for the new one currently in production.
Like how we all knew Wicket's name, even though none of the Ewoks' are named in the film. I believe Wicket is named in the script and end credits, but what eight-year-old was reading those in ? Toys and merchandising. Michael: Or, for that matter, the name of the Ewoks themselves.
The word "Ewok" appears nowhere in the movies. Did you play X-Wing or Tie-Fighter? I'm almost sure the name was mentioned there, but don't have a reference. MichaelItzoe: The Ewoks at least had a bunch of spin-off movies and a cartoon series with their names mentioned.
Palpatine was stuck in the books until Show 4 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. It makes sense that Palpatine is named after Shiva. In Hindu mythology, Shiva destroys the world in order to recreate the world.
This is similar to Palpatine destroying one world the Republic in order to create a new one the Galactic Empire. In addition, Palpatine had godlike powers.
0コメント