Revenge of the Fifth or Why Emperor Palpatine is THE Most Villainous Disney Villain

By Nick


People love Disney Villains. I'm not that big a fan, I'm more of a heroes guy, but I suppose I get it. These often charismatic, and, yes, even stylish, protagonists often have the most character development, best lines, and often best songs.

Let's look at a few popular ones. Maleficent. Cursing a baby is indeed a bad thing. Turning into a dragon is a neat trick as well. Ursula. Sea Witch. Nasty. Enslaves poor unfortunate souls. Cruella DeVille. Wants to make a coat out of puppies. Ouch, that IS sick. Chernobog, Demon. Throws wicked dance parties. Hmmm....

But now, let's look at MY choice of Baddest of the Bad. Emporer Palpatine/ Darth Sidious, Sith Lord from the first 6 Star Wars films.

Let me break it down by film. I'm going to go in chronological order of events rather than film release.

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Palpatine IS THE Phantom Menace. He appears to be nothing more than a kindly Senator from Naboo, while in fact he is pulling the strings on pretty much all of the bad stuff going down, and he's doing it right under the nose of the Jedi Council.

The Star Wars films are sometimes referred to as the story of Anakin Skywalker, but, really, if not for Palpatine, Anakin would probably never have even gotten off of Tatooine!

Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.  Through various manipulations, Palpatine starts The Clone Wars.
And who ordered the clones created? It isn't made totally clear, but it's pretty easy to follow their origins back to Palpatine.

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. It might as well have been titled Revenge of Palpatine, who manages to pretty much simultaneously form The Galactic Empire, have himself made Emperor, turn Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side of the Force creating Darth Vadar, and have almost every single Jedi, including "the younglings" killed. Now THAT was a bad days work.

Star Wars Episode IV, V and VI. All the bad stuff that happens can be linked directly back to Palpatine. That includes a galactic war and the creation of a battle station capable of destroying entire planets with one shot.

And if not for the last minute change of heart of Darth Vader, who knows what other shenanigans Emperor Palpatine might have gotten up to?

In fact, it is very evident from the previews for the upcoming Star Wars VII, (have you seen them, they gave me chills) the galactic war set in motion by Palpatine is STILL affecting everything happening in a Galaxy far, far away, 30 years later.

Who is your favorite Disney villain?