(Star Wars) Question about Palpatine

[Umbran]

Hrm. All the more reason Jorus wouldn't be a logical theoretical mentor - can't see a Sith Lord wanting to go to the edge of the galaxy, cooped up with a bunch of Jedi, while his apprentice takes over the government.

Who says that Palpatine's original training has to be Sith? There seems to be a solid tradition of seducing (or attempting to seduce) Jedi to the Dark Side. So, maybe Palpatine "pulled an Anakin"...

And, perhaps sending a friend and mentor off to his death would be a nice first step on that slide? Or maybe the final step? Hmm..

The only argument I can see against this is that the Jedi Council seems to like to keep track of Jedi. It'd be kind of hard for them not to know that Jorus or some other Jedi had an apprentice that later got into the Senate. I'd figure Yoda would frown on such things...

 

[Melkor Lord Of ALL!]

Sith have been in hiding for 1000 years, maintaining The Rule of Two. Palpatine can`t be a former Jedi, The Council would have been suspicious of him.

 

[A2Z]

If Palpatine were once a Jedi you'd think someone would have mentioned it by now. I think it far more likely he was always a Sith Master/Lord/Apprentice.

 

[Atticus_of_Amber]

What we know...

We know Palpatine was the Senator from Naboo at the start of TPM. That tends to indicate that he was from Naboo. If he wasn't born there, he'd have had to be a long-standing immigrant. Of course it's possible that planets hire political "professionals" from outside to be their senators, but I find that unlikely.

We know Naboo is part of the Republic - otherwise it would not have a senator.

We know that within the Republic, childeren are tested for Force potential early and then recruited to the Jedi Order.

We also know that Palpatine must have had a pretty good force potential. If he grew up within the Repubic, he would have been recruited early as a Jedi.

We can be pretty sure that Palpatine was never a jedi or received jedi training. The council would know. He might have disguised himself but, again , I find that unlikely.

So. Palaptine was trained by the previous Sith master. It's possible he was a fallen Jedi, but that is very unlikely, especially since the Sith have been in ultra-hiding until the time of TPM (Darth Maul's one line, "At last we will reveal ourselves to the jedi! At last we will have our revenge!")

If Palpatine was a native of Naboo and was not a fallen Jedi, then something must have been done to keep him hidden from the Jedi recruiters. This means he was probably "recruited" by the Sith as a baby, which supports the "son of a Sith" hyposthesis. This provides the tantalising possibility that the Sith have actually been hiding on idylic Naboo for centuries, right underthe Jedi's noses...

Alternatively, Palpatine immigrated to Naboo early and insinuated himself into the power structure there until he was elected/appointed senator. Perhaps the Sith had been planning and scheming beyond the Rim and Palpatine was especially trained by his master to go infiltrate the Republic. "Darth Sideous" certainly has that seductrive, infiltrating, insidious ring to it. If the Sith master names the apprentice, that makes sense... As does "Darth Maul" for Darth Sidious' bully boy and "Darth Tyranous" for Darth Sidious' "Tyrant of the separatist movement"...

 

[JacktheRabbit]

It is mentioned in a book that Thrawn commanded a detachment of ships sent out to destroy the Jedi Masters ship.

Yeah, that was it. I'd forgotten about them being friends - I just assumed he had someone cut the brakes in their ship so the Jorus clone wouldn't go crazy. Well, crazier.

Hrm. All the more reason Jorus wouldn't be a logical theoretical mentor - can't see a Sith Lord wanting to go to the edge of the galaxy, cooped up with a bunch of Jedi, while his apprentice takes over the government.

(Well, unless he knew about the NJO stuff that was going to happen, and wanted to retire in peace, I guess. )

 

[Rel]

Re: What we know...

If Palpatine was a native of Naboo and was not a fallen Jedi, then something must have been done to keep him hidden from the Jedi recruiters. This means he was probably "recruited" by the Sith as a baby, which supports the "son of a Sith" hyposthesis. This provides the tantalising possibility that the Sith have actually been hiding on idylic Naboo for centuries, right underthe Jedi's noses...

But the only way that could happen would be...

I GOT IT!!

Palpatine spent his formative years being raised by the Gungans! That would explain why his force potential was never realized by the Jedi (as he was located in an underwater city). Plus, living among the Gungans for any length of time is bound to turn you to the Dark Side.

Eventually, Palpatine got sick of the Gungans and developed an alter ego who started killing them by the dozen. The Gungans figured out that it was a human and therefore developed a mistrust of the Naboo.

After Palpy left the Gungans and went to live among the Naboo, they asked him where he had been all those years. He told them that he was raised by Gungans. "You were raised by Gungans?! And you didn't turn to the Dark Side of the force and kill the lot of them? Wow, you've got supernatural self control and the ability to get along with someone you despise. How about being our senator?"

And the rest is history.

This also ties in with my theory that Palpy concocted his entire plan to rise to power for the sole purpose of creating the Death Star and destroying the Gungans? After all, we don't hear anything about Naboo in the later movies.

Once he had the Death Star and had accomplished his mission of ridding the galaxy of Gungans (whom we don't see any of in the OT either), he figured, "Well heck, I've got the Death Star already. I might as well rule the galaxy with an iron fist."

It all ties together so nicely, doesn't it? Man, that George Lucas is a genius.

Or maybe I just need more coffee.

 

[Doc_Subtlety]

Atticus:
Thanks. That's pretty much what I was getting at, but you put it better.