Star Wars The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire

by Chris Kempshall

The role of a historian—my role as a historian—is to try to tell you not just how but why these things happened.

Palpatine, for all his power, all his ability to pull the strings of government, his charisma as a senator, and his scheming as Emperor was not a flawless or insurmountable genius. If you strip away all these aspects and all his mystical powers, what you are left with is the real Palpatine. An arrogant, vicious, petty man. A man so utterly determined to rule the galaxy in as oppressive a manner as possible and yet, simultaneously, so full of wounded pride that even the smallest acts of rebellion or rejection produced violent responses.

Palpatine wanted to rule the galaxy, but he had no interest in running it.

While it would be these worlds who would provide much of the political momentum for the forthcoming secession, their industrial backers prepared for war and—cynically—profit.