Palpatine

He's the ultimate puppet master. He seized control of the entire galaxy through a con more than a decade in the making. He commands armies, deceives Jedi Masters, manipulates from the shadows, and unleashes malevolent Force lightning from his fingertips. He's Darth Sidious, Senator, Chancellor, Galactic Emperor, Dark Lord of the Sith, otherwise known as Sheev Palpatine. His endgame machinations make for good storytelling, and that’s where the imaginations of Star Wars authors run wild.

In this guide you’ll find a considerable number of Prequel-era books, mostly Legends-era, which show the both the good-natured Chancellor and the shadow-dwelling dark sider operating as separate personas living separate lives—one attends meetings with Senators; the other unleashes unfiltered wrath upon his apprentices when they fail him. Some highlights are Labyrinth of Evil and Darth Maul: Shadow Hunter. The ultimate classic on Palpatine is James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis. But it’s not for the faint of heart! It is the most in-depth look at the long-term plan of the Sith to culminate in the domination of the galaxy. Although named after his master, Darth Plagueis is as much about Sidious as his wise Muun master. Matthew Stover’s Revenge of the Sith novelization is in many ways the best Star Wars book, putting some of the best Palpatine scenes such as the Mon Calamari opera in the hands of a masterful author dramatizing the Shakespearian tragedy in a perfectly heartbreaking way.

For a Palpatine-centric Legends deep-dive, don’t ignore Dark Empire. It was published at ground-zero for the Expanded Universe: 1991, the same year as Heir to the Empire. (The Emperor looms large in the Thrawn trilogy, but only in the memory of Mara Jade). It’s a drastically different look at what might have happened after Return of the Jedi than either Zahn’s envisioning or the current canon version of events as seen in the Sequel Trilogy. We’ll leave it at this: Palpatine reborn!

Recent canon books have done an excellent job with the Emperor. One of the first books out of the gate after the Legends/canon rebranding was Lords of the Sith, where we find Palpatine and Vader stranded on Ryloth. Both Kieron Gillen’s and Charles Soule’s Darth Vader comics are some of the strongest Star Wars comics in existence and explore Vader’s complicated relationship with his father figure.

Of course, now’s the time to get excited about the Emperor again with The Rise of Skywalker right around the corner. Palpatine looms larger than ever.

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