Do we like them?

Do we like Emperor Palpatine?

A character from Star Wars (1980–2019)

Our score: 0 out of 10. Absolutely not. He's a manipulative tyrant who plays everyone, and the friendly politician act is only a mask for his hunger for power.

Palpatine is first seen in The Phantom Menace as a polite, soft-spoken senator from Naboo. He is kind to the young Queen Amidala and sympathetic to her people. He wins trust by seeming to be the one reasonable voice in a Republic that's falling apart. Fans know him best, though, as the hooded Emperor in the original trilogy, played by Ian McDiarmid in Return of the Jedi.

What makes him a great villain, and a terrible person to back, is how patient and persuasive he is. He flatters, offers help and gives friendly advice, and he's always steering people toward what he wants. He treats everyone around him as a tool, whether they are allies, apprentices or whole governments. McDiarmid has described him as a hypocrite, and that fits: the kind face is a performance.

The prequels show him engineering a galactic crisis, then using it to gather emergency powers. He's secretly the Sith Lord Darth Sidious the whole time. He turns Anakin Skywalker to the dark side by exploiting the young man's fears, then declares himself Emperor and wipes out the Jedi. The original trilogy shows the result: a fearful empire with the Death Star as its tool.

Even his fans would find it hard to defend him. He has no real loyalty, no mercy and no cause beyond power, so he gets a flat zero. He is a joy to watch and a disaster to follow.