Star Wars fans are well aware that a truly powerful Sith will allow oneself to become consumed by hatred for the sake of power, and fans also know that Emperor Palpatine is one of the strongest Sith in the franchise. So, naturally, the question arises: what does Palpatine hate? As it turns out, Palpatine actually draws his dark side power from a very specific (and terrifying) type of hate.
In Darth Vader Vol. 2 #8 by Charles Soule and Giuseppe Camuncoli, Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine are punishing an Imperial Officer who failed them. Darth Vader held the colonel in place with a Force-choke while Palpatine scolded him, though Vader nearly took things a bit too far, and almost killed the man. Palpatine tells Vader that he needs to control his grip on the dark side without letting it control him. However, the Emperor also said he empathized with Darth Vader’s hatred.
“With the Jedi gone, very few opponents remain who are worthy of our skill and power. It can be… deadening, I know.” said Palpatine to Darth Vader after the colonel had left the room. Palpatine continued, “We are surrounded by lesser beings who deserve only our hate. Our contempt.” In other words, Palpatine is telling Vader that it’s not only understandable to hate everyone around him who the Sith see as lesser (which indeed they are in terms of strength in the Force), but it’s necessary to reach untold levels of power.
Every Sith draws their hatred from one source or another. Darth Maul was raised by Palpatine to hate the Jedi, and every individual member of the Order. Count Dooku came to hate what the Jedi represented, and knew the ways of the Sith were the only way to extinguish the Jedi’s ‘evil’ in the galaxy. Darth Vader held immense hatred for himself, which is how he was able to grow in power following his initial corruption.
While Star Wars fans have known the source of hatred for these other Sith for some time, Palpatine was always something of an enigma in that regard. There never seemed to be an obvious point of Palpatine’s contempt, with his desire for power seemingly acting as his sole driving force to continue down the dark path of the Sith. However, after the conversation with Vader in this Darth Vader issue, it’s clear that Palpatine literally hates everyone, and that hatred only grows the more powerful he gets, which is a terrifying self-sustaining cycle that grants Darth Sidious untold strength.
In Star Wars: Darth Vader #40, Palpatine reveals that the more people who hate him, the stronger he becomes. In fact, inspiring hatred in the galaxy is the real purpose of the Death Star, as the power he’d get from trillions of life forms despising him simultaneously would have been unfathomable (if the Death Star wasn’t immediately destroyed both times it was built). This means that Palpatine’s hatred of everyone in the galaxy makes him immeasurably powerful, and their hatred of him also contributes immensely to his ever-growing strength – proving that Darth Sidious is, indeed, a true Sith Master.
While both avenues of channeling dark side energy are integral to Palpatine being the powerful Sith Lord fans are familiar with, his initial hatred of everyone around him was how he became powerful enough to claim the title of Emperor in the first place. Therefore, it’s fair to say that Emperor Palpatine’s true source of power is his self-sustaining contempt for all life in the Star Wars galaxy, and that is absolutely terrifying.
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