Emperor Palpatine's Only Redeeming Quality In Star Wars, According To Ian McDiarmid
"If [Darth] Vader is the great dark icon of our times, I'm blacker than him. I'm the blackest of the black," said Ian McDiarmid when speaking to Empire Magazine about his role as Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious, master of Vader and greatest villain of the "Star Wars" saga.
"Star Wars" emphasizes how the dark side leads to misery; Vader's portrayal across the original trilogy is about the rediscovery of humanity buried within a monster. Palpatine is the exception; he's an enigmatic sadist utterly devoid of conscience or attachment.
In the prequel trilogy chronicling his rise to Emperor, Palpatine orchestrates an invasion of his homeworld in a complex plot to ride the sympathy vote to the Chancellorship, sparks a ruinous galactic civil war, and ultimately ends 1000 years of democracy (though some might argue that he just hastened the end of the Republic's corrupt husk).
McDiarmid has played Palpatine on and off for over 40 years since he was 37 years old. At this point, he's well-acquainted with the Dark Lord of the Sith and his different faces, each one more malicious than the last. In his own words:
"The great thing in playing [Palpatine] is that it's clear in "Episodes I" and "II" that he's a hypocrite, a hypocritical politician, so that's what you play. And then there is this dark person in a black robe who crops up. He's a solid block of evil. No redeeming features."
The actor has also argued that Palpatine is even worse than the Devil himself: "At least Satan fell — he has a history, and it's one of revenge." McDiarmid would know since he also voiced Satan in a "Paradise Lost" radio drama.
There is one sympathetic quality of Palpatine that McDiarmid will concede — even a Sith Lord loves good opera.
The opera of the Star Wars
In "Revenge of the Sith," when Palpatine regales a naïve Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) with the Tragedy of Sith necromancer Darth Plagueis, they're sitting in a theater watching an opera. Supplementary material names the show "Squid Lake" (as in the real ballet "Swan Lake"). Neither character pays much attention, but the camera shows us glimpses of the performance; the show consists of dancers swimming inside levitating bubbles. "[Palpatine] is obviously a patron of the arts," McDiarmid wrily observed to Empire. Observe how, as Supreme Chancellor, Palpatine decorates his office with bronze statues too, so he must have admired the craftsmanship.
Fascists aren't usually big on the arts (they come with that pesky creativity), but according to McDiarmid, Darth Sidious may have been the exception. I imagine the Palpatine administration must have carved out a budget for theater funding in between all the military spending. This doesn't make Palpatine more noble, but it does make him a teensy bit more human; it turns out there is something in the universe that brings him joy beyond seizing power and torturing foes with Force Lightning. McDiarmid himself is mostly a stage actor, so it makes sense that he took note of Palpatine sharing his passion.
It's a shame we haven't gotten a scene of Palpatine attending a theater production and having an Angelus-style reaction ("I cried like a baby — and I was evil!").