The arch-manipulator, the man with the plan who manages, almost single-handedly, to bring down a galactic civilisation and their police force of invincible sorcerer-knights and raise a new autocracy with his face stamped all over it ends up thrown down a bottomless shaft by his own apprentice. How on Earth does he allow himself to be placed in this position? The answer is that he doesnt just let it happen, he manoeuvres events to ensure that it does. When Vader tells him of the force-sensitive rebel he encountered, the Emperor puts two and two together like some kind of evil, hooded abacus, and from then on is obsessed with bringing the newborn Jedi into the fold. But why? In the days of the Republic he saw the benefit in murdering the entirety of the Jedi directly in their narrow-minded faces. He only turned one to the dark side: the moping oakfaced goon with the bad hair and the sulky attitude of a hormonal twelve-year-old. Twenty years later, the goon is a giant half-robot religious fanatic with no life except serving the Empire, and the Jedi are footnotes to history so when Palpatine finds out that his obsessive zealot enforcers son is alive and training to be a Jedi, does he have him killed? Wiped from existence like a clog of hair and mucous from the galaxys plughole? No, he arranges for him to be brought directly into his presence, at the centre of his forces, and in a position to confront his father and remind him about all of those lost Christmases. Its not the smartest play in the world, but then overconfidence is his weakness. Along with being thrown down bottomless shafts.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
