Emperor Palpatine’s Only Redeeming Quality In Star Wars, According To Ian McDiarmid

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!”).