Emperor Palpatine In Homeopathic Doses: A Sith Mistake

Wikipedia says “The Force” is….

“…a metaphysical, mysterious, and ubiquitous power in the Star Wars fiction franchise. Within the galaxy in which the franchise is set, characters refer to the Force as an energy that interconnects all things, maintaining cosmic balance. Particularly “Force-sensitive” characters, usually through rigorous self-discipline, training, and mindfulness, are able to connect to the Force and thus access and wield certain supernatural abilities such as limited degrees of superhuman strength, telekinesis, and clairvoyance.

Heroes like the Jedi, a peacekeeping group of warrior-monks, largely seek to ‘become one with the Force’, matching their personal wills with ‘the will of the Force’. This is evidenced by their ability to channel its powers, which they do towards selfless goals. Meanwhile, the Sith and other villains try to bend the additional abilities gained through the Force toward their own selfish and destructive desires. Throughout the franchise, this distinction is referred as the light side versus the dark side of the Force. In the conflict between the light and dark sides, characters’ actions are often described as either helping to bring balance to the Force or, its opposite, causing a disturbance in the Force.

Wikipedia and I may not completely agree all the time.

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Now, if you haven’t particularly read up on the Sith, And your basic concept of the force is that it lets you do spectacular acrobatics while fighting with beams of light, that’s perfectly fine.

It’s just wrong.

All right. If the Jedi are an ancient order of Force-users, dedicated to the use of the Light Side of the Force for peace and justice

(we have never actually seen them embodying peace and justice particularly successfully; we mostly see them as something like white-hat gunfighters from the 1950s, whose unbending morality happens to be backed up by just plain supernaturally superior fighting skills. But we digress)

…then what are the Sith, and why are there two?

If you’re really familiar with the Rule of Two, pardon me while I give a quick note on it:

“Always there are two. One to embody the power, one to crave it.”
-Kermit. Or Yoda. Some green Muppet, anyway

That’s how we learn of the Rule of Two. The Jedi believe in cooperation (in theory; I mean, we mostly see them as an intensely hierarchical order which ‘cooperates’ a bit more like feudal Knights and Lords of various ranks, but again, we digress…)

—but the Sith, particularly the ones we see in the film, there are only two. One extremely badass warrior, and someone he’s afraid of.

This is because the Sith realize that if the Force pervades everything, it could control everything. Wait, no, “control” is the wrong word. “Access” is probably the right word. I mean, the more powerful you are, the more you can bend the Force to your will, but the Force seems to have some kind of volition of its own; if it’s not with you, after all, you’re in bad trouble. It could access everything, and this would be an extraordinary amount of power.

And in the Palpatine books, we learn that the Emperor is, indeed, attempting to essentially extend his presence in the Force throughout the entire Galaxy. (Or is it Universe?) For example, while we watch him manipulate two other extremely powerful Force users, Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, he’s also canonically battle-meditating to empower the Imperial Fleet. The whole fleet, apparently. (Sorry. Admiral Thrawn figured it out. Sort-of changes the whole scene for me, you know?)

(And then we find out that he isn’t dead, either. And somehow, in the books, that’s not particularly a spoiler. And it’s STILL not as weird as Luke and Leia getting it on in Splinter Of The Minds Eye. But…we may be digressing again.)

Without giving you any spoilers, I can tell you: The Emperor is alive, he’s still one with the Dark Side of the Force, and he would really like to extend his influence in the Force throughout everything. He just hasn’t figured out how to do it yet.

This is because they don’t have LLMs in that Universe.

If they did, he could just iterate. He senses the Force incredibly well; he can probably sense its actions for many, many light-years. So he ought to be able to observe its patterns of use umpteen times until he knows its patterns incredibly well. He could probably do that in the background while he does…whatever Palpatine does for fun.

So if he’s able to tell the Force to extend his Forceness outwards, there seems to be no practical limit to how far his influence could reach.

…of course, he would then have very little control over it.

What if Palpatine’s influence in the Force could touch the hearts and souls of everyone in the Galaxy?

He couldn’t handle it.

I mean, he’s already pushing the limits. You know he’s not actually old, he just uses so much Dark Side energy that it enervates and ages his bodies and he needs to keep cloning new bodies?

(That’s not a spoiler EITHER, somehow.)

If the Dark Side WANTED to actually control everything, it would. Assuming the Dark Side and the Light Side of the Force are separate, which they aren’t; they’re both parts of the Force.

So all you’d end up with is…essentially…Palpatine’s influence extending over so many sentient beings that no entity, no matter how Force-infused, could possibly comprehend it in a sentient way.

There are two possibilities I see:

Palpatine would explode.
Palpatine would, indeed, be a part of everyone and everything. But there’d be SO MUCH of everything and SO LITTLE of Palpatine that even if Palpatine is the most focused, the most powerful Sith in history, he’s not going to end up in control of everyone.
He’s going to end up insignificant in everyone, and completely outside of himself. Which would presumably end the Sith.
There is no Number Three.

This has been your Sith Nerd Moment of the day.

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