This editorial was written before the release of Episode III.
Hiding, keeping secrets, duping people, duality—these are all themes that are at the forefront of the Star Wars saga. Padmé poses as a handmaiden and vice versa multiple times, Anakin and Padmé’s marriage is kept secret from pretty much everyone, the Sith hide in the shadows refining their evil machinations, Obi-Wan and Yoda hide themselves away on separate planets for years after Episode III, the Skywalker twins are separated and hidden at birth, Count Dooku is actually Darth Tyranus, the seemingly innocent Palpatine is actually an alter ego for an evil Sith Lord who will reveal himself for who he is and take over the galaxy as an Emperor—but is that last statement entirely true? Does he actually reveal himself or is it all about keeping things secret?
Palpatine will undoubtedly at some point declare himself Emperor. That much is certain, but will he publicly reveal himself as the Sith Lord, Darth Sidious to anyone? Will people know that the leader of the newly created Empire and the former Republic is actually a Dark Lord of the Sith? Will it become common knowledge? I’m going to speculate that the answer will be a hard no. It’s hard to come to any kind of conclusion on this without having seen Episode III, but we can speculate for now.
In Star Wars, the Sith are the personification of the Dark Side of the force. The Dark Side thrives in the shadows of secrecy. They enjoy being the menaces you don’t see but are ever growing in power and influence right under your nose. Keeping the secret of the Sith is paramount to their success and they will go to great lengths to keep that secret safe.
In The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul told his master, “At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we will have revenge.” Darth Sidious’ reaction to this was, “You have been well trained, my young apprentice.” One could interpret this as dodging the issue. He doesn’t necessarily agree that it’s a great idea to reveal the Sith to the Jedi or anyone else at the moment, but in order to set his plans in motion, perhaps it’s a necessary evil. Maybe this contemplative moment is actually when Sidious decides that the Jedi need to be completely exterminated as well. If the secret of the Sith’s return is to be known to the Jedi, then the secret is by definition compromised. As a result, the Jedi need to be wiped out—all of them. It’s the only way to be sure that the secret is kept intact and doesn’t spread beyond the Jedi.
The Jedi were aware of the Sith’s presence after the loss of Qui-Gon’s and Obi-Wan’s confrontation with Darth Maul. If you want to bring it home and make a modern comparison, the Jedi and the Galactic Senate are like the United States intelligence departments (CIA/FBI) and the US Government. Let’s say that a UFO lands in, oh, let’s say Roswell, New Mexico. Let’s also say that some kind of alien life form is found, dead or alive. Let’s then say that no one but some government people see this happen and the situation is controlled and kept quiet. Chances are that the government and intelligence agencies will not rush out and alert the media right away for fear of widespread interest and panic. This could be a similar situation with the Jedi and the secret of the Sith. The Jedi are aware of the return of the Sith after all this time, but they don’t have all the details so they’re in this odd position of actually helping the Sith’s cause by keeping everything a secret to avoid causing chaos in the Senate which would then trickle down through the galaxy as the word spread.
According to Episode III rumors at the time of this writing, some of the Jedi will finally become hip to the Palpatine/Sidious connection and confront the Chancellor about it. Mace Windu is allegedly one of the first casualties of the Sith agenda in Episode III. Rumor has it that he goes to see Palpatine armed with irrefutable evidence and forces Palpatine to show his hand. Unfortunately for Windu, Palpatine has not only one but two aces in his hole because at this point Anakin Skywalker has been appointed as his personal bodyguard helps deliver the final death blow to Windu after much Sith lightning has been unleashed and Palpatine is revealed as Darth Sidious to Windu’s surprised eyes. Mace Windu proved that he knew too much so he was wiped out as part of Palpatine’s clean-up plan to keep his secret safe.
I think that this moment in Episode III will be a major turning point in the Star Wars saga as a whole for many reasons.
Firstly, just by being present in the room at the time when all hell breaks loose between Windu and Palpatine makes Anakin immediately aware of the fact that something’s going on here that’s way beyond his scope, but not for long. After the events here, he’ll be in on the secret of the Sith via Palpatine/Sidious. He will no longer be in the dark in the metaphorical sense, but very much on the Dark Side of the force, having pledged his allegiance to Palpatine/Sidious. This is essentially the moment he becomes Darth Vader. Killing Mace Windu is a kind of poetic Dark Side justice for Anakin, which will resonate louder when you think back to Episode I when Windu denied Anakin his training and even Episode II when Windu seemed to boss Anakin around like a problem child he’s been forced to deal with instead of treating him with the respect he deserved. Destroying Windu represents Anakin destroying almost everything that’s been holding him back his entire career as a Jedi. I say almost because he still has yet to deal with Obi-Wan at this point in the saga. The lack of respect from those above him should play a major role in Anakin’s turn to the dark side. By the same token, the abundance of respect shown to him by Palpatine (while simultaneously playing on the Jedi’s disrespect) works in the same manner and makes the decision that much easier for Anakin.
Secondly, after the Mace Windu incident, it may appear to us that the jig is up, but in reality the situation may still be controllable. Palpatine/Sidious just needs a good alibi, some clean-up, and the word of his new apprentice to keep the secret of the Sith intact. But why doesn’t Palpatine just kill Mace Windu himself? Well, that would be a messy scenario if Anakin decided not to come to his cause. Having Anakin deliver the killing blow accomplishes a few key things. It makes Anakin ultimately responsible for Windu’s death. Palpatine could easily put all of the blame on him and no one else would dare refute the word of the Supreme Chancellor. Also, it forces Anakin to make a tough decision between honoring his Jedi oaths by helping Windu or carrying out his new job given to him by the highest authority which is to protect the Chancellor who is now in some kind of apparent struggle which could end in a bad way. In a sense, Anakin saves his own life unknowingly. If he didn’t choose to side with Palpatine, there would surely be two dead Jedi that day. Palpatine might have had to cover it all up somehow but he’s a crafty Sith and would surely find a way. If Mace Windu knows of his true identity, Palpatine has to assume that others also know. Thus, his hand is forced and the extermination of the Jedi has to now be moved up on the Sith priority list. The only way to make sure none of the Jedi talk is to make sure they’re either so disgraced that no one will believe them, or better yet, make sure they don’t talk at all by wiping the entire order from the face of the galaxy.
It won’t be long before the events of the day are known to Yoda and Obi-Wan and they’ll realize that they are indeed targets, no longer safe anywhere in the popular areas of the galaxy. It’s rumored that during Episode III, Yoda will also confront Sidious. An epic duel will ensue, leaving both masters of the force with scars (some visible, others not so visible) for the rest of their lives. During this confrontation, Yoda will know for sure what’s going on and will barely escape with his life. The problem is, Obi-Wan will be the only Jedi he can tell since all the other Jedi are going to be either dead or have one foot in the grave. As a result of all this, the Skywalker twins will be separated at birth for their safety as per Yoda and Obi-Wan, bringing us into the long wait until the events of Episode IV.
As you can see here, it’s clear that certain events in the saga can cause a cataclysmic domino effect. The death of Mace Windu will most definitely be one of these moments which starts a dramatic chain of events that will change the galaxy forever. One pivotal Star Wars moment overlooked by many is the moment Anakin first left his mother on Tatooine in Episode I. If Anakin had never left his home on Tatooine, he might have never become a Jedi. That would mean that he might have never become Darth Vader, making for a very different saga. That’s not to say that Darth Sidious would never have completed his agenda or gained a different apprentice, but having Anakin in the picture certainly did help things along. It also, however, contributed to Palpatine’s eventual downfall. Who knows what would have happened if Windu never confronted Palpatine? How much longer would things have gone unnoticed?
“Once secure in office he declared himself Emperor, shutting himself away from the populace.” — From the Star Wars Novelization prologue
In keeping with the secret of the Sith motif, it’s my opinion that Palpatine wanted his rise to power to be a quiet one, transparent to the general populace. The ideal situation would be that Palpatine would lock himself away in his office with a few advisors he could use as a communication outlet and declare himself Emperor, spinning the whole idea to make it appear a necessary thing to do for the benefit of the people. The secret would always remain intact, especially before the people of the former Republic. No one would ever know that there was a Sith Lord at the head of the galaxy. Everyone would think that it was still the former Senator Palpatine in office and not some wrinkly old Sith Lord in a black robe. The secret is kept safe and everything that transpires is invisible to the people of the galaxy who can go about living their lives without a care.
Mace Windu, Yoda, and the rest of the Jedi were all getting in the way, making waves and becoming a liability to the big Sith picture. They were always present and always threatening to compromise the secret at any time. Windu had to go, the Jedi had to go, and even the Separatists, who had now served their purpose, had to go. Their leader, Count Dooku, will allegedly be killed at the beginning of Episode III, so they’ll be leaderless and wondering what to do. Dooku promised the Separatists all kinds of things if they pledged their allegiance to him. They’re going to want something in return for this costly war, which is now over. They’re eventually going to come knocking, and with a large army behind them. Also, don’t forget that the Neimoidians (or at least Nute and Rune) are quite aware of Darth Sidious, so the secret will be compromised if they talk—and you know how reliable those Neimoidians can be. So they have to be destroyed as well, allegedly at the hands of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Palpatine’s new weapon.
According to a previously mentioned rumor, his confrontation with Yoda affects him physically, and in a big way. The way I see it, without having seen the film, there are two things that may happen which cause Palpatine to lock himself away, out of the public eye. Firstly, something must happen that causes Darth Sidious/Palpatine to lose his ability to appear as the Palpatine everyone knows. Yoda either unleashes some green holy hell on him or he has some kind of secret weapon Palpatine is unaware of. If he can no longer appear as the “nice guy” Palpatine, he has to lock himself away to keep the secret safe. Secondly, something has to happen to disfigure Palpatine/Sidious causing him to look like the Emperor we saw in Return of the Jedi. This is most likely tied to the first reason above but I’m separating the two because if he was only disfigured, he technically could retain the power to appear as the “nice guy” Palpatine. He wouldn’t have to worry about his appearance because as long as the ability is there to make himself look like someone else, it doesn’t matter what he really looks like. Once this ability is gone, however, he’s stuck with his real identity and for that, Palpatine will have to hide or else the secret may get out. According to Pablo Hidalgo, writing in the Star Wars Insider magazine (issue #73), something “very specific” happens to Palpatine in Episode III that does not happen to other Sith like Dooku or Maul. The question is, who or what is the cause of it?
Take a good look at the Darth Sidious of Episode I and Episode II. Notice how he really doesn’t look all that bad; certainly not as bad as he does in Return of the Jedi. His skin doesn’t appear to be all wrinkled and he doesn’t seem to have any trouble walking or moving. He doesn’t appear to have a cane, anyhow. This is most likely because the disfiguring event has yet to happen and will be seen on screen in Episode III.
So if everything discussed here comes to pass in Episode III, during the time between the trilogies, and even during the time period of the original trilogy, the secret of the Sith will be kept intact and the general public will go on thinking that the one time Senator Palpatine is still running the galaxy as a Chancellor who has now declared himself Emperor—out of necessity, of course—and for the benefit of everyone who will go along with the idea. That is, outside of a few who know the real story and have a few secrets of their own, plotting a Rebellion that would in time prove to be a powerful force to reckon with.
Say what you want about George Lucas and the prequels, but to me the whole story arc of Palpatine/Sidious and the Sith is nothing short of genius. It’s the result of years and years of careful research, planning, and writing which all leads to purely fantastic and out of this world entertainment.