Should Emperor Palpatine have been kept a secret?

Should Emperor Palpatine have been kept a secret?

I don’t know if anyone had talked about this topic before. Considering the fact that Emperor Palpatine from the original Star Wars trilogy was a major villain. We never knew his backstory until the not-so popular prequels.

That being said, Palpatine should have been kept in the dark. Instead of using the name, Emperor Palpatine, either Darth Sidious or “The Emperor” would work better.

At that time, George Lucas probably didn’t think of using the name, Darth Sidious while he made the original trilogy, which is quite understandable. Given that Chancellor Palpatine and Darth Sidious was the same person, one would wish that Lucas shouldn’t have given the twist away.

At first, I thought this was a terrible idea revealing the villain’s true nature early. When Chancellor Palpatine appeared in “The Phantom Menace,” we all knew he was secretly a Dark Jedi. Is this why people hated the prequel trilogy besides bad acting and cheap, special effects? In my opinion, the movies were good, but could have done much better. But my question lies on the biggest twist that shouldn’t have been revealed early in the prequel trilogy.

Why it should have been a big twist?

First off, I’m a person who likes surprises and not wanting to know information too soon. I’m pretty sure everyone does. But Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious should have been kept under our noses the whole time until the prequels. He was the main guy pulling the strings, not even the Jedi and the Coruscant citizens had any clue that he was operating among their ranks.

Let’s say that Lucas had taken this mystery route. In the prequel trilogy, we had no idea that Chancellor Palpatine and The Emperor/Darth Sidious would be the same person. This reveal should have happened in “Revenge of the Sith.”

But would that twist have made the prequel trilogy better? Not likely. A twist would have been awesome because we never knew who The Emperor/Darth Sidious was if Lucas kept the villain’s real identity a secret.

What Lucas could have done to make this a twist?

Well, he was the big guy who created the Star Wars universe, and first directed A New Hope before The Phantom Menace. If he and his writing crew had plans for the Darth Sidious character in the prequel run, they should have gone with the mystery route. Like creating a layout map for instance.

Now that The Force Awakens had come to theaters, we don’t know who Supreme Leader Snoke is, or his real backstory. We might find out later in the upcoming sequels. Lucas could have gone with this route, not revealing the true enemy behind the shadows.

What do you think? Should Emperor Palpatine have been kept under the dark? Let me know in the comments.

I don't know why people hate the prequels when that had the best lore to them tbh

wait till the next annivesary edition when there is another pointless edit or ten.

dude , you are awesome. my theory is they jumped on the hate bandwagon or they where in it for han solo and laser fights, instead of the force . their loss.

I'm not really sure how they could keep it a secret tbh. Everyone knew the same guy who played the Emperor in RotJ was reprising the role in TPM so it wouldn't be hard to figure out which character he was and then connect the dots. I just don't think it would have been possible or added much to any of the movies. The only real way to have a surprise or twist would be to have the Chancellor be a clone of Sidious which a lot of people were thinking might be revealed in RotS.