Palpatine / Darth Sidious

The first movie shows both sides without confirming they're the same person, but an attentive viewer catches on. As Sidious, he orders the Trade Federation to blockade and invade Naboo and sends his apprentice, Darth Maul, after the queen. As senator, he convinces Amidala that Chancellor Valorum is weak and gets her to call for a vote of no confidence in the Senate.

The crisis he created puts him in Valorum's seat. By the end of the movie, Palpatine is the new Supreme Chancellor and tells young Anakin he'll be watching his career with great interest.

Ten years later, the Republic faces the Separatist threat led by Count Dooku, who is secretly Sidious's new apprentice. When the existence of a clone army comes to light, the Senate grants emergency powers to the chancellor, in a motion put forward by Jar Jar Binks. Palpatine accepts with fake reluctance and creates the Grand Army of the Republic. The movie ends with Dooku handing Sidious the plans for a superweapon.

During the Clone Wars, Darth Maul survives, comes back with his brother Savage Opress and seizes power on Mandalore. Sidious sees this as a threat to his plan and goes there in person. He fights both of them with two lightsabers, kills Savage and leaves Maul alive, saying he still has a use for him.

In Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine fakes his own kidnapping and has Anakin kill Dooku in front of him. Then he tells the young man the legend of Darth Plagueis, a Sith who could stop death, and reveals himself. Mace Windu goes to arrest him; Sidious's lightning bounces back onto his own face, which ends up deformed. Anakin takes his side, and Mace dies.

With Order 66, the clones kill their Jedi generals. In the Senate, Palpatine turns the Republic into the Galactic Empire to applause. Yoda fights him in the Senate chamber, but retreats. The movie ends with Sidious next to Vader, already in his armor.

Right after the fall of the Republic, The Bad Batch shows Palpatine visiting the secret lab on Mount Tantiss. There, Imperial scientists work on a project tied to Force-sensitive cloning, and the Emperor follows the results closely. The series doesn't explain everything, but it makes clear he was already thinking about how to cheat death.

In Rebels, the Emperor has the Jedi temple on Lothal excavated because he wants access to the World Between Worlds, a passage that links different moments in time. Ezra Bridger gets inside first, and the Emperor tries to reach him through the portal. Ezra manages to escape and leaves Palpatine without the passage.

In the Rebels finale, Palpatine appears to Ezra as a hologram, with his face from before the deformation, and offers him the chance to live with his parents again, in exchange for help opening the portal. Ezra realizes it's a trap and refuses, and the Emperor loses access to the temple once more.

In the original trilogy, the Emperor first appears as a hologram in The Empire Strikes Back. He warns Vader that Skywalker's son is a threat, and Vader proposes turning him to the dark side.

In Return of the Jedi, Palpatine goes to the second Death Star in person and sets everything up so the rebels attack thinking it's defenseless. He tries to convince Luke to kill Vader and take his place. When Luke refuses, he attacks him with lightning, and Vader throws him down a reactor shaft. The galaxy believes he's dead.

Years after Endor, The Mandalorian shows the Shadow Council, a meeting of the leaders of what's left of the Empire. At one of these meetings, someone mentions Project Necromancer, with no further explanation. It's one of the clues the franchise later scattered to link the Imperial remnants to what came next.

In The Rise of Skywalker, a broadcast in Palpatine's voice spreads across the galaxy. Kylo Ren finds the Emperor on Exegol, the hidden Sith world, his body decaying and hooked up to a machine. He reveals that he created Snoke and has a fleet ready, the Final Order. He's also Rey's grandfather.

Palpatine wants Rey to kill him so his spirit passes into her. When Rey and Ben Solo unite, he drains the life from both of them and regains his strength. Rey, with help from the voices of past Jedi, turns his lightning back on him and destroys him.

The movie barely explains the return. The best-remembered line is Poe Dameron's, saying that somehow Palpatine returned. The official Databank only says he cheated death and resurfaced on Exegol with his body in ruins.

The explanation came later. The expanded edition of the movie's official novelization, by Rae Carson (2020), states that the Palpatine on Exegol lives in a cloned body that can't handle his power, and that Rey's father was a failed clone of the Emperor. On TV, The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian tied Force-sensitive cloning to Project Necromancer, which the franchise presents as the Empire's preparation for that return.