1 Palpatine Quote Reveals the Death Star's True Purpose (& Why Destroying Alderaan Was a Failure)

Summary Emperor Palpatine sees the deaths of billions that occurred when the Death Star destroyed Aldaraan as an absolute failure.

Palpatine never wanted the Death Star to be used to destroy planets, but to inspire fear and hatred within his citizens - hatred that would allow him to become more powerful in the dark side.

Palpatine using others' hatred of him to gain power is nothing new, with one extreme example being the Sith Essence Transfer technique seen in The Rise of Skywalker.

When the Death Star destroyed Alderaan in the early days of Star Wars canon, it was viewed by everyone aboard the planet-killing space station as a success - everyone except Emperor Palpatine. While it was the perfect demonstration of the Death Star’s unparalleled power (which translated to the unparalleled power of the Empire), killing billions of people in Palpatine’s Empire is viewed by the Emperor as a failure, something that’s made clear by one quote in particular.

In Darth Vader Vol. 2 #8 by Charles Soule and Giuseppe Camuncoli, Darth Vader and Palpatine stand in the Emperor’s office on Coruscant, punishing an Imperial Officer who failed to live up to the Siths’ expectations. When the colonel’s scolding is finished, Darth Vader releases him from his Force-choke, at which point Palpatine comments that Vader nearly killed the man. The Emperor admits that he empathizes with Vader’s thirst for violence, especially now that the Jedi are no more, but Palpatine finishes by saying: “I do not wish to rule over a galaxy of the dead”.

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Emperor Palpatine was telling Darth Vader to control the urge to give himself over fully to the dark side of the Force, as there’s a difference between channeling the dark side to its fullest extent, and allowing the dark side to control him. Palpatine wants Darth Vader to be more than just his rabid dog, especially at this point in Star Wars canon, when the Empire is still new and Darth Vader is at his most brutally villainous. However, Palpatine’s lesson goes deeper than just trying to guide his apprentice, especially when considering the Death Star.

Related Emperor Palpatine Specifically Wanted 1 Jedi Force Power To Be Forgotten Forever Emperor Palpatine eradicated the Jedi with Order 66, but he didn't stop there, and there was one Jedi Force power he specifically wanted erased.

The Death Star was Always Meant to Inspire Fear, Not Cause Destruction

Palpatine explains this specifically to Thrawn in Star Wars: Thrawn by Timothy Zahn

While Thrawn wouldn’t be privy to the Death Star plans until it was well into its development, he didn’t shy away from the fact that he was vehemently against it. Thrawn urged the Emperor to stop sinking money and resources into a single space station, and instead fund his TIE Defenders project on Lothal. While Palpatine agreed with Thrawn’s strategic reasoning as an Admiral, he explained to the Chiss that he totally misunderstood the true purpose of the Death Star.

The Death Star was always meant to inspire fear, not cause destruction. With that gargantuan space station loose in the galaxy, no world would dare oppose the Empire again for fear of having their planets destroyed. The Death Star could kill billions in an instant, though ironically, it was built to save lives. Thrawn’s TIE Defenders would ensure Imperial victory during practically every battle, but the Death Star would ensure no battles would take place ever again.

Emperor Palpatine needs people in his Empire to rule over, and he sees any significant loss of life as a monumental failure. However, Palpatine is a Sith Lord, after all, so his actions aren’t altruistic. Palpatine wants to mitigate loss of life in his Empire, to be sure, but he also wants every life form to fear the Empire’s strength. More than that, Palpatine wants every living being in his Empire to fear and hate him specifically, as their hatred of him (which the Death Star would greatly inspire) gives Palpatine untold strength in the dark side of the Force.

Emperor Palpatine is Fueled by Those Who Hate Him, Which is Why He’s So Powerful

Palpatine explains this to Darth Vader in Star Wars: Darth Vader #40 by Greg Pak and Raffaele Ienco

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As Star Wars expanded its lore in the realm of the comics, fans have come to learn the true motivations behind some of the franchise’s most iconic characters, like Emperor Palpatine, who craved political power not just for its own sake or the sake of the Sith, but because it offered him untold strength in the dark side of the Force.

When Darth Vader tried to usurp Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: Darth Vader #40, Palpatine compliments him on how much more focused Vader has become in the dark side. The Emperor asks Vader how he accomplished this new level of power, to which Vader replies, “Hate”. Palpatine laughs, knowing that his apprentice was focused on his hatred of him, and that’s how Vader was so much stronger than the last time they met. Unfortunately for Vader, those who hate Palpatine only serve to make him stronger in the dark side.

“The more you hate me… the more any of them hate me… the stronger I become”. That’s what Emperor Palpatine told Darth Vader at the end of Star Wars: Darth Vader #40 when Vader was defeated. However, this quote extends beyond just this conversation with Vader, as it also encompasses the entire galaxy.

Anyone who hates Palpatine inadvertently gives him strength in the dark side, and the same goes for fear. Knowing that, it’s easy to see why Palpatine would want to create something like the Death Star, as just knowing it exists - let alone seeing it in action - would inspire every citizen of the Empire to either hate or fear their Emperor. The inadvertently combined effort of trillions of life forms focusing their fear and hatred on Palpatine offers the Emperor immense power in the dark side - and all it took was the construction of one planet-killing space station.

Keeping His Enemies Alive Has Always Been Palpatine’s Secret to Untold Power

As seen in Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker

Emperor Palpatine uses others' hatred of him to fuel his immense strength in the dark side, but that’s far from the only way he uses his enemies to reach untold (and unnatural) levels of power.

While inspiring fear in everyone in the galaxy with the Death Star is how Palpatine planned to become even stronger in the Force, that method of attaining vast power can only take him so far. No matter how strong he gets, eventually, his physical body will fail him. That’s why Palpatine took great care to cultivate potential host bodies that his spirit could inhabit following his inevitable demise - something that was introduced in Star Wars canon with The Rise of Skywalker.

Palpatine - whose spirit was inhabiting a clone body at the time - wanted to draw Rey to him on Exegol in order to possess her in Episode IX. This is the first time something like this was shown in a Star Wars film or series, but it certainly wasn’t the last (even retrospectively). It’s been theorized that Palpatine only corrupted (and, indeed, created) Anakin Skywalker to eventually possess his physical form, but then had to change plans once Anakin was mutilated, at which point Palpatine tried to do the same to Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi.

While Palpatine was obsessed with creating Force-sensitive clones for his spirit to inhabit (like he’s doing in The Bad Batch, and what he eventually achieves with Snoke), those were just temporary measures. The only way for him to achieve true immortality is by taking over the body of another using a dark side technique called Essence Transfer. If Luke or Rey killed Palpatine out of their hatred of him, then his spirit would essentially be able to ride the current of dark side energy flooding from his attackers at that moment, giving Palpatine a window to take over their bodies.

Whether it be to become stronger in the dark side of the Force or to use Essence Transfer to inhabit someone else’s body, Emperor Palpatine knows how to use the hatred of those who despise him to make himself infinitely more powerful.

When it came to pulling off hate-fueled dark side channeling on a galactic scale (not counting the method of possessing a host body), there was no better way to inspire others’ hatred than with the Death Star. However, Emperor Palpatine gets nothing if those who were meant to hate him are dead, which is why the Death Star destroying Alderaan was ultimately a failure, and why the Death Star was never really meant to be used to blow up planets in Star Wars.

Source: Blas Tech/YouTube

Source: Jedi Master Van/YouTube