Star Wars Just Revealed The Dark Side's Greatest Weakness - & Why Palpatine Was Always Destined To Fail

Summary Star Wars: Tales of the Empire uncovers Palpatine's fatal flaws, showing how the dark side of the Force contributed to the Empire's downfall.

Characters like Barriss Offee and Thrawn predicted the Empire's demise, highlighting Palpatine's inability to see the flaws in his rule.

The Empire's instability was partly due to Palpatine's focus on power instead of creating a sustainable system, ultimately leading to his downfall.

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire, the newest Star Wars Disney+ TV show, revealed major cracks in Emperor Palpatine's plans, and, shockingly, the dark side of the Force itself may be to blame. The Tales of the Empire timeline spans decades, from the Clone Wars era to the New Republic Era in the Star Wars timeline, but the show focused heavily on the beginning and ending of the Imperial Era. Because of this focus and the additional details the show provided, new light was shed upon why the Empire fell despite Palpatine being one of Star Wars' most powerful Sith.

In part, the original trilogy already highlighted several of Palpatine's gravest errors. By nature of the Sith Rule of Two, Palpatine always had to account for the possibility that Vader may try to overthrow him; in fact, Palpatine feared Darth Vader for this very reason. However, Tales of the Empire revealed other ways in which being a Sith ultimately harmed Palpatine's ability to maintain power, extending far beyond the dynamic of Sith master and apprentice.

Related Tales Of The Empire's Mandalorian Connection Proves The Empire Would've Turned Against Palpatine One line delivered in both Star Wars: Tales of the Empire and The Mandalorian proves that Emperor Palpatine was always destined to fail.

Barriss Offee And Thrawn Could Both See The Empire's Flaws

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Shockingly, in Tales of the Empire, not only Grand Admiral Thrawn but also ex-Jedi Barriss Offee anticipated the issues with the Empire that would lead to its downfall. For Thrawn, this made a bit more sense and was less surprising. As a military leader who worked high in the Empire's ranks, he would have had first-hand exposure to the problems with the Empire and would have understood from a strategic standpoint why those concerns could ultimately spell the end of the Empire and Palpatine's power. However, Barriss Offee's awareness nods toward Palpatine's inability to perceive the flaws in his approach.

Barriss Offee's awareness nods toward Palpatine's inability to perceive the flaws in his approach.

In Tales of the Empire, Barriss was released from the Republic's prison following Order 66 and the rise of the Empire and was invited to become one of Star Wars' Inquisitors. The Inquisitors, all of whom served Darth Vader, were meant to hunt down and execute any Jedi survivors of Order 66 or newly identified Force-users and Force-sensitive people, including children. However, Barriss quickly realized that their initiative would backfire, informing Lyn, another Inquisitor, that creating fear would only cause people to turn against the Empire. In the end, this was exactly right.

Grand Admiral Thrawn Created By Timothy Zahn Cast Lars Mikkelsen First Appearance Star Wars: Heir to the Empire Alliance Chiss, Empire

The Dark Side Itself Made The Empire Unstable

Custom Image by Simone Ashmoore

Barriss' criticism of the Empire raises serious questions about why Palpatine, a brilliant and powerful Sith Lord who was able to manipulate the Jedi, the Republic, and the Separatists all at once, was unable to see why the Empire was heading toward disaster with its methods of instilling fear in civilians. However, the answer lies in the nature of the dark side of the Force itself and in the aims of the Sith. Palpatine's focus wasn't truly to create a system that was sustainable and well-structured; instead, he was solely interested in getting and maintaining power for himself.

Palpatine's focus wasn't truly to create a system that was sustainable and well-structured.

Because Palpatine wanted the Sith to rule—and crushed and eradicated the Jedi to do it—he pushed (and kept) the Force out of balance. In so doing, he essentially guaranteed that the light side would eventually rise up, as it did with Luke Skywalker, the very person who ultimately caused his demise. He simultaneously made the Empire unstable, using violence and scare tactics to maintain control that only radicalized the Rebellion. In the end, ironically, Star Wars: Tales of the Empire proved it was the dark side of the Force itself that ended Palpatine's rule in Star Wars.

Tales of the Empire (2024) Star Wars: Tales of the Empire is an animated follow-up to 2022's Tales of the Jedi. The series focuses on Barriss Offee, a former Jedi, and Morgan Elsbeth as they navigate their separate paths through the Galactic Empire. The series will also see the return of other iconic Star Wars characters such as General Grievous, Ahsoka Tano, Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Darth Vader. Cast Jason Isaacs , Meredith Salenger , Lars Mikkelsen , Rya Kihlstedt , Diana Lee Inosanto , Matthew Wood , Wing T.Chao Release Date May 4, 2024 Seasons 1 Streaming Service(s) Disney+ Franchise(s) Star Wars Writers Dave Filoni Directors Dave Filoni Expand

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