The Force Backed Palpatine’s Rise to Power to Destroy an Even Darker Threat – Star Wars Theory Explained

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: Darth Maul – Black, White, and Red #1! It’s widely understood that the Force is silently directing every event that takes place in the Star Wars galaxy, which means it was also by the will of the Force that Palpatine rose to power. But, why would the Force back such an obvious agent of the dark side? While there are a number of possible answers, one theory suggests that the Force allowed Palpatine to become the Emperor and rule over the galaxy in order to keep an even darker threat from emerging.

Teasing its April 2024 release, Marvel Comics issued a press release for Star Wars: Darth Maul – Black, White, and Red #1 by Benjamin Percy and Stefano Raffaele. According to the presser, Darth Maul (before the events of Episode I) will be sent on a mission to wipe out a dark side cult called the Final Occultation.

The Final Occultation is described as being the stuff of nightmares, an organization that wishes to only bring about chaos and destruction throughout the galaxy. Palpatine sends Darth Maul to destroy the Final Occultation, presumably because he sees them as a threat to his plan for galactic domination. Perhaps that instinct was secretly the Force guiding Palpatine’s hand.

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The Force Used Palpatine to Bring Balance in Star Wars – But Why Palpatine?

Was Palpatine the lesser of two evils compared to the Final Occultation?

It’s no secret that Palpatine used Anakin Skywalker to bring balance to the Force, even if that wasn’t necessarily his intention. The only reason the Force was out of balance was due to the overabundance of Jedi and the overall waywardness of the Jedi Order. The Jedi became something of a Republic police force as opposed to practitioners of the light side of the Force for its own sake, so for true balance to occur, the Jedi needed to fall.

Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the dark side ignited the Great Jedi Purge, allowing Palpatine to rise as the Emperor. At that point, the Force was on its way to true balance, as it had shifted from the light to the dark. Once Palpatine was defeated and the Empire fell, that’s when the Force finally found the true balance it was seemingly shaping. These transitions are practically seamless, and that’s because – throughout this great war for the galaxy’s proverbial soul – one thing has always remained: order.

Palpatine Maintained Order in the Star Wars Galaxy, Which is Why the Force Backed Him

The Final Occultation would have brought nothing but chaos.

Palpatine may have been an agent of the dark side who brought fear, darkness, and death upon the galaxy under the shadow of the Empire, but at least he maintained order. When the Empire fell, it was fairly easy for the New Republic to step in as the galaxy’s new governing body, thereby allowing true balance in the Force to come about in the most painless way possible. If the Final Occultation rose to power in the early days of Palpatine’s schemes, however, the galaxy would have fallen into chaos, making rebuilding it a much slower and more painful process.

Palpatine earned his title as being one of the most insidious villains in the history of Star Wars lore, but compared to other, more destructive forces of evil, he was seemingly the galaxy’s best option in attaining balance in the Force – definitely a better option than the Final Occultation. Therefore, it’s all too possible that the Force backed Palpatine’s rise to power to destroy an even darker threat in Star Wars.

Star Wars: Darth Maul – Black, White, and Red #1 by Marvel Comics is available April 25, 2024.

Star Wars: Darth Maul – Black, White, and Red #1 (2024)
	Writer: Benjamin Percy Artist: Stefano Raffaele Cover Artist: Alex Maleev