CLONE EMPEROR PALPATINE
STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)
*Sigh* …Somehow Palpatine returned…
Hey, so, you guys remember when I reviewed the Millennium Minted Coin Emperor Palpatine and I remarked that reviewing him meant I wouldn’t have to talk about Palpatine again? Well, there’s an addendum. So…you know…gotta talk about Palpatine again. Here we go. Talking about Palpatine again.
“Six years after the destruction of the second Death Star, the galaxy is thrust into turmoil. A reborn evil threatens to enslave the galaxy, and the Republic’s closest friend – Luke Skywalker – may become their greatest enemy. With the power to transfer his consciousness to genetic clones, a younger, stronger Emperor Palpatine is perilously close to gaining total control of the galaxy forever.”
Following the conclusion of the original Star Wars movies, there was no immediate follow up planned. The prequels were still just a concept, and the sequel trilogy wasn’t even a glimmer in Kathleen Kennedy’s eye. The next best thing was the Expanded Universe, which fans latched onto pretty quickly. In the ’90s, in the midst of their re-launched toy line, Kenner created an EU-centered sub-line. Amongst that line were two figures based on the “Dark Empire” story, which included today’s figure, Clone Emperor Palpatine.
THE FIGURE ITSELF
Clone Emperor Palpatine was released in Kenner’s one series Star Wars: Expanded Universe line in 1998. As noted in the intro, this figure hails from “Dark Empire,” a story which sees Palpatine brought back in a series of cloned bodies. Without the name on the package to go by, you could be forgiven for not recognizing this as Palpatine, since he’s noticeably less wrinkly than he usually is. The figure stands about 3 1/2 inches tall (the EU figures were a little smaller) and he has 7 points of articulation. Where’s that extra point coming from you ask? Why, from his left wrist. And why just the left wrist? Because it’s actually just a side effect of making the left hand removable. It was actually pretty common around this period of Kenner’s Star Wars figures, before they realized they could do more with that joint than just detachable limbs. Now, you may have noticed my Emperor has no left hand. I lost it. Silly me. Palpatine’s sculpt was unique to him. It showed Kenner’s trend towards much less exaggerated stylings, and honestly feels more like a vintage figure than a lot of his compatriots. His robe is a separate, removable piece, which goes on and off pretty easily, and is a pretty solid sculpt to boot. The paint work on this guy is about on par with the rest of Kenner’s offerings around the time. It’s all cleanly applied, and the details are fairly sharp. It’s not terribly exciting, but there it is. Palpatine was packed with a light saber–blue, so as to leave everyone all confused and shocked. There was also this cool 3D fold-out playset thing with all of these figures. I really wish I still had that.
THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION
I can’t tell you exactly why I got this guy. I got him from the Farpoint dealer’s room, back when he was new. He shortly followed my acquisition of Luke from the same series. I think I just wanted someone to go with him.
Right, so there were *four* figures based on Dark Empire, past Ethan. Get your facts straight! This was a late 2017 review, so I was writing it in the lead-up to Last Jedi. It’s funny, of course, because I had no idea at the time that they’d actually be using the Clone Emperor angle in Rise, thereby giving some more relevance. Apart from the issue of how many Dark Empire figures there were, I do have some other notes about my review. Mainly, though I say I can’t recall *why* I bought Palpatine, I actually can; I’d gotten Luke from the Farpoint dealers room, and was dismayed that he had a red lightsaber, which felt wrong. Since this guy had a blue one, my Grandmother let me get him to swap the two. This figure would also mark my only figure of Palpatine until I was an adult, because, as noted, I find the character kind of meh. When I reviewed the figure, he was missing a hand, his lightsaber, and his fold-out backdrop. I’ve since managed to replace all three, making him a much nicer all around offering. There’s just no denying the coolness of those backdrops. And there. I did it. I wrote about Palpatine. And now I don’t have to do it again.
The Figure In Question 
I mean, they never say he’s a clone in the movie…really this is the Clone Emperor, the other one is the Somehow Emperor. I really wish they had gone full throttle and just had Kylo be the big bad in the last movie instead of Rey’s sudden love interest.
You’re right, they don’t say it outright; I guess I just gathered that they were implying it. I probably shouldn’t give them story credits they haven’t earned. For all its faults, I still don’t hate Rise, and see it as the sequel trilogy’s big dumb mess of a third part in the same way that the other two trilogies also get a big dumb mess of a third part. I didn’t mind a redemptive arc for Kylo, but, as with everything else in the movie, it feels like they got stuck between “full throttle villain” and “full redemption” and got, well, what we got, which is…fine, but maybe not amazing.
I don’t know, I actually am in the minority who overall liked Last Jedi, and the attempted backpedaling and course-correction just didn’t work for me at all. There are aspects of Rise I liked (mostly just the C-3PO stuff), but overall it felt like the dumbest Star Wars movie to me. I just wish they had some kind of plan or outline for a trilogy place before they started cranking them out, and allowed for the traditional 3 years between films instead of just rushing to recoup on their investment. But then with Carrie Fisher, she may not have even made it to the second one, so again, I don’t know.
I also overall liked Last Jedi, and also think the backpedalling made a mess of everything for sure. I also can’t at all argue with “dumbest Star Wars movie” because I think that’s an accurate description. I still maintain that Attack of the Clones is the worst overall Star Wars movie, mostly because a lot of it’s just dreadfully boring, and I think a lot of that is to do with Lucas having the prequels *too* outlined at the start, leaving the middle part with nothing to do. I do think a degree of the success of the originals is a bit of writing by the seat of their pants, but admittedly, there’s a delicate balance there, and some of the biggest flaws of the OT come from that same approach.