Someone's not taking the High Ground here with that comment.
Spoilers All Things STAR WARS - News, Speculation & Spoilers Thread
While he wasn't born evil, from a young age he wished to rule and stood out from the rest of his family and wanted to kill his father so he could be the family patriarch.
This in Legends at least, in Canon they haven't explored him yet.
Also the reason given in the expanded materials for the lack of first name in Legends was because he only wanted to be known by his Family name, because of power.
And fell under the sway of Dark Side influences very early, so his destiny was set very quickly.
Hell, Tarkin basically ordered him to let go of that officer.
To me, it always felt that when it come to Darth Sidious and Darth Vader, there was definitely only one person Vader reported to. But in the chain of command going from Emperor Palpatine as up and then moving down, Vader definitely had people he reported to and that could, in fact, order him around. Not many. Maybe even only Tarkin. But he was definitely not the 'second in command' of the Empire.
Bad movie. An extremely lovely moment.
I hate that this shit movie had some pretty cool moments. Hell, the entire 'But there's more of us, Poe. There's more of us.' I thought that was brilliant.
It was supposed to have nothing but bad moments?
Have you not READ the internet?
I tried, once. Too many cat videos.
TROS is, for me, the lowpoint of both the Saga films and the entire Disney Era. But it has a few moments I genuinely like and stir positive emotions inside me.
Personally, I suspect that's what 'The Acolyte' was meant to ultimately lead up to. Beyond the secret origin of the Knights of Ren, it would've been the secret origin of Palpatine himself - Conceived artificially via the manipulation of midichlorians (aka 'The Power of One, The Power of Two...') as a being of pure evil and almost limitless Force power, looking nothing like either of his disgruntled ex-Padawan parents (Osha and Qimir) and being the instrument of their ultimate revenge against the Jedi Order who so wronged them both. Darth Plagueis would raise/train Palpatine, realize just how unstoppable he really was, and ultimately attempt to replicate what they did to create a replacement apprentice for himself - one powerful enough to be a match for Palpatine...
I know it's against canon, but I always preferred the idea Palpatine was a very, very ancient Sith lord. His whole life of being from Naboo was just a cover, like his unscarred human face. Maybe there was a Darth Plagius at some point, but that could've been thousands of years ago.
My thought was sort of on a similar line. I know it doesn't quite line up with canon, but the way I like to imagine it is that Palpatine was definitely much older ("only" a few centuries though, since Darth Bane was canonically the last Sith remaining 1,000 years before TPM when he created the Rule of Two) and had found a way to stave off death by possessing new bodies. The problem was they had to be strong in the Force in order to sustain him long enough before the body ultimately burnt out.
Obi-Wan killed Darth Maul before Palpatine was finished preparing him, then when he discovered Anakin he brought on Count Dooku as a stopgap until Anakin had grown up and reached his potential. But then that pain in the ass Obi-Wan ruined him, too. After that he turned to cloning, and that's where the whole Wayland project came from, trying to figure out how to clone midi-chlorians so that he could essentially have an unlimited supply of bodies. But that was proving to be too difficult, and then Luke came along, but Vader turned on Palpatine and destroyed his body at Endor. Since I imagine there must be some kind of ritual for posession, he couldn't take Luke, and his "spirit" fled to Exegol, where he discovered an ancient Sith artifact (the throne) that can keep one's spirit tethered to the physical world. This is the reason why the Force is out of balance, because when you die, your spirit is supposed to return to the Force, but Palpatine's desire for eternal life is gumming up the works. Then when Rey destroys his throne, his spirit has lost its tether and it finally returns to the Force, bringing it back into balance. (This is also how I like to justify his "I am all the Sith" line, because he's basically been all of them for centuries.)
Obviously that's not how it actually worked out in canon, but it hews close enough to the story we were presented that it works for me.
Obi-Wan killed Darth Maul before Palpatine was finished preparing him, then when he discovered Anakin he brought on Count Dooku as a stopgap until Anakin had grown up and reached his potential. But then that pain in the ass Obi-Wan ruined him, too. After that he turned to cloning, and that's where the whole Wayland project came from, trying to figure out how to clone midi-chlorians so that he could essentially have an unlimited supply of bodies. But that was proving to be too difficult, and then Luke came along, but Vader turned on Palpatine and destroyed his body at Endor. Since I imagine there must be some kind of ritual for posession, he couldn't take Luke, and his "spirit" fled to Exegol, where he discovered an ancient Sith artifact (the throne) that can keep one's spirit tethered to the physical world. This is the reason why the Force is out of balance, because when you die, your spirit is supposed to return to the Force, but Palpatine's desire for eternal life is gumming up the works. Then when Rey destroys his throne, his spirit has lost its tether and it finally returns to the Force, bringing it back into balance. (This is also how I like to justify his "I am all the Sith" line, because he's basically been all of them for centuries.)
Obviously that's not how it actually worked out in canon, but it hews close enough to the story we were presented that it works for me.