Chancellor Palpatine/Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid)’s Timeline and Summary
- Palpatine gets "kidnapped" by General Grievous and Count Dooku, necessitating a rescue by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker.
- He convinces Anakin to kill Count Dooku in cold blood, an act that Anakin immediately regrets.
- Palpatine appoints Anakin to represent him on the Jedi Council (and serve as a de factospy for the Republic).
- During a bizarre opera performance, he tells Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis, the Sith Lord who was able to conquer death by using the dark side.
- When that's not enough to convince Anakin, Palpatine reveals his secret Sith identity as Darth Sidious and tries to get Anakin to join him on the dark side in order to save Padmé.
- Instead, Anakin surprises everyone and tells Mace Windu about who the Chancellor really is.
- When Mace Windu and three other Jedi Masters go to arrest him, Palpatine kills the three nameless Masters and then Mace with a little help from a timely intervention by Anakin. (During this duel, some of Palpatine's fingertip lightning bolts reflect back onto himself, causing the wrinkled, deformed visage we came to know in the original trilogy.)
- Palpatine finally gets his new apprentice when Anakin bends the knee and pledges his service as long as he'll help him save Padmé.
- The Chancellor issues Order 66, the secret plot to betray and kill all of the Jedi Masters fighting against the droids. Then, he gets Anakin to kill all of the Jedi left in the Temple, and the Separatist leaders as well.
- After announcing the (false allegations of) Jedi treachery to an emergency session of the Senate, he assumes the new position of Supreme Emperor of the Galaxy under the false pretense of needing ultimate power to eradicate all seeds of rebellion.
- When confronted by a fed-up Yoda, they battle in the empty Senate chamber, which ends in a stalemate but leads to Yoda's self-appointed exile.
- Then, Palpatine senses trouble from his new apprentice. He finds him half dead on Mustafar but is able to rescue him and transform him into the half human/half droid Darth Vader that we know and love (to hate).
- Darth Sidious performs one last act of cruelty in this movie by telling Darth Vader that he killed his own wife on Mustafar.