Star Wars: Palpatine's Alignment, LE or NE?

[Malistrae]

I have seen many people classifying Palpatine / Darth Sidious as either Lawful Evil or Neutral Evil. I am curious about your thoughts on this.

For me, Palpatine is principally a Neutral Evil person, leading a Lawful Evil empire. Why? Well, I think there are multiple reasons for that. Palpatine's sole goal seems to be sadism (and thus he wants unlimited, absolute power to freely indulge in it). In both Canon and EU, he frequently indulges in meaningless sadism and malice for the sake of it (such as forcing Vader to massacre a backwards Twi'lek village (who were friendly/helpful to them and had no idea who they were due to being super-isolated) for lulz in the canon Lords of the Sith novel). And in the EU, we have the infamous Dark Empires or his imaginative punishments for people who displease him. He seems to have no internal integrity or code, willing to lie, deceive and be an absolute slimeball without compunctions. He is indifferent to Order vs. Chaos, using both Lawful and Chaotic means to achieve his objectives (inflicting the maximum amount of suffering on as many people as possible). He has not a iota of respect even for the Sith Order, since he casually broke the Rule of Two whenever it suited him. Lawful Evil characters often have some redeeming quality, a morality pet or at least an honest belief in order/law. Palpatine seems to completely lack this. He is not loyal to anyone or anything, and is willing to break his word without second thought. Even the Empire's only true rule seems to be "whatever the Emperor says, goes". People well-connected to Palpatine (like Tarkin or Vader) could get away with everything, even if they broke supposed laws or disrupted the order in Imperial systems.

Now, you could say that he can still be Lawful Evil (if a particularly vile one), since Darkseid, another sadistic tyrant, is undoubtedly LE. However (besides the fact that Darkseid DID have a morality pet), Darkseid is honestly devoted to his twisted, sadistic, dystopian order and hierarchy and is ideologically motivated to fight against individuality and freedom (and he is also prone to Exact Words behavior). Palpatine doesn't seem to give two coppers about his own Empire or any higher sense of order, or even individuality. He only cares about two things: power and sadism. If he got into a better position by promoting and individualistic, libertarian society, he would do so in a heartbeat. He merely decided that fascism is a superior route to inflicting pain and suffering. And he doesn't use Exact Words to justify his betrayals or anything, he simply lies through his teeth whenever convenient.

[Murk]

I'm not intimately familiar enough with either D&D alignment or Star Wars to really go in depth to your arguments.
However, I do have one question to you: if everything you say and describe is true, then what is there that makes Palpatine neutral rather than chaotic? You seem to have a lot of reasons why Palpatine is not lawful - so where are the reasons he is not chaotic?

[Malistrae]

I'm not intimately familiar enough with either D&D alignment or Star Wars to really go in depth to your arguments.
However, I do have one question to you: if everything you say and describe is true, then what is there that makes Palpatine neutral rather than chaotic? You seem to have a lot of reasons why Palpatine is not lawful - so where are the reasons he is not chaotic?
That's a good question. Palpatine does seem to have a Chaotic streak. After all, he frequently back-stabbed his allies/pawns even when they were potentially still useful (Maul or Dooku, for instance), and excessive sadism is a stereotypical Chaotic Evil trait. However, Chaotic Evil seems to have its own brand of twisted integrity, a commitment of sorts to personal freedom of emotion, thought and action. Essentially, they are free spirits and have problems with submitting themselves to authority or restraining themselves. Palpatine, however, seems to have no such problems. While as a Dark Side user, he relies on his emotions for his powers, he learned how to perfectly channel and direct his hatred and anger. He is also very patient and willing to play excessively long cons if necessary, and has no problems with submitting to another if convenient. In the EU, he easily played upon Plagueis' weaknesses and pretended to be a faithful apprentice while plotting his demise. And in both Canon and EU, he had no problems with being subservient as a senator to Amidala in Phantom Menace.

He seems to strongly exhibit the pragmatic, convenience-based thinking of Neutral Evil. His only slip-ups are when he indulges in his sadism. This is ultimately his fatal flaw, as he was so engrossed in torturing Luke that he failed to register Vader's betrayal until it was too late.

[Hopeless]

I would have said he was initially LE but Plagueis corrupted him sufficiently that he eventually becomes NE after the founding of the Empire the following years led to him turning CE by time of ROTJ.

[Traab]

Im going to say neutral evil. Why? Because he has no problem violating the law to get what he wants, and what he wants is more power to himself. He isnt chaotic evil because everything he does is heavily planned and strategized. He didnt just throw away maul and dooku, he used them until he could get a better apprentice. With Maul he had dooku waiting in the wings, with dooku he had anakin being turned. The man was first and foremost a chessmaster so chaos would just tick him off.

[Malistrae]

Both of your arguments seem reasonable. I think Palpatine follows the course of many other NE villains (such as Albert Wesker, Voldemort or even Cersei Lannister) in that by the time of his downfall, he came dangerously close to CE. I am not sure he fully crossed over to it by ROTJ, but he was definitely more Chaotic than he was during the Clone Wars, for instance. I would say he was pure NE for most of his life, but he became a NE/CE hybrid by the time of ROTJ. He was still mostly NE, but with a Chaotic leaning.

When you think about, his plan in ROTJ seems far more haphazard to me than any of his previous plans. Sure, he had some measures to guarantee success (such as an increased amount of stormtroopers guarding the shield projector), but he still put himself in harm's way. I would say he was being slightly reckless, since that shield was the only thing preventing his death. He was also far too confident in Vader's loyalty.

Interestingly, he had a similar plan in Lords of the Sith, where he deliberately allowed the Twi'lek rebels to sabotage his star destroyer and make him crash on Ryloth in an escape vessel, solely to test Vader's loyalty. However, this situation was far less dangerous than the ROTJ situation, since he had everything pretty much under control, had multiple escape routes if anything went pear-shaped and was constantly wary of Vader's loyalty. Despite his pretensions, he apparently lacked the same foresight and caution in ROTJ.