What If Palpatine Never Built the Death Star? The Sith Won Forever...
So this is an alternate scenario I had fun with, and yes in this case Palpatine might not ruled by the laws Sith, he does it to forever bury the jedi order and the republic and therefore takes different decision after order 66. Instead of his sadistic tendencies, he will instead be much more pragmatic. So yes don't think of that as a good palpatine just one that use pragmatism to the maximum.
He also has a very different objective and more concerned with the legacy of the sith and his hatred of both the jedi and the republic.
Plagueis formation of Sidious... earlier
In this timeline, Plagueis found Palpatine at a much younger age and immediatly teaches him the ways of the dark side. But unlike the legends version where palpatine was found by plagueis at around 17 years old, in this case Palpatine is more inexperienced and Plagueis having found him younger makes it easier for him to indoctrinate him in the ways of the sith.
Here Palpatine is still a cruel, sadistic psycopathis person... BUT he is also much more ideological. In this case, Sidious starts to think that a galaxy should not simply be under his control, he thinks it is an insult that the strong cannot prey on the weak. It's an insult to nature to even have a democracy where everyone has a voice.
And the jedi are the biggest insult to that natural order. He develops a lots of contempt for the jedi and the democratic institution of the republic. So much so that his ideology becomes more important than his own person.
And that is where he creates a plan to make sure that the non force sensitive people of the galaxy will always long for strong leader in order to rule them and will either hates or fear their own freedom. And he will make sure that the jedi legacy will forever be associated with chaos and terrorism and the people of the galaxy will always reject their guidance.
Due to his very different goal, This is where he creates a new plan for his control and vision of the galaxy.
The beginning of reconstruction
After order 66 happens and Palpatine declared himself emperor, Palpatine does not invest any ressources into the building of the death star. In fact, in this alternate timeline, he never even planned to do so.
Instead, he does not build more star destroyer or Tie fighter. No no no. Instead he focuses on the building of infrastructure and the internal aspects of the empire.
He puts all of the colossal ressource used to build the death star and use them to build trade roads, bridges, space ports, improving agriculture so that more planets will get food, etc. And by investing in so much infrastructure, not only many people in the galaxy are satisfied because they see the ressources being well spent after the clone wars, the fiscal revenue improves due to these new trade roads and space ports. Which allows palpatine to invest even more infrastructure...
And this start a snowball cycle, the more he builds, the more he receives and he keeps doing that. But keep in mind that Palpatine does not do any of that because he is kind or nice, he is simply pragmatic and this is his way to stabilise his regime for now. And it's very effective.
Now many people in the galaxy will not like living under an undemocratic regime after having experienced democracy. The COMPNOR is there to silence them... but since Palpatine is still a war hero just after order 66 AND that he is investing in the civilian area of the empire. Many people are still satisfied and have no intention of rebelling.
Quite the contrary, since there is no death star, not only there is no anger after the Alderan destruction, there is also no moment where the empire is humiliated after losing their costly superweapons. Therefore there is no rallying cry, no moment of huge victory for the rebellion.
Instead what Palpatine builds is mostly infrastructure that allows for more trades and more agriculture that allows people to have a full belly. The emperor invest everything in the stability of the empire. And since he does it so much any attempts at attacking the empire can be asily seen by the galactic community as sabotaging the civilian parts of the empire.
So if the rebels are getting too disruptives, the empire propaganda machine can easily turn this around and declare them to be terrorist and many civilians will believe it. In fact the propaganda machine does not even have to lie that much. Here Palpatine keep his good publicity of a war hero and it took a LOT of repression and the destruction of Alderan for the people to turn against him. Here none of that happens.
Here Darth vader, the compnor and the imperial can count on the collaboration of many civilians who prefer this imperial stability to the chaotic time of the republic. Therefore the rebellion is choked before it can become too threatening as many are willing to give up on their freedom for stability... And then it continue for FORTY YEARS.
The end of the "good" chancellor Palpatine
After four decades of investing in the stability of his empire, Palpatine is becoming very old. BUT he is respected pretty much everywhere, the people of the galaxy are extremly loyal and he is extremly popular among them.
But Palpatine knows he won't be eternal. In this timeline, Palpatine values the ideology of the sith where the strong preys on the weak much more than his own person. So he has no cinder operation prepared. He does not wastes any ressources in that. And he also does not intend to prolong his life indefinetely because it would ruin his other parts of the plan
To make sure to immortalise his image. he will not go down in his sleep. No no no, none of that. Instead he organise his own perfect death to cement his legacy.
He will make sure to appear in person at the sites of a newly-built hospital. And he will make sure that rebell cell, the more ruthless of them (probably Saw guerrera) and even jedi are aware that he will be present and he will intenionaly lower the security so that the assassination can happen and he leaks information so that the rebel and jedi survivor will know of his presence.
He organise his own assassination and he wants to make sure that the galactic community will see both the rebels AND the jedi as the one who killed him. It does not matter if the jedi does the deed as long as they are seen at the crime scene.
So would it be Cal kestis, kallus, or a more ruthless jedi, none of it matters. Because Palpatine wants at least one of them to be seen.
He goes to the newly build hospital, makes a speech about how much the galaxy needs to rebuild itself even decades after the clone wars and this hospital is a step in the right direction... and then he is killed in front of the entire galaxy.
The shock is immense and both jedi and rebels are seen as the assassins. The people of the empire are both very sad... and furious. Any voice that tries to paint the jedi as victim of order 66 are forced into silence, any voice that tries to claim that the rebels are nothing more than terrorist are shunned. Even Leia, who is one of the harshest critics of Palpatine in this timeline is forced to condemn both the rebels and jedi but even that is not enough to save her career.
Immediatly a purge starts and both rebels are forced to disband and go into hiding, same for any jedi survivor.
Palpatine becomes a Martyr and the entire galaxy starts chanting how of a hero he was to them. Anniversarys are proclaimed for him every year to remind them of how they didn't deserve a great man like him...
The sucession begins
But Palpatine prepared his death and with his intention of burying the jedi and the republic for good, he made sure that his sucession would be assured at least for now. This is to ensure that after a while nearly every people of the galaxy will have NEVER known a time fo democracy and only knew the empire.
As mentionned before, since this is a very different Palpatine who is much more ideological, Operation Cinder is never put in motion.
But he makes sure that a new council will rule once he dies. But you could ask what Vader will be doing during this time? Vader will not suceed as emperor... BUT he will inherit all of the millitary and the police force (which includes compnor).
Vader becomes the muscle of the empire. Someone like him is not a fan of the politics and the bureaucracy, he is good as an enforcer but not as a politican (as he will certainly admits that himself).
So now, an emperor will be proclaimed... but Vader will have the final words and decide who gets to sit on the throne. And as long as the new emperor maintain stability, Vader leaves him there.
But if an emperor becomes too rebellious, corrupt or incompetent, Vader being in commands of the millitary and the police can easily dispose of him and replace him for anyone he prefers.
This way Vaders becomes a somewhat equivalent to the jannisairies of the ottoman empire or the Praetorian of the roman empire, disposing of leaders who have become too corupt, incompetent or not to their liking.
So vader becomes an unofficial leader of the empire while not being a figure head that the civilian sees. In fact if the civilians official of the empire fails to do their job of maintaining order and stability, this is time where Vader intervenes and sent either the inquisitor, the compnor, the troopers., etc.
Signaling to both the population and the civilian government that the empire has lost patience and heads will start to roll until order has been brought back.
The new Sith order begins
And this is where Vader creates a reformed Sith order. It is still very much ruled by the dark side, but in this case it is simply made so that the Sith don't micromanage the empire. They are the one who breaks and makes emperor, choosing leader at their will and enforcing an authoritarian order.
Vader would have finally find Luke who integrated the imperial academy in this timeline and Vader will have found how strong the force was in him and very much found out he was his son. He will have trained him in secret.
In this alternate timeline, the empire being nowhere near as repressive as it was in the original timeline (for pragmatic not moral reason), Luke is not disgusted with the empire.
Now luke and Vader are indeed rulling as father and son on a new empire after the deaths of Palpatine. With Luke apointed has Vader sucessor once Vader will be no more and suceeded him as the new dark lord of the sith.
Vader here find some peace in his empire, rulling with an iron fist but without it being necessary to always make too much repression. The empire is now stable enough that the Sith continues to rule and the jedi are forced into hiding if they are even still alive...
A Strange galaxy
Vader dies after having being leader of the Sith for decades, and a mourning Luke takes his place as the new dark lord of the Sith.
The empire has now been the dominant and incontested power of the empire for nearly a century. The people have get used to a lack of democracy and many of them fear the lost of stability. Generations have been born knowing only the empire.
Now the jedi have been accused of being monsters by the historians, journalist and the population at large. They are accused of being the real criminals of the clone wars, and the terrorist that killed their beloved Chancellor Palpatine and bringing chaos to their lives.
Leia after Palpatine's death was forced into retirement from the politcal life because she was a vocal critics of the empire and Palpatine during his reign and many time defended rebel cells. After his assassination, she was persona Non grata.
She now sees a galaxy under the tyranical rule of a stable empire. And the people are not begging to be free... they are happy to be ruled by an iron fist, they are happy to not have a voice in the politics, they are happy that a murderous sith Lords is the real leader of the galaxy.
They now sees democracy, their right to vote and express themselves as an outdated institution that brought them nothing but suffering and misery. And they are gratefull to live under an autocracy.
As now even if The new sith order was to fall and dissapear, even if the empire was to have instability, even if in case of sucession crisis after the death of a new emperor, the people of the galaxy will not fight to have democracy back. But will fight... to have their favorite autocratic emperor on the throne. Rejecting democracy probably forever, with the jedi the eternal ennemy of history.
As she sees the new anniversary of Death of Palpatine, she cries that she was unable to give them the will to claim their freedom... she cries that they are celebrating a monster that lead them to be rule for an autocracy maybe forever. with the jedi the eternal ennemy of history and the republic buried for good.
And here Palpatine in his death achieve the absolute revenge of The sith...
So tell me what you thought about it.
Edit : (this scenario ignores the sequel trilogy and more specifically the "somehow palpatine returns" so plz avoid mentionning Rise of the skywalker and the rest of the sequel trilogy...)