The Star Wars movies were on TV recently, and something popped into my head. Something that I guess have been nagging me for a long time.

Why did Palpatine even want to be emperor in the first place? If you look at the sweep of history, people have imperialistic aspirations because they want to get something in it out of it in the end, whether it is wealth, the benefits of the trappings of power, a place in history in terms of growing an empire's horizons, even just self-aggrandizement.

But Palpatine seems to want none of these things. We don't get any sense that the Galactic Empire has expanded beyond the old Republic's borders, he isn't lavishing in material wealth, he's not living like some extraterrestrial Hugh Hefner or Bob Guccione, he doesn't seem interested in his place in the history books or building monuments to himself.

He sits alone in a throne room on the second Death Star, or in some lonely cell on Coruscant.

So why all the machinations and manipulations to go from Senator to Chancellor to emperor?