As many of you know, I am kind of a walking Star Wars Encyclopedia. When I got into the Star Wars movies, I really got into the Star Wars universe. Memorized timelines, adjusted timelines when things just didn’t make sense… and for about a decade ran a Star Wars RPG (using West End’s d6 system) with my best friend in college. It was awesome.
Nope. According to Wookieepedia, who sources the name as being in the upcoming Tarkin novel, his name is…
Sheev.
Sheev Palpatine. Or Sheev Sidious if you’re nasty going with Dark Side monikers.
Seriously? I would have gone with something a little more Roman sounding.
So, as I said on C’s FB post about this, I’m going to paraphrase Nick Fury for my official response: It’s a stupid-ass name, and I’m going to ignore it.
What sort of name do you think that Senator/Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine should have had?
He always struck me as more of a Felix. But his friends call him … Who am I kidding? He has no friends.
I’m caught off-guard by the name too. I wish it was something more royal sounding. Sheev sounds really, really silly. But if its depicted as a kind of embarrassing name that Palpatine deliberately suppresses ala Indiana Jones, it could work better. Also, we must remember wacky names are a Star Wars tradition at the end of the day. If a character named ‘Han Solo’ came out nowadays, we’d think it was painfully unsubtle and probably find it irritating too.
Wait, what?! That’s ridiculous.
If it’s a name he’s hiding, I would definitely understand. Because I can’t figure out a way to pronounce Sheev that doesn’t just sound ridiculous. (Since it’s either rhymes Shed or Steve)
It really is! I…. am really hoping that this is just Wookieepedia pranking us all. Unless the point is the last guy you’d expect to be the Evil Puppet Master of the Galaxy is a guy named Sheev.
The author of Tarkin, James Luceno, also wrote the formerly canon novel Darth Plageius, and according to that novel, Palpatine said this:
“I haven’t rejected the dynasty I was born into. I’ve rejected the name I was given.”
The novel may no longer be canon, but I do believe elements of that book will make it into the new canon in one form or another.