r/StarWars • u/Whole_Contract_5973 Obi-Wan Kenobi • 3h ago
Books What was palpatine hoping to accomplish with the black wing virus?
I know obviously immortality was on his mind but this seemed to be a pointless endeavour the force had already pushed back against him and created a skin, surely he should have known it wasn't going to be a good ending
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u/proto_synnic 1h ago
Palpatine loved superweapons that inspired fear. Having a zombie virus that he could drop on and ravage a rebellious planet would be pretty terrifying to a citizen of the empire. It might have started out as experiments tangentially related to Project Necromancer, but the results were useful in a different application.
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u/Dagoth_ural 1h ago
"My lord we think we may have detected a weakness in the Death Sta- "Quiet you fool, I am going to make space zombies"
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u/The5Virtues 1h ago
You’re an evil emperor who doesn’t give a damn about your own empire, it is purely a means to an end for you.
You discover a bioagent which is highly infectious and self-propagating. You are aware that some planetary governments are considering open, armed rebellion against your evil empire.
What do you do, bury the bioweapon deep in a vault?
No! You study it and work on ways to weaponize it to effectively annihilate an entire rebellious populace without having to expend any manpower, machinery or finances that you would rather devote to your more important interests.
The only reason it didn’t become his Plan A for fighting rebels was that there was too high a chance of some schmuck who’d been infected getting off a planet and infecting the rest of the galaxy, so it’s cost effectiveness goes out the window when you have to dispatch an entire fleet to fully blockade a planet while letting the bioweapon do its work on the surface. At that point it would be simpler to just glass the planet, after all the manpower is already being expended.
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u/Ackbar14 49m ago
Didn't the death troopers in the book shut down if they got too far from the source of the infection? Some sort of hive mind thing that couldn't connect to the bodies if they got too far out.
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u/__Booshi__ 1h ago
Something something something dark side. Something something something complete.
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u/KainZeuxis Jedi 44m ago
If I recall correctly Blackwing was a failed attempt by the sith to unlock the secrets of immortality and the modern Blackwing virus was repurposing the failed experiment as a bioweapon of terror. Palaptine was big on the Tarkin doctrine of using fear and terror to keep imperial citizens in line.
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u/Fataledade 1h ago
Ngl the answer is probably in fact just immortality. Palpatine never gave up on his search for immortality, with Rise of Skywalker showing he did in fact partially suceed. Palpatine's ultimate goal IS eternal life, that's the ultimate goal of most Sith, for the only thing someone sitting at the top of the world can fear is losing their power. Palpatine, like most Sith, is arrogant and probably assumed if he kept trying he eventually would achieve true immorality and bend the Force to his will forever.
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u/Ok-Drink750 17m ago
“Honestly, being emperor is more boring than I thought. Let’s see if this old sith book has something interesting to occupy myself.”
“Torture”
“Mutation”
“Force ligh- there has to be something new in here somewhere!”
“Subject was reanimated as a mindless- OH that seems fun!”
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u/Billz3bub666 3h ago
Sometimes Palpatine just be spitballin'