Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (spoilers obviously)

...That's a trope?

Its rather strange that we do differentiate evils into categories to the point that once a character reaches a certain stage we no longer think they can have

I remember a very specific conversation about Darkseid where he cohersives a younger granny goodness into bed with him and someone said that such an act is beneath Darksied 'Ya know the guy who has multiple kids and lovers and is the God of Evil'

I mean the simple answer is Palpy is the most powerful bastard in the galaxy... There are plenty of women/men who will sleep with him strictly because of that fact regardless of his physical appearance

There are plenty of real life examples of this mentality. IE the 20 something model marrying an 80 year old millionaire

but for whatever reason Palpy is "too evil" to be engaging in sexual escapades.

Generally speaking the villains that lean HEAVILY into sexuality and deviance tends to be Female, Gay, Trans or The Sissy Villain and most of the time they aren't even the main villain hell they are usually the second least threatening one after the dumb muscle unless The Big Bad is Specifically The Vamp then they tend to be the biggest threat.

The Villain being surrounded by satisfied but ultimately meaningless lovers is usually a demonstration of the difference between the villain and the hero... The Villain can have anyone they want but ultimate doesn't care... while the Hero can barely think straight trying to get into the pants of their main love interest cause they are so anxious about screwing up their friendship

but lets be real another factor is Ageism that characters once they start looking a certain way shouldn't be doing certain things.

The Villain that looks like this being surrounded by a harem of lovers they don't give a shit about reinforces our concepts of Evil Is Cool and Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster!

Them looking like Palpy destroys the illusion

I think part of the reason why Darth Sidious is never a person one sees to have sex anyone is ironically because he is portrayed as something akin a God of Evil. Like a literal plague manifested in human. And because he's more abstract, he project our own thoughts and ideals upon these evil shadow archetype.

It's also why Adolf Hitler never made his affair with Eva Braun public. He found he was more appealing to the German public if he was a German leader too busy with running the country to bother with such romance. Evidentially, if Germany had discovered his affair with Eva Braun, his "godly" image amongst the Germans would be reduced to a common, regular man.

Sidious, and really the Sith in general, really go out of their way to make themselves appear as gods. Gods that are beneath common affairs like sex or intermingling with mortals. In fact, it seems common with villains we feared vs villains we hate.

For example, people are terrified of Michael Myers because he doesn't act like a human being. More like a machine that kills people because it can. But when Michael gets even a sliver of humanity, people rage because it destroys the mysticism of his character.

In contrast, Freddy Krueger is meant feared but also loathed by audiences. He has some the fear of the unknown but his crimes, particular with murdering (and possibly raping) minors, hit too close to home that invokes a sense of anger and revulsion from the audience.

Edited by Shadao on May 10th 2021 at 2:21:36 AM

But that doubles back to Us IDEALISING Evil and putting levels too it... Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil cause we consider it the ultimate act that destroys any form of sympathy/connection to a character cause its too real... except it no more Realer then someone murdering a loved one, yet you can have entire stories about people forgiving their loved ones murderer, hell outright trying to help redeem them but good luck finding one where someone forgives their rapist and redemption is completely out the cards 'and No I don't mean they forgive the person after the narrative has walked back what happened'

Its very much why they won't just come out and say Joker had Barbara gang raped despite the fact they'll 'imply' it for years on end IE Barbara sees one of the goons from the killing joke and immediately bursts into tears of fear and then UNSTOPPABLE RAGE'

cause suddenly the Joker's no longer a "FUN" villain

Edited by FrozenWolf2 on May 10th 2021 at 4:35:06 AM

Even Moore stated Joker didn't do that to Batgirl.

Joker is practically the trope maker for villainous aromatic asexual despite his interactions with Harley and Batman.

Same with Palpatine, but I always felt both of them fit this trope because the general public doesn't want the image of them doing the deed.

I still recall that Isard had a thing for Sheev.

No Moore has sidestepped the issue

Yes the first time it got brought up he outright denied it fumbling the excuse that maybe the imagery he picked invoked the wrong context...... then when him and Dc where busy throwing each other under the bus

Well He basically washed his hands of the scenario and said its whatever you want it to be cause he doesn't care anymore. 'Which is pretty much Moore's answer to everything'

and the rest of DC has more or less treated it that way without outright saying it

Its framed as a sexual assault and its imagery is of a sexual assault.

Even if the Joker had raped Barbara, it would have been more out of sadism than sexual desire.

Speaking of Sidious, I'm sure there would be women crazy enough to have sex with him.

I mean, Deadpool has had a ton of girlfriends.

Edited by JoLuRo075 on May 10th 2021 at 6:59:02 AM

Weirdly if I use all the examples of Sith in both Canon and Legends, out of all the HORRIBLE SHIT they did (And HOO BOY was there a large list of things.), Rape was weirdly the one NONE OF THEM appeared to have done, in fact the only example I can think of in all of Star Wars was done by a Ordinary Imperial Officer (Not even Force Sensitive, just some schmuck.), and that backfired HORRIBLY for him as the woman in question was not only someone who had the skill to hunt him down later and just completely destroy him.........it was Boba Fett's woman (And he LOVED her, it wasn't a fling.). Back to the topic in question, while the Sith are all about Passion and are quick to indulge in that like a Slaaneshi Cultist, I can't think of a single example if a Sith or Dark Sider doing that. I might be wrong, but if I had to guess that if they had to Force Themselves on someone, that might be constrained as Weak to the others or something and thus they invoke what was mentioned above about People being attracted to those who are powerful, or alternatively Sith are usually attracted to those who are ALSO powerful (Amazon Chasers basically.). Again, might be wrong, but I have spent HOURS on Wookiepedia in the past (The total amount could possibly be summed up in days of real time.). So I am inclined to believe that No, Palpatine likely wouldn't do that as he can probably get some whenever he wants from those willing.

Edited by KouTheMad on May 11th 2021 at 2:17:07 AM

Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil in media, and many marketable villains never stooped to those levels because it would not sell well for the merchandising. It's also why you see the Joker despising Nazis or why they would go to the length of having Sheev clone his son rather than doing it the natural way.

Heck, it's also why every depiction of Leia's metal bikini is described as a dancing girl outfit rather than a pleasure slave outfit for Jabba. To admit that would only confirm the horrible implications of what Jabba does to his slave girls.

Edited by Shadao on May 11th 2021 at 2:22:41 AM

It should be noted the only instance of outright sexual assault by Joker is in the Brian Azzarello graphic novel where he actually rapes Johnny Frost's ex-wife cause he didn't tell him about her.

tbf sheev could have just had consensual sex. He was the emperor. Plenty of women would be into that...

Edited by miraculous on May 11th 2021 at 2:38:47 AM

Granted he seems like the kind of guy who chokes women to death mid-coitus.

Only one I know off is Lord Cronal who had his daughter gang raped (and particpated) from luke skywalker and the shadows of mindor.

Edited by miraculous on May 11th 2021 at 2:39:55 AM

I didn't even know that was a trope either.

I personally think that by the time he became Emperor Sheev was too withered due to both advanced age and the Dark Side of the Force for regular procreation. Basically, he couldn't get it up by the time Rey's father was created.

And in keeping with my frequent comparisons between Sheev and Patrick Bateman, I also think that when he was able to get it up in his youth that he also regularly hired prostitutes only to kill them afterwards.

I checked up and down on Cronal's page on Wookieepedia and found nothing, checked the Battle for Mindor's page to and nothing. If what you said is true, they didn't put it down on the page. That being said, it likely has a page on TV Tropes so I'll take a look. 'Looks' Oh yup, there it is, under the YMMV page for Complete Monster. Uh.........Technically while he uses Sith Powers, it's stated he's a member of the Prophets of the Dark Side and referred to as Dark Jedi so....TECHNICALLY He's not a Sith. My Statement about the Sith as far as I know still stands though my statement about no Dark Siders doing it has officially gone out the window.

Edited by KouTheMad on May 11th 2021 at 3:21:57 AM

I think the clone thing was just a result of the 'Palpatine fucked?' Backlash.

And it's boring honestly.

Oh yeah it's a really weird twist and seems to exist to side step people memes

I honestly don't know why Sidious having sex is too much to believe, there are equally ugly characters who have had consensual relationships.

Examples: Deadpool, Makoto Shishio, the Joker and Rumpelstiltskin.

Edited by JoLuRo075 on May 16th 2021 at 12:56:57 PM

Uh Robert Carlye (rumple) is a ruggishly handsome. Dude isnt ugly.

Ok, but to be fair, I speak of his "Dark One" form, he had that form when Zelena and Belle developed a crush on him.

Belle fell in love with him because of the kindness Rumple still had left, but Sidious can fake kindness to manipulate people.

Rey's grandmother may be a woman who believed that Sidious was a poor tormented soul, who was unlucky enough to be disfigured.

Then the girl would realize the monster that Sidious really is, so she would run away with her son. Sidious would initially show no interest in pursuing her, but not due to kindness, but because he considers that a son who is not force-sensitive is worthless.

Edited by JoLuRo075 on May 16th 2021 at 1:20:27 AM

I don’t think the Clone Dad bit was a backlash retcon because it came only a month after the film was released, but I might suspect they saw the backlash coming and prepared that retcon for the book.

Edited by Tuckerscreator on May 16th 2021 at 1:17:23 AM