How 2 Royal Guards Reacted to Palpatine using the Force [Canon] - Star Wars Explained

The knowledge of Palpatine being a force user, let alone a Sith Lord, was known to a very select few in the entire galaxy during his reign as Emperor. Among those few who knew were his Royal Guards, but even they did not know the full extent of his power; with only two guards that we know of actually witnessing his true power on display. So how did those two guards react to their Emperor going from being a defenseless old man to a maniacal force wielding killer?

The two Royal guards in question were with Palpatine and Darth Vader when the Emperor’s shuttle was shot down by the Free Ryloth Movement during the early years of the Empire. To give some context to this, Palpatine purposely baited this emerging rebel group by making himself a viable target to them, by placing himself within their sights as he allowed his small Imperial escort to fall into their trap. His purpose was to have the rebel group exhaust all of their assets so they wouldn’t become a huge threat in the future, and to perhaps have some fun too.

One Guard was actually a clone veteran from the Clone Wars, and the other one was a regular Human who was noted for having multiple tattoos across his face. Anyway, when Palpatine’s shuttle crashed onto Ryloth after being shot down by the Rebel group, only he, his apprentice Vader, and the two royal guards survived. They were stranded in the middle of nowhere and were hundreds of miles away from any known settlement; and communications were down so they were left to fend for themselves.

Shortly after the crash, two modified rebel freighters started to attack their position. Vader and the Royal Guards stepped in front of Palpatine trying to protect him, but he told them their protection was unnecessary and he began to remove a portion of his cloak, revealing his hidden lightsaber. He then ignited his red lightsaber, using it to deflect oncoming blaster fire while shooting force lightning far across the sky, hitting the rebel freighters as they came near.

As he did this, the guards were shocked to see their Emperor use the force in front of them in such a manner. As we stated earlier, they knew he was force sensitive, but they had no idea he was so powerful. They were sort of stunned for a moment as they saw Palpatine shoot force lightning out of the tips of his fingers which was powerful enough to reach and damage the ships far above them.

Even Vader was a bit surprised at what he saw, not at the power that his master was displaying, but at the fact that he actually decided to use it at such a place and time. As to see his master actually fight was a rare sight for him. As this was happening, Palpatine made it clear that aside from Vader and the Guards, everyone who witnessed him using the force was to be killed.

Following his orders, the four of them quickly destroyed the two rebel freighters. But Palpatine’s impressive display of the force didn’t end there. As while in the wilds of Ryloth, they came across a huge horde of Lylek, which were massive insectoid creatures that traveled in packs of hundreds at a time and acted like a hive mind.

They were known to wipe out entire villages and were almost impossible to stop. While this massive horde of creatures chased the two Sith Lords and Guards through the forest, Palpatine used the force to effortlessly bring down massive trees and boulders behind them as a means to slow the bloodthirsty creatures down. They eventually reached and entered a cave, which led them to the nest of the Lyleks and right towards the Queen of the hive, which alone was hundreds of feet big.

Although both the Guards and even Vader were exhausted at that point, Palpatine seemed to be quite delighted and even excited at what was before him. While the Guards fended off the creatures at the entrance, Vader and Palpatine took on the Queen and all of her children that attempted to protect her. While Vader was just trying to survive at that point as he was cutting down countless beasts, Palpatine was spinning around, laughing as he cut down and killed everything around him.

He moved so swiftly and casually it was as if he was dancing. Palpatine clearly was having a blast; and from the point of view of the guards, probably looked like a straight up lunatic. They eventually killed the Queen and her entire hive, with the clone royal guard not surviving as he was overwhelmed during the fight.

The two Sith lords and the surviving Guard eventually made their way out of the cave and into an isolated village. While at the village, they were soon attacked by the Free Ryloth Movement that had caught up with them, but their forces were destroyed by Vader and later by Imperial reinforcements which came near the end. After everything had settled, the two Sith and the remaining Guard had survived not only the attacks of an entire planet wide rebel cell, but also the attacks from the most dangerous creatures from Ryloth’s forests.

Needless to say, the surviving Royal Guard probably saw things that were before completely unimaginable to him, and he probably never looked at Palpatine the same way ever again whenever he was tasked to guard his excellency.