There is not starwars without the Jedi, neither without the Sith. There is no Star Wars without the Skywalkers, much less without Darth Sidious. The Force, the balance between the Light Side and the Dark Side. If you take part of the spine out of the house of cards, it falls down. And Palpatine has been instrumental in this story.
However, in the past, when Star Wars was just an idea of its creator George Lucas written on paper, the filmmaker’s original plan for Palpatine or rather for the main antagonist of the story was very different from the one we know.
The original draft of Star Wars, according to a report posted on the website of cinemascomicswas written in 1974 and no character with the name of Emperor Palpatine appeared. The leader of what was known as the New Galactic Empire was a human named Cos Dashit.
Who was Cos Dashit?
Comparing him to Palpatine, Cos Dashit was a handsome, narcissistic young man who was neither Sith nor Force-sensitive. and that within that draft was a puppet of the Empire.
While he was accompanied by Darth Vader, a member of the Sith Knights, Governor Crispin Hoedaack, and Vantos Coll, they were not actually loyal and were plotting to overthrow him.
Cos Dashit was able to fail Star Wars by being a less powerful villain than Palpatinemainly for not having Force sensitivity, the essence of the franchise. Furthermore, the problem is not caused especially by the presence of Dashit, but the absence of Darth Sidious, the main villain of the galactic saga.
Palpatine was present in all the trilogies and the duo of villains that he formed with Darth Vader is one of the most iconic in cinema, one much more fearsome than a simple puppet of the Empire.
Fortunately, that draft never came to fruition. From the original text, George Lucas took a good part of the original trilogy, without including Cos Dashit and practically saving the franchise with the inclusion of Emperor Palpatine.