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’t please him while he was using it. As for his pledge to lay his power down once the crisis was resolved, clearly Palpatine wasn’t thinking of the same crisis as the rest of the Senate. As late as Return of the Jedi, Palpatine (now the Emperor) still sees threats to his power and to the Empire he rules. If he doesn’t consider his “crisis” resolved, he’s being true to the letter of his speech; and if the Senate heard something other than what Palpatine secretly believed, we in the audience know better. Like Obi-Wan, Palpatine lied only “from a certain point of view.”

“Judge Me by My Size, Do You?”

One of the pleasures I took from my first viewing of The Phantom Menace was hearing scattered horrified gasps from the audience when Queen Amidala first addresses that helpful, grayhaired man as “Palpatine.” The kindly Senator is a façade designed to deflect suspicion away from himself while he maneuvers everyone around him (including the Jedi, who really should’ve known better) into liking him, trusting him, and giving him exactly what he wants. Palpatine takes control of the Senate without personally spilling a single drop of blood because he conceals the fact that he’s really a ruthless, power-hungry, and vengeance-seeking Sith Master. The few times we see him as Darth Sidious, his face is hidden beneath a heavy hood.

Then there’s Yoda. When we first meet him neither Luke nor the audience has any idea that this comical, wizened little chatterbox could be the great Jedi Master whom Luke was sent to find. Yoda doesn’t reveal his identity, but keeps up the game until Luke figures it out on his own. How is this any different from Palpatine’s actions?

The difference can be found not in what the two characters are doing but in why—in the intention behind their actions (and of course, their ultimate consequences). The reasons behind a person’s actions can be every bit as important as the actions themselves. And while many philosophers, such as Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), would say that lying is never defensible, others, including utilitarians, believe that there are times when lies are harmless or even beneficial, that is, when they would produce the greatest good for the greatest number of people. Nietzsche goes even further, dismissing conventional morality altogether and declaring that truth is nothing but the specific set of lies accepted by a particular society.153

Turning briefly away from Palpatine and Yoda, we can now look at the Jedi Council’s decision to conceal the waning of their powers and ask: what was their intention? They may have honestly thought their lie served the greater good, letting them continue to act as peacekeepers and negotiators. Certainly the galaxy becomes a harsher place once the Jedi are eradicated or forced into hiding. In the end, though, however altruistic their intentions might have been, the Jedi certainly appeared to be lying to hold onto power.

Palpatine’s intentions have no such shades of grey about them. He wants to take over the Senate, overthrow the Jedi, and make himself the single, supreme ruler of the entire galaxy; he wants power for its own sake and uses deception to gain it. Yoda, on the other hand, doesn’t deceive Luke for power or personal gain (with the possible exception of Luke’s flashlight, with which he stubbornly refuses to part). His motives are similar to those of the Tibetan Lama Marpa the Translator, who misled and toyed with his would-be student Milarepa for years—demanding near-impossible physical labor and repeatedly refusing to give him instruction or initiations—before finally relenting and taking on the incredibly patient youth.154 A more modern example would be the old karate master Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid, who commands his baffled student Daniel-san to perform endless chores before revealing that they were actually cleverly disguised lessons (with the side benefit of giving Mr. Miyagi a clean house and shiny cars). To understand Yoda, we need to realize that he, like Marpa and Mr. Miyagi, is playing the Trickster.

Tricksters are found in myth and