This is precisely why I like Dark Empire so much. Here, Palpatine is essentially the Nietzschean superman — he creates his own values, follows his own rules, and believes in no one and nothing but himself, and he is the dark side. And the dark side is corruption. This is why he gloats over being the master of the Jedi; he conquered them, twisted them, turned them against themselves. This is far better than Palpatine being the ringleader of some anti-Jedi cult, beholden to the traditions of other men, obsessed with exacting a nebulous revenge for an affront he never experienced, having Force-adept children slain because he's too weak/afraid to make them extensions of his will.


I think it's clear that these lightsabers are meant to be trophies taken from slain Jedi. And this brings to light another aspect of DE that is superior to ROTS. Like in ROTS, Palpatine wields a lightsaber, but here, it's a captured Jedi lightsaber, not one of his own creation. And his use of a lightsaber is analogous to the infamous crucifix scene from The Exorcist; he wields a Jedi weapon not because he has to, but to profane the weapon.

It is silly that Palpatine would keep these things in his cloning chamber, though.