Thread:LucidPigeons/@comment-27586321-20150710035330/@comment-27560932-20150711011139

Hell no. Palpatine serves as a valid Bigger Bad in a lot of the series' expanded universe, especially those dealing with the Empire at large. Since he mainly controls everything from the comfort of his throne and uses his own pawns to deal with threats, this essentially makes him the Chessmaster from afar whereas one of his minions might serve as the Big Bad. Take Rebels for example; Palpatine's yet to make an onscreen appearance as far as I know, but his influence is already strong due to the fact both the Inquisitor and Vader himself are acting on his direct orders. This also applies to the first part of The Clone Wars and A New Hope/The Empire Strikes Back. In the original trilogy alone, Palpatine doesn't even come center stage until Return Of The Jedi.

I could go on. This speaks volumes about just how effective of a villain Palpatine is. He's the Big Bad of the series as a whole, but he usually acts on one of his henchmen, thus making him a greater-scope villain for when said henchmen acts as a Big Bad on his behalf.