Sideshows unveiling of their latest entry in the Star Wars 12 inch figure line took my breath away and I’m not even a Star Wars fanatic, a Palpatine and Darth Sidious double figure set seems like an expensive proposition at $120 but even though it is more than twice the normal $40- $45 the figures would probably go for individually, I think a case can be made that together they add up to much more than the sum of their parts. Why oh why didn’t we get Jekyll and Hyde this way? After all the moral relationships between the two sets of characters are the same.
In both cases you have a shadow self, a dark but true self hidden by a veneer of goodness. Of course Jekyll is ultimately punished for his presumption of goodness. He thinks that to be good one must simply remove the evil within so that the goodness can flourish. What he fails to account for and what destroys him is his unwillingness to accept his essential moral emptiness. He is not waiting to be filled or fulfilled in relation to any other, or to a creator, but to himself and himself alone. He is the measure in other words. A much better case can be made that he is unable to control the evil self because ultimately it is his "self." His claim on goodness is the farce, the evil monster of Hyde the reality. I've often wondered if a more accurate story wouldn't involve Dr Hyde trying to purge himself of Jekyll. In either case I think it's important to point out that goodness does not come from a laboratory.
Palpatine and Sidious present an even clearer example of what results when trying to divide the self. Of course Palpatine does not even believe in goodness, or in evil for that matter. He believes in mere power, domination, and control and so Sidious is his grotesque but true face and Palpatine the disguise that Sidius can't wait to be rid of. In the end Sidius is destroyed because he has given himself over to a formulae that is the philosophic equivalent of Jekylls chemical concoction. He believes that the dark side of the force (what we would call evil) can be consistent within itself not reckoning on the facts. The weakest light can banish, and inevitably does destroy, any darkness it touches. Jekyll/Hyde and Palpatine/Sidious aren't separated from their good "self" -they are separated from any source of goodness. They have fled from the light into the darkness in an effort to sanctify their own dark true desires and the darkness devours them because that's what darkness/evil does.
And it's worth remembering that both Hyde and Sidius are presented to us as metaphors for evil in it's pure form not just as evil men but as something monstrous. Of course if we aren't careful we think of them as representative of the idea of evil and forget the fact that evil resides within, constantly urging us to lend our wills and hands over. Need a reminder how ugly evil is and how it often comes as an Angel of light? You could do way worse than purchase these great figures from Sideshow Collectibles.
Each figure starts with a great likeness and a form allowing 30 + points of articulation. Each figure also has Interchangeable hands, extensively detailed movie accurate costuming and weaponry as well as a Senate Cam Droid with Base, a Sith Holocron and two 12-Inch Figure Display Bases with Star Wars logo. The exclusive version of this is sold out but the regular is still available and has all the cool accessories you'd want anyway.