Ah, that shady old Emperor Palpatine. As though this nefarious villain wasn’t already lambasted enough, for his treachery, megalomania, becoming the Senate, all of those sorts of things. He’s now getting up to some questionable deeds in Star Wars Battlefront 2 as well.

Now, of course, a lot of the draw of these licensed titles is immersion. Playing through the movies, the power trip of taking the roles of some of the greatest heroes and villains of all time. Some title got this very, very wrong, granted (why were we flying the legendary Son of Krypton through rings in Superman 64? It wasn’t Baby’s First Flight Sim), but that’s the goal, anyway.

If Superman was incredibly underwhelming in that game, then Emperor Palpatine was just too strong for Battlefield 2. Which is ironic, because he supposedly needed buffing when the game was in its infancy. His damage and stamina were sub-par, according to some on the Battlefront forums.

Here’s another curious twist on the Palpatine tale: the wily old Emperor is currently absent from the game. Still.

Battlefront 2 Palpatine Header
Via: Eurogamer

He was removed several days ago after causing some trouble with his force lightning. Typical Palpatine. That’s so him. This ability had previously been nerfed for being too potent, but recent updates brought up fresh new force lightning issues. Namely, odd bugs were causing players to complain that they were being struck through walls by the powerful ability.

The issue appears to pertain to the lightning’s tracking, which was a little shonky from the off. This is nothing unusual, of course. How many times do we see well-meaning updates setting out to fix a certain issue, only to break several other things in the process? Some in the trade call that pulling a For Honor.

However this sorry situation came about, though, the end result was that there wasn’t an immediate answer. Dice’s global manager of community engagement, Ben Walke, has stated on the game’s official forums that they’re working on a hotfix for the issue with Palpatine. Until one can be implemented, he’s had to be temporarily nixed. It’s a shame for fans of the dark lord, but he will be returning.