The TWO Most Insignificant Characters Who Almost Ruined Sidious’ Plan

We like to think Palpatine had everything under control, and that his rise to power was inevitable. But there were moments when he almost lost everything.

For all his careful planning, his mastery of manipulation, and his ability to outthink both the Jedi and the Sith, two unexpected threats nearly exposed him before he was ready. If things had played out just a little differently, his empire could have crumbled before it even began.

Keep reading, and you’ll see just how close Palpatine was to losing it all.

ARC Trooper Fives

We were so close. One clone, just one, nearly uncovered the entire plot before it was too late. Fives almost stopped Order 66.

It all started with Tup—a clone trooper like any other, until something inside him snapped. In the middle of battle, with no warning, he turned on Jedi Master Tiplar and executed her. No hesitation, no emotion. Just a single, mindless act of betrayal.

The Republic called it a malfunction. The Jedi were confused. But Fives? He wasn’t convinced. Something felt off, and he wasn’t the type to just accept orders and move on.

So he started digging.

His search led him to Kamino, where the answers were worse than anything he could have imagined. Every clone in the Republic army had a chip in their brain. Not a simple inhibitor, not just something to make them obedient—a trigger, waiting to be activated. And when the time came, it would turn every single one of them against the Jedi.

Fives wasn’t supposed to know this. No clone was. But now he did. And he had to warn someone before it was too late. He got as far as Anakin and Rex. He tried to explain, tried to make them see the bigger picture. The Kaminoans were lying. Count Dooku was involved. Palpatine was at the center of it all. The Jedi were walking straight into a trap, and they didn’t even know it. But Palpatine did.

Before Fives could expose the truth, he was framed as a traitor. He went from uncovering the Republic’s greatest secret to being hunted down by his own brothers. And in the end, he was shot. His final words? He tried to warn them.

Imagine if they had listened. If Anakin had questioned Palpatine just a little sooner. If Rex had pushed harder. If the Jedi Council had realized that one clone, alone and afraid, had discovered the one thing that could have saved them all.

Zillo Beast

We all remember the Zillo Beast, the massive, semi-sentient predator from Malastare that was accidentally awakened during the Clone Wars. At first, it seemed like nothing more than a dangerous, rare creature, but it quickly became a serious problem for Palpatine in ways no one expected.

What made the Zillo Beast truly dangerous wasn’t just its size or strength—it was its nearly indestructible hide. Even lightsabers couldn’t cut through it, which immediately caught Palpatine’s attention. If he could replicate its armor, he could create an army of clone troopers with near-invincible armor, making the Republic’s military unstoppable.

But things didn’t go the way Palpatine planned.

The Zillo Beast escaped and rampaged through Coruscant, not just causing destruction, but doing something far more unsettling—it specifically targeted Palpatine. That moment should have made everyone stop and ask questions. Why did the beast, an animal with no political agenda, go after the Supreme Chancellor?

If anyone had truly thought about it, they might have realized something was off. The Jedi, the Senate—someone could have started piecing things together. The Zillo Beast wasn’t just a physical threat; it was a moment of vulnerability that could have shattered Palpatine’s carefully built deception.

Imagine if a Jedi or a Senate investigator had dug deeper into the incident. Why was the Supreme Chancellor, a political leader with no combat history, so invested in the creature’s biology? Why did he secretly order its capture instead of simply having it destroyed? If someone had uncovered Palpatine’s real motives—his obsession with cloning, bioengineering, and creating an unstoppable army—it could have sent shockwaves through the Republic.

At that stage in the war, Palpatine’s grip on power wasn’t absolute yet. The Jedi were still the guardians of peace, and the Senate still had the authority to act against him. If a high-ranking Jedi like Yoda or Mace Windu had discovered that Palpatine was secretly experimenting on the Zillo Beast, it could have raised serious suspicions about his true intentions. And if the Jedi had started investigating, there’s a real chance they would have stumbled onto more than just cloning research.

What if they uncovered evidence of Order 66? What if they realized he had been manipulating the war all along?

The entire foundation of Palpatine’s plan to seize power could have crumbled. The Senate might have called for an emergency hearing, the Jedi might have moved against him before he was ready, and the war could have ended with Palpatine exposed instead of victorious.

But no one put the pieces together in time. The Zillo Beast was killed, the questions faded, and Palpatine’s plan continued undisturbed.