Star Wars: Underworld, the TV series that never was, would allegedly have made audiences feel sympathy for Emperor Palpatine.

This one’s a helmet-scratcher.

Emperor Palpatine, one of the Star Wars saga’s most mysterious and fear-inducing characters, would have been made a lot more human if George Lucas’ planned live-action Star Wars TV series had become a reality.

Star Wars: Underworld was first announced in 2005 as an expansion of the Star Wars universe, set to follow the prequel trilogy released between 1999-2005.

The project was reportedly pretty far along by the time Disney bought Lucasfilm, and although Kathleen Kennedy had expressed interest, clearly the franchise is very movie-focused right now, and chances of our ever seeing Underworld on our screens are relatively slim.

And, after finding out a little more about the story, maybe we wouldn’t want to?

Related: Overanalyzing the first Rogue One: A Star Wars Story trailer

While promoting his new movie God of War, former Lucasarts employee Cory Barlog revealed some plot details with disturbing connotations — namely that the source of Emperor Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious)’s evil schemes was a woman’s scorn.

“When I was working at Lucas, I was allowed to go up to the ranch and read the scripts for the [canceled live-action Star Wars] TV show,” Barlog tells Venturebeat (via io9).

“It was the most mind-blowing thing I’d ever experienced. I cared about the Emperor. They made the Emperor a sympathetic figure who was wronged by this fucking heartless woman,” Barlog enthuses. “She’s this hardcore gangster, and she just totally destroyed him as a person.”

Barlog confesses that he “almost cried” while reading the scripts, explaining, “this is the Emperor, the lightning out of the fingers Emperor. That’s something magical.”

While we absolutely wouldn’t mind a series centered on the Emperor (could you imagine — an entire Star Wars TV show about this iconic, unambiguously evil villain?!), the elaboration on his backstory leaves a less than pleasant taste in our mouths.

Much like the prequel series linked Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the Dark Side with his love for a woman, it seems like Star Wars: Underworld would have made audiences root for the Emperor — the Emperor! — because he’d had his heart broken by a “heartless woman.”

It just seems there would be a better reason for the Emperor to go on a galaxy-conquering quest than ‘because women are evil.’

But hey, perhaps in this new era of more inclusive Star Wars, this Underworld series exploring the dealings of the gangs of Coruscant might actually work… with a more palatable Palpatine.