system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[StarWarsMovies] What was Palpatine's end game? What was he actually trying to achieve? What was his goal?
gpt
He says what he wants quite clearly: "Unlimited power!"

Palpatine wanted nothing less than immortality, mastery of the dark side, and possibly ascending to godhood. 

The Empire existed primarily as a means to get Palpatine whatever he wanted. If he wanted to explore the secrets of a long-forgotten Sith temple that sat underneath a thriving city, he could have the Imperial Navy exterminate the population and excavate the ruins until he could walk into the temple. It was also supposed to bring the galaxy to heel, to prevent further wars from igniting, so he could study the secrets of the dark side in peace. 

We saw a few hints in both legends and canon that if the Empire had existed for any longer, more overt cults of Palpatine would have started popping up. Already the Imperial education system was rewriting narratives to make Palpatine even more powerful and grandiose than he already was. He projected an image of a wise and strong leader even after disappearing from the public eye. The First Order's method of indoctrinating children into stormtroopers might have become an Imperial reality if it went unopposed, just to force the entire galactic population into a mindset that thought nothing less than absolute fealty to their emperor. 

He never wanted to exterminate all life in the galaxy, because even the Sith know that the force flows from life. But he absolutely wanted to control it, and to dictate the course of all events according to his will.