Incredibly, George Lucas was the first one who considered giving Star Wars' Emperor Palpatine a love life. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker turned Rey's world upside-down when she learned the truth of her heritage. Kylo Ren hadn't been lying when he claimed Rey's parents were nobody's - but her grandfather was actually Emperor Palpatine.
It was a shocking twist, not least because of one profound implication; that it suggests Palpatine had lovers. Had he ever known love and romance? If so, that might explain why he was able to figure out how to manipulate Anakin Skywalker so easily; because he understood the kind of selfish, obsessive love he sensed beating within Anakin's heart. Or had Palpatine had a harem, just as he had in the old Expanded Universe, with one of his women giving birth to a son? Whatever the case, there's surprising evidence that George Lucas himself was the first one who considered giving Palpatine a relationship history.
Back in 2005, Lucas announced that he was working on what he intended to be the first-ever live-action Star Wars TV series, Underworld. This was set during the dark times of the Emperor's reign, and would be based mainly on the lower levels of the city-planet of Coruscant. It never happened, but a number of scripts were commissioned, and one was seen by God of War creator Cory Barlog on a visit to Skywalker Ranch. As he told Polygon, he was impressed that it even made him sympathetic with the Emperor.
"I cared about the Emperor. They made the Emperor a sympathetic figure who was wronged by this f****** heartless woman. She's this hardcore gangster, and she just totally destroyed him as a person. I almost cried while reading this. This is the Emperor, the lightning out of the fingers Emperor."
There was one crucial difference between Lucas' intentions for the Emperor and J.J. Abrams' plot. Lucas clearly intended Palpatine's romance to deepen him as a character, to allow audiences to emphasize with him rather than continue seeing him as evil personified. In contrast, Abrams didn't care about the romance so much as its eventual byproduct, Rey, the Jakku orphan. Palpatine wasn't a focus as a character, stressing that he was the embodiment of all the Sith, and granting him powers that made him more demonic than ever before. The concept is similar - the idea of Palpatine having had relationships of some kind - but the goal was a polar opposite.
Ironically, the unused Underworld script has actually had an impact on popular culture. According to Barlog, this script inspired him to create the version of Kratos seen in God of War, a complex and flawed character. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see whether future Star Wars tie-ins reveal just how Palpatine had a child in the canon - and whether they take Lucas' approach, humanizing the Emperor, or follow Abrams' example.