Was emperor palpatine always a bad guy? Was he ever good in a star wars book?

I believe he was always sith, there's a book called Darth Plaugeis which shows Palpatine and his sith master planning the takeover of the senate over a decade before it happens. Being the Emperor of the galaxy he made a lot of decisions that helped people in some ways but he also hurt and killed anyone with force abilities or anyone who rebelled. I know in the legends star wars books they say he had a secret motive for creating the death stars: to repell a deadly evil alien bug invasion that he knew was coming eventually. It did come many years after his death in the books and caused the deaths of millions including Chewbacca. So you could argue maybe the galaxy could have been more prepared if the Empire wasn't destroyed.