Why Palpatine's Return In 'The Rise of Skywalker' Made Sense
Somehow, Palpatine returned.
When those lines were spoken in The Rise of Skywalker, fans raised an eyebrow as to how and why the once thought dead Dark Lord of the Sith returned from the grave. However, as Palpatine said himself in the film, he had died before, but how how he returned is what many wondered. Many didn’t think this particular plot point in the final installment of the saga made any sense. However, if one looks closely at the lore of Star Wars, be it the films and of course the ever growing Expanded Universe, one might find that the seeds were planted for the return of the Emperor.
Ever Hear the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?
The link for Palpatine’s return was already in the films that came prior. In Episode III, Palpatine tells the story of Darth Plagueis, a Dark Lord of the Sith who was able to achieve the power to cheat death, saying that “The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.” He says these same lines again in Episode IX, indicating the link of the search for immortality. It is no surprise that Palpatine pretty much used the promise of gaining such a power.
From an out of universe perspective, it would make sense that if we saw Palpatine again, it would connect to his never ending search for immortality. The last time we as an audience saw him in live-action, he had already brought up the idea of a Sith seeking to cheat death. This was the inspiration which Abrams himself brought up to where they got the idea of bringing back the Emperor. So if one were to watch the films in release order, then they as an audience member would remember that Palpatine was seeking the secrets to immortality.
From an in-universe perspective, there is also a lot to draw upon. Of course, it would make a lot of sense that once Palpatine had full control of the galaxy, he would pull the limitless resources he had now ruling the Galactic Empire into finding the secrets of immortality. Not only that, but it was said in The Rise of Skywalker novelization that Palpatine had learned Plagueis' technique called Essence Transfer, which is an ability to take one's spirit and put it within another vessel that could contain it. In this case, it was an unstable clone of the Emperor himself. Still, this did not, however answer the questions for fans as to how Palpatine could set all of this up. But if one really thinks about it, his return still makes sense. With 30+ years of rule under his belt, surely he could have made contingencies in case of his death and prepare for his resurrection, and indeed, he did.
Into The Unknown
The Aftermath Trilogy by Chuck Wending was meant to tell the events of what happened right after Return of the Jedi. In this story, one of the main plotlines is the Empire under the control of one of Palpatine’s acolytes called Gallius Rax initiates a contingency set by the Emperor himself that, in case of his death, was to send loyal Imperial Forces worthy into the Unknown Regions to rebuild the Empire in secret while the Empire in the known galaxy was destroyed.
The question many fans had while reading this book was, why did Palpatine even bother having a contingency plan after his supposed death? In Return of the Jedi, it was said by Luke Skywalker that his overconfidence was his weakness. So why would someone like Emperor Palpatine, who would be so confident in victory, even consider death as an option? Unless of course, he knew death would not be the end. That even in death he would find a way to rise again, and would need servants ready to prepare his vengeance against the galaxy that had turned against him. The Aftermath Trilogy set this up perfectly. All the preparations for the formation of the First Order were in place. Now all that was needed was the story of his return.
While the nature for Palpatine’s return was there before The Rise of Skywalker, a few more stories after its release were added to the lore in order to smoothen out just how the Emperor was returning. One of these being Greg Pak’s Darth Vader comic series.
Secrets Of The Dark Side
Grek Pak's Darth Vader comic series has been the third of ongoing Vader comics being written by Marvel, this one detailing Vader's adventures between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Not only is it preparing the stage for his eventual return to the light in Return of the Jedi, but also planting the seeds for Palpatine's return in The Rise of Skywalker.
In the second arc of the story, Vader was hunted down by one of the Emperor’s assassins, Ochi of Bestoon, and was later taken to the planet Exegol, both introduced in The Rise of Skywalker. There we saw the Emperor's fleet from the film, still in the very early stages of production. Palpatine also had dozens of Sith Cultists under his command as well, and been creating creatures and other horrible monstrosities. While not said directly, it is presumably connected to the experiments of Plagueis, who manipulated the midi-chlorians to create…life. While this is retroactive, it definitely shows that Palpatine was planning his forces on Exegol for a long time, and that they didn't just come out of nowhere.
Some might say the comic is a bit of a quick patchwork to fill in "plot holes" of The Rise of Skywalker, but regardless, it did continue to make sense of how Palpatine was able to orchestrate his grand return to the galaxy in The Rise of Skywalker.
I Am All The Sith
From a thematic point of view, Palpatine's return also adds on to his character. Palpatine, at his core, is the dark side incarnate, and this played out throughout his arc in the saga films as he became less and less human in his physical appearance. Palpatine at the beginning of the saga pretended to be a normal human not just to Anakin Skywalker but also to the people of the galaxy so that they may submit to his rule. Once he had the power he craved, he no longer needed to don the mask of Palpatine and revealed his form as Darth Sidious, scars and deformities and all. He no longer hid behind the veil of kindhearted chancellor, but openly embraced his cruel and cunning persona. His true self, one might argue.
Once destroyed and reborn in his clone body, Palpatine was no longer able to hide behind sense of humanity. His need for immorality had turned him into a decaying corpse, barely a man, who's only alive through sheer force of will and the dark side of the force. No longer could he pretend to be a regular human being. No longer could he hide behind the façade of humility. No, in his final form, he's nothing more than the dark side incarnate, all the Sith living in him in a rotting and decaying vessel with his only wish to see the galaxy he tried to rule burn for rebelling against him.
From this point forward, Emperor Palpatine's only dream was to become Emperor of the ashes.
Somehow, Palpatine Returned
When the Emperor returned, many thought it was an out of left field occurrence. That it was just something the movie had given to us randomly with no rhyme or reason. But if one looks closer, not just at the movie that came before it (Revenge of the Sith) for the themes and even the wider Expanded Universe pre-The Rise of Skywalker for the lore, one can find that the logic for Palpatine's return not only made sense, but was also inevitable.
Somehow, Palpatine returned, and it made sense.
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