Palpatine Force Ghost Anakin Is Alive Again

"The expressionless speak!" begins the opening clamber of Star Wars: The Rising of Skywalker. "The dead" is Emperor Palpatine, who has begun broadcasting across the galaxy, puzzling everyone who was pretty sure he didn't survive his fall in Return of the Jedi. How did he come back to life? J.J. Abrams' second sequel offers few answers, allowing years of Star Wars storytelling do the heavy lifting (if you know where to find it).

[Ed. annotation: This post contains major spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.]

The Rise of Skywalker, a trilogy capper, sets a lot of new rules for Palpatine'southward powers. This follows Star Wars screenwriting tradition: Along with introducing the character in the flesh in Render of the Jedi, George Lucas established the idea that someone could be turned to the Night Side by killing someone in an act of acrimony or fear. The prequel trilogy kept its hole-and-corner Sith Lord (aka The Phantom Menace) hidden until Revenge of the Sith, and teased the thought that Sheev created Anakin Skywalker out of midi-chlorians. In the Skywalker Saga, big Palpatine revelations get squeezed into the terminal installments.

Palpatine is a mess when he shows upwardly in The Rising of Skywalker. Until the very end of the movie, he stays attached to a large machine, his eyes have no pupils, and his hands are mangled. When Kylo Ren and the audience stumble upon him, he'south perched next to a tank full of Snokes. He says he "made" Snoke, and based on the laboratory setup, the idea is that we should probably take him literally. Although it'south ironic to evoke the lyrics to a song titled "Once in a Lifetime" to talk about Palpatine, who has lived multiple lifetimes: "How did nosotros get here?" The lore of Star Wars media by provides a little clarity that the film does not.

To take a granddaughter, Palpatine needs a son

The big twist in The Rise of Skywalker is that Rey is the granddaughter of Palpatine, continued through blood by her male parent's line. So when did Palpatine have a son? There isn't a canonical answer, but there is a rumor from Legends — the pre-Disney Expanded Universe cloth decanonized in the lead-up to The Force Awakens — that could provide some bread crumbs. They center around a character first introduced in Assail of the Clones: Palpatine's assistant Sly Moore.

Mas Amedda, Emperor Palpatine, and Sly Moore address the Galactic Senate.

Image: Lucasfilm

That Sly Moore was enlightened that Palpatine was Darth Sidious the entire time she served him is an thought that survived the Eu lore purge and remains canon in the sequel trilogy era. She sits to the left of him whenever Palpatine addresses the Senate, and is looking like she'south having a yard time at the space opera in Palpatine'southward box before she'due south dismissed and then Palpatine tin can talk to Anakin. Sly Moore was said to exist fiercely loyal and might have had the power to deject people's minds, indicating she may have been Force-sensitive.

In the Legends canon, a homo claiming to be the son of Emperor Palpatine, born when Sly Moore inseminated herself with one of Palpatine's DNA samples, shows up on the Spice Mines of Kessel. His defining characteristic? Three optics. And he'south called … Triclops. The theory is a chip of a stretch, but the idea that Sly Moore would have sired the son of Palpatine before the Emperor disbands the Senate entirely in A New Promise can't be disproved, and there aren't a lot of female characters around that spend time with Palpatine.

Was the Emperor keeping his genetic fabric around? As Dominic Monaghan's character says in passing in The Rise of Skywalker, at that place was a lot of dark science happening in Sith circles over the years, so the reply is ... probably. Gross.

The Emperor survived Render of the Jedi — simply so what?

At that place'southward reason to believe that Palpatine conquered death before he was tossed down the shaft of the Decease Star II in Return of the Jedi. The Star Wars Expanded Universe novels, comics, and cartoons indicate that Palpatine was dealing in "Sith Magic," though he never focused on merely one death-beating scheme at a time. Star Wars Rebels showed us that by the Imperial Era, Palpatine was looking into the magical "earth between worlds" that allowed a user to gaze through space and fourth dimension. The vagary of using magic opens doors to pretty much whatsoever possibility in the Star Wars universe. Like, say, Palpatine really dying on the Decease Star II, then coming back to life.

Image: Lucasfilm

When Darth Vader tosses Palpatine down the Decease Star shaft at the end of Return of the Jedi, a blast of blueish energy indicates that something down in that location had broken. And up until this year, it seemed that was the last gasp of the Sith Order. In The Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine says he's "died earlier," a clear reference to his plunge in Episode Half dozen, which ended with the Decease Star Ii exploding into chunks that fell to the diverse moons of Endor. Information technology was prophylactic to assume his body was destroyed in the process.

How Palpatine ends up on Exogol in a body that looks like Palpatine is a mystery the movie itself does not solve. The context clues and an explicit reference from Monaghan's character lead back to an unlikely place: cloning, that hook from the prequel trilogy that everyone loved.

The Emperor'due south history with cloning

In the early '90s, not-canon (Legends) comic book series Night Empire, Palpatine resurrects himself after the events of Render of the Jedi thanks to the dozens of clones he had been able to quietly breed during his rule. Everytime a Palpatine trunk dies, the Sith lord uses a trick of the Nighttime Side of the Strength to jump into a new body. The clone, in this case, gets overwritten by the Emperor. In the sequel series Dark Empire 2, Palpatine threatens to torso-hijack Leia'south child, and successfully does to a few Jedi. The adept guys eventually defeat the emperor when one of his possessed souls drags Palpatine'due south essence to Force Hell before it can body-jump in an act of soul sacrifice. (Star Wars of the '90s!) There are indications that some of these ideas have been re-canonized, at least the concept of overwriting a soul with another, more powerful one.

The idea that Palpatine would maintain a secret trove of clones to jump into tracks with what we know about the character in the new canon, fifty-fifty if we haven't happened across any Palpatine shells withal in the Expanded Universe. Accent on nonetheless — we've only just learned that the guy somehow had a legitimate son.

Ane trouble Palpatine encounters when jumping into multiple bodies in Dark Empire is that using the Dark Side of the Force at the required levels makes his body age and deteriorate. This was used to explain the Emperor'due south appearance in the original trilogy, long before we learned he scarred himself when Mace Windu reflected his Force Lightning dorsum at him. That could nonetheless mean that using the Dark Side wears on a person physically, just it's just non something we've seen resurface in canon nonetheless.

The Snoke clones mystery

As we see from the shot of the Snoke clone tanks early in The Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine created the First Order'due south one-time Supreme Leader. But was Palpatine also Snoke the whole time? Some new in-canon references, plus some reveals about Snoke back in The Concluding Jedi, advise that to exist the case.

In a contempo run of Curiosity'due south Darth Vader comic books, readers learn the tale of Darth Momin, a Sith who managed to maintain his life force in a mask. When someone would put that mask on, they would be possessed past the spirit of Darth Momin. His plan was to use Mustafar's strong connectedness to the Dark Side, and Vader's desire to resurrect Padme, to build a portal that would allow you lot to bring people back from Death. Eventually, Momin manages to resurrect himself, and so Vader crushes his head and mask, catastrophe that experiment very rapidly.

The canon-approved comic establishes the resurrection of a strong Sith using a possessed object on Mustafar, a morsel that leads us back to The Last Jedi. When we finally see Snoke in the flesh for the first time, he's wearing a aureate robe in a room full of ruby, and a band with a blackness stone in information technology.

Paradigm: Lucasfilm/Disney

According to The Terminal Jedi Visual Dictionary, the black stone of Snoke's ring is from Mustafar (which we take no canonical record of Snoke ever visiting) and the markings are ancient Dwartii glyphs. The description is a very damning indication of the Emperor'southward mitt in Snoke'due south beingness. The Four Sages of Dwartii, aboriginal philosophers whose teachings were malleable enough to go the footing for the Galactic Republic and be embraced past the Sith, appear as statues in Palpatine's chamber in the prequel trilogy, and again as giant statues in the elevator downward to Exogol. Palpatine is even shown taking one of his Dwartii statues into his Sith temple in the cartoons. If in that location was an object that allowed Palpatine to throw his consciousness into a boob body, history suggests it is Snoke's band.

So why non brand another Snoke after his death in The Last Jedi? The ring was on that ship that got Holdo-Maneuvered! He'd need a new object to restart the procedure.

In the recent Curiosity comic Age of Resistance: Supreme Leader Snoke, we see Snoke training a younger Kylo Ren. "If I had your uncle by my side instead of you lot," he tells the boy formerly known as Ben Solo, "I would accept ruled this milky way long ago." The uncle beingness referred to is Luke Skywalker, and knowing that Snoke was a clone that didn't be during the Age of the Empire ways this is about certainly Palpatine referring to Luke'southward temptation on the Death Star II. If Luke had killed Vader in acrimony, Snoke/Palpatine would have ruled the galaxy long agone. Similar, 30 years ago.

Maybe it'south natural, maybe it's midi-chlorians

For the climactic boxing on Exogol, the Emperor tries to go Rey to strike him down in acrimony and so his consciousness tin can pass on to her and she'll dominion the Last Order every bit Empress Palpatine. He does this in his bedraggled form, earlier Ben Solo shows upward and gives Palpatine a succulent Strength Dyad to vampire off of. Knowing how Palpatine wants absolute power, it's a fair supposition that had Rey struck him downwards, he would have taken her body and overwritten the consciousness of his blood relative.

The term "life forcefulness" is thrown around in relation to the new power of Force healing (as opposed to the non-catechism term "essence"), implying Low-cal Side users can employ the Strength to transfer their life over to another. As a shadow power, Palpatine sucks life from the Dyad and into his easily; that reads more similar a now non-canonical "transfer essence" power that Palpatine used to move between clones in Dark Empire. This pure dyad energy allows him to regrow his fingers and regain his yellow irises for the terminal battle.

Image: Nighttime Horse Comics

The pivotal moment brings up another way Palpatine could accept conquered death: He could have become the supreme master of midi-chlorians. In the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise scene from Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine suggests the Dark Side can create life. Information technology's also implied in Marvel'due south Vader comics that Palpatine created Anakin himself. With plenty Night Side power, did Palpatine re-form a trunk from scant genetic fabric, or nothing at all? That would explain why the white-eyed version of him needed to stay connected to machinery on the secret Sith planet, and even so he would've been adequately helpless if Kylo Ren had decided to impale him right at the get-go of the moving-picture show.

This could be why a clone body could never be sufficient if one wanted to exist truly immortal: You'd need to have a natural body to utilise up, and if it was one that ritualistically killed you in a Sith manner, that'd be bully. When in doubt, just suck the life force out of someone.

The strangest choice The Rise of Skywalker makes — amid a bevy of strange choices — is to brainstorm with the inevitability of Palpatine being alive, and expect that our answers would come from piling on more Force powers. It's an odd way to write a franchise story, assuming that some time to come Expanded Universe textile volition make full in the gaps of your big, bad villain, but that's who Palpatine has ever been in the third Star Wars movie of a trilogy: an evil surprise full of mystery and Force power.

For now, the way Palpatine became immortal is at the scientific theory stage, the result of connecting the lore dots from across past and present Star Wars stories. Where we'll become firm answers may be upwardly to the Expanded Universe.

A Son of Palpatine Disney Plus series, anyone?

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Source: https://www.polygon.com/2019/12/19/21030344/how-is-emperor-palpatine-alive-in-star-wars-rise-of-skywalker-snoke-kylo-rey-vader-spoilers

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