Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker frustrated fans for a lot of reasons, but perhaps the biggest was the fact that it didn't explain how Emperor Palpatine managed to escape his death in
Return of the Jedi. Well, we finally have some details courtesy of the movie's novelization, and while it doesn't necessarily clear everything up, it does provide an explanation.
When Darth Vader threw his Master into the heart of the Death Star II, it turns out that Palpatine quickly managed to transfer his consciousness into a waiting clone body.
"Falling...Falling...Falling...down a massive shaft, the betrayal sharp and stinging, a figure high above, black clad and helmeted and shrinking fast. His very own apprentice had turned against him, the way he himself had turned against Plagueis...whose secret to immortality he had stolen.
"Plageuis had not acted fast enough in his own moment of death. But Sidious, sensing the flickering light in his apprentice, had been ready for years. So the falling, dying Emperor called on all the dark power of the Force to thrust his consciousness far, far away, to a secret place he had been preparing. His body was dead, an empty vessel, long before it found the bottom of the shaft, and his mind jolted to a new awareness in a new body -- a painful one, a temporary one.
"Although the Emperor had planned on Vader's inevitable betrayal, the moment arrived sooner than expected: "The secret place had not completed its preparations. The transfer was imperfect, and the cloned body wasn't enough. Perhaps Plagueis was having the last laugh after all. Maybe his secret remained secret. Because Palpatine was trapped in a broken, dying form."
This is kind of cool, but even if he was in a "broken, dying" form, why did he wait until so many years later to reveal himself? It's possible he didn't want the Galaxy to see what he had become, and rounding up those followers after the destruction of the Death Star II wouldn't have been easy for someone in Palpatine's condition.
It's also hard to understand why he would use Snoke (who was equally as disfigured) to do his bidding. There are too many plot holes here to count, but at least we now know what became of Palpatine's mind/spirit after Vader threw him to his death. Content like this really should have been in The Rise of Skywalker, though, and we're now relying on future novels to fill in these gaps.
What are your thoughts on these new details about The Emperor's fate in Return of the Jedi?
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