Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker could reveal that Palpatine has endured demise due to becoming an avatar of the dark side. The greatest Dark Lord of the Sith, Palpatine has essentially become the great villain of the entire Star Wars saga. The prequel trilogy is about his rise to power, the original trilogy about his apparent defeat, and now the sequels tell the tale of his return.

But just how has Palpatine come back from the dead? Lucasfilm is keeping this mystery close to their chest, to the fullest extent that they’re avoiding picture even a glimpse of Darth Sidious in the trailers. The best look to date was in a sign secreted at the D23 Fan Expo, in which Palpatine gazed candidly cartoonish. Even voice-overs have been limited to strangely doubtful talk – right up until a final trailer released after the immediate build-up to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In this clip, Palpatine tells Kylo Ren that he is the one responsible for seducing him to the dark side. “My boy, I ought to have every voice you have ever heard inside your ability, ” the Dark Lord declares, his articulation interspersing between Palpatine, Supreme Leader Snoke, and Darth Vader.

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But in order to understand the riddle of Palpatine’s resurrection, it’s necessary to look beyond the cinemas themselves. Back in February 2017, Lucasfilm publicized Chuck Wendig’s novel Aftermath: Empire’s End. It featured a plot by Palpatine loyalists to “enflesh” the Dark Lord of the Sith once again. At the time, they only rejected as the wanders of psychopaths, debased by the dark side; but looking back, these bibles could have already asked away just how Darth Sidious has come back from the dead.

It’s important to begin with an understanding of the difference between a Jedi and a Sith. A Jedi submits themselves to the will of the sun line-up, allowing it to lead them and to guide them. In differentiate, a Sith seeks to exert their own will upon the Force itself; the dark side is as much an expression of their ego and lust for capability as anything else. Palpatine was the greatest of the Sith, and as such he supplanted on a scale that’s never been watch before. The prequels reveal that he successfully bent the Force to his will, so much better so that Yoda talked about “the pall of the dark side” concealing everything from the Jedi. He ultimately subdued the part galaxy, establishing an Empire that ruled by fear and framed planet-destroying superweapons.

But Darth Sidious didn’t really intend to be Emperor for a go. He strove a highway to compile his pattern eternal, and Star Wars canon has already shown his interest in everything from centre transport to cloning. All this is perfectly in accordance with Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, where Palpatine deceived Anakin Skywalker with the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise. “The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many cleverness some consider to be unnatural, ” Palpatine discovered, as he spoke of the possibility of eternal life. Those terms now seem prophetic.

The numerous Star Wars tie-ins have also demonstrated that Palpatine was haunted with a surface area of seat known as the Unknown Regions. Aftermath: Empire’s End describes this as “an unexplored infinity … closed off by a labyrinth of solar tornadoes, rogue magnetospheres, black hole, gravitation pits, and things far stranger.” There was a reason for his enthusiasm; it was because, as he stretched in the dark side of the Force, Palpatine sensed something out there in the Unknown Regions. One of the Emperor’s closest aides, Yupe Tashu, retained 😛 TAGEND

“The Emperor was convinced that something waited for him out there — some inception of the Force, some dark presence formed of malevolent element. He said he could feel the brandishes of it extending out now that the practice was clear. The Emperor announced it a signal — conveniently one that only he had been able to listen. Even his greatest enforcer, Vader, seemed oblivious to it, and Vader likewise claimed mastery over the dark Force, did he not? Rax concluded Palpatine had gone mad.”

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It all musics similar to a abstraction explored in The Clone Wars, where Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and Obi-Wan Kenobi detected themselves meeting with beings who were avatars of the light-footed and dark surfaces of the Force. In Palpatine’s case, though, he wouldn’t seek out “some origin of the Force” purely out of interest; he’d have wanted to find it in order to conquer it, to bend the Force itself to his will. If he succeeded in finding this mysterious Force nexus, then it’s entirely possible he basically became the dark side.

If this theory is correct, then it’s no wonder Palpatine wasn’t killed in Return of the Jedi. You can no more kill Darth Sidious, after all, than you can destroy the dark side itself. All you can do is destroy his figure; his consciousness would remain, abiding within the darkness, controlling everyone and everything. That would explain why, in Aftermath: Empire’s End, Leia sensed a obscurity spirit once watching over the child then in her womb; Palpatine knew that the line of the Chosen One was potent, and had already decided what he must do. From that time on, the dark side was operating Ben Solo, carefully deceiving him. That fits perfectly with the trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker; “I have been every voice you have ever heard inside your ability, ” Darth Sidious mentions. Ultimately, one fated nighttime, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker comes down to his nephew’s room and smelt the darkness. Did he actually identify the dark side in Ben, or did he – for a fleeting time – become half-aware of Palpatine’s presence? If the latter, it’s no wonder Luke provoked his lightsaber, unwittingly playing into Palpatine’s hands.

The numerous trailers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker appear to suggest the Emperor has regained physical model. The age-old Expanded Universe may offer a inkling as to how; one of its most interesting abstractions was that of a “wound in the Force, ” a cry created by a moment of significant fatality. Obi-Wan Kenobi smelt such a wind when Alderaan was destroyed in the first Star Wars film, and it’s the reason sure-fire locales – like the cave of Dagobah in The Empire Strikes Back – have a lasting dark side taint. One Star Wars comic has recently incorporated this back into the canon. In theory, then, all it would take is an act of destruction on a planetary scale to so impair the Force that Palpatine could regenerate himself.

This almost happened in the Aftermath trilogy itself, which discovered Palpatine’s Contingency, a horrific design he had put in motion in the event of his die. The Contingency culminated in a battle over the planet Jakku, with the remaining Imperial forces waging fight against the armies of the New Republic. In reality, Jakku was a trap, all over the world primary to explode and destroy every starship around it. Meanwhile, Palpatine loyalists were preparing to perform a riddle rite – potentially one that would allow Palpatine to take advantage of the carnage and recreate his person. Fortunately, the scheme to be wrong; the planetary detonation was averted, and the ceremony was interrupted.

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But Palpatine wouldn’t have given up. From within the dark side, he would have continued controlling contests to create another opportunity. In the end, the First Order could have stipulated it when they fuelled Starkiller Base, and destroyed Hosnian Prime. Such an ecumenopolis would apparently have a population of billions; it is likely to even have been comparable to Coruscant, which had a population of over 1 trillion at its height. This terrifying behave of ruin could well have secretly acted Palpatine’s determinations, the sacrifice he needed in order to incarnate himself.

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If this theory is correct, then the prophecy of the Chosen One eventually induces feel. Palpatine absolutely is the one who knocks the Force out of balance, simply because he is the Sith Lord who successfully deforms the dark side itself to his will. Given Anakin Skywalker became a Force Ghost, at one with the light-headed slope of the Force, it’s entirely possible that he is yet to fulfill his destiny as the Chosen One – and that he will do so from beyond the funeral pyre, as he somehow aids Rey in her duel against the Emperor returned.

More: Everything We Know About Palpatine’s Role In Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker

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