Embed from Getty Images Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which in my opinion is the best film in the sequel trilogy sparked a debate and conversation, and the conversation around the blockbuster has not slowed down since. Not one single bit. Star Wars fans would have it no other way.
First off, nobody expected Emperor Palpatine to return. The fact Star Wars The Force Awakens and Rise of Skywalker director JJ Abrams gave no such hint the popular Star Wars villain would be showing up in the trilogy until the teaser trailer was a stroke of genius.
The prequels, the original trilogy, and now through the sequels all have one common thread, They are all the story of how the light side of the Force battled against the dark side of the Force and even more specific greatest Sith Lord of all time.
The first, and unarguably the most important, clue came back in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Palpatine attempts to lure Anakin Skywalker to the dark side.
“Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith,” Palpatine explained to a very captivated Anakin, “so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life… He had such a knowledge of the dark side that he could even keep the ones he cared about from dying.”
“The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural,”
It appears Palpatine loved himself and wanted to contiune his rein over the galaxy. That line would be repeated by Palpatine this time to Anakin’s grandson Kylo Ren (Ben Solo.) Albeit Palpatine was scared and blind from the surge of falling down the reactor chamber. Or so it would seem.
This quote explains that the Sith can use the dark side of the Force to gain mastery of life and death, and that Palpatine was taught the method by his master the legendary Darth Plagueis.
While it is clear it gives no information as to the method. We know that through the cannon comic series, Palpatine had owned a mask of Lord Momin. It goes on to say that Palpatine altered the mask. A mask that would end up on the head of Anakin Skywalker after he was beaten by Obi-Wan Kenobi. The mask would bring Anakin now Darth Vader back from the dead.
One more detail is the in the comic series Palpatine worked with a scientist named Cylo. Cylo had created a personality map that could be stored and downloaded into clone bodies. In the older Expanded Universe, there was consciousness jumping into clone bodies.
We now know that this was the method Palpatine used to survive his Return of the Jedi fall, he had clone bodies created, and his consciousness eventually found its way into one. So the soul of Palpatine entered the clone.
This shows the importance of the clone factory on Kamino, in “Star Wars: Attack of the clones.”
