Yeah but isnt this retconning what the VD claimed just a couple of months back, about retrieving his body (which is a good retcon, because that was retarded).
Well he wont, because this was the end of the Skywalker saga.
But youre right they still have to address how is death was any different this time.
The VD was intentionally vague. It confirms that Palpatine(as we knew him) did in fact 'die' during RotJ, and implies that he was resurrected by the Sith loyalists through "a mixture of technology and the occult."
And in the film itself, Palpatine states to Kylo: "I have died before... The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural."
And later on in the film, Beaumont Kin(who is recognized as an expert in the field of Sith occult) states: "Dark science...Cloning...Secrets only the Sith knew", upon learning of Palpatine's return.
So Palpatine being confirmed as a clone here is in-line with the info we already had. I suspected this would be the case from the start.
Yes, but Palpatine isn't a Skywalker.
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I really hope he never returns again though. He was the central villain across 9 different movies and god knows how much secondary material. Time to move on.
I'm hoping the novelization definitively kills him by introducing some sort of metaphysical aspect into the lightning-deflect scene, which erases his spirit or somesuch.
__________________
"I am tired of Earth. These people.
I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives."
Another leaked excerpt confirms how Palpatine survived the fall, and details the cloning process a bit:
"She will take her revenge", Palpatine boomed.
Rey continued to approach. His power was intoxicating. She found herself raising her weapon, almost against her will. If not for the other presence in her mind, bright and shining with light, she would not have been able to resist him.
"And with the stroke of her saber, the Sith are reborn! The Jedi are dead!"
Wave after wave of triumph emanated from him, and along with it came knowledge, memories. Maybe it was their shared blood that enabled her to see his thoughts, but somehow she could, and Rey saw it then, how he'd done it, what he was about to do again:
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.
Plagueis 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 reactor shaft, and his mind jolted to new awareness in a new body--a painful one, a temporary one.
It was too soon. 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.
The heretics of the Sith Eternal toiled, splicing genes, bolstering tissue, creating unnatural abominations in the hope that one of these strandcasts would succeed and become a worthy receptacle. The heretics would do anything, risk anything, sacrifice anything, to create a cradle for their god-consciousness. Nothing worked, but their efforts were not entirely in vain.
Rey's vision shifted. It was Luke, sitting cross-legged on the island of Ahch-To, trembling with effort as he projected himself onto the battlefield of Crait... And yet another flash. This time of Leia in her jungle corridors, giving everything she had to send a final thought to Ben... They were all manifestations of the same power, and now Rey would use it her own way. She lifted her saber as if to strike...
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"I am tired of Earth. These people.
I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives."
Last edited by Galan007 on Mar 4th, 2020 at 12:38 AM
So Plagueis DID know the secret to immortality and taught it to Sidious.
And is the bit that says "creating unnatural abominations in the hope that one of these strandcasts would succeed and become a worthy receptacle" referring to Snoke?
I would assume so, yes. That would explain the vats of Snoke clones in the film -- they were the "unnatural abominations" created by the Sith Eternal, in an effort to make a proper receptacle for their "god-consciousness"(ie. Palpatine)... But then the question becomes: if Snoke was just a f*cked up clone, then how did he become so powerful?
The excerpt also seems to imply that Luke's Projection ability is a variation of Palpatine's essence/consciousness/spirit transfer... Which would be more proof that it was FAR more than just a simple illusion that he manifested on Crait.
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Last edited by Galan007 on Mar 4th, 2020 at 01:05 AM
Seriously though if hes a messed up clone of Palpatine, that would actually justify him being as powerful (in the Force) as Palps, especially after a couple of decades of practising his powers, and presumably with some of Palps memories as well.
But it seems like the aim was for the Loyalists to create a suitable clone vessel for Palpatine to hop into.
So if Snoke is one of those failed clones, it just seems odd that he'd not only be fully sentient/independent without actually containing Palpatine's essence, but also so powerful on his own(Luke implied that he was ~ RotJ Palpatine.)
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Last edited by Galan007 on Mar 4th, 2020 at 03:57 PM
All this added content might be lackluster, but at least the novel is actually giving us definite answers. Thats at least a good thing because it stops the rampant speculation and head canon.