There are few villains more iconic than Emperor Palpatine. Across all threeStar Warstrilogies (not to mention spin-off media and video games) he’s an omnipresent threat; cackling, manipulative, and bad to the bone. Instigating numerous galactic conflicts and treating common people like pawns in his game, you’ll not soon forget his deformed face.
Palpatine’s grand revival in Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, though, met with criticism. From the moment Poe Dameron heaved a weary, resigned sigh and delivered the now-immortal line, ‘somehow, Palpatine returned,’ the internet was ablaze. A lazy writing choice, a sign of a lack of narrative planning, some called it; but since that film’s release, the circumstances of ol' Sheev’s resurrection have been explored in greater detail.
As should be apparent, this article will containnumerous, nuclear-grade spoilers for various installments in the Star Wars franchise. If you don’t yet know your Gungans from your T-14 hyperdrives, we’d advise you to make like Darth Maul and split!
The Death Of Palpatine
Who Was Emperor Palpatine?
In order to understand the minutiae of Palpatine’s plans, it would be helpful tofirst have a clearer picture of the man himself. Hailing from the planet Naboo,Sheev Palpatine was a conniving Sith Lord(a religion in polar opposition to the Jedi Order, in that they drew their power from the Dark Side of the Force).
In accordance with the Sith ‘Rule of Two’,which mandates that a Sith apprentice must eventually slay their master to ensure there are never more than two in existence, Palpatine killed his master, Darth Plagueis, in his sleep.Plagueis had doggedly pursued the secret to immortality during his life, and it was this very ambition that blinded him to Palpatine’s murderous intent – butSheev would nevertheless continue his master’s studies, becoming absorbed in them himself.
How Did Palpatine Become Emperor?
Palpatine’s obsession with cheating death, however, had to be put on the backburneras his political career began to take off.Hiding his Sith nature from the Senate, he would rise through the ranks of the Republic government; first exploiting a trade crisis on Naboo to get incumbent Chancellor Valorum voted out of office,then pulling the strings of the devastating Clone Wars to ensure he would be granted more and more emergency powers.
By the time the Jedi Order identified Palpatine as a Sith Lord, it was too late: he had control of the Senate and the courts.Palpatine activated Order 66, a secret contingency built into the brains of the Republic’s clone armythat branded the Jedi as traitors, compelling the clones to execute their former comrades.
Within hours,the curtain had fallen on the Jedi and the Republic, which Palpatine reorganized into the dictatorial Galactic Empire.
How Did Palpatine Die?
Ironically,Palpatine would meet the exact same fate as his mastersome 20 years down the line. The young apprentice he had groomed into Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker,began to feel the pull back to the Light Side, thanks to the intervention of his son Luke. Palpatine had Luke brought aboard the second Death Star in an attempt to turn him as well, a move that would be his undoing.
Vader and Luke briefly dueled, but when it became clear Luke’s soul could not be corrupted,Palpatine saw no further use for him and began pulsing him full of Force lightning. Seeing his son in torturous pain was the final straw for Vader, who fulfilled an ancient prophecy of bringing balance to the Force bygrabbing Palpatine and hurling him down a nearby reactor shaft.
In that moment,Palpatine’s physical form perished, and was atomized when the Death Star exploded – but per Plagueis' research,this would not be the end of the calculating villain.
Project Necromancer
What Was Palpatine’s Contingency Plan?
In the twilight years of the Empire, and with his body ageing,Palpatine had set in motion a top-secret initiative named Project Necromancer. Officially, its purpose was ‘to secure the future of the galaxy’, but in truth, its sole concern was prolonging Palpatine’s life (and thus his reign.)
Top scientists from Kamino and across the galaxy were brought into the project, withthe bulk of the operation taking place in a military base on planet Tantiss. Their aim was toproduce a steady supply of clone bodies suitable for Palpatine’s spirit to inhabit, thus essentially rendering Sheev immortal.
An early part of Project Necromancer requireda sample of blood compatible with Palpatine’s high midichlorian count. The Empire thus sent out bounty hunters to harvest the galaxy’s young, searching for suitable candidates among the kidnapped children.
Ultimately,a young female clone named Omega - a member of Clone Force 99, ‘The Bad Batch’ - proved to possess what Palpatine needed.
However, a series of spiralling events on Tantiss would seethe destruction of all this research, as well as the project’s lead, Dr. Royce Hemlock. Governor Wilhuff Tarkin temporarily pulled funding for Project Necromancer after this debacle, and it would not be resumed in earnest until much later in galactic history.
How Was Grogu Related To Palpatine’s Plot?
Grogu, a young, Force-sensitive charge of Mandalorian warrior Din Djarin, would be the next foundling to be roped into Project Necromancer. Imperial remnants led by Moff Gideon sought the child for nefarious purposes, leading to multiple violent standoffs between the Mandalorians and what was left of the Empire following Palpatine’s fall.
Though Gideon believed Grogu to be necessary only for his immediate goals (constructing an army of superior stormtroopers), the truth was above his head and far more sinister.Grogu’s high midichlorian count made him a prime candidate for Palpatine’s revival – the work on which had, by now, been moved to the hidden Sith world of Exegol, accessible only via specific coordinates.
In the end, Djarin was able to recover Grogu from the clutches of the Imperial remnants, but it didn’t matter. The researchers had what they needed, andthey used their new knowledge from the encounter to create a key element of Palpatine’s scheme: Snoke.
Who Was Snoke And What Was The First Order?
Sith cultists and scientists on Exegol soon birthed their first attempt at a clone body for Palpatine:a grotesque, misshapen ‘strandcast’ named Snoke. Though deemed inadequate for the purpose, Palpatine saw potential in Snoke’s Force sensitivity,and elected to use him to command the Imperial remnants in his absence.
While Palpatine pulled his strings from afar, Snoke developed sentience. He bolstered the ranks and resources of the remnants,reorganizing them into the First Order, a rump state that the New Republic had grown too complacent to act against.
In a swift, decisive stroke,the First Order fired their superweapon, Starkiller Base, upon the New Republic capital of Hosnian Prime, destroying the heart of the government in seconds. In the resultant chaos, the First Order seized control of the galaxy, withonly Princess Leia’s dwindling rebellion to stand up to them.
Snoke’s personal apprentice, Kylo Ren (the son of Leia and Han Solo) would later go on to kill Snokein a period of emotional conflict – continuing the Sith tradition and signalling to Palpatine that the time of his full return was nigh.
Somehow, Palpatine Returns
What Happens Prior To The Rise Of Skywalker?
At some point after the creation of Snoke,another failed Palpatine clone was turned loose into the galaxy. He took on an identity of his own, becomingDathan, a humble scavenger. Dathanmarried a woman named Miramirin his later years, and togetherthey bore a daughter, Rey, whose midichlorian count was off the charts. By technicality, this made her Palpatine’s granddaughter, and of great interest to Project Necromancer.
Rey’s parentshid her from Palpatine’s cronies on the desert planet Jakku, where she eked out a living selling junk waiting for her family to return. Alas, they never would: Palpatine’s personal assassin, Ochi of Bestoon, hadstabbed them to death when they refused to give up Rey’s location.
Rey would end up being drawn into the conflict against the First Order, wherein she would face off numerous times against Kylo Ren,who had installed himself as Supreme Leader in the wake of Snoke’s demise. Unaware of her true nature, she trained as a Jedi under both Luke and Leia Skywalker, becoming more and more powerful.
How Did Palpatine Finally Meet His End?
In the year 35 ABY,Kylo became aware of Palpatine’s survival when the Sith Lord sent a mysterious broadcastacross all comms frequencies throughout the galaxy.
At last the work of generations is complete. The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The day of the Sith.
Determined to destroy any threat to his power,Kylo sought a wayfinder to Exegol and confronted the Emperor, who had now settled into a rotting, but largely stable, clone body. Palpatine promised him access to the Final Order, a fleet of planet-killing Star Destroyers, if he was able to either defeat Rey or bring her to Exegol.
While on Exegol, Kyloobserved the Sith Eternal scientists at work and saw the tank where Snoke had been birthed, revealing much of his training to have been a facade. Palpatine further clarifies that he had been “every voice [Kylo] had ever heard inside his head.”
Meanwhile,Leia’s resistance had also been clued into Sheev’s little game of chess(cue the legendary Poe line), and thus the race was on to get to Exegol and disable the Final Order fleet before it could depart.
In the end, Rey, armed with full knowledge of her past,travelled to Exegol with both Skywalker lightsabers, intending to finish off her ‘grandfather’ permanently.Kylo had, around this time, experienced a redemption back to the Light Side, and he and Rey faced down the resurrected Emperor together.
Though Sheev was briefly able toregenerate by siphoning the energy of the ‘Force dyad’ bond between Kylo and Rey, this was a short-lived victory.Rey called upon the power of past Jedi spirits to finally, truly, eradicate the phantom menace himself– while the resistance brought down the Final Order. The Battle of Exegol drew a line under the machinations of Palpatine, and ensuredno part of his soul remained to torment the galaxy any longer.
