CT Was that REALLY a reactor shaft Palpatine fell down in ROTJ?

What exactly was at the bottom of the shaft that Vader threw Palpatine down in ROTJ? It couldn't possibly have been the Death Star's reactor core. The core would have been miles below the surface, and Palpatine fell for only a few seconds. We also have to remember that the emperor's throne room was at the top of a tower. I don't think he even had time to fall to the bottom of that. And why did he explode? Did he strike some type of energy field on the way down, or did he purposely combust to free his sith essence?

 

Make sure to eat plenty of fiber, otherwise you might get constipated and your sith essence might get backed up.

 

I think the throne was actually at the top of the Death Star so maybe he did fall into the reactor (that huge metal part that Lando and Wedge destroy)

As for him exploding I always thought it was his sith essense spreading.

 

It couldn't have been the main reactor, though. It would have been impossible for Palpatine to fall to what was essentially the center of the DS, in such a short space of time. It's possible that the tower had it's own reactor, and that's what he fell into. Since the throne room actually survived the destruction of the DS (TROS), maybe the emperor's tower was designed to be it's own "escape pod". It could have been completely self contained, with it's own power source, and shield generator...sort of like the armored prison tower on Mytus VII, in the book; Han Solo at Star's End.

 

...which could explain the active artificial gravity in TROS, since the tower's reactor wasn't targeted by the Rebels

 

I like the secondary dedicated reactor.

I think TROS points to Palpatine doing something under his own power to eject the Sith essence and cheat death. Sort of the opposite of becoming a force ghost.

 

It's like he was training himself for years to be able to eject his conscience into another vessel. his Sith cultists will have been ready even though Palps was supremely confident the Rebels couldn't win.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by this. Once the DS wreckage was on the surface of the planet, artificial gravity wouldn't have been an issue.

 

I can't find a picture of this, but when Rey uses the dagger to pinpoint the location of the wayfinder, we see the tower practically lying down. For the scenes inside to happen the way they do, there would have to be artificial gravity.

 

That's true. I didn't notice that the tower wasn't upright. While we're on the subject of the throne room wreckage, the fact that the power still works after 30 years (and a massive explosion), suggests that there WAS a separate generator for the tower. How anything survived re-entry is a bit problematic, though.

 

i've never thought it was a reactor. i think the blue energy that comes up is just from the force lightning that was still streaming out of him

 

In Rebels, Palpatine generates a similar blue fiery energy, looking a bit different from Force Lightning, when Ezra's in the World Between Worlds portal network and Palpatine's trying to attack Ezra from his own side of the portal. So it may be simply Dark Side Energy.

There's something bright and glowing at the bottom of the tower though. "Reactor powering the core of the tower" is a nice substitute for "core" given the way the novelization describes it:


Vader stumbled with his load to the middle of the bridge over the black chasm leading to the power core. He held the wailing despot high over his head, and with a final spasm of strength, hurled him into the abyss.
Palpatine’s body, still spewing bolts of light, spun out of control, into the void, bouncing back and forth off the sides of the shaft as it fell. It disappeared at last; but then, a few seconds later, a distant explosion could be heard, far down at the core. A rush of air billowed out the shaft, into the throne room.


and given the problems with making it the same core that we see the Falcon fly into (The DS2 is many miles in diameter, there isn't time to fall many miles in only a few seconds).

 

The throne room is on top of a spire, the elevator doesn't take up the whole circumference of the spire. The question is does the shaft in which the elevator is located continue to the Death Star's core and if it does, why?

 

Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale - TV Tropes

 

Yeah, the height of the Falcon's interior hasn't ever fitted it's exterior dimensions.

 

That's because it's first owner was a Time Lord.

 

It's a sub-core, he fell into a sub-core. A space station version of a power sub station.

 

He fell into a really hot hot tub, and that was steam that was coming up.

 

What I could never understand is why he put his throne room directly above the frickin’ reactor core! That’d be like a modern-day despot putting their bedroom and office right next to a reactor core of a nuclear power plant.

 

I think the architect was the same guy who designed Blofeld's volcanic lairs. Palpatine's only choices were a reactor shaft, or a pool of piranhas.

 

I wonder if it's the same architect who put the giant open-topped blender in Snoke's throne room.

 

Palpatine's arrogance blinded him to the dangers...

 

This makes me wonder, how tall is the lift shaft anyways? And does it have other rooms on it besides a nifty throne room? We only see the "porthole" in one direction on the sets, but there are apparently three similar giant windows on that level. Are they just more throne rooms? And why did Palpatine decide he wanted a nice view of the reactor core anyways?

 

Both Legends and Newcanon have a source that covers this - Complete Locations, which was first published for Legends and then revised and updated for Newcanon.

The tower is 100 stories tall. The other 3 rooms besides the throne room are all different - one is a dock room for shuttles to dock at, one is sleeping quarters, and one is a map room with a galactic holomap.

 

Palpatine is in his eighties, and old people are always complaining that they're cold. A nuclear reactor simply warms the room up faster than a space heater.