ST Ian McDiarmid (Plapy) in Episode IX

The blue mist was all the Pixie Stick dust that exploded out of Frank's robe. Blue Raspberry flavor. He loves sucking those down in his downtime.

 

Wait...so what would be the point of bringing Palpatine back? Yeah yeah he set the Skywalker saga in motion so thematically some think it should end with him but that aside...why include him? We already have Kylo and the First Order as the Big Bad. Seems like the only narrative reason to include him is because Kylo will turn back to the light so they'll need a bad guy to take his place.

 

It would help tie the 9 movies together i suppose. Palpatine has been a threat for 3 generations of the skywalker saga.

 

Do they really need something else to tie all the movies together? I thought bringing back Han, Leia, Luke, and Chewie, R2, 3PO, Yoda, Lando, the Falcon, the X-wings, and Ties, the Death Star, the struggle between the light and the dark side and the galaxy being overrun by space nazi's already tied the movies together. Not to mention that the main villain in the ST is a Vader wannabe and the son of Leia and Han and the protagonist is very Luke-esque.

 

Well Ian as palpatine was in the OT, and the PT. you could argue R2, chewie and C3P0 too but palpatine was the big bad.

 

Yeah but at least at this point I don't see a narrative reason to include Palpatine. Palpatine in the PT and OT helped explain how Anakin fell to the dark side so his presence in those trilogies makes sense. With the ST however we already know that Snoke turned Ben Solo, (though I'd admittedly details have been light on that subject and I want more). So is TROS going to say, "you all thought that Snoke turned Ben Solo but really it was Palpatine"? That doesn't seem necessary to me. Snoke was a Palpatine knockoff. So the twist is going to be that the Palpatine knockoff wasn't the one really manipulating Ben Solo rather it was Palpatine himself?

The Resistance is almost nonexistent at this point. Kylo Ren and the First Order rule the galaxy. So what's the point of Palpatine being there? He's going to come back from the dead and be all, "I'm back to take over the galaxy. Hahahaha!!!" And then Kylo's going to be all, "we'll it's already been taken over. We won." Then what? Palpatine comes back simply because he personally wants to rule the galaxy?

Maybe it's less about Palpatine wanting to come back from the dead and more about Kylo somehow contacting Palpatine in order to...I don't know...gain even more power for himself? Is Palpatine like an evil genie in a bottle that Kylo wants to use for his own personal gain?

 

Palpatine's desire for galactic domination should have left him when he entered the netherworld, and least one would assume. His ability to leave that world should be restricted, unless they're going the EU route. The explanation might be as simple as Darth Bane in the CW series - Palpatine's ghost is tied to the second Death Star, and is summoned to the physical world. There should and likely will be a catalyst (Kylo) that brings Palpatine back into the picture, otherwise any number of dark siders might be brought back and would be a lingering threat to the light, which offers little resolution to the overall story if that's possible.

 

I'm pretty confident that Palps physical form died in that scene for sure, most likely by falling into a reactor's energy core and getting burned up; however, to me the blue energy isn't physical energy from that core. The blue energy gets dispelled, but then it suddenly reversed direction and goes back down the shaft. This might have been filmed this way just because it was a cool looking effect, but it could now be used to explain something else happening in the Force.

 

So do we think Palpatine or some kind of "phantom menace" will be teased in the title crawl for IX, or will Palpatine's appearance be telegraphed in any other way within the film, or more like a total surprise when he shows up?

 

If Rey and Kylo do in fact fight against Palpatine in the ruins of the second Death Star I won't be surprised if it is some "trippy and weird" Force hallucination type thing, sorta like Luke fighting Vader on Dagobah.

 

Kylo strikes Palpatine down, ripping his robe in half, revealing Kylo's own chest staring back at him.

 

And starts bouncing.

 

A better big baddie. I don't think just Rey v Kylo works good for the final act. I do wish Kylo died fully committed to the darkside however.

 

I am wondering what role the acolyte may play if that turns out to be Smith. I wouldn't be surprised if we just hear Palps voice through this character once or twice.

 

Didn't KK say that it was always the plan to bring Palpatine back in Episode 9? If so, then the point in bringing him back would be that he's been a key part of the ST story all along, we just didn't know it. If it's revealed that he was somehow controlling Snoke (either through possession or some other means), it would help explain things like why the throne room scene in TLJ was so similar to the one in ROTJ, even down to the Emperor's theme being played while Snoke was talking. Snoke being Palpatine's puppet would also explain why Snoke never got any backstory (i.e. because Snoke himself was never important, he's just some old guy who was somehow being controlled by Palpatine.) And it ties into the line from ROTS: "He could stop others from dying, but not himself..." What if Palpatine had eventually figured out a way to stop himself from dying by transferring his essence into other bodies? I have to agree with those who say that blue light in ROTJ could definitely open the door for that possibility (even if that clearly wasn't the original intention when ROTJ was made.)

One of the big complaints about the ST has been that Snoke and F.O seemed to have come out of nowhere. If it's revealed that Palps was somehow behind it all, it could put that complaint to rest.

 

Well, there was no plan so thats an afterthought.

 

Even though I think Palps returning and even possessing someone is possible, I don't think Snoke was actually possessed by Palps. He acts too differently than Palps did. Granted, he was trying to do something in his throne room very similar to what Palps was up to in ROTJ, but I think that is something that most darkside masters would do to test their apprentices, perhaps it's even part of how they "use their apprentices for their power" as Han warned about. The theme we hear might be connected to that darkside process more than it is actually connected to Palps himself.

Also, I can't see Palps spending a decade moving forces to the UR for his contingency, so that he can have a new order to rule with once he returned, only to hide behind the persona of Snoke and talk about himself like he was just another fallen master.

 

Re: the bold text, exactly. Why hide behind the Snoke persona? Why not just be upfront and admit that he's the Emperor? What's to gain from pretending to be Snoke? The Emperor comes back and possess a dude and acts like the Emperor but then hides the fact that he's the Emperor? What? Why? No. Snoke is Snoke. He's not the Emperor.

 

I assume KK knows a bit more about whether or not there was a plan than we do.

 

And i assume that she said something that she knew was misleading.

 

Ahhh, another one.

 

Great post. You are 13, right?

 

Cut him some slack, he was going through a phase. He felt that his Palpatine persona was kinda outdated, so he decided to try out something different.
It took another death for him to reconnect with his true self again, but he's all the better for it. Now, he's ready to embrace himself, warts and all, and take on the universe!

 

I have a feeling that we'll get a scene where Rey and Kylo walk into the ruins of the Death Star and they'll hear the Emperor's laugh that we heard in the trailer. The laugh keeps getting louder and louder as they walk further into the Death Star until finally they walk into a room where the laughter is coming from and before them on the floor is a pair of toy chattering teeth hopping around. Then Ghost Luke pops up and says, "Boo! Fooled you! Hahahaha!"