ST Is the Emperor really dead?

Not that I think it will happen, but I reckon it would be fun and interesting to see a dead, beaten, charred Palpatine reanimated by Snoke, almost as some sort of experiment, or lackey, or puppet, or plaything. It would be a neat twist on a classic character, with a legitimate reason for his return, and it would provide Ian McDiarmid with a new challenge, as well as positioning the new ST baddie as an embodiment of power and evil that makes the Emperor look like Snow White.

 

no.

 

He went up in snoke with the Death Star II.

 

The temptation that you can have the wonderful Ian McDiarmid return is such that I would be intrigued by the possibility.

 

I'm alternately hot and cold on the idea of the Emperor returning (in whatever form), but I agree that I'll take as much of McDiarmid in SW as I can get.

 

I fully agree that there is ample groundwork for Palps' return laid in both the PT, OT, and the new Canon novels. Even slight- seemingly in-obvious things we've watched in the films for decades can be used to support this. For example: when Vader returns to the DSII to tell the Emporer that Luke is on Endor and interrupts Palps' meeting with his advisers: 1. why wouldn't Vader, contact his master via the holo-net, why defy his master and show up in person? 2. why does Palps get angry and send him away so quickly? Was this a meeting he didn't want Vader privy to? Perhaps he is seeing to final preparations for his departure from the physical realm? Maybe this is the inception of the First Order, as Palps has his most trusted advisers briefed about his plans and then promptly sent off the Deathstar to his secret facility in the nebula... Why does the Emporer come to this confrontation in his throne-room- between Vader and Luke- completely unarmed? Where is his lightsaber? He tells Luke "I am unarmed, take your weapon and strike me down". Palps had to know that there was a very real chance that either Vader or Luke could get a shot at him. Could Palps have been trying to orchestrate his own death- knowing that he had everything in place to come back from it? Did he perhaps need some powerful force user to unleash their anger on him to make that happen? The Tarkin novel explained that the pursuit of this higher power involved two Sith working together, one to be bait for the Darkside and the other to reap the benefits. Maybe this whole scene was set up to allow him to get this done. Palps would have forseen Vader's eventual betrayal, the novels allude to the fact that Palps still sees a flicker of the light in him. Why wouldn't he try to finish his master's experiments and off his strongest competition of the same time. He looses his old broken body- to gain a new one later on, and Anakin and his Son both die when the Deathstar goes boom.
It helps make the end of ROTJ better for me. Palps zapped himself with his own lightning for a good while in ROTS and then instantly unleashed his "unlimited power" on Mace, before hopped right back up afterward. I don't think him catching some residual lightning when Vader picked him up would have been enough to put him in a position to just fall to his death and not use the force to save himself. Furthermore, Vader catching some lightning after loosing his already robotic hand would not be enough to kill him IMO. There's more to that exchange than what we saw. The betrayal of the chosen one against the Master he swore to serve had to have brought a monumental wave of the darkside against Anakin, and maybe Palps reaped the results. I think this is why no other character's death in canon has been marked with those shock-waves of blue light.
Ultimately, if you're going to have villains like the Sith, then you're eventually going to have to visit the resurrection/ immortality subject in full. The very nature of the Darkside is an insatiable hunger for more power. Palps showed us that even ruling the galaxy is not the endgame- why have more films continuing the story with a new villain who is just trying to put back together what Palps has already accomplished? No, if a baddie is going to be bigger and badder than Palps then they are going to need to have loftier goals- or at least equal ones. Some Supreme Leader who scrapes together the scraps of Palps empire to try his hand a ruling the galaxy is not upping the stakes enough.

 

Cliegg Lars would say: "The Emperor's dead, son. Accept it."

Or Dr. McCoy: "He's dead, Jim."

 

The Emperor is dead, end of. If he does indeed return in physical form then I will be waving goodbye to Star Wars for the poor and damn right pathetic lack of imagination and creativity.

 

But... what if he was brought back in a really imaginative and creative way?

 

I always wondered if something in that shrine possessed Palpatine turning him from the canny mastermind behind the downfall of the Jedi into a power mad maniac obsessed with immortality.

Kind of reminds me of a certain Sith Emperor in KOTOR doesn't it?

We're assuming Sidious was the Ultimate Sith, but what if he was merely the learner and the creature called Uber or Snoke took advantage of the situation to restore itself?

That would explain why Plageuis was slain in his sleep, Palpatine goaded into falling under its control and now its readying itself to reveal its true plan... one hopefully worthy of a new Trilogy?

Maybe Kylo is its intended next host body?

That would be a nasty shock going from barely self taught to possessed by the Sith Grandmaster wouldn't it?

 

1-6 was the story of Anakin Skywalker, Not of the Emperor, or Yoda or Obi-Wan. His purpose was served at the end of ROTJ, when Vader kills him and therefore redeems himself. Bringing him back would ruin the redemption of Anakin and render things like the prophecy pointless. In other words you would ruin the essence of the OT, which was about Luke trying to redeem his father.

 

And people think the Plagueis theory is weird....

 

I think both theories are wierd.

 

But everything has been done if you watched soaps, so it would be tough.... Of course, soap watchers also knew that Soap Rule #3 is if you don't actually see the body, they are not dead. (Rule #4 is, even if you see the body, there is a 20% chance of survival.)

 

I wonder if we will eventually see the Imperial palace in this trilogy. Perhaps even in ruins.

 

The emperor is so dead it's not even funny.

Him, his spirit and everything about him died on that Death Star...and then died again even worse. I've never seen someone as dead as him. He's so dead they should invent a new word for it.

 

The Imperial palace is the former Jedi Temple in the new continuity. This was established in Tarkin IIRC.

 

He is alive in Snoke's memory.

 

Closing the thread, it was fun to speculate years ago when this was opened in 2012 but now all you get is smart alec "nope!" replies.

I get it kids, you know that he's not in the film now.