Greetings, Star Wars fans! We’re back to bring you another article, this time in the big bad himself, Sheev Palpatine a.k.a. Darth Plagueis. While most fans are stoked about Palpatine’s return, many are also scratching their heads as to why he is only back in Episode IX. However, Palpatine’s return just might be right there in front of us. Spoilers and speculation below.
In a recent issue of Empire, Director JJ Abrams defended the idea of bringing Palps back in the last film by saying
“If you look at the first eight films, all the set-ups of what we’re doing in IX are there in plain view.”
I found this quote very intriguing because many people thought the return of Palpatine came out of nowhere. This quote would seem to suggest that the explanation is right under our noses. But what did JJ mean exactly? Could it really mean that all eight films are leading up to Palpatine?
While most fans assume that Palpatine died in Return of the Jedi, information about his return as a living person has been released by Making Star Wars as well as reddit Star Wars kingpin, JediPaxis. But how is this possible? And how do the past eight films show us this?
Force-users can break their own fall
The idea that a Force-user could exert a force on themselves had already been established, in Season Two of The Clone Wars. We discussed this point almost two years ago. The video can actually be seen at the official site. So if Anakin and Ahsoka can break their own fall using the Force, then why can’t Palpatine, one of the most powerful dark side Force users around? Isn’t it possible that the giant flash of light we saw was actually the energy released from a massive Force-push to break his fall? Its fair to say that Leia’s Force “flight” in the weightlessness of space in The Last Jedi was a bit controversial for some. But with the ability to use to Force to exert a force on yourself already canon, doing this action in the weightlessness of space would be even easier, making Leia’s Force-move all the more plausible.
Palpatine studied how to cheat death
Palpatine would be around 123 years old by my math, but I could be off. Either way, he is many years over a hundo. So how could this guy still be alive? The answer was given to us in Revenge of the Sith. Clearly, Palpatine was studying ways to cheat death, and had been for a long time. Perhaps many of these Sith techniques used to cheat death also can be used to prolong life? On the one hand, Palps said that “Plagueis taught his apprentice everything he knew, then is apprentice killed him in his sleep”. As we know, Palps was that apprentice. That said, he also told Anakin “To cheat death is a power is a power only one has achieved…”, but that doesn’t mean that Palps didn’t learn that power as well. Palps could have learned enough to prolong his life for decades, explaining how he could be this old, long after he used the Force to break his fall on Death Star II.
But what about the Prophecy?
One of the biggest concerns that I might have had about the return of Darth Sidious is the fact that Anakin killing him in RotJ was supposed to be him fulfilling the prophecy of the Chosen One. By Darth Vader returning to the light, killing Darth Sidious and ultimately sacrificing himself to do so, he was supposed to have destroyed this Sith. So Anakin is supposed to be the Chosen One…or is he?
If you’ve followed this site, and the writings of HiddenCity and myself, we have a series of articles that purport that Anakin may be a false Chosen One, and Rey may actually be the Chosen one. The evidence is extensive and probably too much to cover here, so check out those articles for more. But briefly, it was more than suggested that Palpatine created Anakin in Revenge of the Sith. Other Lucasfilm content, although not strictly canon albeit published the same year Disney bought Lucasfilm, suggests that Darth Plagueis had planned to use the Force to manipulate the midi-chlorians to create a being by impregnating a slave purchased from the Hutts. On top of that, you have the canon Vader comic showing a image of Darth Sidious presumably doing just this: using the Force to create Anakin. So if Palpatine created Anakin to fake a chosen one, then did Anakin really fulfill the prophecy anyway? Maybe not.
Pulling the Strings Behind the Curtain
Palpatine has always been the puppet master behind the scenes. Everything has transpired as he has foreseen. Could it be that a major twist of Rise of Skywalker will be that even the events of RotJ that we thought led to Palpatine’s undoing was in fact all part of his elaborate plan? He created a false chosen one so that he could fake his death and regroup in the Unknown Regions, where the has been building his army ever since. Snoke is someone he met in the Unknown Regions, and who may have been under Palpatine’s orders. By not showing up in TFA or TLJ, Palpatine has bought himself more time to prepare his return. If this is true, it will, to me, make sense in terms of everything that has led up until this point. At the same time, it will be a pretty satisfying twist.
Brought to you by @davestrrr. Stay tuned to Spoiled Blue Milk for the best of Star Wars!