When this theory first occurred to me, it sent chills down my spine. That’s right Star Wars fans. I’m about to drop a major theory that, if true, would be mega spoiler that would send ripples throughout the entire saga. These ripples have huge implications for movies and TV that we’ve seen, as well as what’s yet to come. It’s about to get ripply, believe it or not. Beware of spoilers. Proceed with caution, and strap yourself in if you do.
First off, sorry for that hyperbolic and vague intro, but I don’t want to get accused of not warning you. I’m going to begin by mentioning some spoilers that you probably already know about if you’ve seen any recent Star Wars content. Then I’m going to connect them and lead to the inevitable conclusion. This theory is in part a response to the idea that Palpatine’s return was a last-ditch effort by Lucasfilm.
Why It’s Inevitable
In the end of The Rise of Skywalker, Ben Solo uses a type of Force-healing to bring Rey back from death, but by doing so it drains all his life force, and he died, vanishing like many Jedi before him. In other words, we know that it is canon that the Force can be used to bring someone back to life after being dead. Therefore, if the most powerful man in the galaxy hasn’t planned to use this as a contingency it would sort of be a plot hole.
Force-healing is can be used to heal someone’s wounds and illnesses and in doing so it drains some of your life. However, to bring someone back from death, it drains all of your life. I think this is a conservative interpretation of the events of The Rise of Skywalker. To quote Rey regarding her Force-healing of the “vexis snake“:
I’ve just transferred a bit of life, Force-energy from me to him.
Not only that, we may have seen this type of Force-healing earlier in Star Wars films. Obi-wan used a type of Force-healing on Luke in A New Hope. This power can be compared to a Force-drain used by the Sith. In Aftermath, a Sith cultist claimed the following:
Did you know that the Sith Lords could sometimes drain the Force energy from their captives. Siphoning life from them and using it to strengthen their connection to the dark side? Extending their own lives, as well, so that they could live for centuries beyond their intended expiration?
Yupe Tashu, Sith cultist
Darth Sidious putting his hand over Anakin’s head in Revenge of the Sith has been compared to when Obi-Wan put his had over Luke in A New Hope by Star Wars Ring Theory, and given that these two films are mirrors according to the ring theory, it makes you wonder if the Emperor/Sidious is actually draining a little life from Anakin, dealing him one more blow before he takes control over him.
These two scenes sort of sit at the junction between the original trilogy and the prequels, and in hindsight may have foretold of an important power that will gain more focus in the Skywalker saga to come.
Why it was Predictable
I’m not claiming here that I predicted Palpatine’s return, but I am claiming that clues were laid out before us. Consider the scene from the novelization for The Force Awakens where Snoke describes the failure of Anakin Skywalker as his “sentiment”:
I watched the Galactic Empire rise, and then fall [….] It was neither poor strategy nor arrogance that brought down the Empire. You know too well what did.”
Ren nodded once.
“Sentiment.”
“Yes. Such a simple thing. Such a foolish error of judgment. A momentary lapse in an otherwise exemplary life. Had Lord Vader not succumbed to emotion at the crucial moment—had the father killed the son—the Empire would have prevailed. And there would be no threat of Skywalker’s return today.
Now how would Snoke know this? The only people that knew about what happened in the Emperor’s throne room were Luke, Anakin, and the Emperor, and Anakin and the Emperor died. Therefore, many had pointed out that Snoke suspiciously seems to have specific detailed knowledge of what happened at a “crucial moment” that he wasn’t present for. While certainly Kylo Ren could have learned about this event from Luke or Leia and then told Snoke, the tone of what Snoke says suggests it is Snoke lecturing Kylo Ren, and not just telling Kylo something he would already know. With the knowledge that the Emperor created and controlled Snoke, these details sound like they are coming from the Emperor.
Another clue would be Snoke’s ring, which has Dwartii inscriptions. We know that the Emperor kept statues of the Dwartii in his office, suggesting a connection there. This ring might actually be the means that Palpatine uses to control Snoke, which we now know to be a clone that Palpatine created.
While Force-healing takes all of your life in order to bring someone back from death, with Force-draining the situation is more complicated. To use Force-draining to bring someone back to life, the act couldn’t be performed by the recipient of the life-energy, because that person would be dead. But in theory, one could use a similar type of Sith power to drain someone’s life-energy to bring someone back to life. I might also speculate that a Sith could forcibly coerce a Force-healer into sacrificing all their life-energy to bring someone back to life.
I also think it stands to reason that the Emperor of a galaxy, with his infinite resources, would be able to establish a contingency plan to use this kind of power to bring himself back to life, and it appears that he did. But how exactly would he do it, and where would he get a Force-healer to drain the life from?
Enter The Mandalorian
In the wildly popular series The Mandalorian, we have been introduced to a mysterious client that wears the Imperial logo around his neck, and hangs around with storm troopers.
He is later revealed to be connected to Moff Gideon, who is a death-trooper-flanked Imperial warlord that will stop at nothing until he attains the child, a creature that fans have lovingly called baby Yoda. The “young” 50-year old creature is the same species as Yoda, but is not actually Yoda, who died in Return of the Jedi. What’s clear from the show is that this Force-wielding child is adept at Force-healing.
The reason why the remnants of the Empire are tracking down this little Force-healer 5 years after the Emperor died should now be staring you right in the face. The Empire wants baby Yoda to help bring the Emperor back from the dead.
And just how could this happen? I see two possibilities. First, using some sort of Sith-magic, possibly enhanced with weird Imperial technology concocted on a secrete Imperial research base, could be used to Force-drain baby Yoda and channel this energy into the remains of Emperor Palpatine, thus reconstituting them into the zombie-like form we see in The Rise of Skywalker. The second possibility is that baby Yoda could be forced to give up all his life to bring the Emperor back from the dead. Either way, if this theory is true it portends a dark and horrific future for baby Yoda.
Alive or Dead
The major wrinkle in this theory is the fact that the client, played by Werner Herzog, made it be clear that he would accept the proof of termination of the bounty for a reduced payment. Therefore, one would need to be willing to accept the idea that the life-energy could be physically drained from the child and stored, and possibly then channeled back to revive the Emperor.
I’d like to conclude by recalling that the Emperor was very focused on kidnapping the children of the Force. His plans were shown in the Clone Wars animated series, but his intentions were never revealed. If these connections are true, it could be related to some sort of life-force-draining contingency plan. Maybe even stockpiling Force-users to bring him back to life in his eventual death.
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