Palpatine's return: star wars' lore gets a clumsy fix

The return of Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker remains a point of contention, even among die-hard fans. But beyond the debate about the film's overall quality, there's a specific moment that elicits a collective groan: Poe Dameron's announcement that Palpatine had “somehow” returned. The line, delivered by Oscar Isaac, sparked immediate confusion and accusations of lazy writing.

The novelization’s desperate attempt at explanation

The film itself offered little insight into this resurrection, leaving audiences to assume a convenient plot device. Ian McDiarmid, reprising his role as Palpatine, attempted to defend the decision during promotional interviews, venturing into murky discussions about contingency plans and reproductive possibilities—a line of reasoning few found convincing. The truth, it turns out, resides within the novelization of the film, a narrative addendum that attempts to retroactively justify this bizarre plot twist.

The novel reveals a convoluted plan involving cloning. After Palpatine's apparent demise at the hands of Darth Vader, his essence was transferred to the body of a clone. This, however, is where the already shaky logic further unravels. While Palpatine certainly possessed a “plan B,” the lack of any prior foreshadowing within the films, coupled with the need to consult a novel to understand it, highlights a severe deficiency in the storytelling. The cloning experiments ultimately yielded Dathan Palpatine, a failed prototype who, improbably, became the progenitor of Rey.

The attempt to reconcile Palpatine's foresight with the haphazard execution of his return is, at best, comical. The story suggests Palpatine anticipated his death with enough precision to prepare a cloning vessel, yet lacked the foresight to establish any tangible clues for viewers along the way. It’s a classic example of Star Wars’ tendency to patch inconsistencies in the lore, often resulting in more problems than solutions.

Filoni and shadow of the sith: further complications

Dave Filoni, known for his efforts to mend previous narrative gaps, seemingly added fuel to the fire with his portrayal of bacta tanks filled with mysterious figures in The Mandalorian. This sparked further speculation about the extent of Palpatine's influence and the possibility of additional cloning experiments. The novel Shadow of the Sith, released in 2022, provides another layer of complexity, detailing Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian's encounters with rumors surrounding Exegol and the Sith Eternal cult—the very entity responsible for these bizarre cloning endeavors.

With the future of the Star Wars saga in film shrouded in uncertainty, it remains to be seen whether these convoluted explanations will ever find relevance. Or will Lucasfilm opt to sweep these narrative missteps under the rug, acknowledging that even a galaxy far, far away is not immune to the pitfalls of creative improvisation?