The Rise of Skywalker Is Maddeningly Unclear on the Mechanics of Palpatine's Return

Emperor Palpatine's return is one of the biggest mysteries in Episode IX. How is the Emperor alive when he seemed to pretty clearly die way back in Return of the Jedi, after Darth Vader turned on him to protect Luke? If you're hoping for clear answers, you'll probably be disappointed.

The only real explanation we get onscreen is a line from Palpatine himself, a callback to a line he previous delivers in Revenge of the Sith. He gloats, "The Dark Side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural." Frustratingly, that's all the explanation we get as to how he survives a seemingly fatal triple-whammy of getting electrocuted with his own Force lightning, thrown down an endless shaft, and blown up when the Second Death Star goes down. He's clearly not at full strength, with a Lord Voldemort-esque frail, half-destroyed body until nearly the end of the movie, but he's very much alive.

Confusingly, it appears that the ability to revive the dead is not solely tied to the Dark side, at least not in The Rise of Skywalker. After Rey sacrifices herself to stop Palpatine, Ben Solo finds her apparently dead body and manages to revive her by literally transferring his own life force to her (at the cost of his own life). The difference between the two actions, one can assume, is that Palpatine's attempted to make himself immortal for selfish and dark purposes, while Ben's action was based in motives rooted in the "Light side": gratitude, selflessness, and maybe even love.

Figuring out the mechanics of Palpatine's resurrection is nearly impossible without the assistance of some of the semi-canon "Expanded Universe" material, which occasionally made mention of vague "Sith magic" that Palpatine was dabbling in. There's even a comic book series (which is not considered official Star Wars canon currently) that offers an explicit explanation involving cloning and the ability for Palpatine and other Sith Lords to "jump" their consciousness to cloned bodies or, in some cases, to existing humans that would then be overwritten by the Sith consciousness. The confrontation between Palpatine and Rey does seem to lean in this direction, with the Emperor creepily explaining how he and the spirit of all the Sith would overtake her if she kills him. Since this is the last main-line Star Wars film, though, we're unlikely to get a full-fledged explanation, unless the creative team chooses to include it in future interview or bonus materials.