10 Star Wars Details Only Explained Outside Of The Films
6. How Palpatine Survived The End Of The Original Trilogy - Rise Of Skywalker Novelization
I swear to god this is the last one from Carson's TROS novelization, promise.
So how did Palpatine survive Darth Vader throwing him to his burning cosmic death? Well, he didn't, technically. The Sheev Palpatine we saw in the original trilogy DID in fact die down there, but Palpatine was nothing if not a man with a plan.
The Palpatine we met in Rise Of Skywalker was, you guessed it, ANOTHER clone! To be fair, when you HAVE cloning technology, why wouldn't you keep a clone of yourself around as a backup plan in case your apprentice decides to make good on the whole "Sith apprentices always kill their masters" thing?
Of course, one has to wonder why he didn't just transfer his consciousness into the clone that would become Rey's dad, who was obviously in far better physical shape than the decrepit old man that Rey fought at the end of Rise, but hey Star Wars is jam packed full of plot holes, what's one or two more?
Rise was already not doing hot with critics, but putting so much information that many would consider vital into a novelization of the movie people already paid to see was not exactly good PR. At least no one (as far as I know) took it out on poor Rae Carson who was just doing her job.