10 Star Wars Mysteries Explained Outside Of The Films
3. Everything About Palpatine's Resurrection
The Mystery:
The resurrection of Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker is such a head-spinning, patently absurd moment in Star Wars lore matched only by how little the film actually bothers to explain it. So, how did he come back to life and bring an entire army to Exegol?
The Answer:
The novelisation and Visual Dictionary of The Rise of Skywalker, as well as the "Star Wars: Darth Vader" comic, have filled in a lot of the blanks.
For starters, the novelisation confirms that Palpatine was indeed a clone as many fans theorised - an "imperfect vessel" temporarily housing Palpatine's undying spirit.
The Visual Dictionary meanwhile confirms that Palpatine's acolytes on Exegol are the Sith Eternal, the most devout Sith followers who came to Exegol specifically to bring Palps back to life using "technology and the occult."
As for how such a huge fleet were created on such a far-flung planet? The Sith Eternal enacted their might upon "shipwrights, engineers, and slaves" to build the fleet over the course of several decades, the Sith Eternal using their influence to smuggle parts from nearby shipyards to the dark desert planet.
The aforementioned Darth Vader comic goes on to chronicle a conflict between Palpatine and Darth Vader prior to Return of the Jedi, where it's revealed that Palpatine had actually been building the Final Order since the period of the original trilogy.
When Vader heads to Exegol, this is where he catches his aforementioned sighting of Luke's hand, and later discovers that the Final Order fleet is being powered by a massive kyber crystal mountain situated on the planet.
Oh, and because kyber is a living thing that won't willingly bend to the will of the Sith, Palpatine has the Sith Eternal torture it into compliance. Yup.