Emperor Palpatine’s return in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker surprised many fans who assumed he had died at the end of Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader threw him down the shaft in the Death Star. However, Palpatine’s survival is not entirely implausible within the established Star Wars universe. Here we will examine some of the key questions around how Palpatine could have survived the Death Star II’s destruction and returned decades later to threaten the galaxy once again.
How did Palpatine survive the fall down the Death Star shaft?
Palpatine was extremely powerful with the dark side of the Force. It is conceivable that he was able to use the Force to slow his fall and cushion his landing on some sort of surface or outcropping further down the shaft. The Death Star II was massive—the shaft certainly did not go straight down forever. The shaft likely had internal machinery, pipes, cables, and beams that Palpatine could have landed on. That initial impact may still have injured Palpatine badly, but the Strength of his anger and hatred could have sustained him with the dark side to keep him alive.
How did Palpatine get off the Death Star before it exploded?
After surviving the fall down the shaft itself, Palpatine still had to escape the Death Star II before its complete destruction. But as emperor, he would have had contingency plans for this eventuality.
Palpatine may have had a secret hangar with a shuttle or escape pods hidden elsewhere on the Death Star for emergency evacuation. Imperial engineers surely built in various redundancies to protect the emperor. Once clear of the Death Star, Palpatine could have rendezvoused with a hidden fleet of loyal Imperial forces.
Alternatively, Palpatine may have been able to signal one of his Imperial fleets to extract him before the Death Star’s reactor blew up. With his mastery of the Force, he could have compelled any nearby Imperial forces to come rescue him immediately.
Where did Palpatine go after Endor?
After being evacuated from the Death Star II, Palpatine likely retreated to hidden Imperial bases in the Unknown Regions. He still commanded vast resources and secret research facilities where he could start rebuilding his strength.
Palpatine may have visited Exegol, a hidden Sith planet that housed enormous shipyards and labs for creating new armies. Exegol would have provided the perfect stronghold for Palpatine as he recovered from his injuries and conceived his next moves. The planet’s remoteness in Wild Space helped keep Palpatine’s existence concealed as the Empire officially surrendered to the New Republic.
Palpatine’s Contingency Plans
For decades before Endor, Palpatine was already making contingency plans against the possibility of his first death. This included Operation Cinder, which was meant to devastate Imperial planets as retaliation if the Emperor was killed. Palpatine also funneled resources into the Deep Core and Unknown Regions to build new fleets and research dark side secrets. Having foreseen his possible defeat, Palpatine created a shadow infrastructure to enable his rebirth.
How did Palpatine’s return remain secret for so long?
In the decades after Endor, Palpatine remained mostly hidden in the Unknown Regions staging his return. This remoteness beyond the Outer Rim allowed him to build strength in secret without alarming the New Republic.
Palpatine likely used proxies and cultist groups like the Acolytes of the Beyond to acquire resources quietly without revealing his involvement. He may have also drawn on the loyalty of secret Imperial holdouts to begin renewing the fleet.
The Sith Eternal cult on Exegol provided Palpatine true devotees who could be relied upon to keep his existence utterly confidential until everything was in place for his return. Even most of the First Order was left unaware of the hidden Emperor pulling the strings.
How did Palpatine create Snoke?
Palpatine was responsible for the creation of Supreme Leader Snoke, who led the First Order in the aftermath of the Empire’s collapse. Snoke served to help galvanize the Imperial remnants under Palpatine’s guiding hand.
Palpatine may have crafted Snoke either by influencing the Force-sensitive DNA strands from multiple donors or by directly cloning himself. Snoke represented a powerful, manipulative being of the dark side who still answered to the unseen Emperor. Even Kylo Ren was shocked to learn after killing Snoke that Palpatine had been behind him all along.
Palpatine’s Use of Cloning
Cloning and genetic manipulation played a key role in many of Palpatine’s contingency plans. On Exegol, he amassed huge clone banks to create legions of new bodies he could possess upon death. Cloning also enabled him to craft powerful new servants like Snoke to execute his will across the galaxy.
How did Palpatine’s message transmit across the galaxy?
In The Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine broadcasts an ominous holographic message revealing his continued existence. This surprise message is transmitted via the vast network of transmission towers on Exegol across all systems.
The unknown regions offered Palpatine the perfect isolated place to engineer a vast transmission system that could then project his image directly into the Core Worlds without being traced. This system likely drew on hyperwave relay stations and amplifier towers to bypass normal hyperspace routes.
| Hyperwave Relay Station | Location |
|---|---|
| Relay Station Besh-11 | Chaos |
| Relay Station Leth-37 | Farstine |
| Relay Station Cass-1 | Jarstran |
The coordinated hyperspace transmissions allowed Palpatine to essentially hijack communications across the entire galaxy at once.
How did Palpatine build the Final Order fleet?
On Exegol, Palpatine had mammoth shipyards and cloning facilities for secretly building the enormous fleet of Star Destroyers that made up the Final Order. This horrifying armada, hidden on the shadowy Sith planet, grew steadily over the decades as the Emperor prepared his great comeback.
The Final Order fleet represented generations of research into new technologies and ship designs by Imperial engineers like Grand Admiral Thrawn. Powered by stygium crystals, these Resurgent-class Star Destroyers were far more advanced than anything the New Republic or Resistance could muster.
Palpatine used his Sith cultists and cloned crews to man this mighty fleet that numbered over a thousand destroyers, ready to impose his will upon the galaxy once more. The ships waited dormant on Exegol until summoned through hyperspace at the right moment by a homing beacon signal from the resurrected Emperor.
The Numbers Behind the Final Order Fleet
| Ship Class | Length | Number in Final Order Fleet |
|---|---|---|
| Xyston-class Star Destroyers | 1.6 km | Over 1000 |
| Sith Troop Transports | 2.2 km | Over 150 |
| Sith Starfighters | 6.5 m | Over 3000 |
This massive injection of ships and personnel represented the largest military expansion in decades. The fleet’s scale reflected Palpatine’s preparation for total galactic domination upon his return.
How did Palpatine survive after Rey and Kylo defeated him?
When a redeemed Ben Solo came to Rey’s aid on Exegol, their combined Force powers were enough to cause the physical body of the weakened Palpatine to disintegrate. However, this likely did not fully defeat the spirit of the powerful Sith lord.
As he promised Rey, Palpatine’s spirit intended to pass into her when she struck him down in anger, possessing her to carry on his legacy. But with Ben’s help, Rey was able to deflect Palpatine’s essence before she could become his host.
Nonetheless, Palpatine’s hatred and dark knowledge endured even after the destruction of his clone body on Exegol. He would merely need to find new ways to rebuild his strength once more from the shadows. As long as the Sith and their teachings persist, the malevolent spirit of Palpatine still lingers as a threat to the Jedi and the galaxy at large.
Conclusion
Emperor Palpatine’s return may have seemed unlikely, but the Sith Lord had planned extensively for his eventual resurrection should his original body perish. His mastery of the Force, cloning, and secret facilities in the Unknown Regions allowed him to slowly rebuild his strength undetected. And his overwhelming hatred and evil remained undimmed, driving him to reclaim power over the galaxy. For as long as the dark side lives on, Palpatine will remain an ever-present danger lurking in the shadows.