The novel MASTER OF EVIL finally explains Emperor Palpatine’s weakened state in Episode IX
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker remains a divisive film, with Emperor Palpatine’s shocking resurrection not being quite the epic moment that Lucasfilm and filmmaker JJ Abrams were probably hoping for.
Episode IX poorly explained how Palpatine had somehow returned. Ultimately, we were able to piece together a vague series of events that included the transfer of his essence into a waiting clone body, unable to contain his powerful Sith form. The villain spent decades trying and failing to create a suitable form and managed to manipulate Kylo Ren by possessing Supreme Leader Snoke.
We still don’t know if Snoke was another failed clone or someone from elsewhere in the Galaxy; the former seems more likely, but with fanservice such a priority in The Rise of Skywalkerexplanations weren’t really a priority for Abrams, it seems.
A new canon novel, Star Wars: Master of Evil by Adam Christopher, has just been released, and it sheds new light on why Palpatine was in such a weakened state when we found him in The Rise of Skywalker.
While inhabiting a failed clone certainly didn’t help, it seems the loss of Darth Vader hit the Emperor harder than expected, as this excerpt from Master of Evil (via SFFGazette.com) explains:
“The power of the dark side is the truth, but it is not a truth to be shared. Its secrets must be gathered, hoarded, kept to oneself. This is how it is meant to be. The strength and power of the master comes from the anger and fear of his apprentice. The master uses this power, absorbing the resentment, fueling the fire, focusing his power and hold on the dark side. It is the apprentice who makes the master, not the master the apprentice.”
This explains why the immensely powerful Anakin Skywalker was so attractive to Palpatine as an apprentice, and why he kept him at his side even after the former Jedi became more machine than man as Darth Vader.
When Vader turned against his master, the “rule of two” was broken, and without his apprentice’s power, the villain was weakened. As for why he used Snoke as an intermediary rather than taking Ben Solo as his apprentice, Palpatine likely feared another betrayal in his fragile form.
This forced Palpatine to rely on Rey to angrily kill him so he could take back his “granddaughter’s” body. Ultimately, it was her and Kylo Ren’s Force Dyad that allowed the Emperor to regain some of his lost strength, but it seems the Rule of Two is no longer in the Galaxy now that the villain has fallen.
Where does this leave the Sith as we enter an era of storytelling beyond Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker remains to be seen.
