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The World Devastator from ‘Star Wars: Dark Empire’ (Image: Marvel Comics/Veitch/Kennedy)

What is old is new again. The Disney era of Star Wars has found a crutch. Whatever can’t be explained in a movie can easily be fixed with further explanation in accompanying novels, comics and other story-telling medium. That appears to be the approach of the newest revelation from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker novelization: The Emperor Palpatine we saw on screen was a clone. On one hand, it’s great to have such depth in a film that requires multiple layers and mediums to tell the story. Star Wars overflows with those backstory tales told behind the scenes. On the other hand, it goes down the dark path of chaotic story delivery.

Palpatine rehash: Star Wars Legends: Dark Empire

In a world of instant gratification and fan petitions to get what you want, many long-time Star Wars fans are angry because of the Expanded Universe jettison from canon. Read this twice and hear it for the truth it is: Lucasfilm and Disney were right to cut the EU loose. Be honest here; there were conflicting story lines, characters in different places at the same time, and messy story lines that didn’t align with other books. The EU was a chaotic mess in multiple arcs.

Is the Star Wars fandom “toxic”?

The Emperor's clones, from EU's Dark Empire

In other places however, it was the best gold mine of Star Wars stories in the galaxy. Tom Veitch’s Dark Empire series was a great arc that told of the Emperor surviving in a clone body that could actually support his dark side spirit and not decay. George Lucas was such a huge fan of this story arc, he gave it out as Christmas gifts to Lucasfilm employees upon release. He said it was the closest thing to his own ideas of the sequel he’d ever read. There is zero doubt that The Rise of Skywalker borrowed the ideas of deteriorating clone bodies for Palpatine from Dark Empire.

C2E2: TRoS Novelization sneak peek

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker by Rae Carson
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker by Rae Carson

Fans attending C2E2 in Chicago this weekend had the opportunity to get an early copy of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker novel by Rae Carson, and passages quickly showed up online, giving away some of the details inside. The biggest one so far is the official word that the Palpatine we saw with Kylo Ren on Exegol was indeed a clone, made using similar technology the Kaminoans used to make the Clone Army.

All the vials were empty of liquid save one, which was nearly depleted. Kylo peered closer. He’d seen this apparatus before, too, when he’d studied the Clone Wars as a boy. The liquid flowing into the living nightmare before him was fighting a losing battle to sustain the Emperor’s putrid flesh.

Emperor Palpatine's clone body - The Rise of Skywalker

What could you give me?” Kylo asked. Emperor Palpatine lived, after a fashion, and Kylo could feel in his very bones that this clone body sheltered the Emperor’s actual spirit. It was an imperfect vessel, though, unable to contain his immense power. It couldn’t last much longer.”

from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker novel by Rae Carson

Essentially, the reason Palpatine finally revealed himself was because he was going to die (for real this time) if he didn’t get a vessel that could contain his dark side essence. In his view, that powerful vessel was Rey. She is his flesh and blood after all. It had to be her.

Find out more about Palpatine in the TRoS novel, and learn where to pre-order it here.

Well Hashtaggers, it’s a sad thing none of this now-canon information was included in the movie. Personally, I would rather have a 3 or 4-hour Star Wars finale that tied up the entire tale on-screen. I like to read, and I loved the EU, but here’s where we split. Fans shouldn’t have to go back a read books to fill in gaping plot holes unless they want to. It should not be a requirement if you want the whole story. This revelation will likely fire up the fandom again over the validity of the EU and why Disney dropped it.

Star Wars Legends logo

This does clear up a plot hole. The biggest question fans had from the day the first trailer dropped was how did Palpatine survive? There were plenty of clues in the background of that scene indicating cloning —the big jar of Snoke bodies was one). Book-reading fans will be rewarded with that confirmation and other minor easter eggs. For the casual movie-going fan, The Rise of Skywalker ripped them off of a complete journey through the tale on screen.

All your Star Wars news resides here, at That Hashtag Show, so stick with us! To learn more about Star Wars, you can also visit the official website at www.starwars.com.

Sourced from: ScreenRant