Palpatine's Contingency Explained: Everything You Need To Know About How Palpatine Returned

Emperor Palpatine's Return/Contingency in Star Wars: Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker was met with a lot of mixed feelings. Some Star Wars Fans loved the fact that they got to see Ian McDiarmid play Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious yet again. Other fans were unhappy that Darth Sidious came back to life because it ruined the sacrifice of Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode 6: Return of the Jedi. Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker "killed" Emperor Palpatine in Return of the Jedi, but somehow he returned in The Rise of Skywalker. If you are familiar with the lore, you may know about Palpatine's Contingency. His Contingency plan was a plan that would occur in the event of his death. There are many moving part to his contingency, including Operation Cinder. In this video, I go through many aspects of the Star Wars Canon, including the books and comics, to tie together how exactly Palpatine returned in The Rise of Skywalker, and what his contingency was about.

00:00 - Somehow... Palpatine Returned
01:51 - Chapter 1: Who Is Sheev Palpatine
04:41 - Chapter 2: The Sith & The Sith Eternal
12:19 - Chapter 3: The Fall Of The Republic
21:56 - Chapter 4: The Fall Of The Empire
27:29 - Chapter 5: Snoke & The First Order
32:54 - Chapter 6: The Force Awakens & The Last Jedi
36:22 - Chapter 7: The Rise of Skywalker

[ontasbulent]

Goldman you have become strong and wise and we are very proud of you. You have become a bigger YouTuber then we we ever could hope to be.

[nope]

I'm gonna be that guy. Palpy returning makes perfect sense. "Somehow Palpatine has returned....things only the Sith knew" is everything we need.


Let's get real, shall we? When talking Star Wars. And by SW I mean THE FILMS...not shows, books, reference guides, games, or comics...THE FILMS - exposition has always been left at bare minimum. The OT was DESIGNED as to not have tons of expository dialogue and explanations for everything. Even the PT follows this, just somewhat to a lesser extent.
Do we really want or need some jumble of techno/spiritual babble explaining how Palpy survived? Really?

The most acclaimed scene in the PT and one of the most acclaimed scenes in the saga in general is the speech Palpy gives Anakin at the opera in ROTS. Y'know, where Palpy deadass tells us he knows how to cheat death using the Dark Side? How much more blatantly obvious can you get?

We've known Palps knows dark Sith magic for years and years. When he finally uses it suddenly it's not enough for people?

[kaiserz]

It’s honestly crazy how in spite of Palaptines planning that spanned over half a century through scheming, manipulation, corruption, and the dark secrets of the Sith in an attempt to achieve eternal rule over the galaxy, he still failed all because of the love between a family.

[wickdaline]

You always make everything in the sequels so interesting. Something I can never have time to do. I also wouldn't have said different than what Poe said about how Palpatine returned since I bet he never knew how either.

[vittoriacolona]

I saw the explanation on V-Log days after I saw TROS, about Palpy's telling Anakin that death can be cheated in ROFTS. And later I found out that the Sith have been obsessed with immortality.

[rogueguardian]

"this is where the fun begins"

[rogueguardian]

You know what I love about this channel? You always make normally boring stuff (for me at least) very fun. As a plus I learn something new that helps me enjoy star wars more.

[LordExor]

There's a kind of ambiguity in canon about whether Palpatine really wanted Kylo as a host. It seems like he only considered Rey suitable, and used reverse psychology on Kylo in the same way he feigned a motive with the Nemoidians in TPM (Sign the treaty!:Kill the girl!). It seems he wanted Kylo more as his Sith apprentice/errand boy.

[kisaragitown]

Tbh, I’m glad the sequels exist as canon. So many new/crazy interesting concepts they’ve made so far

[durthmol]

I've never had a problem with the idea of Sheev returning and this video just makes everything clearer! Great job man!

[lewismantova]

A man who appreciates ROTS opening music and the sequels? I see you are a man of culture also

[gabbyberlingieri]

Awesome video! I always thought that Palpatine's return in TROS was rushed, and wasn't given sufficient explanation, but this video allowed me to understand it a lot more. Great job, and I'm excited to watch your future content!!👍

[wolfarcher]

I started to have a feeling Palpatine might return ever since the sentinel droid showed up in battlefront 2. I actually was thinking to myself “it kinda feels like he’s back to life or something” seeing Palpatine’s face on that sentinel droid.

[Bryzerse]

I'm not exactly a fan of the sequels, but I appreciate them trying to fill in the plot holes they dug when making the last film. Good documentary, but I will point out that there was never meant to be a single "Last Jedi, " as you describe Rey at 36:16, but it is actually meant to be the plural Jedi. I only discovered this myself when I saw the Spanish title was "Los Ultimos Jedi". I know it's a small nitpick, but I just like to spread awareness of this fact.

[macangaill]

Great video! Thank you for taking the time to adapt my piece!

[littlechickeyhudak]

What a spectacular video. I've heard or read most of this before, but having it all condensed and organized into a single digestible timeline is very eye-opening and helps it all fall into place. Kudos to you and hanotsrii.

[deadshot]

I mean there isn't ANY proper explanation in the movie. Poe doesn't know the explanation so that scene wasn't it. Also I think it makes perfect sense with the canon media.

[MoldyDogUnlimited]

Cool video! I never had any problems with Palpatines return but this gives it context.

[ReySkywalker]

Palpatine’s return always made sense, tbh. Cloning, dark science, the Darkside, essence transfer, etc. That’s more than enough to explain the return of Palpatine, especially when we have Maul and Boba who just return from death with ZERO explanation.

[skywalkerkitty]

0:37 you shoving the book in your face made me laugh