What's Up Star Wars Fans, My Name is Prince, and I am an Urban Acolyte.
With everything going on with Star Wars Celebration, it's hard filtering through all of the news
being released, but it was confirmed on Friday by both JJ Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy that
Emperor Palpatine, or Darth Sidious, is indeed back for Star Wars episode 9.
I want to share that information for those who haven't seen the confirmation, and I want
to weigh in on it.
Before I get into all of that, I just want to say that if your new here, I talk about
Star Wars on this channel-- it's not your typical Star Wars channel.
I call this "Geek culture with a purpose," because I tend to get a little deeper into
the themes in the stories.
If that sounds like something you can get behind, then make sure to subscribe and enable
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Okay, so shortly after the Episode 9 panel wrapped up, JJ Abrams spoke with the press
about the ending of the episode 9 trailer that ended with Palpatine's laugh after Luke's
line from The Last Jedi was heard saying that no one is ever truly gone.
James Dyer from Empire Magazine spoke with JJ, and he took to Twitter after speaking
with him, posting In case there’s any lingering ambiguity from the trailer (and McDiarmid’s
appearance at the panel!), I can 100% confirm that Palpatine is back in The Rise Of Skywalker
as I just asked JJ.
He’s thrilled - and slightly incredulous- that McDiarmid’s presence on set didn’t
leak.
Of course, John Boyega was asked about the Palpatine reveal, and he said that during
filming, he asked JJ about it--bringing back Palpatine, how he meant to go about bringing
back the Dark Lord.
John's final comment is that JJ is a genius.
Now later, Kathleen Kennedy also spoke on the return of Palpatine, and she said that
Palpatine's return was in the blueprint for a long time, but they weren't exactly sure
how they would pull it off.
Now I'm not going to claim that all along I suspected the Emperor would return, but
I am going to make a confession-- I may not have ever voiced this in a video, or in a
livestream, but I always thought there was going to be someone else working from the
shadows that we probably wouldn't learn about until the final act.
I'm going to make a full confession to you guys-- the reason I was easily able to debunk
all of the Snoke is Plagueis theories--well because Darth Plagueis is dead, and the Tarkin
novel debunks a lot of what people think about Plagueis from the Darth Plagueis novel that
is no longer canon.
The reason I kept telling people to stop focusing so much on Snoke's importance is because of
an image early into the concept phase of the Force Awakens.
You know what-- I actually have discussed this in an older video, but I don't remember
which video it was.
There is an image of a shadowy figure wrapped around Darth Talon.
Now I don't know if there was ever any intentions of bringing Darth Talon into canon and possibly
the sequel saga--but what I took from that image was that the Sith were going to have
a presence in the sequel saga.
At the time, there was the Imperial Remnant which became the First Order.
The Imperial Remnant would be led by a Darth Vader impersonator called The Jedi Killer.
There was also the idea of Han and Leia's son falling to the dark side--this actually
was from the creator, George Lucas.
Now I don't know what George proposed for Han and Leia's son, but it seems like--based
on what I've just said--there would have actually been 3 factions representing the dark side--the
Imperial Remnant led by the Jedi Killer, Han and Leia's son, and the Sith who would have
been working in secret.
Think about the Original Saga--we were introduced to Vader and the Empire from the very beginning.
In Empire Strikes Back, we got a cameo of the Emperor, but we didn't actually see the
Emperor in action until Return of the Jedi.
In the Prequels--it's The Phantom Menace--and we actually did see Palpatine and Darth Sidious
in that movie.
I've said this before--but I was amazed coming out of the movie theatre that people were
surprised when I said that Palpatine was the Emperor.
I'm not sure how they didn't put the two together--so maybe it was the will of the Force for me
to be opening people's eyes to things in Star Wars.
Anyway--we saw more of Sidious in Attack of the Clones, and Dooku basically laid everything
out that was happening for Obi-Wan Kenobi.
In the final act, Revenge of the Sith--we actually saw Palpatine, who by now has fully
embraced his true self as Darth Sidious, rise to become the Emperor and kill several respected
Jedi Masters along with handing Yoda an "L" in the empty Senate conference hall.
So this is a thing in Star Wars where the person pulling the strings isn't revealed
until the final act in the trilogy.
JJ Abrams said during the Episode 9 panel that this movie is about this new generation
and what they've inherited--the light and the dark, and asking this question as they
face the greatest evil.
My question has always been--well, what is the greatest evil that they are supposed to
be facing?
In The Force Awakens, Maz Kanata said that this fight has always been the same: first
it was the Sith, then the Empire, and now The First Order.
Yupe Tashu said that the new empire would need to be born from the dark side-- but can
we say that really happened knowing what we know now?
The First Order wasn't born from the dark side.
Snoke didn't join the First Order.
He found the First ORder, and he tried to imitate Palpatine.
Ben Solo joined the First Order a few years before we see him in The Force Awakens--so
maybe someone truly of the dark side comes to take over the First Order--or maybe they
have somehow been working from the shadows the entire time, influencing events and actions--
or it's possible that Kylo Ren, in his pursuit of learning more about the dark side of the
Force, is looking for a way to tap into ancient, arcane knowledge possessed by someone who
not only learned all of the secrets of the dark side of the Force, but also ruled the
galaxy for over 2 decades while they sought to unlock the full potential of the dark side.
That's getting into a topic for a future video about how and why Palpatine may have returned,
so you'll have to come back for that video.
Here's the question of the day-- Do you think Palpatine is really back?
Like Palpatine shooting lightning, laughing, and twirling his red lightsaber of death,
or do you think we'll just see Palpatine as some kind of spirit, holonet recording, or
a holocron?
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If you liked this video and you want to see more, be sure to check out these videos on
Star Wars:The Rise of Skywalker.
I'll be posting more of those videos as more news comes out about episode 9.
You can also check out these other videos about the top theories for Episode 9, and
I'm getting ready to cover one about the connection between Snoke and Palpatine.
Well, that's all I've got for this video, so thanks for watching.
Y'all keep on breathing, and May the Force of Others Be With You, Always.