The Star Wars franchise’s ultimate villain, Emperor Palpatine, has died no less than five times throughout the canon and Legends timelines. Palpatine is deservedly seen by many as the ultimate Dark Lord of the Sith, whose ruthless political scheming and skill in both combat and manipulation brought the Star Wars galaxy to its knees at the end of the prequel trilogy. Palpatine’s sheer power in the dark side of the Force and his penchant for contingency plans allow him to cheat death multiple times in canon and Legends, though each demise is meaningful in its own way.
Palpatine describes his mentor, Darth Plagueis, as being obsessed with the creation and preservation of life through the dark side. The future Emperor’s conversation with Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith sets up his resurrections in both canon and Legends, retroactively in the case of Legends. Palpatine’s controversial return in the 1991 comic series Dark Empire served as inspiration for much of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's story, and while both properties add to the lore of their respective timelines, both remain respectful to the Emperor’s original death in Return of the Jedi. Here are all of Palpatine’s deaths in Star Wars canon and Legends.
5 Emperor Palpatine's Death In Return Of The Jedi
Return of the Jedi, which belongs to both canon and Legends, ends with Anakin Skywalker’s redemption. Watching Palpatine torture Luke Skywalker with Force lightning, Darth Vader rejects the Sith and picks up his master, dropping him down a chasm to his death. For all of Palpatine’s brilliance and power in the dark side, his first death showed how human he really is, with Skywalker killing him without a lightsaber or the Force. By killing Palpatine, Darth Vader not only struck a decisive blow to Star Wars' Galactic Empire but also destroyed the Sith Order of Darth Bane’s dynasty as the Chosen One prophecy predicted.
4 Palpatine's Death In Dark Empire (Star Wars Legends)
The Legends continuity experienced a renaissance in the early 1990s, with Dark Empire being one of its most prominent installments. The ambitious comic series was initially going to have a new villain claim the helmet of Darth Vader and assume the dead Sith Lord’s name, but George Lucas himself suggested that Tom Veitch have Palpatine return from the dead instead. The comic series’ name comes from Palpatine’s secret backup portion of the Empire hidden on the Deep Core world of Byss. Palpatine’s Dark Empire, which includes many of his deadliest troops, warships, and superweapons, menaces the fledgling New Republic in what becomes known as Operation Shadow Hand.
Palpatine himself cheats death through an exceptionally rare and unnatural dark side power called essence transfer, which he uses to inhabit cloned bodies kept in stasis on Byss. Palpatine’s first death in Dark Empire appears in issue 5, where he abandons one rapidly-decaying clone body for a younger one, allowing him to best Luke Skywalker in a duel. What this death shows is how unnatural Palpatine’s resurrection process is, as his unleashed dark side powers rapidly decay his new bodies and necessitate that he either constantly inhabit new ones or take over the body of a non-clone. This is, ultimately one of Palpatine’s goals in Dark Empire.
3 Palpatine's Death On The Eclipse (Star Wars Legends)
Issue 6 of Dark Empire includes Palpatine’s next death. Aboard his flagship, the Eclipse, Palpatine duels Luke Skywalker with his lightsaber again, this time with the Jedi being empowered by Leia Organa. The combined Force power of Luke and Leia proves too strong for even Palpatine, and he is dismembered and defeated by the Jedi, though he ultimately dies when he and the Eclipse are swallowed up by his own Force storm. This death highlights how far Luke has come in the six years since Return of the Jedi as well as how powerful in the Force Leia has become, with the two defeating a foe that even Jedi Grandmaster Yoda could not.
2 Palpatine's Death At The Battle Of Onderon (Star Wars Legends)
Dark Empire has two sequel comics, Dark Empire II and Dark Empire II: Empire’s End, with Palpatine returning yet again in the former. The first Dark Empire series set a precedent: Palpatine will always return sooner or later if he is killed by conventional means. For this reason, Palpatine’s final death, shown in the second and final issue of Empire’s End, does not occur when Han Solo blasts him from behind during the Battle of Onderon, but when the dying Jedi Knight Empatojayos Brand and the spirits of all deceased Jedi overwhelm Palpatine’s consciousness and keep it trapped in the Force forever.
Empatojayos Brand was a veteran of the Clone Wars and a survivor of Order 66, so the fact that he was the first Jedi spirit to trap Palpatine is fitting, considering that the sinister order and the ensuing Jedi Purge destroyed the old Jedi Order. Palpatine’s galaxy-wide pogrom of the Jedi facilitated his fascist coup, but it was ultimately the spirits of the Jedi he had murdered that trapped him within the Force forever. Each of Palpatine’s Legends-era deaths, from Return of the Jedi to the Dark Empire trilogy, are the result of his victims defeating him, the New Jedi Order rising against him, or his own callousness towards death.
1 Palpatine's Final Death In Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker
In the post-2014 canon continuity, the Star Wars sequel trilogy continues the Skywalker Saga after Return of the Jedi. Palpatine was not initially planned to come back in the sequels, but the frivolous choice to kill off Snoke and the planned redemption of Kylo Ren necessitated a major villain. Since there was little left of the original Star Wars trilogy to replicate, thanks to its predecessors, The Rise of Skywalker uses numerous elements of the now-alternate Legends timeline’s Dark Empire as the basis of its premise.
Palpatine’s return via transferring his consciousness to a cloned body (which is not explained in the film) and his hidden backup portion of Imperial military forces on a secret fortress world all appear in The Rise of Skywalker and Palpatine’s final demise is similar to that of Empire’s End. During the Battle of Exegol, Rey is empowered by the spirits of all past Jedi as she redirects Palpatine’s Force lightning back at him, killing the Sith Lord and likely preventing him from returning to the Star Wars franchise again.