I’m not offended by the potential of a Palpatine return (in whatever form) at all. If anything, it helps me to see ROTJ as ‘a’ victory rather than ‘the’ victory when viewing the ST, because the ‘Empire vs Rebels’ reset is so stark. ROTJ still stands - the Death Star was destroyed, the Empire crippled (if not eliminated), Vader got his redemption, Luke got his knighthood - so for me a downsizing of ROTJ’s overall significance/finality is not so bad. Since TFA I’ve kind of seen the ST as a nod to the ROTJ that could have been - disillusioned Luke wandering off into the sunset, Leia leading the remains of her people, Han sacrificing himself etc etc.

What saddens me is that I felt nothing on my initial viewing of the new teaser. Every other teaser/trailer (except for RO and SOLO) has hooked me - irrespective of the consequent movies. This time I was like “eh, whatever”. My ‘canon brain’ has switched off in terms of viewing the ST as legitimate Star Wars, and that’s because there are no intriguing threads left by TLJ in terms of what’s to come. Still, the resulting conversations here and elsewhere have caused my anticipation to rise somewhat. The apathy rises, and the anticipation to meet it…