I just hope the whole thing feels thematically appropriate, but my cynical tendencies see this as unnecessary. I always thought Dark Empire looked stupid compared to the novels, since it just undoes and redoes ROTJ, but then again there’s been plenty of exactly that in the ST so far. I would think it’d be more congruent to figuratively re-defeat Palpatine rather than literally. My concerns aren’t how it makes sense logically, but thematically. But, we’ll see what happens.
It would be nice if we could have both thematic congruity and narrative congruity. I wouldn’t mind if they defeated his force ghost or his spirit or whatever, but if he’s back in the flesh I am going to roll my eyes so hard.
The Emperor was more of a symbol of evil anyway in ROTJ rather than a real character. He was basically the Satan to Luke’s Jesus if we’re going with the biblical analogy, tempting Luke to go down the dark and easy path. I really hope it’s something more in that vein.