Sidious shouldn’t have been in the movie at all, because it completely ruins Anakin’s redemption and sacrifice in Return of the Jedi.
Ironically, that isn’t what bothers me about it. I’m not sure why most critics keep saying that, because Anakin’s turn-around at the end of ROTJ accomplished two things: (a) he came back to the good side, and (b) he saved his son’s life. Those are huge – regardless of whether or not Palpatine survived.
No, what bothers me about it is that (a) it’s rehash (just like JarJar Abrams did in TFA; not actually sure why he has a career, to be honest). And (b) it’s nonsensical in light of the Second Death Star’s obliteration. I realize it’s space opera, but even so, you have to have a certain level of believability, and this crosses the line.
What would have possibly fixed that problem, however, is if JarJar had shot a flashback scene from Palpatine’s perspective as he’s falling down the Death Star shaft, and either he’s rescued by a ship before the station blows, or he somehow manages to transfer his consciousness into a clone that’s kept at a secret location.
Maybe there could also be a montage involving recovery time and the acquiring of new ships – perhaps using the battle-droid tech from the prequel era. Once he got a few droids up and running it wouldn’t take that long to have a droid-run factory churning out ships and weaponry. He could also have new clone-troopers.
An additional possibility would be to have him end up in territory run by the Chiss Ascendancy. He meets Thrawn and recruits him to head up a new fleet – or he uses the Force to seduce the Chiss into following him.
Point being: there are possible ways of explaining how we ended up with another Palpatine episode.
Which leads me to a reedit question: Anybody know of any fan-film (not necessarily Star Wars, either) with scenes of cloning that might fit a Palpatine survival montage???
REY BEING A “NOBODY”: Don’t like this theme whatsoever, and I’m glad Abrams didn’t stick with that (although narratively she could have claimed to be a nobody, due to not wanting any association with Palpatine). She had to be a “somebody” to explain her unusual Force-prowess without training.