Hahaha, I was literally just reading those.

I still haven’t thought of a satisfying way to handle Palpatine. On one hand, you could replace the Pickled Snokes with Pickled Palpatines to make him being a clone very obvious. In the film itself, I was under the impression that the Sith cult recovered his “broken body” from the wreckage of the Death Star, and frankenstein’d it back together.

I think either way, the implication is that his spirit is basically latched onto the body, clone or otherwise, until he finds a more sustainable vessel.

Honestly I don’t know which I prefer. I wish there was a way to make the idea of his spirit being just latched to his body a bit clearer.

I also wish there was some way to depict Palpatine’s spirit being destroyed by the Force ghosts after Rey destroys his body.

EDIT: I definitely think the film implies that Palpatine did die, and that he was either resurrected or his spirit is merely latched onto his body, but I could see the option of somehow implying his survival has something to do with the World Between Worlds. That maybe Snoke, or other Sith Cultists, saved Palpatine from dying on the Death Star by pulling him through as he fell. When Kylo touches Vader’s helmet, maybe Kylo could see a brief glimpse of a World Between Worlds portal or something.