Of course, this leaves open the possibility that some new cultists could just clone him again, which rather ruins the finality of the whole exercise even if they say ‘no really, he’s defeated forever this time!’
This. I know this isn’t at all what they were going for, but if there is anything the ST taught me it’s that the galaxy will just be in a never-ending loop of war. The “Star War” will never end, and Palpatine’s resurrection is just symbolism for the cycle of war. But I’m assuming this kind of intellectual and artful theme is just a dumb coincidence. It’s actually just they needed another villain because RJ killing Snoke broke Abrams and Terrio’s minds.
Honestly, even a single small scene about Palpatine’s spirit being “weakened” from the cloning process and how this time once you kill him he’s gone for good would have been fine. But they don’t bother explaining it so I guess Palpatine will be showing up ever 30 years now to destroy all but one Jedi…
I don’t buy the cycle of war concept in Star Wars. It’s often used to defend the choices made in the ST by either pointing to Lucas’ rhyming concept, or to real history. However, in Lucas’ six episodes, while there were obvious similarities, the outcome was very different, and ultimately the son made very different choices from the father. Worse yet, the cyclical nature of war with the never ending return of stormtroopers, rebellions, and Palpatine clones turns the saga into a very cynical exercise, which to me is the anti-thesis of what Star Wars used to be about.