What I took out of RoS which I really liked the idea of was how it explained Palpatines “stike me down” lines both in RoS and return of the jedi. I like to think that meant that if Luke struck him down in return of the jedi with anger he would of possessed Luke the same way Rey would of been possessed if she stuck him down in RoS through the sith ritual.
This is actually something I don’t like about TRoS. The literal nature of a possible spirit transfer being the real motivation behind one of the crucial moments of the original trilogy cheapens the moral implications for me. In Return of the Jedi, I always thought Palpatine was saying that anger and hatred were corrupting and destructive forces, and that even if Palpatine were to die, he still would have won by corrupting Luke. I realize that doesn’t literally make a ton of sense given Palpatine’s ambition and ruling an empire, but it makes sense in the context of the morality tale that the original trilogy was. This added motivation means there’s a reason for Luke to resist temptation other than showing poise and maturity in the face of evil.
I’m totally with you.
To me Palpatine was always such a great character because he was a fanatic of the Dark Side. He was strong, yes, but he wanted an apprentice capable of surpassing him. Even in the prequels, when Anakin finds out that he’s Sidious, he smiles at Anakin becoming angry. Later, during the fight with Yoda, he’s excited because Anakin will become more powerful than him. He knows that he could be killed, and he knows that this act would strengthen the Dark Side.
Right now… he’s just a Dragon Ball villain. A Cell. Or a Majin Bu. I’ll steal your body so that I can live forever. (On the other hand we could say that in the prequels he’s obsessed with immortality, and that in ROTJ he clearly mistrusts Vader, and so he probably should have a contingency plan about that, being the mastermind that he is)