Way for that point to go over your head. I’m saying that set-up doesn’t matter. AT ALL. The lack of a set-up makes the actual reveal more surprising and impactful (+ Palpatine being established as a mastermind and having an interest in immortality and willing to do whatever it takes to take over the galaxy). Palps’ return is SUPPOSED to be a surprise.
Set-up matters depending on context. Would Avengers: Infinity Work have worked so well if the Infinity Stones or Thanos hadn’t been established in prior movies?
The difference is that Palpatine was a pre-established character who’s the Dark Lord of the Sith, a mastermind, and is willing to do whatever it takes to take over the galaxy. He’s played both sides during the prequels, for f&$k’s sake! We’ve seen what Palpatine does and can do.
Thanos and the Infinity Stones would not in your hypothetical example.
TROS was meant to be a climax for both the sequel trilogy and the overall Skywalker saga. It has over 40 years of established lore and audience appeal behind it. It should have been a satisfying payoff for the storylines set in motion by TFA and TLJ, but instead it
It what? Say it! Are you the king? ARE YOU THE KING?! You’re what? Say it!
SparkySywer has a really good point on how the Darth Vader twist works because in retrospective it makes sense. When you rewatch ESB one begins to notice the nuances and clues that originally flew over one’s head. But in the sequel trilogy, looking back at TFA and TLJ, you don’t find many elements that tease or contextualise Palpatine’s return. Their storylines, particularly TLJ’s, don’t seem to be building towards this particular premise. A very diferent situation would have happened if TLJ or both TFA/TLJ had been made with Palps’s comeback in mind.
Snoke mind-probing Rey has Palpatine’s theme playing. Palpatine has a desire for immortality in RotS, and implies he DOES know how to keep himself alive during the opera scene. Kylo Ren asks for Vader’s helmet to show him that power AGAIN. Snoke is very similar to Palpatine and even repeats his lines in TLJ. Even Snoke’s guards have the same color scheme as Palps’ guards.
I’ll concede to you that the transmission itself is not really important, which is why I don’t understand what was the point of having it in the first place. The time they deciphered the intel should have been the moment where anyone (save for Kylo) first heard of Palpatine’s comeback instead of muddying the waters with an offscreen broadcast.
The point was to give Kylo Ren a motivation to hunt down Palpatine, and to add more weight to when Poe confirms to the Resistance that Palpatine IS alive.