The other day, I was thinking about TROS and it’s “Palpatine Problem” and I had some scattershot ideas that are more likely to be fan fiction rather than fan edit. But I figured I’d go ahead and put them out in the universe in case it sparks an idea for one of you to maybe try to implement in some sort of way.

One of my biggest problems with TROS is how it pulls a “Palpatine All Along!” sort of plot contrivance much like the Prequel Trilogy. It’s much more worse in the ST since he’s just kind of chilling on Exegol this entire time until he arbitrarily decides that he’s not anymore and does his Fortnite message. So, I was thinking… Instead of Palpatine getting resurrected at some point shortly after the Battle of Endor, what if it happens in the midst of the Sequel Trilogy? I’m thinking maybe during Rey’s first lesson in TLJ when she starts bugging out about the Dark Side Cave, we could get glimpses of Palpatine getting successfully resurrected. I think using footage from the end of the Star Wars: Eclipse trailer of that mysterious figure rising out of the black goo could be used for this sort of thing. That way, it doesn’t look like Palpatine and the Sith Eternal were just kind of sitting with their thumbs up their robes the entire time.
Speaking of the Sith Eternal, I wonder if there’s a way to establish that Snoke is an autonomous member of it who’s paving the way for when Palpatine gets resurrected rather than just being his proxy meat puppet. I feel like this idea can go hand in hand really well with my first idea (although I have no idea how this one could be done TBH).
Finally, going back to the canon “Palpatine was resurrected shortly after Endor and was just chilling” line of thinking, what if instead of Rey’s Father being a weird Not-Clone of Palpatine, he was a Sith Eternal scientist who defected right before they successfully resurrected him? Obviously, I feel like this idea would work solely for a Rey Nobody version (and specifically Hal’s version of it). How I see it, Rey’s Dad defects from the Eternal and escapes to Jakku. He becomes a nobody and a drunkard (I’d become alcoholic too if I helped bring back to life the most evil man in the galaxy). While in hiding, he meets Rey’s Mother and they conceive Rey. Palpatine finds out where they are and sends Ochi to go kill them. The parents sell Rey off and ditch Jakku to spare her a grisly fate. Ochi catches up to them and kills them. And coincidentally enough, Rey turns out to be the one to ultimately destroy Palpatine in the end with the help of Ben Solo. Again, much like my second idea, I have no idea how this could be established but it could be a really interesting sort of idea.