...forgot to mention my interpretations of the Force. I always thought that Dark Side and Light Side were polar opposites of each other and that the Jedi would live on in the afterlife while the Dark Side users would have an afterlife in the Star Wars world. So my interpretation was that Dark Side users could never die of natural causes. That was the power of the dark side, immortality, but when they die, their "life energy" is dissipated in the "real world" like what happens to the Emperor. The choice would be that as a Light Sider you could live forever in the afterlife but have a limited life here, but as a Dark Sider you could live forever in the "real world". It makes for a much tougher choice, you just have to be sure you don't get axed. It's kind of like making a deal with the Devil/Dark Side. Anyway, that's just how I thought it should always be. I always thought the Emperor was hundreds of years old as a child and that he was once human but that age and the dark side had corrupted his physical appearance.