Fang Zei said:

Neverar, that's actually reminiscent of the original plan for the ST circa 1980. Wasn't Luke gonna defeat the emperor and vader in VI and then go off and find the actual real big baddie in VII or am I remembering wrong?

I think that the "original" Lucas plan was to reveal the Emperor at the end of the third trilogy, Episode 9. The Sequel Trilogy would also focus on Luke's search for his twin. Of course, Episode 6 ruined this plot, but I think that the Emperor reveal could still work if the Episode 6 Emperor was a clone.

And for those who say this change would render most of Episode 6 pointless, I would say that Episode 6 would become much more like Episode 5 in tone. It allows for a triumphant victory if you wish to end the story at Episode 6, but when you see Episode 7, you are forced to reexamine one of the main weaknesses of Episode 6 - the frankly unbelievable defeat of the Empire - as the villainous masterstroke that it could potentially be.