Ironically Bionic
At the end of Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine preserves Anakin Skywalker’s life, after he was severely maimed and burned on Mustafar, by having medical droids create a cyborg body for him. This preservation is ironic for two reasons.
First, it is ironic that earlier in the film, Palpatine had offered to teach Anakin how to preserve Padmé’s life with the power of the dark side of the Force. Evidently, Palpatine only knows how to preserve life, not by supernatural means, but through technology – if, that is, the continued existence Anakin has as Darth Vader can be considered a life. As Obi-Wan Kenobi puts it in Return of the Jedi, “He’s more machine now than man.” Anakin’s survival comes at the cost of much of his humanity.
Second, it is ironic that, in The Rise of Skywalker, the revenant Palpatine is kept alive by machines, just as Darth Vader was. The technology-dependent existence that can hardly be considered living, which Palpatine once decided would be Anakin’s fate, has now become his own. In Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine had gloated over the death of his master Darth Plagueis by commenting, “Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself.” Palpatine did save himself from death, but only in a way that shows there is a stark difference between not dying and truly living.
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Characters: Anakin Skywalker / Darth Plagueis / Darth Vader / Palpatine
Films: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith / Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
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Concepts: cyborgs / death / nature and technology
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