Palpatine the Vampire
Emperor Palpatine's role in the story of The Rise of Skywalker draws several elements from vampire mythology.
When he reappears on Exegol after his apparent death in Return of the Jedi, Palpatine is, like a vampire, an undead monster who draws on dark spiritual power to survive long past the end of his natural lifespan. "I have died before," he tells Kylo Ren. "The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural."
Vampires cannot endure sunlight and Palpatine resides on Exegol, a world of perpetual night. Much like vampires make their lairs in crypts, where they can sleep in coffins and hide from the sun during the day, Palpatine needs to stay in his subterranean vault on Exegol, where he can stay attached to the machines that keep his withered body alive.
Like a vampire, Palpatine prolongs his ghastly existence by draining life out of others. Vampires suck the blood out of their victims, perversely inverting the Christian rite of the Eucharist, in which Jesus Christ freely offers new life to his followers by giving them his blood. Palpatine uses the Force to suck the life out of Rey and Ben Solo, restoring his body to new life.
Palpatine is ultimately defeated when Rey blocks his Force lightning with two crossed lightsabers, just as vampires are warded off by the sign of the Christian cross. The vampire cannot endure the cross because it is the Christian symbol of Christ's death, an act of willing self-sacrifice that gives new life to others and is thus the opposite of the vampire, which takes life for itself by sacrificing its unwilling victims. Palpatine takes life from Rey and Ben Solo, but this vampiric act is reversed by self-sacrifice – first when Rey gives her life to end Palpatine's, and then when Ben gives his life to restore Rey's.
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