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star wars - Did Darth Sidious and Vader ever discover how to cheat death?


In Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith Palpatine/Sidious strings Anakin along to the dark side with the promise that together the two of them will be able to re-discover Darth Plagueis' secret to cheating death.



"To cheat death is a power only one has achieved, but if we work together, I know we can discover the secret."



From the end of Revenge of the Sith to their deaths in Return of the Jedi did Darth Sidious and Darth Vader ever manage to re-discover this secret?




Answer



Palpatine does, to an extent. He preserved his essence after DS2 was destroyed at Endor and took over bodies of specially designed clones.


This is covered in detail on Star Wars Wikia's Palpatine article, start reading from "Palpatine Reborn" section.



At an unknown point in time prior to his death at the Battle of Endor Palpatine had found a different way to cheat death by preserving his spirit after the death of his body, by the method of spirit transference. He arranged for a series of clones of himself to be created for his spirit to possess, in the event that he would perish. His primary supply of clones was kept on Byss, guarded by loyal Dark Jedi and immense genetically-altered guards and maintained by a trusted private physician. Unfortunately, the clones were heavily ravaged by the dark side and not sustained by the Force. Each body he took would age and deteriorate more quickly than the last. But the Dark Lord wasn't concerned; he had an endless supply of clones which he could use to rule the Empire.


After the destruction of the second Death Star, Palpatine's spirit was forced to journey in the maddening, bodiless existence of the void, eventually taking possession of the body of Emperor's Hand Jeng Droga. Palpatine called out to Sate Pestage, who rescued the broken body from Kaal and returned it to Byss. Though Droga went mad in the process, he was able to journey to Byss, where Palpatine was able to take possession of a clone of himself. There, on Byss, he would remain for years and would rebuild his strength and Empire. Resurrected, Palpatine planned to replace the Galactic Empire with a "Dark Empire", a universe-spanning magocracy ruled through the dark side of the Force alone, without the need for regional governors or technological domination.



Most of this is sourced from Dark Empire comics




As far as Vader, the answer is both yes and no. Vader the Sith Lord did not. Anakin Skywalker the Jedi did, in a way, since he managed to learn to communicate as a Force Spirit (as evidenced by him appearing with Obi-Wan and Yoda to Luke at the very end of ROTJ).



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