star wars - Would the Emperor have exploded if he were beheaded by Luke?

When the Emperor died, he made a big explosion. From the Return of the Jedi script

[...] Darth Vader hurls the Emperor's body into the bottomless shaft.

The Emperor's body spins helplessly into the void, arcing as it falls into the abyss. Finally, when the body is far down the shaft, it explodes, creating a rush of air through the room. Vader's cape is whipped by the wind and he staggers, and collapses toward the bottomless hole. [...]

Just before that, Luke made an attempt to kill him, but was prevented from doing so by Vader.

I just remember that bad guy from the Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II video game also exploded and that I used to think that it would be the case for other Sith. That was until the deaths of Darth Maul and Dooku, who didn't explode when they were killed.

If Luke's attempt had been successful, would the Emperor have exploded? Or was the explosion caused by something down the pit?

Answer

It's entirely possible that the Emperor would have reacted the same way no matter how he was killed.

Dooku and Maul, if you recall, were only apprentices. It's certainly possible that his death was the Sith equivalent of the Jedi disappearing corpse technique.

As DavRob60 pointed out in his answer, this phenomenon is called (by fans, nothing official from Lucasfilm yet) the 'Dark Side Burst'.

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