#emperors son

Disclaimer before I explain my reasoning behind this one: 

Officially, all three entities (Phantom, Son, and Snoke) were all made from the original Emperor’s DNA. So by that logic, the Phantom, the Son, and Snoke are technically brothers, and the genetic clones of Palpatine. Which means that the Phantom and Snoke are basically Rey’s uncles. And she is less of “Palpatine’s granddaughter,” and more of “the daughter of the genetic clone of the Emperor.” BUT, because Disney didn’t want to deal with the mess they made, they just had it so only the very normal human was considered Palpatine’s son (even though all three were made in the exact same way...) ....yeah...anyways....

There’s the theory:

- The Phantom, the Son, and Snoke are not just clones made from Palpatine’s DNA, but actual members of his historical bloodline. 

- The Phantom was made first. But he was decayed, and limited in his power. Now, this presents a complicated question. That if someone dies, and then later a body is made that looks exactly like them, with all of their memories, and all of their personality traits...is it actually them? Did the original soul come back? What would be the difference if it did or didn’t? Some say yes, some say no. Personally, I’m in the middle. I don’t think the Phantom is actually Palpatine...but the Phantom had the body, mind, and power of Palpatine, more importantly, he and the cult believed he was Palpatine. So by that point, my technical opinion doesn't really matter.

- In an effort to fully restore him to power, the cult decided to make another clone, under the impression they could just have the Phantom suck the power out of it and be done. But what was created instead was a devastatingly normal person, with no power, AKA, the Son (quite a sharp right turn from the aged, decayed creature that came before it). So the Phantom released the Son so he could make offspring naturally, with the hopes that one day, a child would inherit his power, and he could restore himself that way. 

- Then came Snoke, and suddenly we’re back to malformed beings with significant power. Only this one was able to stand on his feet, see, and live without being hooked up to a machine. But suddenly we run into a problem. See, the Son was easily dismissed because he was incredibly normal. It didn’t matter what his memories were to them, they just discarded him, and he went on to settle down with a family without a second thought. But then we get Snoke, who has memories that far predate anything seen in the Star Wars movies. More than that, he’s an entirely different species no one can identify. The only that is similar to Snoke at all,  is what we see depicted in the stone artwork on Ahch-To (which gives me reason to believe Snoke’s memories come from the era of some of the very first Jedi).  

(^ Fun note: It is also cannon that Snoke taught both the light and dark to Kylo, as he believed in it’s versatility. A balance of light and dark, as depicted here)

- Why is this a problem? Because in the effort to bring the Emperor back from the dead, you have three wildly different outcomes: A Phantom from the recent past. A nondescript, normal guy, and a creature from an ancient past. Snoke has all the memories of a person of the past (and likely the same would hold true for all the other backup Snokes that were grown) but that doesn’t actually make him that person returned from the dead. This is why I think the Phantom doesn’t actually possess Palpatine’s essence or ghost. He only has the memories of a dead man. 

- Clearly these clones from Exegol differ from those on Kamino. Jango’s clones all had their own memories that started at “birth,” in the lab they were made in. While those that came from Exegol are all over the place. I think this is because while Kamino took a purely scientific approach, the Sith cult took the route of dark magic, which often has unforeseen repercussions. So here’s how I think this went:

- Through Palpatine’s DNA, the most recent descendant was created, AKA “Palpatine” himself/the Phantom >>> On the second attempt, the process “went back into the past” and produced an ancestor of Palpatine that happened to be perfectly normal, no powers, and no significant past of epic battles and force mastery >>> The third attempt went waaay back into the past, and produced a creature from a species that didn’t even exist anymore >>> All further attempts produced “more Snokes,” as if the bloodline had gone back as far as it could manage, and there was no way to bring it back forward >>> All three entities had their memories of the life they lived before they were “resurrected.”