But there was one influence Lucas wasn’t remotely subtle about and that’s how much Palpatine’s rise to Emperor in the prequels was a direct analogy to Hitler’s ascendency in 1930s Germany.

To his credit, Palpatine mastered the Sith art of essence transfer, as shown in The Rise of Skywalker and the Dark Empire Trilogy. In both Legends and canon, Palpatine transferred his spirit into ...