But aren't those cultists like the masked people in Eyes Wide Shut? Regular-type people, maybe rich/lords, who are drawn as part of a cult?
In a word yes, and your reference to EWS is really quite apt (maybe even down to the freaky masked orgies, Rey had to be conceived somehow, lol.) The Visual Dictionary (which I'm somewhat open to accept as canon since it was written prior to the release of TROS) states that it is a secret society comprised substantially of high ranking officials throughout the galaxy, including those who oversee the most prominent "shipyards." It was the latter group who had been smuggling Star Destroyer parts to the Unknown Regions where they spent decades assembling the Final Order fleet in massive underground factories. I believe it is also stated that Exegol the planet has its own population friendly to the Sith (mostly the offspring of the Sith Eternal Cultists who I assume also live in subterranean cities due to the harsh landscape and freaky lightning everywhere above ground) and it was that population that manned the hundreds (or was it thousands?) of Star Destroyers.
As for the actual cultists in the bleachers I don't see them as being Force users per se. Not like Jedi or Sith anyway. "Dark magic" to me implies rituals and things where specific incantations must be spoken, material components must be provided, possibly even human sacrifice, you know normal "D&D" type evil magic that only allows them to commune with the dead, call the dead, or request help from the dead.
You mean he "wakes up" as like a ghost? If he's conscious and everything, why does he even need a body?
No he wakes up in the mangled body that the cultists were able to partially restore.
Yeah, that ROTS line is getting the most major scaffloding workout of any line in cinema history (mostly because it's incredibly vague to a point of "could mean absolutely anything".)
Yep, which in no way is to the film's detriment for me. In fact it's probably *good* that they didn't explain it any further because there'd be a good chance that their explanation would "break" some other established rule, lol. And I say it's no detriment to leave it "Dark Side...paths that are unnatural," and so on is because I never really need to know how some person or creature gets resurrected in a fantasy movie unless it provides a necessary MacGuffin for the heroes to pursue or destroy (like HP holcroxes or the One Ring.) Otherwise if Harry Potter or Gandalf makes something sparkly come out of their wand or staff I'm good with the explanation simply being "magic," the end.
Other people really need to know the "science" of the magic (not necessarily you of course), I personally don't. Now if Palpatine just walked into a room and said "Hey guys, miss me?" with no lip service whatsoever to *any* method for his return, then yeah I'd go um what the hell, lol. But in the SW universe I'm fine with "dark magic mixed with cloning tech" being the vague explanation that we can theorize about on our own.
All that being said, I still love that Palps was brought back - mostly because a real villain finally showed up in the ST, and he's so much fun to watch. As silly as it was - and it was super silly, far-far beyond any OT silliness - I had a lot of fun with it. I'm hoping Kheev can help me make peace with that silliness.
Well again this a movie that features a "grateful" snake and a knife carved to sync up with 30 year old DS debris so yeah you either embrace the silliness or you don't.
I do agree on having Ian as Palps return. He's just so damn fun to watch and like you said he's way more "pulpy" (maybe even moreso than Thulsa Doom himself, lol) in this than he's ever been before.
