Palpatine was Dead

Palpatine was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. His flailing body was flung down the open reactor shaft. Crackling with dark side power, he fell faster and faster until he hit a bridge far down the shaft, and burst like a bomb. Anakin and Luke felt the concussion even hundreds of meters away. And if that wasn't enough, he was killed twice, once by his former apprentice, and once by the terrorists who destroyed the planet-sized station that the pieces of his body were at rest upon. Anakin saw it, Luke saw it, we in the audience saw it.

There is no doubt that Palpatine was dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate....