Palpatine
I’d like to think that Palpatine will finally meet his demise, but we all thought that happened 40 years ago. Yet, this time it has to be permanent.
If only one character dies in Episode IX, my money would be on Palpatine. It would be a dastardly trick to keep him alive after this one. You can’t bring a character like him back without there being huge consequences.
This movie is being billed as the end of the Skywalker Saga and there are two ways it ends. The first is with Palpatine meeting his demise because it seems the Skywalker line was created to meet this evil.
While Darth Vader joined Palpatine, perhaps it was all for the next generation in order to finally put an end to that evil.
The second way the Skywalker Saga ends is with the last Skywalker being killed. Currently, there are two characters — that we know of — that have Skywalker blood that will be in The Rise of Skywalker: Leia and Kylo Ren.
It would seem like a huge punch in the face if the saga ended because we simply ran out of Skywalkers and Palpatine prevailed.
So, that leaves the former Emperor as the one who takes the fall.