I loved that scene from Team America: World Police and wanted to use it to open a discussion about villains that just won't die. A great example from the canon materials is Darth Maul. The guy survives being bisected by lightsaber and then having a long fall. OK, we know Force-users don't really seem to care much about falls (except Windu...), but that saber cut was pretty nasty, right?

So, I don't tend to like keeping villains alive when the dice declare them dead, and I even altered on-screen canon to better fit my game (IMSW, Maul was not bisected by Kenobi, but the strike hit his lower back and severed the nerves descending from his spinal cord leaving him paralyzed until it was cybernetically repaired), but some people like the undying villain trope. So, how far should it go?

How do you feel about the Emperor coming back from Endor in a clone body like the EU stories told? Do you want to have Boba Fett be the only MF to crawl his way out of the Sarlacc? How about Thrawn surviving huggie-time with the space whale/squid? How would you feel to discover that Dooku's severed head had been grabbed up by a droid and somehow made it away from Coruscant to allow the Sith Lord to go on as a disembodied head (no doubt cybernetically grafted to a quadcopter drone mounting four miniature double-bladed spinning lightsabers)?

It can apply to heroes too: How about Leia surviving being forcefully blown out of a capital ship into the void of space without any environmental protection... oh, wait... Never mind, lets stick to the villains.

Depends really. Surviving incredibly damaging. There are certain force talent, Endure, that allows one to persist beyond death by committing a force dice. Likewise, it's indicated that many force users are "destined" to do great things and thus can't die until they have accomplished it. There are several examples which makes Mauls "bisection" seem fairly mild in comparison

For Luke it was literally throwing himself off an immense drop to escape vader, and was able to call Leia to him in his desperation to survive, a circumstance that wouldn't have worked for anyone else. Likewise Anakin survived being boiled and burnt for a very long time, yet survived long enough for the emperor to save him. Even with prior context that Vader's existence is a purely artificial, kept alive by a laboured respirator with immense physical strength that isn't natural. It indicates that at some point, this man was immensely damaged or changed by something but continued to persist, either due to the darksides stubborn defiance of fate or perhaps his fate to end the Sith conspired to keep him alive, no matter how damaged he got. That indicates to me that the character is literally defying the laws of nature itself not to die, something that's very much an aspect of the darkside. Likewise there is nothing saying that a character should be consciously fighting to do so; sometimes a villain will crumple and for many that will be the end of it, a telling blow that took off the guys jaw, only to see him come back with a cybernetic jaw and a new, distantly wrong feeling accompanying him. By the force's will, that guy shouldn't even be alive.

Like last session I inflicted what should have been a lethal wound (+80 on a critical roll targeting a nemesis) and rolled a total of 170 something, yet a durable of four and enduring meant that the fatal wound to the kidney region merely inconvenienced the nemesis allowing him to persist to strike down another ally and make his escape, losing an arm in doing so in a further exchange which demonstrated quite strongly just how much this hand of the Emperor wanted to survive. As a strong practioner of the dark side, his unusual ability to survive wasn't strange in the slightest because being a practioner of the dark side should be full of fate defying abilities thatsome should consider, unnatural. That and he was the only villain thus far with the capabilities to not do so.

When shouldn't it be employed? Well if the antagonist is inferior enough or the villain doesn't have anything more to offer. A villain with a broken will for example would simply die, and I imagine most inquisitors would do. It takes someone pretty special to survive. Usually someone with a really strong goal, obsession, or just even someone the PC's put down but can't necessarily strike down.

I think it really depends on how well the audience (players) respond to the character. People did like Maul and Fett, so back they came, and until they hit Mary Sue status it was good. Maul coming back worked, because he still never won, and Fett getting some Clone Wars backstory was largely ok, and the concept of his escape from the Sarlacc is fine.

The risk is overkill. Maul was fairly well handled since his story has hills and valleys. In the end he dies pretty much alone at the hands of the man he hates. OK, good, fine.

Fett on the other hand, had the EU make him swap between total incompetence and omnipotence. A Comic would have him as the most inept hunter in the galaxy easily outsmarted by a simple smuggler, an EU novel set a week later would make him the most skilled cold-blooded killer in the galaxy, a comic set the week after that would make him this noble paladin and Hunter's Hunter, a true friend off all who risk their lives to take out the trash. They got wrapped up in this trope of "Oh, Fett is the most awesomest guy ever and only Solo was ever able to evade him!" which of course meant Fett's story had nowhere to go other than "Ummm... king... of the bounty hunters? As long as Solo doesn't also try and become king of bounty hunters?"

By comparison Clone Wars actually seemed to be trying to go somewhere with him. Here's a kid who's upbringing was kinda shady, who's only real connections were the dirtbags his dad hung out with, a chip on his shoulder over his dad's death, and some serious identity issues, seeing both his dad's face and his own almost everywhere he looked. You end up with a chance at some good development, as here's a kid that can never fell like 100% his own person and who sees a galaxy where there's no such thing as a "good guy." Boba wasn't the Awesomest guy in the galaxy, he was a kid with few other options.

Kinda hoping we get that missing Fett/Bane episode or two in Season 6...

7 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

How do you feel about the Emperor coming back from Endor in a clone body like the EU stories told?

Eh, it was established that cloning IS a thing that exists, and has for generations, so the idea that an evil mastermind might make some backup copies of himself is perfectly reasonable to me. I don't remember the comic line that explored that very well, but my only issue was that he came out of the vats just as evil and up-to-speed on what was going on, which I thought was a little lame. It's like he just didn't die. I think it would've been more interesting to explore the idea that usually comes up in cloning story arcs, the classic "am I my own person, or am I just a copy of the person who came before me?" Something they didn't even bother to explore as I recall, just so they could have the Emperor back for evil cackling purposes. Which is fine I guess, but personally I find that lazy writing.

7 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

Do you want to have Boba Fett be the only MF to crawl his way out of the Sarlacc?

Eh, he's not the only overhyped, fanboy favorite character brought back from death *cough Darth Maul*, so again, there is precedent for it. I just don't really care. I find Boba Fett to be the biggest example of a mediocre character overhyped and overblown by fanboy-ism, to the point of absurdity. I mean come on, this "Uber deadly bounty hunter that made the galaxy quake in fear at his name!" Died to a blind guy with a stick, who didn't even know he was there, and just accidentally bumped into him and caused him to die. That's hardly a badas$ character in my book. But fanboys are gonna fanboy, so whatever.

7 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

How about Thrawn surviving huggie-time with the space whale/squid? How would you feel to discover that Dooku's severed head had been grabbed up by a droid and somehow made it away from Coruscant to allow the Sith Lord to go on as a disembodied head (no doubt cybernetically grafted to a quadcopter drone mounting four miniature double-bladed spinning lightsabers)?

Eh, Star Wars is incredibly silly and stupid in a lot of ways, especially in the "haha! You only THOUGHT I was dead!" trope department. So again, I don't really care. There are species that can survive vacuum of space, so it's not without precedent. Also, 2001 had a character reappear 1000 years later, by being thawed out after space exposure, so again, there is precedent for it in sci-fi. Plus, there is always the Force, which is basically just magic, so you can handwave away pretty much anything you want if you include the Force into the equation. So again, I don't really care.

7 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

It can apply to heroes too: How about Leia surviving being forcefully blown out of a capital ship into the void of space without any environmental protection... oh, wait... Never mind, lets stick to the villains.

....sure, because THAT is the bridge too far when it comes to idiotic excuses Star Wars has come up with to justify someone not dying. Cut in half and tossed down a bottomless pit, that's fine. Survive and crawl out of a giant animal that has digested you, that's fine, but one woman (who is a Force user, a fact you point out in above examples of being why people refuse to die), surviving limited exposure to space (in a universe with species who can do it, Plo-Koon for example), THAT'S unrealistic. 🤨

Bottom line: It's f'ing Star Wars, it's all silly and ridiculous, over the top, high fantasy, pulp fiction nonsense, so no it's not weird to bring characters back from ridiculous death examples, as pretty much anything is possible in that setting.