One of the many, many reasons I’m not a fan of modern Star Wars, (with a few exceptions) is that the only Star Wars characters that died, yet came back, were Yoda, Ben Kenobi, and Anakin, as Force ghosts. There was a set rule, or reason that they could, and that was limited as they didn’t just come back as a character that could go on more adventures, they were there only to advise, and disappear. Because they had died. Because dying was something that was taken seriously by the writers.
But now, in the post-Lucas Star Wars era, killing a character is a cheap trick to get some drama into the script, because the writers have no idea how to write a good story. Here are all the characters I could think of that have died, yet came back:
Palpatine – They couldn’t make a better bad guy, and Snoke didn’t work out, so…
Leia – Blown into the vacuum of space… nope! Just floats on back, she’s amazing!
Rey – How romantic. And odd that nobody ever used the Force in this way before.
Chewbacca – They’d never actually kill the Walking Carpet.
IG-11 – Blown up while in a river of molten lava. But he’s coming back somehow.
Poe – He… didn’t make it. Wait, there he is!
Ahsoka – Time travel. They use time travel in Star Wars now.
C-3PO – They’d never really kill Goldenrod.
Fennec Shand – Predictable, but it happened.
Han Solo – Force Ghost. This means that now, any non-Jedi can return as a Force Ghost.
Darth Maul – How? HOW? He was cut in half and fell into a bottomless pit!
Boba Fett – Why not, everybody else comes back.
Two characters in Kenobi take a lightsaber to the body… and they are fine.
Snoke – Wasn’t worth bringing back.
Randy Rydberg 