In Movies and TV shows, its always ambiguous if someone is dead or merely knocked out.
I can never know if someone is supposed to be dead or not. Okay so the protagonists beat a bunch of the anatagonist's goons in battle, did you kill them? Or did they become unconcious?
It's literally never explained.
If they are attacked with non-lethal weapons or hand-to-hand: they are merely unconscious unless tossed off a fall or into a fire/pit/acid/lava/etc (and even then, sometimes falls aren't deadly if the character was cool enough. See: Boba Fett and Darth Maul).
If they are shot, stabbed, exploded, etc: they are dead.
In star wars you have to see their physical moment of life leaving them or their ghost to confirm their death. Anything else and they're able to come back.
If Palpatine had come back as a ghost would that have been better or worse? 🤔
What about getting zapped by electricity?
Is that a death by eletrocution? Or is that just like getting tazed?
If they smoke (with possible charring depending on the rating of the film) afterward, they're dead. If not, they're fine.
Exception: If you see their bones like an x-ray, even with smoking and charring: they are 100% a-ok.
Also if there eyes aren’t charred, they’re fine.