As Rey struggles to pull the ship and save Chewie, her emotions get out of control and suddenly she shoots Force Lightning from her fingertips, destroying the transport. Chewie is dead, or so she. She even shoots lightning from her fingers, destroying the ship she was trying to pull from the sky. It's the last moment that should hint at why Rey's powers have suddenly heightened so.
- Rey Shoots Force Lightning Force
- Rey Shoots Force Lightning Gear
- Rey Shoots Force Lightning
- Rey Shoots Force Lightning Strikes
If Jedis can heal, Sith can suck out life force. Sure, that's a thing. Rey and Solo break the connection, and an enraged Palpatine sends Ben off the cliff. He then fires off his classic Force. Why did Rey's first-ever Force lightning blow up the transport ship on Pasaana, but Sheev's Unlimited Power™ lightning at the end of the movie just deactivated everything.? Sheev didn't even blow up a single X-Wing. 22 comments 97% Upvoted. It's confirmed that Rey shoots Force lightning during the struggle.' Related: New Alleged Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Leak Reveals Film's Ending and the Fate of Kylo Ren and Rey. As for Reylo, Doomcock states: 'Well, apparently throughout the movie they Force Skype each other, touch base, fight, then hang up.
When the first Star Wars movie came out in 1977, Darth Vader was the main bad guy, and the Emperor was only an unseen figure in the background. By Return of the Jedi, however, Emperor Palpatine was prominently featured and revealed to be the true villain of the Star Wars universe. With the release of the prequel trilogy, which told the story of Vader's fall to the Dark Side of the Force, Palpatine became the primary antagonist of the saga. So it makes sense, then, for him to return for the final movie in the Skywalker series, The Rise of Skywalker.
The strange thing about that return, of course, is that Palpatine died in Return of the Jedi, more than three decades ago in both real-world time and Star Wars continuity. If we look back at his role throughout the saga, however, we'll see that he was always a figure of unstoppable ambition and limitless evil, so in a way, it makes sense that even death might not be able to permanently stop him from exerting his will over the Star Wars galaxy.
Palpatine's early years
Sheev Palpatine, the man who would become a Sith Lord and the galactic emperor, was born on the planet Naboo. According to the novel Darth Plagueis, young Palpatine first discovered the temptation of the Dark Side of the Force while collecting Sith artifacts. As a young man he met Plagueis, a Muun who was also known as Hego Damask, an interstellar businessman. The encounter led Palpatine to kill his entire family and dedicate himself to becoming Darth Plagueis' Sith apprentice. As a result, Plagueis gave him the name of Darth Sidious.
Like Plagueis before him, Sidious carefully maintained his non-Sith identity as Sheev Palpatine, and he became active in politics on Naboo. He eventually rose in rank to become a senator (after secretly arranging the assassination of his predecessor), representing Naboo in the Galactic Senate. He remained in that position for years, methodically working to accumulate more power, gaining strength both politically and in the Dark Side.
The Phantom Menace himself
While Palpatine gained popularity in the Senate, Darth Sidious formed alliances in the darker corners of the galaxy. Appearing as a mysterious cloaked figure who primarily communicated via hologram, he contacted and manipulated groups who were dissatisfied with the Republic, such as the Neimoidians and their Trade Federation. When it was finally time to make his bid to become chancellor of the Republic, he encouraged the Neimoidians to blockade Naboo, creating a crisis that would provide him with a political opportunity.
During this same period, Palpatine took custody of a young Zabrak and had him raised in the ways of the Dark Side. The Zabrak became Sidious' first Sith apprentice, Darth Maul. Since Sith tradition says that there are only ever two at a time, that meant Palpatine eventually had to murder Darth Plagueis, thus becoming the galaxy's senior Sith Lord. In this guise, he would continue to manipulate galactic conflicts, while as senator, he could use those conflicts for his own advancement.
Palpatine was a master manipulator
Since nobody knew that he was the one behind the Trade Federation's blockade of Naboo, Palpatine was able to exploit the incident to consolidate his political power. When Chancellor Valorum failed to take strong action to defend Naboo, Palpatine encouraged Naboo's Queen Amidala to call for a vote of no confidence in Valorum, which in turn led to a new election. Being the senator from the planet that was in crisis, Palpatine was perfectly positioned to win the election and become the new supreme chancellor of the Republic.
Taking the top office in the galaxy was a huge step in Palpatine's rise, but it would still take years of simultaneously consolidating his political power as chancellor while also exacerbating the galaxy's conflicts as Darth Sidious before he would be able to gain absolute power. He would also need a new Sith apprentice, as Darth Maul was defeated and seemingly killed by Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi as the Naboo crisis was drawing to a close.
The clones attack
After the defeat of Darth Maul, Palpatine's new Sith apprentice was the elderly aristocrat Count Dooku, who acted as his proxy in leading a separatist movement of multiple systems that were dissatisfied with the Republic. When the Separatists were found to be building a vast droid army, Chancellor Palpatine was granted special powers to deal with the threat.
As it turns out, using other proxies, he'd already commissioned an army of clone troopers, and his new powers enabled him to command that army to go to war against the Separatists. Not only was Palpatine's power increased, but the Republic ended a long period of peace to become a dominant military power in the galaxy, a big step closer to becoming an empire. Outwardly, the chancellor pretended to be reluctant to take on the burden of greater power and lead the Republic into war, but of course, it was all part of the long game he'd been playing since the beginning.
Temptation of the Sith
Three years later, Chancellor Palpatine arranged his own capture by Count Dooku's Separatist forces. He was rescued, as he knew he would be, by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. At Palpatine's urging, Anakin killed an already-defeated and literally disarmed Dooku. From then on, Palpatine began actively working to seduce Anakin to the Dark Side of the Force and make the powerful young Jedi into a new Sith apprentice. Anakin was concerned for the health of his pregnant wife, Padmé Amidala, and Palpatine planted the idea in Anakin's head that becoming powerful in the Dark Side was the key to ensuring that she survived the pregnancy.
Ultimately, of course, Palpatine didn't care about Padmé at all, and it was Anakin's turn to the Dark Side that led to her death. In his new Sith persona as Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker would become the most powerful ally Palpatine had ever had and a key part of his plan to eliminate the Jedi and rule the galaxy as a tyrant.
The Emperor rises
When the Jedi finally realized that Palpatine was a Sith Lord, it was far too late. A vicious battle with Jedi Master Mace Windu brought about a fearsome change to Palpatine's physical appearance. While there has been much speculation, it's unclear whether Palpatine was disfigured by Force lightning, as he claimed, or whether he was revealing what had already been his true appearance. In any case, the evil within him came to the surface, and his face became grotesque and slightly inhuman.
Ironically, his disfigurement enabled him to turn the Senate against the Jedi who'd attacked him. He took the opportunity to seize the power he'd worked so long to bring within his grasp and declared himself emperor of the galaxy. Although the Galactic Senate would remain in place for years to come, the Republic had become the Empire, and with the Jedi eliminated by the clone troopers, there was nobody left to challenge Palpatine's power.
Keeping the local systems in line
Almost 20 years later, Emperor Palpatine dissolved the Galactic Senate permanently. He saw no further reason to maintain the illusion of representative democracy, because the completion of the Death Star enabled him to rule through fear. Commanded by one of the Emperor's most trusted and ruthless operatives, Grand Moff Tarkin, the Death Star was a mobile space station with the power to destroy entire planets. As a demonstration of its power, Tarkin obliterated the planet Alderaan, home to key members of the Rebel Alliance who were working against the Empire. Leia Organa, adopted princess of Alderaan, rebel leader, and secretly the daughter of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, was forced to watch the destruction of her planet from the deck of the Death Star, where she was being held prisoner at the time.
As these events unfolded, Emperor Palpatine remained unseen in the background, while Tarkin and Darth Vader did his dirty work aboard the Death Star. This turned to be particularly fortunate for him because he was nowhere near the Death Star when Luke Skywalker, the other secret child of Anakin and Padmé, managed to blow it up on behalf of the Rebel Alliance. Darth Vader was able to escape the destruction, but Tarkin and the other military leaders on board all died.
The hunt for Skywalker
Following the destruction of the Death Star, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader both learned the identity of Luke Skywalker, and they became determined to find him. As Vader searched for Luke and the Rebels while aboard his Super Star Destoyer, Executor, Palpatine remained in the imperial capital of Coruscant and communicated with Vader via hologram.
Palpatine suspected that Vader wanted to turn his son to the Dark Side and overthrow Palpatine with his help. Killing your master after you've found your apprentice was Sith tradition, after all, and it was exactly what Palpatine had done to his own master, Darth Plagueis. For his part, Palpatine hoped that either Luke would kill his father and then replace him as the Emperor's apprentice, or that Luke would die, thus eliminating the threat and maintaining the status quo.
Eventually, Vader would confront Luke on Bespin, but he failed to convert, capture, or kill him. He did however reveal himself as Luke's father, ensuring that Luke would eventually seek out Vader by choice, which could only put him in the path of the Emperor.
The Emperor builds the second Death Star
With construction underway on the second Death Star, Emperor Palpatine decided to take a more active hand in the Galactic Civil War. Arriving on the new Death Star to oversee its completion himself, the Emperor carefully laid a trap for the Rebel Alliance. He knew they were planning to attack the Death Star before it was finished, so he made sure that when the Rebels arrived, the half-built space station's weapon systems would be full operational. This nearly enabled the Empire to wipe out the entire Rebel fleet with the Death Star's massive firepower.
What enabled the Rebels to ultimately win the day was the efforts of a Rebel team on the surface of the forest moon of Endor, where the new Death Star was in orbit during its construction. Led by Han Solo and Leia Organa, these Rebels were eventually able to shut down the shield generator that protected the incomplete Death Star, enabling Rebel ships to destroy it. Ironically, Darth Vader had allowed the ship holding the Rebel party to approach Endor, even though he sensed Luke Skywalker's presence among them. That was the first of Vader's betrayals at Endor that led to the Emperor's downfall, but it was far from the last.
The seduction of Luke Skywalker
As the Emperor had predicted, Luke Skywalker soon sought out Darth Vader on Endor. The young Jedi surrendered, and Vader brought him before Palpatine on the new Death Star. The Emperor could sense that the emotional Luke was veering closer to the Dark Side, and he and Vader encouraged Luke to give himself over to his emotional turmoil. Palpatine seemed ready to die if it would cement Luke's turn to the Dark Side, but he was even more enthusiastic about the possibility of Luke killing his father and taking Vader's place by the Emperor's side.
Ultimately Luke resisted the Dark Side, casting his weapon away. At that point, Palpatine revealed that, like the armed and operational Death Star, he wasn't as weak and helpless as he seemed. The Emperor blasted the young Skywalker with Force lightning from his fingertips, preparing to kill him even as the Death Star's weapons killed Luke's allies. At the last minute, however, Darth Vader was unable to stand by and watch as the man who'd corrupted him and ruined his life tried to murder his son as well, and Vader grabbed Palpatine and hurled him down a seemingly bottomless shaft within the Death Star, killing the Emperor.
Darth Vader died immediately afterwards, his cybernetic life force damaged irreparably by Palpatine's Force lightning. Luke managed to escape, just as his allies finally destroyed the second Death Star, which was a decisive victory against the Empire.
Palpatine in the Expanded Universe
Various tie-in media, with varying degrees of canonicity, established that Palpatine left many plans in motion when he was killed. In the old Expanded Universe (eliminated from official canon by Disney), he'd left a secret Force-sensitive agent in the field, Mara Jade, who would continue trying to carry out the last command the Emperor had given her: to kill Luke Skywalker (although she would ultimately become his ally and then his wife).
In the Dark Empire comics, Palpatine himself was resurrected in a young and muscular clone body, and he had a second chance to tempt Luke to the Dark Side. Ultimately, Princess Leia was able to save Luke, and Palpatine died once again. But more importantly, these stories 'never happened' in the official continuity of the new Star Wars films.
In the current canon, all that was really established in the books and comics is that Palpatine sent his forces into the Unknown Regions of the galaxy, so that they would have space to rebuild after his 'death,' leading to the First Order. But how directly Palpatine was involved in that plan wouldn't be clear until the final film of the saga.
Rey Shoots Force Lightning Force
Rey Shoots Force Lightning Gear
The rise of Emperor Palpatine?
It's debatable, in the end, whether Palpatine died on the Death Star or not, but if he did he managed to come back pretty quickly. He never exactly says how, but cloning seems to be involved. He hid for decades on the planet Exegol in the Unknown Regions. He created the figure of Snoke, the original Supreme Leader of the First Order, to be his puppet until it was time for the rebirth of the Empire as the Final Order. He existed in a withered and broken form on Exegol, with mangled hands, milky unseeing eyes, and machinery that helped him move around. Nevertheless, he built an entire Sith empire on that hidden planet, complete with a vast fleet of Star Destroyers that would be able to crush the Resistance and once again establish his dominance over the Galaxy.
When he eventually revealed himself, he recruited Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, who had already killed Snoke and taken over the First Order. Palpatine promised Ren even greater power if Ren would fulfill his wishes, and for a time Kylo seemed to agree.
Like Emperor, like granddaughter
Palpatine's greatest concern this time was his granddaughter, Rey of Jakku. He'd been searching for her since she was born, but she was a grown woman before she learned about her connection to him and journeyed to Exegol to destroy her grandfather and end his threat to the galaxy. Then she learned that his death at her hands was part of Palpatine's plan. If she killed him in anger, she would turn to the dark side, take the spirits of him and the other Sith within her, and become the new Empress.
When Kylo Ren, having turned away from the dark side, arrived to help Rey, Palpatine drew on both of their life forces to restore himself, regaining mobility and his trademark yellow eyes. He used his vast power to shoot the Resistance fleet out of the sky with force lightning, until a weakened Rey managed to confront him once again, using Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa's lightsabers to redirect the lighting, basically making Palpatine kill himself. His granddaughter nearly died from the effort, but Kylo sacrificed his own life to heal her with the Force.
As for Emperor Palpatine, is he dead for real now? The Skywalker saga's supposed to be over, so it's nice to believe he is. But he might have just retreated to another planet and another body, waiting for a future decade to try it all again. His ambition, after all, is stronger than death.
When we talk about alternate versions of movies it usually centers on how things could have begun or ended differently. There's the different endings of Blade Runner, and it happened when we heard about the alternate opening of The Force Awakens back when J.J. Abrams apparently wanted to open on Luke's severed hand floating through space. (Hell, even Rian Johnson had an alternate opening for The Last Jedi.) And now, this talk is central to the discussion about The Rise of Skywalker.
In the past few weeks rumors have circulated that there were alternate openings or bizzaro endings. The thing is, if anyone thinks a different beginning or ending could have 'fixed' everything wrong with The Rise of Skywalker, they're missing the larger view of the Force — the giant, muddled middle of this movie is why it's such problematic and divisive film. Spoilers ahead.
Rey Shoots Force Lightning
According to Lucasfilm Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo, he pitched an alternate ending where Ben Solo survived and ended up on the planet Ahch-To. If you believe stuntman Juan Bautista, who was inside of one of the Knights of Ren costumes, there was also some kind of alternate ending where Rey didn't come back to life. All of this is noise. None of it matters. If you want to believe any of this stuff would have 'fixed' or changed The Rise of Skywalker that we got, that's fine. But, if you actually look at the bulk of the movie's runtime, the problem is a very, very muddled second act in which a whole lot of nothing happens.
If we consider everything up until Rey thinks she kills Chewbacca to be the first third of the movie, then you can quickly see why everything that happens after that is a complete shitshow. Let's take a look at the three acts of The Rise of Skywalker, boiled down to their most simple elements.
Act 1
Palpatine is back! Sith Wayfinders are the key to finding him! Rey and the gang have to go to Burning Man Planet to locate a clue, that will lead them to another clue. Rey can heal sandworms, Poe has a secret, Finn has a secret, and C-3P0 learns a secret that can only be deciphered by some illegal programming. After stealing a ship and losing the Falcon, Rey shoots lightning out of her hands and thinks she's killed Chewbacca. Our heroes head-off to Crime Planet, to hire someone to deprogram C-3PO and get him to reveal what's written on the nifty dagger they stole.
Act 2
Um. Okay. So, Poe used to be a smuggler and he has an old girlfriend (?) named Zorri Bliss and she gives him a special medallion, but also leads them to Babu Frik (who is apparently hilarious according to Twitter) and Babu reboots C-3PO to make him translate the Sith writing on the dagger. Chewbacca is not dead, so we have to rescue him at some point, oh, and by the way, remember, we lost the Falcon, too, so we better figure out how to get that back. Where's Lando? Nevermind, we left him on Burning Man Planet. I wonder if he'll be back? Anyway, there's no time to worry about that, because now, Finn, Rey and Poe have to get Chewie, get the Falcon back, then go to the Endor system, to a planet that IS NOT the Forest Moon of Endor, but instead is Water Endor.
The Death Star we saw esplode in Return of the Jedi, apparently had a really big chunk that just daintily fell on Water Endor, which is handy, because the Dagger (which we can now read because of C-3PO's memory wipe) tells everyone they have to go there.
We meet some Ex-Stormtroopers who have space horses, and also cool water skimmers. They tell everyone to chill out. Rey can't chill out, takes a water skimmer, goes to the broken Death Star, meets Nightmare Dark Rey for like three seconds – a hallucination so specific it includes a totally detailed evil double-bladed lightsaber — and then, she also meets Kylo Ren who is there. Oh, I almost forgot — An important detail, right before we got to Water Endor, Kylo Ren and Rey had a mind-fight, and Kylo revealed that Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter. This is why she can shoot lightning. Anyway, Kylo is on Water Endor and that's a big deal.
Oh did we mention that General Hux is good? Yeah, that doesn't matter, but it does take up several minutes of the movie. Anyway.
Leia talks to Ben/Kylo through the Force, and then Rey stabs him. She then feels bad about this and uses her healing powers to bring him back. (Okay?) Then she leaves in a huff and steals his TIE Fighter (which we'll see that she wrecks in a few minutes.) Meanwhile, Ben has a dream-chat with dead Han Solo and he decides to become good.
Leia dies. Rey goes to Porg Land, talks to ghost Luke who tells her he knew she was a Palpatine the whole time, and then grabs his old X-Wing out of the swamp, tosses her the keys, and says, yeah, you're good to drive this thing, go kill the Emperor, your grandfather.
Meanwhile, the Resistance tries to get their act together and Lando shows up.
Act 3
Everybody goes to the Emperor's Gross Planet. A billion spaceships show up because Zorri Bliss told them too. Rey fights Palpatine. Space horses ride on top of a Star Destroyer. Ben and Rey act extra cool (but not as cool as they were in The Last Jedi) the Emperor tries to suck their life force out, shoots lighting, and is all-around way more powerful than he's ever been.
Eventually, with Ben's help, and the help of every Jedi ghost ever, Rey defeats the Dark Side. Then she goes to live on Tatooine and says her name is Rey Skywalker. The End!
Okay. So, clearly there's way too much stuff that happens in the second act of this movie. And, the worst part about it, is that literally all of it is table-setting for the final act. In some senses, you could argue that the entire movie is just set-up for the climax where everyone ends up on or in orbit of Exegol. Is it anyone's fault in specific that the middle of this movie has so much stuff in it? Well, one could argue that yes, this is specifically the fault of J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio, the screenwriters of the film, but it's also possible that there are literally just too many characters in this film to manage reasonably.
For example, let's just imagine a version of this movie without General Hux or Allegiant General Pryde. Right there, you cut out a ton of dialogue and water-treading that does absolutely nothing to forward the plot. Will fans be wondering where General Hux went? Seriously, who cares? Where was bushy-bearded General Dodonna from A New Hope in The Empire Strikes Back? Didn't he come with the Rebels to Hoth? Seriously, it doesn't matter. Why wasn't Snap Wexley in The Last Jedi? Guess, what we didn't ask! The Rise of Skywalker is so focused on making sure we understand where every single person is at all times, that the middle of the movie is an exercise in splitting space hairs. Why did Chewbacca need to get kidnapped? Clearly, the answer is so everyone could rescue him and that could remind us of Leia getting rescued in A New Hope. J.J. Abrams got away with this kind of homaging in The Force Awakens, mostly because there were fewer characters, and despite it being silly, the 'map to Luke Skywalker' plot device was a little bit more elegant than the complicated treasure quest.
Anyway, the point is, that eliminating things like Chewbacca's capture or the emphasis placed on the shifting leadership inside of the First Order is a game you could play all day long. And that's because the real issue if The Rise of SKywalker that its plot is at war with its story.
The plot of The Rise of Skywalker versus the story of The Rise of Skywalker
What's the story of Episode IX? Well, by my estimation it's mostly about the redemption and rebirth of the Skywalker name and legacy. It's also about the final defeat of the Emperor, and it's a meditation on what future generations do and don't owe the generations that came before. It's about being more than what you were born to and making choices that honor what you believe in.
What's the plot of Episode IX? That's easy: Treasure hunt! Spaceship swapping! Nostalgia-fest! Call-outs to every single Star Wars movie! Erasing character's memories, then giving them the memories back! Character deaths that are retconned with little (or zero) explanation! Character secrets teased in dialogue but never explained, and of course, space horses.
The flaw of The Rise of Skywalker has almost nothing to do with its ending. Rey summoning all the Jedi to help her and Ben becoming briefly a good boy to assist actually is fine. And, in any version of the movie — even one in which Rey and Ben are fighting someone who isn't Palpatine — all of that stuff works.
Rey going to live on Tatooine is a little dopey and silly, but in terms of honoring the story, it's not the worst. If you swapped out Ben Solo and had Rey live somewhere else, it would be fine. However, neither of those things would save the movie, and that's because the middle of the film is just to damn busy to let the story actually matter.
The barrier of entry in the film is the fact that nobody knows how to get to Exegol without the complicated plot allowing them to find it. This is the same barrier of entry for the audience. We are never convinced that Exegol is hard to find, and not just because Kylo Ren finds it in the first act. The reason we are never convinced that it's hard to find is that:
- A: This has never been a thing that has happened in a Star Wars movie before
- B: It simply doesn't work dramatically.
The plots of most Star Wars movies — even ones that rely on a mystery-structure like Attack of the Clones or Rogue One — have never been about entire planets being hidden. Generally speaking, when someone wants to go somewhere, they go there. Whether they use the Force or the nav computer to calculate the jumps in hyperspace is their call. The point is, knowing where you were going, has literally never been a problem in Star Wars before.
During this same period, Palpatine took custody of a young Zabrak and had him raised in the ways of the Dark Side. The Zabrak became Sidious' first Sith apprentice, Darth Maul. Since Sith tradition says that there are only ever two at a time, that meant Palpatine eventually had to murder Darth Plagueis, thus becoming the galaxy's senior Sith Lord. In this guise, he would continue to manipulate galactic conflicts, while as senator, he could use those conflicts for his own advancement.
Palpatine was a master manipulator
Since nobody knew that he was the one behind the Trade Federation's blockade of Naboo, Palpatine was able to exploit the incident to consolidate his political power. When Chancellor Valorum failed to take strong action to defend Naboo, Palpatine encouraged Naboo's Queen Amidala to call for a vote of no confidence in Valorum, which in turn led to a new election. Being the senator from the planet that was in crisis, Palpatine was perfectly positioned to win the election and become the new supreme chancellor of the Republic.
Taking the top office in the galaxy was a huge step in Palpatine's rise, but it would still take years of simultaneously consolidating his political power as chancellor while also exacerbating the galaxy's conflicts as Darth Sidious before he would be able to gain absolute power. He would also need a new Sith apprentice, as Darth Maul was defeated and seemingly killed by Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi as the Naboo crisis was drawing to a close.
The clones attack
After the defeat of Darth Maul, Palpatine's new Sith apprentice was the elderly aristocrat Count Dooku, who acted as his proxy in leading a separatist movement of multiple systems that were dissatisfied with the Republic. When the Separatists were found to be building a vast droid army, Chancellor Palpatine was granted special powers to deal with the threat.
As it turns out, using other proxies, he'd already commissioned an army of clone troopers, and his new powers enabled him to command that army to go to war against the Separatists. Not only was Palpatine's power increased, but the Republic ended a long period of peace to become a dominant military power in the galaxy, a big step closer to becoming an empire. Outwardly, the chancellor pretended to be reluctant to take on the burden of greater power and lead the Republic into war, but of course, it was all part of the long game he'd been playing since the beginning.
Temptation of the Sith
Three years later, Chancellor Palpatine arranged his own capture by Count Dooku's Separatist forces. He was rescued, as he knew he would be, by Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. At Palpatine's urging, Anakin killed an already-defeated and literally disarmed Dooku. From then on, Palpatine began actively working to seduce Anakin to the Dark Side of the Force and make the powerful young Jedi into a new Sith apprentice. Anakin was concerned for the health of his pregnant wife, Padmé Amidala, and Palpatine planted the idea in Anakin's head that becoming powerful in the Dark Side was the key to ensuring that she survived the pregnancy.
Ultimately, of course, Palpatine didn't care about Padmé at all, and it was Anakin's turn to the Dark Side that led to her death. In his new Sith persona as Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker would become the most powerful ally Palpatine had ever had and a key part of his plan to eliminate the Jedi and rule the galaxy as a tyrant.
The Emperor rises
When the Jedi finally realized that Palpatine was a Sith Lord, it was far too late. A vicious battle with Jedi Master Mace Windu brought about a fearsome change to Palpatine's physical appearance. While there has been much speculation, it's unclear whether Palpatine was disfigured by Force lightning, as he claimed, or whether he was revealing what had already been his true appearance. In any case, the evil within him came to the surface, and his face became grotesque and slightly inhuman.
Ironically, his disfigurement enabled him to turn the Senate against the Jedi who'd attacked him. He took the opportunity to seize the power he'd worked so long to bring within his grasp and declared himself emperor of the galaxy. Although the Galactic Senate would remain in place for years to come, the Republic had become the Empire, and with the Jedi eliminated by the clone troopers, there was nobody left to challenge Palpatine's power.
Keeping the local systems in line
Almost 20 years later, Emperor Palpatine dissolved the Galactic Senate permanently. He saw no further reason to maintain the illusion of representative democracy, because the completion of the Death Star enabled him to rule through fear. Commanded by one of the Emperor's most trusted and ruthless operatives, Grand Moff Tarkin, the Death Star was a mobile space station with the power to destroy entire planets. As a demonstration of its power, Tarkin obliterated the planet Alderaan, home to key members of the Rebel Alliance who were working against the Empire. Leia Organa, adopted princess of Alderaan, rebel leader, and secretly the daughter of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, was forced to watch the destruction of her planet from the deck of the Death Star, where she was being held prisoner at the time.
As these events unfolded, Emperor Palpatine remained unseen in the background, while Tarkin and Darth Vader did his dirty work aboard the Death Star. This turned to be particularly fortunate for him because he was nowhere near the Death Star when Luke Skywalker, the other secret child of Anakin and Padmé, managed to blow it up on behalf of the Rebel Alliance. Darth Vader was able to escape the destruction, but Tarkin and the other military leaders on board all died.
The hunt for Skywalker
Following the destruction of the Death Star, Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader both learned the identity of Luke Skywalker, and they became determined to find him. As Vader searched for Luke and the Rebels while aboard his Super Star Destoyer, Executor, Palpatine remained in the imperial capital of Coruscant and communicated with Vader via hologram.
Palpatine suspected that Vader wanted to turn his son to the Dark Side and overthrow Palpatine with his help. Killing your master after you've found your apprentice was Sith tradition, after all, and it was exactly what Palpatine had done to his own master, Darth Plagueis. For his part, Palpatine hoped that either Luke would kill his father and then replace him as the Emperor's apprentice, or that Luke would die, thus eliminating the threat and maintaining the status quo.
Eventually, Vader would confront Luke on Bespin, but he failed to convert, capture, or kill him. He did however reveal himself as Luke's father, ensuring that Luke would eventually seek out Vader by choice, which could only put him in the path of the Emperor.
The Emperor builds the second Death Star
With construction underway on the second Death Star, Emperor Palpatine decided to take a more active hand in the Galactic Civil War. Arriving on the new Death Star to oversee its completion himself, the Emperor carefully laid a trap for the Rebel Alliance. He knew they were planning to attack the Death Star before it was finished, so he made sure that when the Rebels arrived, the half-built space station's weapon systems would be full operational. This nearly enabled the Empire to wipe out the entire Rebel fleet with the Death Star's massive firepower.
What enabled the Rebels to ultimately win the day was the efforts of a Rebel team on the surface of the forest moon of Endor, where the new Death Star was in orbit during its construction. Led by Han Solo and Leia Organa, these Rebels were eventually able to shut down the shield generator that protected the incomplete Death Star, enabling Rebel ships to destroy it. Ironically, Darth Vader had allowed the ship holding the Rebel party to approach Endor, even though he sensed Luke Skywalker's presence among them. That was the first of Vader's betrayals at Endor that led to the Emperor's downfall, but it was far from the last.
The seduction of Luke Skywalker
As the Emperor had predicted, Luke Skywalker soon sought out Darth Vader on Endor. The young Jedi surrendered, and Vader brought him before Palpatine on the new Death Star. The Emperor could sense that the emotional Luke was veering closer to the Dark Side, and he and Vader encouraged Luke to give himself over to his emotional turmoil. Palpatine seemed ready to die if it would cement Luke's turn to the Dark Side, but he was even more enthusiastic about the possibility of Luke killing his father and taking Vader's place by the Emperor's side.
Ultimately Luke resisted the Dark Side, casting his weapon away. At that point, Palpatine revealed that, like the armed and operational Death Star, he wasn't as weak and helpless as he seemed. The Emperor blasted the young Skywalker with Force lightning from his fingertips, preparing to kill him even as the Death Star's weapons killed Luke's allies. At the last minute, however, Darth Vader was unable to stand by and watch as the man who'd corrupted him and ruined his life tried to murder his son as well, and Vader grabbed Palpatine and hurled him down a seemingly bottomless shaft within the Death Star, killing the Emperor.
Darth Vader died immediately afterwards, his cybernetic life force damaged irreparably by Palpatine's Force lightning. Luke managed to escape, just as his allies finally destroyed the second Death Star, which was a decisive victory against the Empire.
Palpatine in the Expanded Universe
Various tie-in media, with varying degrees of canonicity, established that Palpatine left many plans in motion when he was killed. In the old Expanded Universe (eliminated from official canon by Disney), he'd left a secret Force-sensitive agent in the field, Mara Jade, who would continue trying to carry out the last command the Emperor had given her: to kill Luke Skywalker (although she would ultimately become his ally and then his wife).
In the Dark Empire comics, Palpatine himself was resurrected in a young and muscular clone body, and he had a second chance to tempt Luke to the Dark Side. Ultimately, Princess Leia was able to save Luke, and Palpatine died once again. But more importantly, these stories 'never happened' in the official continuity of the new Star Wars films.
In the current canon, all that was really established in the books and comics is that Palpatine sent his forces into the Unknown Regions of the galaxy, so that they would have space to rebuild after his 'death,' leading to the First Order. But how directly Palpatine was involved in that plan wouldn't be clear until the final film of the saga.
Rey Shoots Force Lightning Force
Rey Shoots Force Lightning Gear
The rise of Emperor Palpatine?
It's debatable, in the end, whether Palpatine died on the Death Star or not, but if he did he managed to come back pretty quickly. He never exactly says how, but cloning seems to be involved. He hid for decades on the planet Exegol in the Unknown Regions. He created the figure of Snoke, the original Supreme Leader of the First Order, to be his puppet until it was time for the rebirth of the Empire as the Final Order. He existed in a withered and broken form on Exegol, with mangled hands, milky unseeing eyes, and machinery that helped him move around. Nevertheless, he built an entire Sith empire on that hidden planet, complete with a vast fleet of Star Destroyers that would be able to crush the Resistance and once again establish his dominance over the Galaxy.
When he eventually revealed himself, he recruited Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, who had already killed Snoke and taken over the First Order. Palpatine promised Ren even greater power if Ren would fulfill his wishes, and for a time Kylo seemed to agree.
Like Emperor, like granddaughter
Palpatine's greatest concern this time was his granddaughter, Rey of Jakku. He'd been searching for her since she was born, but she was a grown woman before she learned about her connection to him and journeyed to Exegol to destroy her grandfather and end his threat to the galaxy. Then she learned that his death at her hands was part of Palpatine's plan. If she killed him in anger, she would turn to the dark side, take the spirits of him and the other Sith within her, and become the new Empress.
When Kylo Ren, having turned away from the dark side, arrived to help Rey, Palpatine drew on both of their life forces to restore himself, regaining mobility and his trademark yellow eyes. He used his vast power to shoot the Resistance fleet out of the sky with force lightning, until a weakened Rey managed to confront him once again, using Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa's lightsabers to redirect the lighting, basically making Palpatine kill himself. His granddaughter nearly died from the effort, but Kylo sacrificed his own life to heal her with the Force.
As for Emperor Palpatine, is he dead for real now? The Skywalker saga's supposed to be over, so it's nice to believe he is. But he might have just retreated to another planet and another body, waiting for a future decade to try it all again. His ambition, after all, is stronger than death.
When we talk about alternate versions of movies it usually centers on how things could have begun or ended differently. There's the different endings of Blade Runner, and it happened when we heard about the alternate opening of The Force Awakens back when J.J. Abrams apparently wanted to open on Luke's severed hand floating through space. (Hell, even Rian Johnson had an alternate opening for The Last Jedi.) And now, this talk is central to the discussion about The Rise of Skywalker.
In the past few weeks rumors have circulated that there were alternate openings or bizzaro endings. The thing is, if anyone thinks a different beginning or ending could have 'fixed' everything wrong with The Rise of Skywalker, they're missing the larger view of the Force — the giant, muddled middle of this movie is why it's such problematic and divisive film. Spoilers ahead.
Rey Shoots Force Lightning
According to Lucasfilm Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo, he pitched an alternate ending where Ben Solo survived and ended up on the planet Ahch-To. If you believe stuntman Juan Bautista, who was inside of one of the Knights of Ren costumes, there was also some kind of alternate ending where Rey didn't come back to life. All of this is noise. None of it matters. If you want to believe any of this stuff would have 'fixed' or changed The Rise of Skywalker that we got, that's fine. But, if you actually look at the bulk of the movie's runtime, the problem is a very, very muddled second act in which a whole lot of nothing happens.
If we consider everything up until Rey thinks she kills Chewbacca to be the first third of the movie, then you can quickly see why everything that happens after that is a complete shitshow. Let's take a look at the three acts of The Rise of Skywalker, boiled down to their most simple elements.
Act 1
Palpatine is back! Sith Wayfinders are the key to finding him! Rey and the gang have to go to Burning Man Planet to locate a clue, that will lead them to another clue. Rey can heal sandworms, Poe has a secret, Finn has a secret, and C-3P0 learns a secret that can only be deciphered by some illegal programming. After stealing a ship and losing the Falcon, Rey shoots lightning out of her hands and thinks she's killed Chewbacca. Our heroes head-off to Crime Planet, to hire someone to deprogram C-3PO and get him to reveal what's written on the nifty dagger they stole.
Act 2
Um. Okay. So, Poe used to be a smuggler and he has an old girlfriend (?) named Zorri Bliss and she gives him a special medallion, but also leads them to Babu Frik (who is apparently hilarious according to Twitter) and Babu reboots C-3PO to make him translate the Sith writing on the dagger. Chewbacca is not dead, so we have to rescue him at some point, oh, and by the way, remember, we lost the Falcon, too, so we better figure out how to get that back. Where's Lando? Nevermind, we left him on Burning Man Planet. I wonder if he'll be back? Anyway, there's no time to worry about that, because now, Finn, Rey and Poe have to get Chewie, get the Falcon back, then go to the Endor system, to a planet that IS NOT the Forest Moon of Endor, but instead is Water Endor.
The Death Star we saw esplode in Return of the Jedi, apparently had a really big chunk that just daintily fell on Water Endor, which is handy, because the Dagger (which we can now read because of C-3PO's memory wipe) tells everyone they have to go there.
We meet some Ex-Stormtroopers who have space horses, and also cool water skimmers. They tell everyone to chill out. Rey can't chill out, takes a water skimmer, goes to the broken Death Star, meets Nightmare Dark Rey for like three seconds – a hallucination so specific it includes a totally detailed evil double-bladed lightsaber — and then, she also meets Kylo Ren who is there. Oh, I almost forgot — An important detail, right before we got to Water Endor, Kylo Ren and Rey had a mind-fight, and Kylo revealed that Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter. This is why she can shoot lightning. Anyway, Kylo is on Water Endor and that's a big deal.
Oh did we mention that General Hux is good? Yeah, that doesn't matter, but it does take up several minutes of the movie. Anyway.
Leia talks to Ben/Kylo through the Force, and then Rey stabs him. She then feels bad about this and uses her healing powers to bring him back. (Okay?) Then she leaves in a huff and steals his TIE Fighter (which we'll see that she wrecks in a few minutes.) Meanwhile, Ben has a dream-chat with dead Han Solo and he decides to become good.
Leia dies. Rey goes to Porg Land, talks to ghost Luke who tells her he knew she was a Palpatine the whole time, and then grabs his old X-Wing out of the swamp, tosses her the keys, and says, yeah, you're good to drive this thing, go kill the Emperor, your grandfather.
Meanwhile, the Resistance tries to get their act together and Lando shows up.
Act 3
Everybody goes to the Emperor's Gross Planet. A billion spaceships show up because Zorri Bliss told them too. Rey fights Palpatine. Space horses ride on top of a Star Destroyer. Ben and Rey act extra cool (but not as cool as they were in The Last Jedi) the Emperor tries to suck their life force out, shoots lighting, and is all-around way more powerful than he's ever been.
Eventually, with Ben's help, and the help of every Jedi ghost ever, Rey defeats the Dark Side. Then she goes to live on Tatooine and says her name is Rey Skywalker. The End!
Okay. So, clearly there's way too much stuff that happens in the second act of this movie. And, the worst part about it, is that literally all of it is table-setting for the final act. In some senses, you could argue that the entire movie is just set-up for the climax where everyone ends up on or in orbit of Exegol. Is it anyone's fault in specific that the middle of this movie has so much stuff in it? Well, one could argue that yes, this is specifically the fault of J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio, the screenwriters of the film, but it's also possible that there are literally just too many characters in this film to manage reasonably.
For example, let's just imagine a version of this movie without General Hux or Allegiant General Pryde. Right there, you cut out a ton of dialogue and water-treading that does absolutely nothing to forward the plot. Will fans be wondering where General Hux went? Seriously, who cares? Where was bushy-bearded General Dodonna from A New Hope in The Empire Strikes Back? Didn't he come with the Rebels to Hoth? Seriously, it doesn't matter. Why wasn't Snap Wexley in The Last Jedi? Guess, what we didn't ask! The Rise of Skywalker is so focused on making sure we understand where every single person is at all times, that the middle of the movie is an exercise in splitting space hairs. Why did Chewbacca need to get kidnapped? Clearly, the answer is so everyone could rescue him and that could remind us of Leia getting rescued in A New Hope. J.J. Abrams got away with this kind of homaging in The Force Awakens, mostly because there were fewer characters, and despite it being silly, the 'map to Luke Skywalker' plot device was a little bit more elegant than the complicated treasure quest.
Anyway, the point is, that eliminating things like Chewbacca's capture or the emphasis placed on the shifting leadership inside of the First Order is a game you could play all day long. And that's because the real issue if The Rise of SKywalker that its plot is at war with its story.
The plot of The Rise of Skywalker versus the story of The Rise of Skywalker
What's the story of Episode IX? Well, by my estimation it's mostly about the redemption and rebirth of the Skywalker name and legacy. It's also about the final defeat of the Emperor, and it's a meditation on what future generations do and don't owe the generations that came before. It's about being more than what you were born to and making choices that honor what you believe in.
What's the plot of Episode IX? That's easy: Treasure hunt! Spaceship swapping! Nostalgia-fest! Call-outs to every single Star Wars movie! Erasing character's memories, then giving them the memories back! Character deaths that are retconned with little (or zero) explanation! Character secrets teased in dialogue but never explained, and of course, space horses.
The flaw of The Rise of Skywalker has almost nothing to do with its ending. Rey summoning all the Jedi to help her and Ben becoming briefly a good boy to assist actually is fine. And, in any version of the movie — even one in which Rey and Ben are fighting someone who isn't Palpatine — all of that stuff works.
Rey going to live on Tatooine is a little dopey and silly, but in terms of honoring the story, it's not the worst. If you swapped out Ben Solo and had Rey live somewhere else, it would be fine. However, neither of those things would save the movie, and that's because the middle of the film is just to damn busy to let the story actually matter.
The barrier of entry in the film is the fact that nobody knows how to get to Exegol without the complicated plot allowing them to find it. This is the same barrier of entry for the audience. We are never convinced that Exegol is hard to find, and not just because Kylo Ren finds it in the first act. The reason we are never convinced that it's hard to find is that:
- A: This has never been a thing that has happened in a Star Wars movie before
- B: It simply doesn't work dramatically.
The plots of most Star Wars movies — even ones that rely on a mystery-structure like Attack of the Clones or Rogue One — have never been about entire planets being hidden. Generally speaking, when someone wants to go somewhere, they go there. Whether they use the Force or the nav computer to calculate the jumps in hyperspace is their call. The point is, knowing where you were going, has literally never been a problem in Star Wars before.
That is, until The Force Awakens. When Abrams created 'the map to Luke Skywalker,' he broke the rules of how we thought about navigating the Star Wars galaxy. But we mostly forgave him because it was a cool way to keep the plot of that film moving without hurting the story. You also might say that a 'map to Luke SKywalker' was the thematic point of the movie, too.
Either way, having a hidden destination in The Force Awakens didn't prevent the audience from understanding what was going on. But in The Rise of Skywalker, everything rests on our belief that the plot — the idea that this hidden planet can only be found a specific way — somehow reflects the larger themes of the story. It doesn't.
If you only watch the first 15 minutes or the last 15 minutes of the movie, none of this a problem. But, if you dip into the middle, it's suggested that the rest of the movie can't happen unless these events unfold exactly as they do. The trouble is, anyone can tell that this is a lie. The plot happening in the middle of The Rise of Skywalker is perfunctory and could easily have been jumbled around in a different way. Once you notice this, you'll see through the lies of the Jedi, and the Sith.
A different ending wouldn't have changed any of this. The problems with Episode IX are right at the center. Sadly, even using the Force can't bullseye this womp rat. It's there forever because, unlike an alternate ending, the middle is most of this film.
Rey Shoots Force Lightning Strikes
The Rise of Skywalker is still in theaters.