How TROS Would've Changed If Last Jedi Had Rey's Palpatine Twist
A big twist in The Rise of Skywalker reveals Rey is a Palpatine, which - if done in The Last Jedi - would have greatly changed Star Wars' Episode IX. The sequel trilogy is regarded by many as being rather disorganized, as it lacks direction for its characters, resulting in somewhat clunky storylines. Rey's story arc is no exception, which is disappointing considering how much promise was built up for her character in The Force Awakens. While The Last Jedi set Rey up as someone coming from nothing, Rey's lightning hands in The Rise of Skywalker blowing up a First Order transport begin the reveal that she's actually related to the most powerful Sith Lord, Emperor Palpatine. This said, the lightning twist alone doesn't fully reveal this detail, as Kylo Ren couldn't use force lightning because the power is a highly advanced dark side technique not unique to the Palpatine lineage. Therefore, only when Ren explicitly tells Rey that she's a Palpatine later in The Rise of Skywalker does the twist become fully revealed.
The Rise of Skywalker continues Rey's struggles between the light and dark side of the force. Revealing her to be part of the Palpatine bloodline attempts to accentuate this struggle, showing that the dark side is innately within her. While The Last Jedi admirably tries avoiding the Force-by-prestigious-bloodline approach, The Rise of Skywalker slaps this idea away by insisting that Rey needs to come from someone in the Star Wars franchise.
While Star Wars' sequel trilogy is contentiously received by audiences, Rey being a Palpatine is a good concept that could have been executed much better had there been proper planning for the sequels in place. However, it is also a concept that risks retreading the original trilogy, considering that Rey being Palpatine's granddaughter is analogous to Luke being Darth Vader's son, meaning that revealing this twist in the sequel trilogy's Empire equivalent could possibly produce a copycat effect. This would have likely been worth the risk, though, as revealing such a twist in the second movie would have allowed the narrative to build up a significantly more cathartic trilogy finale.
Introducing Rey as a Palpatine in Rise of Skywalker takes away room in the trilogy to expand on the concept. Several Star Wars characters knew Rey's Palpatine connection before she did, therefore the concept could have easily been introduced earlier. As it stands, Rey's Palpatine reveal feels like cheap fan service at worst, and last-minute character development at best. The questions that Rey being a Palpatine poses then gets squashed down into the remainder of The Rise of Skywalker, rushing through potentially intriguing concepts regarding Rey's struggle between the light and dark side and, more interestingly, Palpatine's returning influence. Unfortunately, instead of fleshing out the Rey Palpatine concept to its full potential, Rise of Skywalker gives it as much depth as a "No, I am your father!" moment. Rey then has half a movie to come to terms with this news, compared to Luke having all of Return of the Jedi to confront his Vader lineage.
Further considering Palpatine's Rise of Skywalker plan for Rey, the sequel trilogy squanders its chance of giving a new angle to the light-and-dark battle already extensively touched on in the previous trilogies. The prequel trilogy shows Anakin Skywalker as a character succumbing to the dark side, while the original trilogy explores Luke not only defying the dark side, but redeeming his father in the process. While sufficient arguments can be made for the sequel trilogy exploring the light side-dark side battle differently through Kylo instead of Rey, the sequels focus on Rey more yet make her character arc a muted rehash of the original trilogy with her big lineage twist moved instead to the last film.
The Last Jedi tries making Rey a nobody and unintentionally helps build a better case for the Star Wars sequels' main character being Kylo Ren. Granted, Rey coming from no one significant carries its own potential that would take Star Wars in a unique direction, but it ignores some Force Awakens setup. Rey's lineage remains purposefully vague, but Force Awakens tries dropping clues. According to Daisy Ridley, her character was initially set up as Obi-Wan Kenobi's descendant. Supporting evidence for this includes, but isn't limited to, Kenobi's voice calling out her name in her Force Awakens flashback vision. Regardless of whom she descends from, The Last Jedi significantly looks at Rey's lineage and approaches the dark side-light side bloodline struggle uniquely from both Rey and Luke's perspective. Luke already deals with the demons of Ben Solo becoming Kylo Ren partly through his actions. If Rey's Palpatine lineage builds up her established affinity to the dark side, it would open a new door for Luke's character development.
Star Wars creates Rey-Anakin similarities, with Palpatine targeting her to become his Sith Lord successor. What The Last Jedi could have done is take the Palpatine lineage concept and sidestep from what the previous trilogies did with similar character arcs. There's a lot of potential with The Last Jedi's established themes of characters realizing their personal power and building an identity on values, not family history or surrounding expectations. Luke proves that the dark side can be defied despite his Vader connection, and Rey's proficiency in both the light and dark sides could push things a step further by exploring an extreme balance. The Last Jedi proves the necessity for both the dark side and light side, yet the characters remained either with the dark First Order or the light Resistance. Through The Last Jedi, Star Wars could have really explored Rey as a true dark-light balance.
Rise of Skywalker ignores many Last Jedi messages by making Rey a Palpatine. That said, it isn't entirely out of line for Star Wars to go in that direction for Rey. Rey being a Palpatine doesn't completely undermine The Last Jedi's lessons, as Star Wars expresses through Han Solo, Rose Tico, Finn, and even The Last Jedi's Broom Boy that no one needs to come from an important family background or have the Force to make a difference. That said, even though The Last Jedi didn't need Rey to be a nobody to drive its message, the movie still gives Rey's insignificant bloodline a lot of weight to it's larger themes. Rise of Skywalker revealing Rey as a Palpatine seems more like JJ Abrams digging his heels into the ground as opposed to the trilogy developing Rey in the best way possible. Unfortunately, it also makes Rey's lineage one of Rise of Skywalker's many Last Jedi retcons, and a major one at that.
However, if The Last Jedi revealed Rey's Palpatine connection, The Rise of Skywalker could have developed her character more. Instead, Rey's arc in Rise of Skywalker feels more like a course-correction instead of genuine growth. In addition, Rise of Skywalker's Palpatine revival would feel appropriate to the trilogy, and there would be better opportunities to flesh out the significance of Palpatine's return. The Last Jedi enforces many interesting messages and themes that, overall, are quite relevant to Star Wars. Rise of Skywalker would be better able to expand on Last Jedi's themes if Rey's twist came earlier.
The sequels set up a clear Rey-Kylo Ren dichotomy, with Palpatine wanting Ren to kill Rey so he could eradicate all influence from the light side. The Rise of Skywalker keeps this conflict going well enough, even if Rey and Kylo's romantic angle makes the conflict's execution shaky. Nonetheless, this is probably the most fully-concluded conflict in the trilogy because Rise of Skywalker tries to develop the previous films not by going deeper into what's already established, but by still trying to introduce new ideas. A notorious instance of this happens while the characters are sinking in quicksand when Finn shouts, "Rey, I never told you - " and never finishes his sentence for the whole movie.
The Rise of Skywalker set Rey up to repeat Luke's mistakes regarding the Jedi Order that will likely be further explored in future Star Wars media. Much of these mistakes stem from Rise of Skywalker's handling of Rey's character arc. Despite many regarding her as a "Mary Sue" character, Rey had potential in the trilogy to be more interesting. Rey's Palpatine lineage being revealed in The Last Jedi wouldn't prevent every retcon, but it would certainly have given The Rise of Skywalker something better to focus on - and therefore, make it a more conclusive finale.
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