Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker
1 PALPATINE’S PLAN
James Dyer: If there’s a primary aspect of The Rise Of Skywalker that doesn’t bear scrutiny, it’s undoubtedly Palpatine’s master plan. The Sith Lord, having survived death thanks to a trick learned from former master Darth Plagueis, is whisked away to the Unknown Regions by the Sith Eternal (a Sith cult whose members form Palpatine’s audience — think Slipknot gig — at the film’s climax and are clearly numerous enough to build and crew hundreds of Star Destroyers), and spends three decades chilling on Exegol.
Ian Freer: It has been Star Wars lore that there can be only two Sith: a master and an apprentice. Yet The Rise Of Skywalker introduces a new tenet — every apprentice kills their master and absorbs their mentor’s spirit. Hence Palpatine embodies all the thousands of generations of Sith that have gone before and passes that onto Rey, as the high Empress of the dark side. The plan is possible because of another seemingly new rule — if Rey kills him in a rage he can take control of her presence — that has its roots in Palpatine’s taunting of Luke at the end of Jedi: the “if you strike me down” gambit.
During that time he creates The First Order via a Snoke clone proxy, uses that to train Kylo Ren and try to kill Rey, fails, forms a Force dyad between them but doesn’t seem to understand what it does, summons Kylo Ren, tells him to kill Rey, then reveals that his plan is actually to get Rey to kill . Clear? Then, at the last moment, he realises the aforementioned dyad can be used to rejuvenate him and decides to kill everyone himself. Strategic shitshow or tactical brilliance beyond our mortal ken? You decide.
