Well, it finally arrived. The final chapter in the main Star Wars saga has come to an end, only it didn’t exactly make everyone happy. I got the chance to see it opening night and while it was enjoyable for me, I can’t deny that I was ultimately underwhelmed. I won’t get too much into how I felt about the movie, but there is one particular twist in the movie that is still bugging me. There is a spoiler ahead, so if you haven’t seen the movie yet and want to find out for yourself, click away. For those who are curious, take a minute and listen to what I believe is the biggest issue with the Rey twist in The Rise of Skywalker. Spoilers ahead!
Even before the release of The Force Awakens, fans spend countless hours of their time concocting theories about who Rey really is and who her parents are. From possibly being Luke’s daughter, to being Obi-Wan’s granddaughter, the theories just didn’t stop brewing. Even when The Last Jedi was released two years ago, the “truth” of her parents was revealed and it unfortunately fell a bit flat for fans. While The Last Jedi revealed that her parents were junkers that abandoned her, The Rise of Skywalker decided to retcon that by making her the granddaughter of the one and only Palpatine. Was this the plan from the beginning? It’s highly probable, but there is an issue with this twist and it runs deeper than people might think.
Throughout the course of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, Kylo Ren makes it a top priority to win Rey over to conquer the galaxy by his side. At first, he claimed to know who her parents were and he’s the one that tells her that they were nothing but common junkers. He does this to manipulate her into joining him, but she refuses. This may have been an interesting twist, but by the time we got to The Rise of Skywalker, Kylo Ren decides to reveal that Rey is Palpatine’s granddaughter. When he did this, he didn’t even try to retract his previous claim that Rey basically came from nothing, as if that conversation from The Last Jedi never happened. If Kylo Ren was so fixated on bringing Rey to his side, then why not reveal the actual truth to her sooner?
Continuity wasn’t the only issue with this twist, since the big reveal of Rey’s parents just doesn’t have any logic behind it. Sure, it’s Star Wars and crazy things happen, but the lack of a proper explanation behind Rey’s parents just made it more confusing than intriguing. When did Palpatine find the time to impregnate a woman? It’s possible that he created his child through the use of the force, similar to how his master created Anakin Skywalker (that’s just a theory). Either way, when Rey’s parents were revealed in a brief flashback, they appeared to be regular people with absolutely no signs of being related to Palpatine. Which one was even the actual kid of Palpatine? Maybe that alone isn’t the biggest deal, but any child of Palpatine’s should have some kind of force powers. Rey was often criticized for being too overpowered, and after hearing who her grandfather is, it’s kind of easy to understand why. It’s just more than a bit odd that Rey would inherit the immense powers of the Palpatine gene pool, while her parents somehow ended up in the shallow end.
It’s always fun to make theories, but sometimes the effort isn’t always worth it. This was a twist that should have struck way harder than it should have, but what’s done is done. Let’s hope that Star Wars will continue to thrive.
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