The nature of the dark side of the force
Disclaimer: I haven’t seen TROS, but I’ve read leaks, seen clips, and watched detailed reaction videos on YouTube pointing out the plot holes. I have a theory to explain how the trilogies connect.
In the opera scene in ROTS, Palestine tells Anakin that the dark side of the force is a pathway etc. in TROS my understanding is that Palpatine uses this as the sole reasoning for how he was able to return, and they quickly move on.
If we revisit what Palpatine said in the opera seen, he also says “he could save others from death, but not himself”... I used to interpret this as just Palpatine relishing the fact that he killed his master and thus became the master. My theory is that the “abilities” that Palpatine has been referring to is the ability to save yourself from death, and that in the opera scene Palpatine was actually trying to tell Anakin that he was able to save himself from death. I believe that Palpatine used this power in the Death Star II, either by himself or with the help of the cloaked guys from the final scenes.
On the dessert planet in TROS, Kyle Ren drives his tie fighter at Rey, and misses and crashes, my understanding is that it’s a pretty big crash and it’s pretty amazing that he was able to survive without a scratch. He later tells Rey, “I needed to show you”. My theory is that in that moment Kylo is trying to tell Rey that he has also learned this power (Snoke said he would complete his training).
In the end, Ben drains his own life to save Rey. I believe that although at that point he had the ability to save himself from death, he chose not to use it, as he knew his destiny was saving Rey and he couldn’t go on after knowing the atrocities he had committed as Kylo. This is also chilling because Palpatine truly does have the ability to come back at any time. It does beg the question why Anakin wasn’t able to use this power, but he hadn’t yet gotten to the point in his training, or Palpatine intentionally kept the knowledge from him and wanted to keep dangling the carrot. Ultimately, Palpatine’s arrogance in believing Kylo would carry on his legacy ended up being his demise, as a fitting end for a Sith master. Thanks for reading.
Posted Jan 20, 2020, 3:08 PM UTC
I get doing this, but it's pretty hard to base your understanding entirely off other people talking about it.
Yes. That is how it goes. The Resistance then speculate it as dark science or cloning that could have brought him back. It's completely glazed over how he's returned and the movie doesn't really care it just keeps on moving.
No. He's really dead. He's basically a zombie in the film. His eyes are dead and white, his fingers are mangled, with pieces and parts of him missing. He can't move except for a mechanical crane that shifts him about. He's a talking corpse. He's restored to life when he uses a vampire siphoning ability to drain some life from Rey and Kylo. He wasn't able to save himself from death in ROTS. He was dead, but somehow his body wasn't incinerated in the Death Star. They don't bother to explain it because it's unexplainable so they don't even try.
No. Snoke didn't train Kylo Ren anything more. Very little time happens between he says that in TFA to when Kylo kills him at the end of TLJ. He's referring to showing Rey that she is a Palpatine. He wanted her to react with anger in a scene when she's trying to pull a shuttle back to the ground and he force pushes it away. She reacts in anger and shoots force lightning that destroys the freighter. Apparently they sort of forgot that force lightning isn't an exclusive Palpatine force power, but that's what they are trying to pretend to be the case.
No. Palpatine didn't give a shit about Kylo Ren. He wanted Rey to kill him so that he and "all the Sith" spirits could possess her since she's his granddaughter. He apparently only wanted Kylo to bring her to him, even though he tells her at the start to kill her... for... some reason.
It's unexplained how Kylo has the power to transfer his life to her. He wasn't going to die so he didn't need to use any power for himself, but he somehow just manifests the power to resurrect a dead body and then he just falls over dead.
Anakin didn't have that power because it's not a power that existed, at least not at that point by anyone in the SW universe that we know of. It exists without explanation in this movie with no detail for how anyone learned it or how it works. It and Rey's ability to heal mortal wounds with no consequence to herself break Star Wars since these are abilities that two very untrained individuals can somehow just "do" when highly trained Jedi and Sith could easily have used these powers many times over in the past films.
Thanks for your response. I can’t bring myself to pay for what seems to be an abomination of a movie so I’m waiting until I can stream. Until then I’m just trying to find ways to possibly make this fit into what I know as SW.
I get it. Trust me I do. It won't fit into what you know as Star Wars ever unless you completely turn off your mind and knowledge of Star Wars as it exists. It breaks prior lore, breaks it's own trilogy and contradicts itself throughout the film. Hell, it breaks the force itself.
The Rise of Skywalker feels like it's the end cap to not only a completely different trilogy than The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, but it feels like it's part of an entirely different timeline or franchise all together.