The heroic scavenger-turned-Jedi, Rey, was tempted by the dark side of the Force throughout the Star Wars sequel trilogy, which was made worse by her relation to the Sith Lord and Emperor, Sheev Palpatine. Palpatine was the ultimate villain of the Skywalker Saga, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker retroactively established him to be the sinister intellect behind the First Order from the start, cementing him as the ultimate Star Wars villain. His granddaughter, Rey, ultimately thwarted his plans, but her years of struggling with the dark side were understandable, given that she descended from the Sith Order’s most powerful Dark Lord.
The dark side of the Force is an unnatural perversion of the Force’s natural balance. While the Force requires discipline and control to use, the dark side tempts beings with promises of the power to have anything they want, but it ultimately leaves them with nothing, save for themselves and their power. The Star Wars prequels show the tragedy of Anakin’s fall to the dark side, just as the original trilogy has Luke resist it.
Rey doesn’t receive meaningful Jedi training until the year between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. As shown in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, Rey struggles against almost instinctive use of the dark side when battling Kylo Ren or learning about the Force. Even after her training is nearly complete, Rey accidentally uses Force lightning, the signature power of her Sith grandfather, in The Rise of Skywalker, which shows how much she takes after him, whether she likes it or not. While the Star Wars franchise has made it abundantly clear that bloodlines don’t impact an individual as much as they think, Rey is particularly close to Palpatine. Her father wasn’t simply the son of The Emperor, but a clone of him as well.
Unlike his Legends continuity counterpart, Palpatine never had any biological children in the post-2014 canon timeline. His “son” is a Palpatine clone who was born without his father’s remarkable aptitude for using the Force. The clone escaped his homeworld of Exegol and started a family, continuing the Palpatine bloodline through his daughter, Rey. Unlike her father, Rey inherited Palpatine’s incredible connection to the Force and a predisposition for using the dark side. This wasn’t the only reason why Rey struggled with the dark side, however.
After growing up as a scavenger on Jakku and never having used the Force or a lightsaber, Rey finds herself propelled into a larger world when she taps into the Force on Takodana and later the Starkiller Base on Ilum. In these scenarios, Rey’s lack of training has a greater impact than her Palpatine heritage, as Kylo Ren’s dark side-fueled attacks, her desperation to survive, and her anger at Finn’s injuries, and her capture motivated her to use whatever power she could to defend herself and friend.
Despite her connection to Palpatine worsening her dark side temptation, especially in The Rise of Skywalker, Rey ultimately resisted the temptation and was instrumental in her grandfather’s final defeat. Like Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, Rey proved a bloodline doesn’t determine one’s destiny. Rey, a Palpatine, was the one who defeated the Sith Order on Exegol in the ultimate expression of renouncing the Star Wars saga’s most dangerous dark side user.
Key Release Dates
Rogue Squadron
Release Date:2023-12-22
