Star Wars 9 Brings Back The One Thing From The Original Trilogy Nobody Wanted

WARNING: The following contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Even asStar Wars: The Rise of Skywalker paid tribute to many aspects of the original Star Wars trilogy, it also brought back one thing fans would have been happy to forget: awkward incestuous kisses. Worse yet, this aspect can’t be easily retconned or ignored, as it is an integral part of the core storyline.

The final battle of The Rise of Skywalker saw Rey and a redeemed Ben Solo joining forces to face the resurrected Emperor Palpatine. In the end Rey, who had learned she was Palpatine’s granddaughter, was able to face the combined might of all the Sith Lords of old by channeling the spirits of every Jedi who came before her. This effort apparently killed her along with the Emperor, until Ben used the last of his own life energy to heal Rey’s injuries and resurrect her. He had just enough time to share a passionate kiss with the woman to whom he’d become bonded before his body faded away, as he became one with The Force.

The reason this kiss is awkward lies with a line from Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith:, in which Palpatine tells Anakin a story about “a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life.” Since Anakin was seemingly the result of an immaculate conception, this line implies that Emperor Palpatine was actually responsible for impregnating Shimi Skywalker through The Force, effectively fathering Anakin Skywalker. In a 2005 Rolling Stone interview, George Lucas said that he deliberately left this plot point ambiguous:

“Now, there’s a hint in the movie that there was a Sith lord who had the power to create life. But it’s left unsaid: Is Anakin a product of a super-Sith who influenced the midichlorians to create him, or is he simply created by the midichlorians to bring forth a prophecy, or was he created by the Force through the midichlorians?”

Though this ambiguity has been carefully maintained, the tie-in comic Darth Vader #25 further implied that Palpatine was involved in manufacturing Shmi’s pregnancy. This would make Emperor Palpatine the grandfather of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa and the great-grandfather of Ben Solo. This means, ipso facto, that Rey and Ben are cousins, which puts a whole weird spin on the decidedly romantic kiss that Ben gives Rey in his dying moments.

The scene was a stark reminder of the original trilogy and how there was initially a love triangle between Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Leia Organa. It was then decided between the filming of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of The Jedi that Luke and Leia would be revealed to be twins and that Leia would be the “another” whom Yoda spoke of replacing Luke if he failed to survive his battle with Darth Vader. (Originally, Return of the Jedi was meant to end with Luke going off in search of his long-lost sister.) This retroactively made every romantic moment between the two in the first two films weird – particularly Leia’s passionately kissing an injured Luke to show Han how little she was interested in his romantic advances.

While the creep-factor of Rey and Ben kissing isn’t quite as strong as twin siblings making out, it’s still an unsettling point to consider. Some may argue that it isn’t as if Emperor Palpatine fathered Anakin directly and that Rey and Ben probably aren’t really related. There’s not enough information on how Palpatine did what he did to determine whether he willed a baby into existence through the midichlorians or if there was an actual transfer of his genetic material into Shimi Skywalker’s body. Granting that “the dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural,” there are few who wanted to consider the implications of this, and if it means that The Rise of Skywalker just reintroduced incestuous romance into the Star Wars universe.

More: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s Biggest Plot Holes

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1836 Articles Published)

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Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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