Star Wars Makes Rey Palpatine’s Daughter (From A Certain Point Of View)

While Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker confirmed that Rey is the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine, the novelization of the movie means it can be taken that she is actually his daughter. Directed by J.J. Abrams, who co-wrote the script with Chris Terrio, The Rise of Skywalker quickly became divisive with both critics and fans. Among the many reasons for this was the handling of the return of Palpatine, and the reveal of Rey’s parents and true lineage.

Now, novel version of The Rise of Skywalker is expanding upon some of the film’s biggest moments, such as the fact that Rey and Ben Solo’s kiss wasn’t romantic, and how she passed him the lightsaber. It isn’t uncommon for these novelizations to include extra details, but The Rise of Skywalker‘s is going above and beyond in addressing lingering questions and plot holes from Star Wars 9. Chief among these are new reveals about Palpatine himself in the movie.

The Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker novel confirms Palpatine is a clone in the movie, which is something that was long speculated beforehand, but never explicitly stated within the film itself. Not only that, however, but it also reveals that Rey’s father was a failed Palpatine clone – a “useless, powerless failure” – which has some big implications for her parentage. If Rey’s father was intended to be a clone of Sheev Palpatine, then it effectively means he is him, at least in a fashion. He’s more than just a son, and presumably a much closer genetic match, even if the clone body didn’t work out as planned. The novel describes him as “a not-quite-identical clone”, but even that is still more Palpatine than not. This in turn, then, means it could be taken that Rey is essentially Palpatine’s daughter more directly, rather than his granddaughter, since her dad was a clone of him, even if the body didn’t work out.

Although Rey’s parents were in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the film didn’t spend a great deal of time on who they were. Only a brief flash of them was shown on screen – where they were played by Jodie Comer and Billy Howle – and while we know that her father was Palpatine’s son, there’s little else said about them other than seeing how gave their lives protecting Rey. While Rey was still conceived by her father as presented, this new wrinkle means that she’s more directly connected to Palpatine than even the granddaughter reveal suggested, and means she doesn’t have a grandmother. Of course, this doesn’t make Rey herself a clone – even if her father was, she was still naturally conceived (somehow), which is perhaps a big part of the reason Palpatine took such an interest and why she gained such immense powers where her father did not. It may even have been Palpatine’s intention to some extent, explaining why he allowed the failed clone to live.

The twin reveals of Palpatine and his son both being clones is a big deal for Star Wars, although totally missing from The Rise of Skywalker movie. It doesn’t necessarily make the reveal of Rey’s lineage better, and nor would it change her arc any away from becoming Rey Skywalker by the end of Star Wars 9, but it does further highlight that there was a lot of key context and information missing from Abrams’ film. At the same time, the reveal about Rey’s father being a failed clone also rules out the idea of Palpatine having sex at some point, which is at least a bonus for Star Wars fans.

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