ACT I
[The Past- Unknown Location].
Luke is training Leia as a Jedi. Lightsabers are involved. Leia reveals to Luke that she is pregnant and Leia makes the decision to end her Jedi training due to the impending birth of her son.
[The Present- The Resistance’s Jungle Base]
Years later, Leia has picked up where her brother left off and has been helping Rey learn the ways of the Jedi. Rey is first seen doing some meditative/ “mental” Force training, but is struggling with it. In frustration, she asks Leia if she can do a physical training course instead. This is what we see Rey doing in the jungle forrest in the D23 First Look.(1, 2) It appears that Rey has more physical fortitude than she has mental strength.
[Forrest planet bathed in red light]
Supreme Leader Kylo Ren has been aware of a dark power behind his predecessor and former master, Snoke. Kylo has been spending his time as leader of the First Order with the purpose of locating this power. Generals Hux and Pryde have been following Kylo around on his quest and are beginning to get very frustrated with what they see as a fool’s errand. They see this as a waste of First Order time and resources. When we catch up with the villains of our story, Kylo is leading an assault on this planet with the purpose of finding Darth Vader’s wayfinder device. The device reveals coordinates within the Unknown Regions and Kylo is confident that this will reveal the source of Snoke’s power. Kylo Ren slaughters his way through the natives and is eventually led to “the oracle” who gives him the wayfinder.
[Asteroid Base]
We pick up with Finn and Poe on the Millennium Falcon, accompanied by a hand full of unfamiliar alien characters traveling to an icy asteroid base to meet with a First Order informant. This informant, an alien, is acting as a middle man between a First Order mole and our heroes. The First Order arrives and begins attacking the base. The assault causes forces our heroes to make a hasty exit by what was described to me as “light springing” away. Light springing involves making the jump to light speed without plotting a course or a predetermined destination. As we all remember, making the jump to light speed without precise calculations could have dire consequences such as ‘flying right through a star or bouncing too close to a supernova’. The Falcon makes a hand full of these springs to throw the First Order off their trail, but as a result they are forced to deal with the consequences of such a risky maneuver. After surviving the dangers of light springing, our heroes plot a course to the secret Resistance jungle base.
[The Unknown Regions- Exogol]
After obtaining Vader’s device Kylo travels to the place specified by the wayfinder. It takes him to the Unknown Regions and a dead planet of flat, black rock. I previously reported that the planet where Kylo finds Vader’s wayfinder was called Exogol. Since then my understanding has evolved and I’ve been told that this planet actually bears that name. Kylo lands outside a giant cube, floating just above the ground and begins walking toward it. Kylo walks between the cube and the ground and once he reaches the center he discovers an elevator leading down below the planet’s surface. He follows teh lift down and finds an old man, near death and lying in bed and being tended to by cloaked aids. My source believes these aids to be referred to as Sith Loyalists. The old man identifies himself as Darth Sideous. Kylo initially dismisses the old man, knowing that the Emperor had died over 30 years prior over the forest moon of Endor. Feeling that this must be a trick, Kylo claims that there must be some other explanation, such as this man being a clone. My sources specifically tell me that the Palpatine refutes the idea of him being a clone and affirms that he survived his fall. After his defeat at Endor, he left the known galaxy and traveled to the Unknown Regions to rebuild his Empire. Despite his skepticism, Palpatine begins to reel Kylo in and subsequently tells him of something known as a “Force Dyad”. The Force produces two incredibly strong users and when they unite together, both become stronger than either one could be on their own. Palpatine believes Kylo Ren and Rey to be the two halves of this dyad and shares this knowledge with Rey. (Note: I previously wrote that Palpatine wanted them to become “master and apprentice” since then this has been clarified to me as Palpatine seeking the two members of the Dyad) Palpatine claims that he seeks the Dyad because he is weak and dying and he wants the Dyad to rule together once he’s gone. Palpatine orders Kylo to bring Rey to him and turn her so that the Dyad will be a strong, unified force of darkness. Palpatine also reveals that he has been amassing an armada of Star Destroyers equipped with Death Star tech, each one capable of destroying a planet on its own. Generals Hux and Pryde are tasked with rounding up children in large numbers to train and staff his armada.
