This is what I mean about why trying to fix TROS’ midpoint being sweaty. I get that it’s hard to do something new/different in a movie where Palpatine has to be the main bad guy, but going back to the idea of Palpatine having a hand in making Vader does help tie the nine movies together. What I take issue with is intrinsically tying Force ability into genetics, which is where TLJ won me & TROS lost me (even TLJ Luke was sick of hearing about “that mighty Skywalker blood”).

I’m fine with Anakin’s virgin birth (in theory, at least), is because it plays on the Jedi’s expectations in their prophecy so much that they can’t see that Anakin’s going to lead to the Jedi Order’s downfall. I like the idea of Palpatine causing Anakin’s virign birth because then that creates subtext of Luke having to fight a destiny he had no say in. But if Palpatine is involved in a second virgin birth (whether or not he was actually involved with Anakin), it just creates a feeling of “wow, the only important people in the universe are the Palpatines/Skywalkers, huh?”

The reason I like Nev’s wording is because it is vague enough that Palpatine did something to Rey as a child that it could literally be anything when she was already born and new to the world. She didn’t start life as a Palpatine, her progress was affected by Palpatine, which makes the idea of brining Palpatine back and having him somehow connected with Rey go down smoother.

If Rey is only as strong as she is because she was born that way due to Palpatine’s machinations, it stops being a trope subversion for Anakin & Luke’s story, and just becomes more of the same, reinforcing what TLJ was trying to get away from by tying it back to blood, when the Force should be about mysticism, spiritualism, etc that should be accessible by everyone. For me, the less talk of blood the better.