I wanted to take another crack at Rouge Leader’s idea of turning the ST’s weaknesses into strengths/Kylo’s growing nihilism about the galaxy/SW, while also keeping Nev’s ideas of the dagger being a plant/the Sith or Death visions, and addressing Eddie’s concerns of why Palpatine would perpetuate this cycle:
Kylo: (Force Skyping Rey on Pasana) Palpatine wants us to fight.
Rey: Serving another master?
Kylo: No. Don’t play his game, Rey. I offered you my hand, once. You wanted to take it. Why didn’t you?
Rey: You could’ve killed me. Why didn’t you?
Kylo: I’m sick of playing out the same cycles, over and over.
Rey: I see through the cracks in your mask. You’re haunted. You can’t stop seeing what you did to your father.
Kylo: I’ve been haunted since my Jedi days. Since I started hearing the voice of Vader in my head. And it’s lead me to this moment. I’m going to find you…When I offer you my hand again…you’ll take it.
Rey: We’ll see.
(In Kylo’s quarters)
Kylo: Rey…Wherever you are…you are hard to find.
Rey: You are hard to get rid of.
Kylo: I pushed you in the desert because I needed to see it…I needed you to see it…who you are. Darkness is in your nature. Rey…
Rey: You’re lying.
Kylo: You said your parents were nobody. But the dagger you found tells another story.
Rey: Don’t!
Kylo: It revealed your parent’s fate. Are you still afraid to see it?
Rey: I don’t want this!
Kylo: Search your memories!
Rey: No!
Kylo: Remember them. See them!
(Rey sees her parents protecting her, and their death)
Kylo: They paid for your protection…in more ways than one.
Rey: Stop talking.
Kylo: Rey…they were protecting you from Palpatine.
(Cutaway to heroes capture)
Kylo: I didn’t believe Palpatine either, when he told me who you were. He’s lied to me for years…inside my head…in the voices of Vader…Snoke. But the dagger proved he was right…about who you really are.
Rey: No!
(Vader’s mask falls to the ground)
Kylo: So that’s where you are.
Kylo: You know why the Emperor’s always wanted you dead. I’ll come tell you.
(In the Hangar)
Rey: Why did the Emperor come for me? Why did he want to kill a child? Tell me.
Kylo: Because he saw what you would become. You don’t just have power. You have his power. You’re his granddaughter.
Kylo: Skywalker & Palpatine, fighting the same old war. Forced between the Dark Side or death. But now we’re connected, by a power the Emperor cannot comprehend. Run away with me, and we’ll forge a new destiny…together.
Kylo: You know what you need to do. You know.
Rey: I do.
…
As far as solving the issue of “why would Kylo still have his Wayfinder if he doesn’t want to play Palpatine’s game/how does Rey get to Exegol without either Wayfinder,” I have another idea. Instead of cutting to the Wayfinder in the X-Wing, we could do a brief cut back to when Kylo first made his way to Exegol in black & white. Imply that Rey is using her bond with Kylo to search his memories in order to recreate the path to Exegol. It’s not totally farfetched, within the same realms of possibility of D-O having a map to Exegol stored away, at least.