I 100% agree. Rey and Kylo have the same character journey, they just start at opposite ends. Which is fitting seeing as how they form a dyad in the Force.

We’ve already done a really good job of making Rey’s character arc clearer in this way with default Ascendant. She feels unworthy of taking on the Skywalker family saber after she witnesses a vision of her most darkest moments throughout the trilogy, and of herself on the Sith throne in the future. Despite Leia telling her that she is as good as family, she still doesn’t feel like it is warranted deep down.

The revelation that she is a Palpatine shatters her completely. Kylo idolizes his grandfather while Rey is terrified of hers. The only reason she doesn’t let her fear stop her from action is Luke telling her that Leia also stopped her Jedi training for the exact same reason (fear of a dark relative), but she trained Rey and reached out to Ben with the Force when it mattered most.

Unfortunately, I feel that Kylo’s arc isn’t quite there in the original movie or Ascendant, which is one of the main reasons I’m making this edit. Beyond the whole “finding where you belong” arc for Rey and Kylo, fear is a common theme for almost every single character in this movie.

The problem is that Ascendant is using 2 whole Kylo Ren scenes for Palpatine to say the exact same thing to Kylo he says at the beginning: “Kill the girl.” We can use those moments to get into Kylo’s headspace better; to know his fears and need to find belonging.

As a result of those scenes being gone, we can also pull the twist that Palpatine never wanted Rey dead in a more believable way. I really like the idea that he just wants the two to fight so he gets whoever is stronger to come to him on Exegol. It reminds me of first poster for this movie.

Anywho, I’ve basically just described most of the changes I’ll be making again, besides that Palpatine was only going after Rey’s father originally in her backstory to smooth over some weird details.

Hopefully everyone is caught up now lol 😉