The Rise of Skywalker Expanded Edition by Rae Carson: The "Tragedy of Vader" Edit (WIP) — Page 2

Do you plan on making this clear, that Rey’s parents threw her away like garbage because she is a Palpatine?

For example…

KYLO REN: They sold you because they saw what you would become/knew who you truly are/(something like that). You don’t just have power, you have his power. You’re his granddaughter. You… are a Palpatine.

For some time I had been leaning towards the idea that her parents threw her away like garbage because she was a Palpatine because it would reinforce her belief that “being a Palpatine = she is inherently worthless” which is debunked by Luke when he reminds her of Leia training her.

Also, I feel part of your idea would imply Rey’s mother loved her, which I feel does undermine her TLJ arc but not as much as the idea of both parents caring for her in the actual TRoS.

I have an idea, have Rey’s mother be a filthy junk trader who hated her as TLJ suggested (yeah, Kylo referred to both parents in that scene, but… yeah).

Jar Jar Bricks said:

This is how I described essence transfer in chapter 1:

"…willing your spirit on death to transfer into the killer. It only worked if the killer was harnessing the dark side and the victim was defenseless. In such a case, the killer’s spirit would be forcibly removed, and the victim, now the offender, would enter into a new host body. "

Now, the reason I HAD to make it this way is because otherwise Palpatine would have no reason at the beginning of the novel to NOT let Kylo kill him. If essence transfer were described in the way that you have it, then Palpatine could possess Kylo at the beginning without any risk whatsoever. He would go and fight Rey, and even if she killed him, he would simply possess her instead.

In that chapter, I placed particular emphasis on Kylo figuring out why Palpatine didn’t simply possess him at first. Under the description provided above, it makes sense. If Kylo’s body, with Palpatine’s spirit possessing it, engaged in a battle against Rey and died abruptly for some reason, Palpatine would both be unable to possess Rey or return to a clone body. So Kylo figures out that the reason he hasn’t possessed him yet is because Palps wants him to do the dirty work of killing her. He also figures that it’s possible he wants them to fight so he can figure out which one of them is more powerful, and therefore a more worthy vessel for him.

EDIT: Should also mention that I discuss how he is in a clone body (a more advanced form of essence transfer with dormant clones). But that isn’t relevant to this conversation.

The idea I had involved, well…

In this version, Palpatine wanted Kylo Ren to be willing to kill him, but Ren is still conflicted, so Palps hopes that by killing Rey, the one other person Ren is close to, it would cement Ren into the dark side and he would become more willing to kill him under his orders without any hesitation, he would not refuse to kill him since he would no longer be held back by his goody-goody feelings.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot Kylo Ren still does evil acts willingly by TRoS…

Try describing how Palpatine KNEW Kylo Ren was conflicted and hoped for his killing of Rey to further him into the dark side in a way he would be willing to kill him and allow his spirit to take over his body.

Now I’m thinking that what I described about Palps’ knowledge of Ren’s confliction is implied by this line, “The Jedi apprentice still lives. Perhaps you have betrayed me. Do not make me turn my fleet against you.”

Try removing Finn’s Force-sensitivity and making Jannah be the one who’s Force-sensitive (to preserve how they sense the thing on Exegol which would further result in destroying the Final Order). Finn being Force-sensitive makes him less special, in TFA and TLJ he’s just some average Joe who learns to stop running away and start fighting for the cause.

I know in the actual TRoS it is there as a way of reinforcing Finn’s attachment to Rey (he wants to tell her he’s Force-sensitive, which is a way of reinforcing his attachment; his arc is that he learns to move on from Rey, and once he does he’s no longer going to tell her he’s Force-sensitive), but try finding other ways to reinforce his attachment to Rey, he can still try to tell her something and he can still stop doing this after he moves on from her.

Well, this sounds interesting! Even if I’m already invested in Faraday’s vision, I would gladly check out yours too! The idea of tying everything back to Anakin is very appealing to me.

A brief question (before I start reading your drafts), does Rey remain a Palpatine in this edition? It would be a nice balance if her ascendancy was kept the same, but her parents were terrible people anyways.

Knight of Kalee said:

Well, this sounds interesting! Even if I’m already invested in Faraday’s vision, I would gladly check out yours too! The idea of tying everything back to Anakin is very appealing to me.

I don’t think there will ever be a definitive rewrite, since they’re all personal to the writer, but I think that is what makes having different rewrites cool. It’s just fun to imagine all the different ways the Saga could’ve ended.

While I don’t like Rey Palpatine, I think it is cool to try to find a way to make it work better. Might as well, since it’s canon, right? I’m glad you’re going with her parents being bad people. I do think it is still a bit contrived to try and explain that Ochi demanded to know where Rey is, but they wouldn’t tell him out of spite. I guess that makes sense, but I think they would rat her out at the threat of death, if they were willing to sell her for drinking money. Her value is zero when it comes to their own satisfaction.

That might be one benefit of Rey killing her parents. Ochi would probably think Rey died too in the crash, if Rey zapped their ship. Or, maybe Ochi and Palpatine knew where Rey was all along, and because he felt her being raised in a harsh, survivalist environment would make her a more worthy successor/vessel than her father, who could’ve been raised and spoiled on Exegol since he was the “son” of the Emperor. Her being left there on purpose by Palpatine would be a good reason to hate him, in lieu of her parents not being good people that he killed anymore. We can even see Rey’s parents rat out her whereabouts, but Ochi kills them anyway because he doesn’t care. She is exactly where Palpatine wants her to be. They just want them out of the picture.

But I think what you’ve written is definitely better than the theatrical version at least. Plus, it still sticks closely with what is in the film.

So RogueLeader proposed the idea of Rey’s parents exposing her location to Ochi… I feel as though I have to disagree.

The idea is that the father absolutely despises Palpatine and he would be familiar with how he wants another Force-sensitive in order for the Sith ritual to work, so while he’s throwing Rey away like garbage because of her Force-sensitivity and how it reminds him of his past, he is doing this to piss off Palps and ensure he rots in his failing clone body.

I also don’t see how Ochi interrogating Rey’s parents for her location is contrived? He sure as hell doesn’t know where she is and hopes to find her and bring her to Palps.

Or, maybe Ochi and Palpatine knew where Rey was all along, and because he felt her being raised in a harsh, survivalist environment would make her a more worthy successor/vessel than her father, who could’ve been raised and spoiled on Exegol since he was the “son” of the Emperor.

Then that would undermine Palpatine’s decision to turn Ben Solo to the dark side and have him become Kylo Ren.

@JJB Once you begin doing a TLJ novel edit, do you have any plans to make the way I see Rey’s TLJ arc clear so there wouldn’t be any misconceptions of it being a “Rey wants to find her place in all this” kind of thing?

Below:

In The Last Jedi, Rey refuses to accept the truth that her parents threw her away like garbage — even going as far as denying this when Kylo Ren taunts her during one of their conversations —, instead having lied to herself for the past several years of her life that they truly cared for her, that she was worth something to them, that she was abandoned for some important reason which would “show” that her parents cared for her, reinforcing this lie as a way of ensuring it would not perish — henceforth helping her feel happy and thus pushing away her feelings of self-worthlessness.

Rey, however, is unsure as to what that “importance” exactly is, and thus hopes that if she does find out she is important then it would “show” that her parents loved her and abandoned her to, say, hide her in an act of protection.

It is, for this reason, she, for so long, has wanted to find out as to who her parents were, hoping to infer as to what her “importance” is, only so she would use it to reinforce her lie — and why she hoped for Luke to show her this “importance,” hoping to use that importance to justify her parents abandoning her; however, when Luke refused, she goes into the mirror cave, hoping for it to show her parents to her — by seeing her parents, she would get to see who they exactly were, and, in turn, infer as to what her “importance” exactly is, judging their appearances.

In the throne room aboard the Supremacy, Kylo Ren manipulates her into admitting the truth — in that moment, she begins to refuse her lie, coming to terms with the truth that her parents had no true reason for abandoning her, that they hated her, seeing her as nothing but a worthless piece of junk.

(At this point, Rey admits her parents were “nobody,” in the sense they had no important reason to abandon her, instead discarding her as though she is completely worthless; she has “no place in this story” in the sense that, again, her parents did not abandon her because she was of some “importance” and loved her, they abandoned her because, to them, she is worthless.)

Because of this, she overcomes her “need” for her parents — the ones who birthed her —, and begins to move on from and stop caring for them altogether — hence why she seems happy and unaffected during the Battle of Crait in the film’s climax; now, with no other option, with Luke having rejected her, with Kylo Ren being the bad guy, with Han Solo now dead, with her parents having thrown her away like garbage, she attaches herself to the Resistance, relying on them for validation.