ST Rey should have joined the dark side and become Empress.

That would have been a much better ending for The Rise of Skywalker. The ending was underwhelming and cliché. As for the title, it didn’t make sense. She wasn’t a Skywalker, and she didn’t rise to power. After taking the throne, she should have crushed the resistance and conquered the galaxy. In The Last Jedi, they were building up Rey’s dark side persona, and then they dropped it.

 

Agreed. She was far more interesting. Those teeth!

 

Well if his exulted one hadn’t told his granddaughter of his plan maybe it would’ve happened; but no again his overconfidence was his downfall once again.

 

If Sheev sent a clone-thing like Snoke to manipulate Ben Solo.

Why didn’t he send a clone-thing to manipulate Rey?

Either during those 15 years on Jakku. Or later with the Resistance.

 

I agree that doing something non-safe would have been interesting. Either Rey on the Dark Side or leaving Kylo dark.

 

I think there's an interesting idea in starting the trilogy with Rey, the daughter and/or granddaughter of Palpatine, ruling the remnants of the Empire, the First Order, a legacy of Palpatine...

And Ben Solo, fighting against the evil First Order, in the legacy of his parents.

And over the course of the trilogy Ben becomes darker and Rey turns away from the darkness.

Them finding themselves on opposite sides at first (Rey as a villain, Ben as a heroic character). In the middle movie them having middle ground and working together as Rey begins to see heroism and Ben becomes tempted by villainy, this being where, in theory, a romance could be constructed. And then ending the trilogy with them on opposite sides again, only now, different (Rey as a heroic character, Ben as a villain).

 

@cerealbox
Luke had to be dealt with first. That was the reason behind weaponizing Ben. Then Snoke.

As for Rey, there was no need of manipulating her. A moment of hate/anger on her part in the worst posible moment was all Palpatine needed. That's how the possession ritual works, presumably.

 

I kinda felt after all this I wish they hadn't ended the Saga, and left room for one more trilogy...

10 years after the end of TROS, Empress Palpatine rules the Galaxy with the might of the Final Order. But there has always been an internal struggle, both Sheev and Rey occupying the same body. But slowly over time Sheev takes over more and more.

Meanwhile, Ben Solo has joined the new Rebellion against this tyranny. He hides in plain sight amongst the others, almost constantly masked under a new identity as a powerful Force user. Only Finn and Maz know who he really is ( Finn being Force Sensitive has felt him, but also felt he is Ben not Kylo, and as apprehensive as he is, he knows they need his help). He has constant support from both Luke and Leia's Force Ghosts, as they are now attempting to help what they feel were the ways they failed him. But deep inside due to the Dyad Ben can still feel the good of Rey within the Empress,and holds out the hope he can bring her out of the Darkness and expell Sheev.

Threads that can be used throughout this new trilogy :

- Poe's reaction and feeling of betrayal by Finn when he finds out Ben is among them.
- deeper thoughts into the Force and what is the truth of darkness and light
- what true Balance means
- Finn and Janna inspiring more Stormtroopers to leave the FO, as they feel being under the arcane rule of The Sith is not what they signed up for.
- a true rebellion galaxy wide fighting against the FO
- The opportunity for a true final showdown with Ben, Finn,and the Force Ghosts of Leia ,Luke and Anakin vs the might of the Empress and the struggle to remove Rey from Darth Sidious...if there is any of her left at all.
- a way to fully resolve the romantic feeling Ben had and still has for Rey

 

I think that there was a rumour at one point that Rey and Kylo would ultimately switch sides.

 

It would have been great if Rey and Kylo switched sides. If she became the Empress and conquered the galaxy, then that would have left it open for Star Wars 10, 11, and 12. These movies could have been set a thousand years in the future after a millennium of tyranny.

 

Definitely would've preferred that to what we got. As it stands there was just nothing remarkable about TROS's ending, handling of its characters . . . or the film itself, really. Seeing Rey fall would've been amazing!

 

It's a bit surprising that after five Disney films we've yet to see a female dark sider. The Lucas EU had many of them, sometimes trope-ish, but always cool. I think it was important for Rey to end up on the light side so Luke could have a legacy, but dark side Rey would have been interesting. Johnson's "grey Jedi" vibes don't really work imo.

 

I really would have liked to have seen a darker version of Rey.

 

It would've made less money.

 

The only way this could have possibly happened is if Kylo turned to the light and killed her. Ending the saga with the galaxy being thrown into darkness would go against everything Star Wars was ever supposed to be.

 

I wished Rey and Sheev had an actual grandfather/granddaughter relationship mixed with Empress training and grandpa's grudge over her forbidden romance with the Skywokka boy.

 

How about shades of grey?

 

In this case an "Empress Palpatine" would have been nothing more than a gender-swapped Sidious with a different body. Narratively, it would have been interesting if Ben Solo had to sacrifice Rey to kill Palpatine once and for all, but it's easy to see why they didn't do it.

 

That would have been a lovely twisted ending. Too twisted for the mainstream Saga, admittedly.
The Villain of the Trilogy kills the Heroine and saves the Galaxy.
But I like it.

 

On the contrary, what you would have effectively is a rehash, for want of a better word, of Episodes 1, 2 and 3. However, this might require Episodes 10, 11 and 12 to resolve it. I think that the Sequel Trilogy needed to descend from a place of stability though as continuity from Return of the Jedi. It doesn't seem to hang right by jumping straight off into Rebels vs Empire version 2.0 as a follow on from the events of that installment.

 

That would have been so much more interesting than what we got.

I don't agree. There's several ways they could have done this. The First Order could have still been defeated. Palpatine could have still been defeated. However, if that necessitated Rey going to the darkside, it would have both resolved the ST in a way that wasn't so totally predictable, whilst leaving possibilities for future films.

I'd agree that Star Wars should ultimately leave one feeling uplifted/positive, but it's still possible to achieve this as well as having Rey turn 'bad'. If for example, Ben/Kylo had been redeemed (and survived), the film could have ended with him pledging himself to rebuild the Jedi Order and to save Rey. In contrast, Rey could have been left without an Empire/army at her feet, but in a place where she was cognisant of her actions. Perhaps she takes herself off to Moraband to learn the secrets of the Sith in isolation (the inverse of Luke)? IMHO, Abrams pretty much always paints himself into corners within his films, which is why TROS kind of feels like there isn't anywhere to go. Having Rey reject the Jedi would at least open up possibilities for what could have happened next.

 

I think that would have made for a great trilogy. One person coming back to the light but at the expense of the other, who falls to the dark side. With that leaving Ben Solo redeemed and at the same time ending with the first live-action female villain of the saga, it could have been fantastic.

Gotta play it safe and keep those shareholders happy though!

 

I agree if you're going to make another trilogy then there are a lot more possibilities for the ending. But with the whole "this is the end of the Skywalker Saga, for real this time" that they were trying to push, it kinda limits the storytelling options available.

 

no, would just add more failures to Luke's list. Rey is supposed to be his Jedi heir, her going to the darkside would make the OT characters even more irrelevant than they were in the ST.