Lit Books Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker novelization by Rae Carson

The epilogue from the junior novelization has been posted, and is a lovely summation of the saga.

 

Not a bad summary, overall. But does skirt over the whole Balance and Chosen One angle quite a bit (and if Anakin, with Luke, should have been more directly involved in the final face off with Palpatine or not)

 

Would love snippets of the Battle of Exegol, if any.

 

I wouldn't say that's the job of a junior novelization.

 

So re-reading the Novelization, so Luke apparently knew that Palpatine was obsessed with immortally because of Darth Plagueis, think Force Ghost Anakin told him that?

Also I wonder what other threads Lucasfilm will take from the Novelization, since Storygroup tends to use these to fill in gaps or tie it in a bit better with the wider EU on the whole.

 

Just a heads up for any uk fans out there the film novel is currently 99p on the kindle store.

 

I already have the physical book but thanks!

 

We know Luke eventually looks for Exegol with Lando, I defiantly wanna see that story and WHY he was looking for Exegol.

 

also why with Lando, no offence Lando, but why you?

 

Well that's why I want the story so I can find out about it ;p

 

Because the writers couldn't figure out what Lando was doing until TROS.

 

I would like Lando as president of the galaxy.

 

He's off reuniting surviving ex-First Order Stormtroopers with their families alongside Jannah. Maybe even looking for his daughter and working with Chewie in that regard, who likely has returned to Kashyyyk to pick up his missus and kids (surely he'd have more kids than Lumpawarrump by 35 ABY).

 

I must say, this novelization did clear up many of the confusing parts of TROS.

• Sidious created the First Order and created Snoke to lead it, as his puppet
• All of Kylo's trials and pitfalls have been Sidious's doing. Ben Solo's fall was all his doing.
• Snoke wasn't Sidious's only agent within the First Order leadership. General Pryde was also his pawn, arranging for resources and crews to be funneled off to Exegol for years.
• Once Kylo turned away from the First Order on Kef Bir, Pryde assumed command, allowing Sidious to resume control over the other half of his Dark Empire
• Sidious survived Endor by transferring his spirit into a clone body, which he had prepared years ago
• Plagueis's secret to immortality was Essence Transfer, which Palpatine was in fact able to pilfer before his death
• Kylo hadn't seen the Knights of Ren in years, before reconvening them on the Night Buzzard to witness the reforging of his helmet. He isn't sure if they'll still serve him after so much time apart, but they assure him that his deeds on Minemoon still afford him the right to lead them. This foreshadows their betrayal on Exegol, as their true Master has always been Palpatine, and they only serve Kylo at Sidious's command.

All these little tidbits help weave the tapestry that Palpatine's Grand Plan after his resurrection:

• Build the First Order to be his advance force and decoy for his eventual return to power
• Build the Final Order to be the backstop to the advance force and the method of his total conquest
• Seduce the grandson of Skywalker to be his new apprentice and use him to destroy the New Jedi Order
• Secure a permanent vessel for his spirit by capturing his granddaughter

All of these schemes go according to plan except for the last one, which is why Sidious has a primary, secondary and tertiary plan in TROS:

• Have Kylo Ren kill Rey and thus extinguish the last spark of light in him. Then, have Kylo kill Sidious and possess the last Skywalker, thus acquiring a new host body

When this plan fails, he executes his backup plan, which involves possessing Rey as he had originally intended when he had Ochi attempt to kidnap her. When Rey refuses to strike him down, thanks to the redeemed Ben's timely arrival, Sidious reverts to Plan C and proceeds to drain their life force. He probably didn't expect a full rejuvenation, but enough energy to keep his body going for a while longer. Once the Galaxy was his, he could deploy his minions to seek out other powerful host bodies. But the discovery of the dyad results in an unexpected boon-the complete rejuvenation of his clone body, returning him to his prime.

We'll never know if the return of Sidious was always the plan or not, but all these details make his survival and subsequent decades of scheming from the shadows extremely plausible to me. Anakin wasn't able to permanently end the Sith or Sidious. His real accomplishment was saving his son. The task of putting a final end to the Sith would rest with another.

 

Hey Palptine, Valkorin called he wants his plan back

https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Eternal_Empire

I mean aside from being worse this is a beat for beat rip off of Knight of the Fallen Empire.

While I felt that was always what Vader intended, to save his son, the fact is the prohpecy of the choosen one is ver specific in canon, it mentions a male and ending the Sith, which means either 1, the prophecy was nothing and never was, 2. it was overturned when Anakin fell or 3. it hasn't happened yet meaning Palpatine and the Sith aren't gone yet.

 

And yet feels more true to Star Wars then Knights of the Fallen Empire ever did

 

Sometimes I'm confused because obviously the only thing wrong with KOTFE is that there wasn't MORE of it.

 

The Sith Fleet is quite similar to Darth Krayt’s Sith Annihilators. As is Sidious’s return, when everyone thought he was dead. Krayt did the same thing. Even the whole “strike me down and my spirit shall pass on unto you” is reminiscent of Krayt goading Cade Skywalker to kill him.

 

I love Jenny Nicholson's review of it. Mostly because I love her hat and think of her as General Hux's kid sister, Ginny Hux.

 

Yes it has happened before (KOTFE was called a rip off dark empire when it first came out), but I was specifically referring to the 'steal from one empire to build up the secret one' which is the relationship between the SWTOR Sith Empire and the Eternal Empire.

It was worse though, and I say this as some who like dark empire and TRoS (KOTFE I am mixed on and when legacy did this I had checked out already so I just found it eye-roll worthy, say what you like about Palps parking under ice it still makes more sense than hiding 2 secret forces on the same planet).

The reveal of the secret forces, I feel should, in some way change the nature of the conflict, this is what happens in DE and KOTFE, but it doesn't in TRoS, thus I feel it was done worse. Nothing changes after the reveal. In KOTFE EVERYTHING changes after the reveal.

I really like the idea of a secret Sith Cult in control of major parts of the galactic economy, but they don't do anything with that.

 

See and to me KOTFE feels like it's just it's own franchise with the Star Wars label on it without any of the ethos or thematics that are true to Star Wars, which I label a lot of the worse of the EU.

 

Interesting, KOTFE/EE does try it's own themes so I see your point here. But more generally what do you think are the ethos and thematics are true to Star Wars? And do you think TRoS (and the ST in general) keeps or builds on them?