ST What Do You Think Of The Rey Palpatine Reveal?

I don't like it. It's a cheap move. Lazy writing. It's a big retcon of TLJ. It appears clear to me that they made the story up as they made each film instead of having a grand plan. They get to the last movie and realize the story is so disconnected that they just HAD to have her be related to some main character to make it seem like they weren't just making stuff up as they go (which they clearly were). Now all of a sudden Palpatine survived ROTJ and created Snoke. Poor storytelling through and through.

 

A flat reveal. It's poorly built up and they do nothing interesting with it. It's a less interesting version of the Empire twist.

 

I liked it. Rey being descended from the most evil dark lord of all time but ultimately choosing to reject him and everything he stands for strikes at the heart of what Star Wars has always been about.

 

I can tell you are a real fan because you use Palpatine's 1st name. As a real fan, did you not notice The Emperor's theme play in TLJ when Snoke was "forcing" information out of Rey? Seems like a BIG hint to me....

 

What better way to bring balance to the Force than for the spawn of all evil to be the one who returns the light? It makes Palpatines evil more mortal and human too, he’s not some demon, he’s a regular life form who turned to the dark side. It would have been cheesy to actually redeem him but redeeming his bloodline is the next best thing in terms of victory for the light side.

I like that Rey had his power so they are basically equal but by finally overcoming her fear of herself and finally being able to connect with all the Jedi who inspired her, she was able to get up and face Palpatine. He attacks her, dark side is offensive and aggressive and Rey is light side, defensive and compassionate so basically Palpatine destroys himself, the dark side consumes all, hatred, revenge, clinging to life through fear of death, power is just an endless cycle.

No it does not undo Anakins sacrifice. I grew up with ROTJ and the ending is the most beautiful thing ever for me but cmon, just because Anakin destroys Palpatine doesn’t mean that the universe lives in perpetual peace and happiness forever and ever and ever. This saga is all about free will and choices and generations and legacy. Since Ben turned to the dark side it upset the balance once again.

 

Hated it, it felt very shoehorned in and lacked any drama because Palpatine hadn’t shown up till now and clearly was never intended to be in this film prior to JJ getting the call from KK.

 

The whole Palpatine thing felt so tacked on. Snoke, and Kylo built up..nope Palps all along. Lazy.

The reveal got a few noticeable groans and chuckles from the audience when I saw it.

 

Rey Palpatine was a cop out and a poorly executed one at that.

 

In theory, I like it. I think it had good potential as a possibility, but the build up to it needed to be there earlier in the story. Probably back in TFA which didn't want to commit to anything.

Now, I still need an explanation of why/how Palpatine had a son.

 

Buy the book, I guess.

 

Helps to explain why she was so powerful, which was one of the largest complaints of the ST by some fans.

I never needed any explanation for her powers, but it is cool to have one, so we don't need to have to discuss how she was so powerful without training, and so on.

Although anyone can have the Force, there is definitely a family component that is passed through generations, so this is good enough for me.

I get the message that anyone can have the Force. Finn is Force Sensitive. Jannah and her entire compary were influenced by the Force as well. Broom Boy can use the Force.

Spoiler

There is a certain baby that also can use the Force.

So, I am ok with both messages: anyone can have the Force, but if you have a family strong in the Force, you have a head start on it, but you still need training to know how to control the Force in critical scenarios.

Rey was not able to control her hatred and shot that transport with lightning. Also, she fought with Kylo and lost due to her being exhausted due to fighting without controlling her energy. This is where a more trained Jedi would have not failed.

Palpatine had a son probably via scientific methods, not by actually doing *that*...

 

Rey Palpatine happened because RJ chose to have the half-reveal that Rey was a nobody and because he killed Luke. That's also why Rey adopted the Skywalker name. Even people involved with making TFA and TROS have strongly hinted that Rey was meant to be a Skywalker before TLJ took a left turn, including the editor of those films and one of JJ's best friends.

 

Worst decision among a plethora of horrible decisions.

 

I'd rather she was a clone of Luke's severed hand. (I'm not serious).

 

Rey Kenobi would have been a better choice IMO. Obi Wan trained Luke and led him in his first steps into the Force...."take your first steps" are also the words Obi Wan uses in TFA...and then Luke trains the descendant of his former Master. This completes the circle.

And then they do a series about Kenobi in Disney+ to explore all his backstory, including how Obi Want discovers he has a son/daughter from a pre-jedi relationship, and tries to find clues about the location, but cannot leave Luke unnattended, etc, etc

 

People in my theater laughed when Kylo said "You're Palpatine's granddaughter." It came off as "your grandfather was my grandfather's second cousin twice removed's neighbor." It just fell flat as a reveal.

What was also ridiculous was that Kylo was like, "I know your story!" Then there's no follow up on Rey trying to solve the pieces to the puzzle only for Kylo to just then tell her the next time they have yet another boring exposition conversation. The explanations just weighed down the plot and had zero implications. Palpatine is her grandfather but wants her killed? What's the point of her being the granddaughter? He'd probably want her killed anyway if she was Rey Random? More so if she was a real Skywalker? Was the implication that Rey's concerned that she can shoot force lightning and was tempted by the darkside? Hmmmm....where have I seen that before? That struggle couldn't possibly take place with anyone other than a Palpatine. RME

 

I'm just glad the Rey Randoms got put in their place.

 

I'm glad Rey isn't a random. I'm glad she's connected deeply to the story.

The scene where Kylo Ren reveals "You're a Palpatine" is awful, though. It needed way better writing. It comes off flat and forced and just weird.

 

I can't say I like Rey Palpatine as an idea, but I did feel like based on what he had to work with, JJ made the right call. Starting from scratch, it didn't need to happen. After TLJ, they needed to do it in order to salvage the ST. And it worked pretty well. Cheesy? Yes. Convoluted? Yes. But it did work, so I'm okay with it at this point.

 

Mixed feelings. It could have been a powerful engine in the right hands. 2012, Kennedy assembles qualified writers who know the material, and have sturdy, helpful guard rails from Story Group. Palpatine himself does not return in any way as his own consciousness. Lucas Continuity OT ESB provides the seed values to postulate that Sith spirits are tenacious, and can alter the present very locally, but do not have galaxy spanning plans of domination or ridiculous CGI clown car minions.

But Rey, as a descendant of a guy who knew how to get into people minds, knew how to exploit their biases, knew how to allow them to think that he had said what they had wanted, knew how to stay under a broad sweeping radar for poignant or piquant evil, and just quietly bide time. A lot could have been done with that. THREE MOVIES could have been done with a hero (we know she's a hero) who has a task even more complicated than Luke's - thread a needle of environmental effects and hereditary proclivity, without even the benefit or assurance that the ancestor who caused the worst had ever been a decent person. Have her grapple with that in deep, paced, dramatic interactions with the panoply of Force Ghosts on tap, whose living lives conferred upon them unique but complementary viewpoints on what it takes to continually combat the slide into the quicker, easier path of expedience. Rey Palpatine, done remotely correctly, could have increased exponentially the challenge level that Luke faced, and that would have been a way to justify the existence of Di$ney'$ $hareholder$' corporate de$ire to revi$it the case that was closed in 1983.

Additional torque could be generated by some select persons knowing who Rey is, and all the rest not knowing, including Rey herself. The theoretical maximum torque I imagined would be along the lines of Han, Leia and Luke all knowing that this was the descendant of Palpatine, but Han and Leia treating her as their own nebulously defined relative, a niece maybe, -because she could pass for being a relative-, and so there is a built up set of deceptions upon her, for everyone's good they hope, that, once discovered, have consequences. Rey never does turn evil capital E, but, her trajectory tracks a path that veers very close to the edge in the way that Luke's depiction in the OT was convincing enough that you could not know that he would avoid the same fate as his father.

A Rey Palpatine would be a good test bed for very subtle, obscure Force powers that would nicely echo the kinds of political legerdemain that Senator Palpatine got up to. There are a lot of places such a setup could have gone. The whole thing collapses like a flan in a cupboard because of the unbaked, unprepared, unappetizing, obviously desperate hail Mary of the Emperor poking his head in again.

 

It was very corny. I could hear Adam Driver dying inside as he said those words .

 

As far as I'm concerned it was the nail in the coffin of the ST, as both a story (thematically/narratively) and a set of films, that could work with (let alone compete with) the OT and PT, to actually make the the Star Wars galaxy richer and expand the premise. Ironically (IMHO) Palpatine, and Rey's heritage, has only worked to separate the sequels completely from the previous 6 movies, rather than it being the cohesive, organic extension that it should have been. What a pity. What a waste.

 

I saw the film on the day of its release and have barely stopped laughing hysterically since.

Of the innumerable, utterly inane decisions taken to try and make this film something recognisably SW to most of the audience, they decided that the best parental reveal for Rey would also be the silliest (OK Rey Kenobi would have been even sillier, but I'll let that one go...)

It is abundantly clear that the intention in TFA, and in the build up to that film was for Rey Skywalker, biologically, not, 'I'll just nick that name for myself because... plot.'

Bringing Palpatine back, as I've said before, undermined the ending of ROTJ, had no logical context in and of itself, and led to a cascade of ever more stupid ideas; Rey Palpatine being the most unforgivable.

If they wanted her to come from darkness and be a beacon of light or whatever TF, then Skywalker made more sense. Vader was a Skywalker; Luke teetered on the edge of the DS; Ben actually fell to the DS. How much bloody darker a family do you need? Palpatine wasn't a 'house', he was one man.

The obvious tie here was to have the bond of siblings ultimately destroying the pointless plot contrivance of Palps' return; there's your bloody Force dyad...

Bringing back Palps was idiotic storytelling; the Rey Palpatine reveal carried no emotional weight; Palps changing his mind as to whether he wanted to kill or be killed by his granddaughter, I mean make your bloody mind up...; plus the reveal ended up transforming this into the Palpatine saga; the Skywalkers were ultimately witless pawns who came and went, and are now extinct.

Satisfying is hardly the word I would use.

 

Mah dude.

 

I like a sith in the film as that is so deeply connected to the Skywalker saga as a whole. It being Palps is ok too but him being Rey's grandpa is too much for me. It doesn't help the story all that much either since they really don't explain him. All in all it didn't work out that great sorta like a lot of things in the ST.