Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: rumor about Palpatine’s first sequence

Warning! Potential spoilers ahead.

JediPaxis, a quite reliable “leaker”, posted an updated and expanded plot summary of the first act of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker on Reddit. Click here to read it in its entirety.

The excepts below are those releated to Darth Sidious and the Sith. According to JediPaxis, Palpatine claims that he’s not a clone and that he survived his fall in the second Death Star. If that’s true, then Anakin Skywalker never destroyed the Sith, not even physically. Will he still be the Chosen One in the current canon?

“[…] ACT I

[…] [Forrest planet bathed in red light]

Supreme Leader Kylo Ren has been aware of a dark power behind his predecessor and former master, Snoke. Kylo has been spending his time as leader of the First Order with the purpose of locating this power. Generals Hux and Pryde have been following Kylo around on his quest and are beginning to get very frustrated with what they see as a fool’s errand. They see this as a waste of First Order time and resources. When we catch up with the villains of our story, Kylo is leading an assault on this planet with the purpose of finding Darth Vader’s wayfinder device. The device reveals coordinates within the Unknown Regions and Kylo is confident that this will reveal the source of Snoke’s power. Kylo Ren slaughters his way through the natives and is eventually led to “the oracle” who gives him the wayfinder.

[…] [The Unknown Regions- Exogol]

After obtaining Vader’s device Kylo travels to the place specified by the wayfinder. It takes him to the Unknown Regions and a dead planet of flat, black rock. I previously reported that the planet where Kylo finds Vader’s wayfinder was called Exogol. Since then my understanding has evolved and I’ve been told that this planet actually bears that name. Kylo lands outside a giant cube, floating just above the ground and begins walking toward it. Kylo walks between the cube and the ground and once he reaches the center he discovers an elevator leading down below the planet’s surface. He follows teh lift down and finds an old man, near death and lying in bed and being tended to by cloaked aids. My source believes these aids to be referred to as Sith Loyalists. The old man identifies himself as Darth Sideous. Kylo initially dismisses the old man, knowing that the Emperor had died over 30 years prior over the forest moon of Endor. Feeling that this must be a trick, Kylo claims that there must be some other explanation, such as this man being a clone. My sources specifically tell me that the Palpatine refutes the idea of him being a clone and affirms that he survived his fall. After his defeat at Endor, he left the known galaxy and traveled to the Unknown Regions to rebuild his Empire. Despite his skepticism, Palpatine begins to reel Kylo in and subsequently tells him of something known as a “Force Dyad”. The Force produces two incredibly strong users and when they unite together, both become stronger than either one could be on their own. Palpatine believes Kylo Ren and Rey to be the two halves of this dyad and shares this knowledge with Rey. (Note: I previously wrote that Palpatine wanted them to become “master and apprentice” since then this has been clarified to me as Palpatine seeking the two members of the Dyad) Palpatine claims that he seeks the Dyad because he is weak and dying and he wants the Dyad to rule together once he’s gone. Palpatine orders Kylo to bring Rey to him and turn her so that the Dyad will be a strong, unified force of darkness. Palpatine also reveals that he has been amassing an armada of Star Destroyers equipped with Death Star tech, each one capable of destroying a planet on its own. Generals Hux and Pryde are tasked with rounding up children in large numbers to train and staff his armada.

[…] [Passana]

[…] It is at this point that instead of [the heroes] finding their contact, their contact reveals himself to them after having spotted an old wookiee friend of his out of the crowd. It’s Lando Calrissian.

Greetings and introductions are exchanged Lando tells them of a dagger that may help them find what they seek. Many years prior, Lando and Luke went in search of this dagger that was owned by a Sith loyalist named Ochie (spelling not confirmed). They tracked Ochie to Passana when the trail went cold. When met with the question of why he never left the planet after the search for Ochie and his dagger ended, Lando tells the team that he had a young child at the time of his and Luke’s quest. While they were out searching for the dagger, the First Order stole his child. After having failed to protect his child from the First Order, Lando and Luke parted ways and he stayed on Passana ever since. This story strikes a chord with Finn having been stolen from his own family at an incredibly young age as well. Lando points them in the direction of the last known coordinates of Ochie’s ship, where the trail went cold all those years ago, wishes them luck in succeeding where he failed all those years ago but decides to sit this one out.

Our heroes follow the trail that Lando pointed out to them and eventually they happen upon Ochie’s ship. When Rey sees the ship, it triggers some memories. It’s the same ship that we see leaving Jakku in Rey’s vision from TFA. Before the implications of this can sink in, the ground beneath them gives out and the crew gets sucked below the surface of the sand. They find themselves in a series of underground tunnels where they discover the remains of Ochie and the dagger that Lando and Luke sought after. Rey feels a very strong connection to this weapon, but can’t quite articulate it. The dagger has writing on it in a language that nobody can identify. It’s then handed over to 3PO who identifies the writing as a Sith language, but he reveals that he is unable to translate the writing due to restrictions in his programing. At this time, a plan is made to hack into C-3PO’s programming to bypass the restrictions. Poe mentions that he has an old contact that might be able to help them out. […]”