I know a lot of you are out seeing Star Wars – The Rise of Skywalker right now, but I’m not, ’cause my wife is working tonight. We’re going after work tomorrow evening. So, anything I say here is based on pure speculation and instinct, not anything the movie reveals (or may reveal — at this point, I don’t know).
I’ve also avoided watching trailers in recent months, as they tend to give away more than I want. If I don’t run into it in the theater going to other movies, I don’t watch it.
Prepping for the new film, my wife and I took a page from our friend Christopher Mihm and decided to rewatch the original movies in Continuity Order, rather than the order in which they were released (my preferred method). It’s been a fun way to do it, and during the re-watch of Revenge of the Sith, I noticed something that had passed right by me all the other times I’d seen the film.
Palpatine is telling Anakin a “myth” about a Sith Lord who had the power to keep those he loved from dying. It’s implied that this “undying” Lord was perhaps Palpatine’s predecessor — or maybe even Palpatine talking about himself (and making up the story about that master’s student killing him).
That’s stuff we remembered and probably everybody knows. But right BEFORE that, the first thing Palpatine says in that speech is that this Sith Lord could use midichlorians to CREATE life.
And suddenly, it clicked in my mind and I blurted, “OMG. I think he just said that either he or his late master used the Dark Side of the Force to create Anakin!” (That annoying “virgin birth” thing from Ep.1.) And if they did that, clearly that Sith and his master could have also created this “Balance the Force” myth, which even the Jedi seem to have fallen into believing. (Though what the hell does that mean? And why would the “good guys” even want “balance” when they’ve got the bad guys whipped?)
Maybe my wife and I are just hermits, but neither of us had ever heard anyone mention ANY of this before.
But, now we’re hoping that maybe Rian Johnson and crew either got that info from George or worked it out on their own and maybe it will come to fruition in this final film.
“Yes, I created Vader by ‘virgin birth’ so I could destroy the Jedi and rule the galaxy!”
Because Palpatine also seemed to say that this former Sith Lord — or maybe himself — was immortal. So, maybe he’ll be back.
And maybe that hideous face Palpatine transforms into at the end of SITH is his ACTUAL face, as the immortal evil guy, and not the result of his battles with the Jedi. (This also occurred to us in the same viewing.) The Palpatine face was just a disguise for a much older evil.
It also occurred to me last night that maybe Rey was also created by manipulation of the Force in the same way Vader was — perhaps by the good guys, or perhaps as some side-effect of what’s going on with Ben Solo/Kylo Ren and the Dark Side Force of the undead Emperor.
Though it’s also possible that Rey is a second child from Anakin’s mother, or the child of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru, or even a 2nd child of Leia and Han who was given up for adoption because the marriage fell apart. Or something.
But I don’t think we really have enough to go on about Rey’s heritage before the new film, which I assume will reveal all.
Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see if any of the Vader was literally created from birth by Palpatine stuff is picked up for the finale. Which we will be seeing tomorrow night (12/20/2019).
And if somehow you have inside info — NO SPOILERS! Only speculation based on previous films allowed in the comments until everyone’s gotten to see the new flick!