Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker says that Rey is the granddaughter of Sheev Palpatine. It turns out that makes less sense than any story item found in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

The assumption that Rey is the granddaughter of Palpatine doesn’t necessarily invite any problems story-wise. That assumption is that Palpatine biologically had a child (that is kind of weird but was possible) that then biologically gave birth to Rey.

Rey’s Relationship With Palpatine and the Novelization

The novelization of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker says that Rey’s father was a failed clone of Palpatine. It made Rey as Sheev Palpatine’s granddaughter make less sense than any story item found in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. (credit: Disney, Random House Publishing Group via CBR.com)

In The Rise of Skywalker, it was assumed that Rey was Palpatine’s granddaughter biologically. But then the novelization of The Rise of Skywalker by Rae Carson was released. The book says that didn’t happen. Instead, Rey’s father was a failed clone of Palpatine, as the novelization says.

So Rey isn’t actually Palpatine’s granddaughter at all.

Thus, saying that Rey is Palpatine’s granddaughter makes no sense. And thus, it makes less sense than any story item found in The Last Jedi.

The Rey-Palpatine Question and The Last Jedi Story Items

In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Snoke dies when viewers may have been hoping to know who Snoke was, but not answering that question doesn’t mean the story item doesn’t make sense. (credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

In The Last Jedi, viewers may have wanted to know who Snoke was or that Rey had parents who were somebody familiar (including Luke Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi). But not answering questions doesn’t not make sense. It’s just frustrating. Even Rey’s experience in The Last Jedi of seeing reflections of herself only and not her parents is at worst an isolated scene that doesn’t connect to the rest of the story of the Star Wars sequel trilogy or broader Skywalker saga. But it doesn’t not make sense. It’s just frustrating.

It’s too bad that the novelization had to come along and muck up the story item as stated in The Rise of Skywalker of Rey being Palpatine’s granddaughter. I was shocked in the best way (that of awe) when Kylo Ren tells Rey in the film that Palpatine is her grandfather. But then I found out that the book said that Rey’s father was a failed clone of Palpatine and thus, Rey isn’t Palpatine’s granddaughter at all. This became the story item from Star Wars that I perhaps dislike more than anything. (And there is hardly anything about the Star Wars story that I dislike.)

What do you think? Did it make sense for Disney to say that Rey was the granddaughter of Palpatine when her father was a failed clone of the Sith Lord? Does this make less sense than any story item in The Last Jedi? Comment below!

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