Star Wars Reveals the Real Reason Palpatine Needed Rey (& That He Was Weaker Than Ever in the Sequels)
Star Wars has finally made it official: Palpatine was weaker than ever before in the prequel trilogy, and that was why he needed Rey. Palpatine may have (somehow) returned in The Rise of Skywalker, but it was immediately clear that his resurrection had left him diminished. The Emperor was stranded on the ancient Sith planet Exegol, attached to a harness that kept him alive. He was desperate for Rey to kill him, hoping to use the dark side power of essence transfer to possess her body had she done so.
Palpatine’s death in Return of the Jedi had clearly cost him dearly. The Sith Eternal had essentially found a cheat code when they resurrected the Emperor on Exegol, but the resurrected Emperor was just a shadow of his former self. Banished to the depths of the Unknown Regions, he had been forced to work only through proxies like Supreme Leader Snoke, reduced to a desperate hope that yet more superweapons would be enough to change the tide of history. Why was Palpatine so very diminished?
A Sith Lord’s Apprentice Is The Key To His Power
Star Wars has recently revealed that a Sith Lord’s apprentice is the key to his power. This is the greatest secret of the Sith Rule of Two, because an apprentice’s lust for power and hatred of their master is the Sith Lord’s fuel. It’s the real reason every Sith Lord takes the gamble of training a potential successor who will one day inevitably attempt to kill them. This shocking revelation is made in Adam Christopher’s “Master of Evil,” which sees Darth Vader enter a dark side vergence where he learns the truth behind the Rule of Two.
“The power of the dark side is the truth, but it is not a truth to be shared. Its secrets are to be gathered, hoarded, kept for the self. That is how it is meant to be. The master’s strength and power come from the anger and fear of his apprentice. The master uses that power, absorbing the resentment, fueling the fire, focusing his power and his grip on the dark side. It is the apprentice that makes the master, not the master the apprentice.”
This is the real reason Anakin Skywalker’s incredible Force potential made him so attractive to Palpatine as an apprentice. The more powerful Anakin became as Darth Vader, coveting his master’s power, the more powerful Palpatine would become in turn. But when Darth Vader did finally turn on his master, it was not because of anger but because of love – not because of the dark side, but because of the light. Darth Vader’s betrayal in Return of the Jedi was victory on a cosmic scale, shattering the Rule of Two. Even resurrected, Palpatine could not simply pick up where he had left off.
Palpatine Never Dared Train Another Apprentice
Looking back through the sequel trilogy, it’s clear that Palpatine never dared seek another apprentice. He successfully manipulated Ben Solo into falling to the dark side, but was careful not to have him trained as a Sith. Even when Palpatine approached Rey, it was with the goal of possessing her rather than teaching her as his apprentice. Until now, we’d generally assumed that Palpatine took this approach because he feared another betrayal, deciding to completely abandon the Sith Rule of Two. But now, because of “Master of Evil,” another possibility changes everything.
When Darth Vader killed his master, it’s possible he completely broke the dark side power of the Rule of Two. The millennia-old Sith line of Darth Bane was well and truly over, its power broken, the dark ties between master and apprentice destroyed, and Palpatine could never again draw on an apprentice’s power. This would neatly explain why the Emperor was so diminished in The Rise of Skywalker; this was Palpatine as we’d never seen him before, vulnerable because he had been denied his fuel.
Palpatine sought another cheat code. Denied the power he craved through the Rule of Two, he only had one other way out; the Sith technique of essence transfer, allowing his spirit to possess the body of another. This was the Force power discovered by his own master, Darth Plagueis, but The Rise of Skywalker hints it only works if the person who kills a Sith has hatred in their hearts when they commit the act. This is why the dying Emperor could not simply possess Darth Vader or Luke in Return of the Jedi, and it’s why Palpatine needed Rey to kill him in anger.
Palpatine Only Became a Threat Because of the Force Dyad
Palpatine did ultimately become a direct threat again, of course, but even then it was because he fed off the power of others. He recognized the sheer potential of Rey and Kylo Ren’s Force Dyad, and drew that power into himself in a twisted mirror of the Sith apprentice bond teased in “Master of Evil.” If the apprentice is traditionally the fuel for the Sith Lord’s fire, then this was the moment when the Emperor found another fuel that could do the job even better.
“Master of Evil” repositions the Sith Lord as something of a predator in the Force, feasting on the potential and power of others. It’s a smart take on Palpatine, explaining why he was so powerful after Anakin Skywalker had fallen to the dark side, but why he was so diminished in The Rise of Skywalker. It also has the virtue of underscoring the importance of Anakin Skywalker’s redemption; because the very act of redemption changed the Force forever. Anakin’s victory was why Palpatine needed Rey so desperately, making Rey the one person who could stop him again.
“Master of Evil” is on sale now, and can be bought on Amazon.
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