Fans who managed to purchase the novelization of the ninth episode of Star Wars said that the novel describes how Palpatine actually survived – the film itself did not give an answer to this question.
It turns out that the matter is really in the clone, which has become a vessel for the spirit of the Sith Lord. The spirit was so powerful that it destroyed and aged the vessel.
This revelation was just the beginning! Fans continued to study the novel and find new answers to questions to “The Rise of Skywalker”. For instance, now it became known that Rei’s father is one of Palpatine’s failed clones.
The book reveals the scene on Exegol when Rei tries to trick the Emperor during the performance of the Sith ritual. In its course, the secrets of Palpatine’s past and the episode with his “death” are revealed to her. In fact, the powerful Sith Lord tried to transfer his consciousness to the finished clone body. But the move was unsuccessful, and the Sith minister, who at that moment was next to the prepared body, decided to take another clone. The first attempt in the novel was described as a “useless and powerless failure”, which, moreover, led to defects in the appearance of the first clone. As a result, the Emperor’s consciousness was moved to a more suitable body, and this first clone in the end … became Rei’s father.
This partly explains why Palpatine hunted the heroine’s parents so eagerly. And at the same time, it answers the question of who the alleged woman Shiva, Rei’s grandmother, was.
However, such an interpretation still raises many questions. Why did Kylo call the Emperor Grandfather Ray? How could a defective clone have children? And in general, do they have the same kind of short life? And what happened to him?
Apparently, we will wait for a novel about the adventures of Father Rei.
