Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Confirmed Palpatine Was Darth Plagueis

Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

One of the more surprising twists of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker may have also been one of its subtle changes to Star Wars canon as Emperor Palpatine totally shatters our conception of the Sith Rule of Two, suggesting he is actually the spirit of Darth Plagueis and all past Sith before him by telling Rey to strike him down in anger so he can inhabit her body.

It's not the first time Palpatine has told someone to strike him down in anger, he said the same thing to Luke in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, and now we know why, and the answer goes back to everyone's favorite prequel scene: the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise. As Palpatine is tempting Anakin to the dark side, he lures him in with the promise of the powers to save people from dying, particularly Padme.

In the Sith legend, Plagueis learned to manipulate midichlorians and create or preserve life. Palpatine chuckles at the irony of this discovery as he says Plagueis couldn't save himself because his apprentice killed him in his sleep. Although thanks to this new revelation in The Rise of Skywalker, the irony Palpatine speaks of is the fact that Plagueis's spirit possessed his apprentice when he died. That apprentice would have been Darth Sidious, AKA Sheev Palpatine.

The Rise of Skywalker Recontextualizes the Rule of Two

The biggest impact of this new information is it reveals the Sith Rule of Two was a lie. It's always been positioned as an apprentice overcoming their master, but now we know it was actually the master stealing the body of the apprentice. The Sith's selfish and dominating nature prevented them from surrendering to the Force to pass on and become Force ghosts, so this seems to be their alternative attempt at immortality.

The Rule of Two was first established by Darth Bane after the Sith nearly wiped themselves out due to infighting during the Jedi Sith War thousands of years before the Star Wars prequels. The lie that the apprentice is taking the place of the master would have allowed masters to seek out powerful apprentices without fear of actually losing their power, using the Sith's selfish nature against themselves so that when they strike down their master, they are really only extending the master's life.

Palpatine's Body Was Taken Over by a Much Older Sith

If the Sith Master's essence is taking over the apprentice with each cycle of the Rule of Two, that would mean Darth Bane passed his essence on from generation to generation, and, therefore it's more than likely Palpatine himself is actually Darth Bane. He does indicate he may actually be an amalgamation of all prior Sith, although based on Palpatine's words to Rey, suggesting he would be overcoming her, the original master of the Rule of Two, Bane, would be in the driver's seat.

The only caveat to this is a question of whether or not any Sith apprentice along the way was clever enough to decipher the trickery of the Rule of Two and reverse this fate. Palpatine says the irony of Darth Plagueis is that his apprentice killed him in his sleep, preventing him from using the power. Given, the context here may betray his intent, as he hopes to make Anakin his own apprentice, so it wouldn't make sense for him to give away the fatal flaw in the Rule of Two. The more logical explanation is Palpatine was planting a seed in Anakin for the eventuality that after he became Palpatine's apprentice he'd try to strike down his master.

The Rule of Two Twist Reveals Palpatine's Ultimate Plan

Much has been made of Palpatine's true plan. He's been conducting arcane experiments and researching new technologies and exploring new regions of space and uncovering ancient artifacts for decades at least. Much of it culminated in the battle at Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker, but that may have been a fallback, as he almost accomplished a much more devious plan - becoming The One.

Palpatine started grooming Anakin Skywalker from the day he met him, planing a sense of pride in him and sowing seeds of distrust against the Jedi. Eventually, he'd turn Anakin into his apprentice, presumably with the intent of one day becoming him and claiming his power as his own. Since Anakin was The One, it's not clear what the implications of this action would have been or how the Force would have reacted to try and maintain balance against Palpatine, but claiming Anakin's power for his own certainly would seem like a checkmate move on the rest of the galaxy.

Instead, Obi-Wan Kenobi defeated Anakin at Mustafar, diminishing his potential. While the mechanical Vader was still a powerful Sith and a worth enforcer for Palpatine, his body was so broken that it had little value to the Sith Master. He started looking for alternate apprentices, as shown in Kieron Gillen's Vader comics. Eventually, an even better solution presented itself - Luke Skywalker. On the second Death Star, Palpatine also tempted Luke to strike him down with all of his anger, only to be stopped by Darth Vader.

Palpatine expected Luke to defeat Vader and stand at his side, providing a worthy new apprentice to one day consume as a part of the Rule of Two, but Luke threw down his saber and refused to fight and Vader threw Palpatine down the reactor shaft in an act of sacrifice, breaking the chain of the Rule of Two. Obviously, Palpatine gets another shot with his own granddaughter and a third generation of Skywalker in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker with Rey and Ben, but she's able to overcome him to use both Luke and Leia Skywalker's lightsabers to turn his own Force lightning against him, killing him without giving him a way to live on.

NEXT: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's Ending Explained (& What Happens Next)