Volatile, chaotic, and wielding a fiery blade with righteous fury, Kylo Ren is a unique villain in the Star Wars Universe. Up until the Disney-produced Sequel Trilogy, it had been populated by master manipulators of the dark side, steeped in pursuing the temporary equipoise of power.
Villains like Emperor Palpatine, whose maniacal lust for immortality, was masked with an imperturbable veneer. Ren, on the other hand, wore his tortured malevolence for all the world to see, yet, nevertheless, dominated as the villain of a new era in the franchise.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker saw the two face off after a fashion, but Ren was removed from the climactic duel before he had a chance to show his quality. If he had been given a chance to take on Palpatine properly, there are just as many reasons why he'd emerge the victorious ruler of the galaxy, rather than at the bottom of a pit.
Could Defeat: He's Unpredictable
Kylo Ren is a wildly aggressive, energetic opponent, whose volatile nature makes him an unpredictable threat. He almost never telegraphs his attacks, and his temperament vacillates between uncontrollable rage and stony reserve.
Not even Supreme Leader Snoke, whom Palpatine was controlling from the shadows, could predict Kylo Ren's assassination attempt and subsequent coup. Granted, it was all a grand test, but it confirmed that Ren wouldn't be loyal to Snoke, and should have given Palpatine the hint that he wouldn't be loyal to him either.
Be Destroyed: He Lacks Control
Though he held Darth Vader in the highest esteem, Kylo Ren could never be the symbol of indefatigable discipline that was the Dark Lord of the Sith. Try as he might, he becomes too emotionally connected to his attacks, echoing the capricious man Vader used to be, Anakin Skywalker.
Vader, eventually, managed to channel his emotional outbursts into highly focused attacks, something Ren never quite masters. Overcome by his rage, he often gives into paroxysm, which leaves him vulnerable. During the Battle of Crait, when facing Luke Skywalker, he was so myopic in his assault on his former master that he never detected the entire duel was a rouse.
Could Defeat: He's A Better And More Energetic Swordsman
Palpatine rarely used a lightsaber, preferring to use his oratory skills and the grand Sith tradition of Dun Möch to distract and create doubt in his opponents through open mockery. He aimed to break their spirit before he ever needed to resort to violence, although sometimes it was inevitable, as in the case of Master Yoda and Master Windu.
Kylo Ren is an excellent swordsman despite his penchant for paroxysms and favors a lightsaber form that suits his large build. The crossguard saber style of combat he uses is also something Palpatine would not have encountered, giving Ren the advantage.
Be Destroyed: He's Nearly Been Killed Several Times
After being introduced in Star Wars: The Force Awakens as the man who would inherit Vader's mantle, he possesses little influence as a threat when it's revealed a Wookiee could best him. After his confrontation with Han Solo, Chewbacca nearly fells him with one blast from his bowcaster.
After the assault on Starkiller Base, both Rey, a novice Force adept, and Finn, an ex-stormtrooper, nearly best him in a duel with a lightsaber that neither of them has been trained to use. Rey would go on to nearly kill him with his own lightsaber in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Could Defeat: The Skywalker Bloodline
As the grandson of Anakin Skywalker (on his mother's side), one of the most powerful Force users in the galaxy, Kylo Ren has the appropriate bloodline to destroy Palpatine. It was a redeemed Anakin Skywalker who killed Palpatine the first time, and the same midi-chlorians flow through Ren's veins.
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The Skywalker bloodline is one of the most formidable in the galaxy, precisely because Anakin was created by the midi-chlorians themselves, either through the influence of a Force user tinkering with Sith alchemy, or in direct response to such investigations, made manifest by the Force itself to create balance.
Be Destroyed: Palpatine Has Beaten Multiple Jedi Masters
Before he could declare himself Emperor, Darth Sidious was still forced to conceal his identity from the Jedi Order, but once his machinations were out in the open, the time for skulking in the shadows was over. When Jedi Master Windu came to arrest him for treason, Sidious dueled him to the death. With his incredible Force lightning abilities, he hurled Master Windu from the Chancellor's chambers.
After he had declared himself ruler of the galaxy, Master Yoda went to stop Emperor Palpatine in the Senate chambers. Their duel nearly killed the Jedi Master, whose subsequent defeat forced him to go into hiding for decades. If two of the most venerated warriors of the Jedi Order couldn't finish him off, Kylo Ren wouldn't stand a chance.
Could Defeat: He Has Unique Force Abilities
Kylo Ren has a number of Force abilities that have never been seen in a Star Wars movie before. This includes the ability to stop a blaster bolt mid-air, the ability to freeze a person in place, and to some extent, call people to him as easily as objects.
Given his reflexes in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as soon as Palpatine attempted to shoot bolts of Force lightning, Ren would have them stalled before they ever touched him. As Ben Solo in their final confrontation in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, he also displayed incredible healing powers, as well as the ability to let the Force flow through him rather than trying to control it.
Be Destroyed: He's Not A True Sith
Try as he might, Kylo Ren is not a true Sith, but a dark side adept who was trained by someone with a fascination for the ancient Jedi enemy. As a result, he never finalized his training, and his lightsaber building techniques were crude at best.
He could not hope to match a Sith of Palpatine's legacy, who had a connection to all the Sith who had ever come before him through the process of transference of essence.
Could Defeat: Dyad Abilities
Palpatine was blindsided by the fact that Kylo Ren and Rey had a dyad in the Force, and the thing that made them the most seductive as minions of his will also made them the most formidable in opposition to it. It's difficult to say how powerful Ren would have been had he known about the dyad prior to its revelation, but watching him fight alongside Rey in Snoke's throne room, it's clear he was a ferocious adversary.
The Force made it possible for two separate Force-sensitive individuals to be as one, their bond remaining a constant across space and time. With this connection, Rey and Ren -as Ben Solo- were able to pass objects back and forth and communicate with one another across great distances.
Be Destroyed: His Constant Pull To The Light
One of the constant points of contention in Ren's life is the pull to the light from the part of him that remains firmly rooted in his former identity as Ben Solo. It jeopardizes his ability to maintain his focus on the dark side and harness its power.
A master manipulator, Palpatine would no doubt seize upon this weakness and exploit it, blindsiding Ren by making him feel weak, inferior, and outmatched. Ren's long-held suspicions that he wasn't good enough to become a true Sith would mean his undoing by one.