What Exactly Was Palpatine's Plan For Rey And Kylo?
Somehow, Palpatine has returned, and is apparently Rey’s grandpa. Rey being a Palpatine was a controversial choice, to say the least, when it comes to The Rise of Skywalker. However, what was more confusing to some was what Palpatine's actual plan was when it came to his granddaughter. What were the grand designs of the Emperor and his future for the galaxy? For when we see him in The Rise of Skywalker, he is occupying a broken body, a decayed clone body created for him in case of his death. However, what was his long term goal, how was the Dark Lord of the Sith back, and more importantly what were his plans for Rey?
Well, according to The Star Wars Book by Pablo Hidalgo, Cole Horton, and Dan Zehr, his plan was to possess Rey and take over her body in order to live through her. Even in the movie, Palpatine wanted Rey to kill him so that his spirit would pass on into her. However, it was not made clear exactly what that meant in terms of the book. That being said, with the expanded material, we know that what Palpatine was talking about was the secret of Darth Plagueis and immortality: Essence Transfer.
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The power of Essence Transfer is something that goes back to Star Wars Legends. It is the idea of a dark side wielder being able to take their essence and thus take control of another body. This goes back to the legendary comic Dark Empire itself. In this comic, Palpatine used this power in order to transfer his essence to various clone bodies in order to remain immortal. The power would later be explored again with Darth Bane, as he also tried to put his own essence into his apprentice Zannah, and thus break the Rule of Two so that he would live forever and continue his work.
In The Rise of Skywalker novelization by Rae Carson, we know that the secret to immortality that Plagueis had discovered was essentially essence transfer. However, when Palpatine tried it, the transfer was incomplete. While the Emperor was able to transfer his essence, he was now trapped in a broken down clone body, which itself was decaying, his physical form slipping away. Thus, his minions on Exegol tried to make him a new body using tissue samples and other means. It was not until Rey came to him that he finally had a vessel both powerful in the Force and part of his own bloodline, which would make a suitable host for his dark powers.
Palpatine most likely also had plans for Kylo Ren as well. For what better revenge to exact upon the Skywalker family than to not only turn the child of Han and Leia to the dark side, but also eventually become him as well? A similar plot point happened in the third entry of Dark Empire titled Empire's End, where the Emperor, now on his last clone body, tried to possess the body of the third Solo child Anakin Solo as well. It is speculated that the battle between Rey and Kylo was essentially Palpatine eventually deciding which body to pick, choosing whoever was the strongest, and eventually choosing a body that was connected to his own blood.
So in the end, Palpatine, as usual, planned to live forever. It was probably something he always planned to accomplish no matter what. Whether it be via his clone on Exegol or Rey, or even Ben Solo. His knowledge of Essence Transfer was plentiful, but it could only work if he had the ability to do it. Otherwise, his essence did get destroyed by Rey, thus ensuring that the Emperor would no longer return to the realm of the living and be vanished to the void of the dark side forever.
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Source(s): The Star Wars Book, Wookieepedia