Episode XI hints on numerous occasions that Rey turning to the dark side is a genuine possibility. Firstly, she force shoots lightning - just like Snoke and Palpatine do. Then she battles a villainous version of herself on board the second Death Star. And, as mentioned above, she stabs Kylo Ren too - allowing her anger to get the better of her. REY I’ve seen that mask before. So in Duel of the Fates, Rey does shoot lightning, but not because she inherited it from grandpappy Palps. Instead, she uses this ability after.

Were you thirsting for more of the Knights of Ren in the Star Wars sequel trilogy? Well, you almost got your wish. Apparently, when Colin Trevorrow and Derek Connolly wrote their version of Star Wars: Episode IX — Duel of the Fates — the one thing they wanted was more Knights of Ren. These enigmatic badasses show up a lot more in this version of the story and actually play a major role in the plot and manage to fix a pretty glaring Force Awakens plot hole.

After various summaries of Duel of the Fates leaked online, an apparently legitimate entire version of the script hit Reddit and Twitter last weekend. If you've been following the saga of the un-filmed Trevorrow version of Star Wars: Episode IX, reading the script will — for the most part — confirm what fans have been worried about: It seems like this script was a lot better than what we got. Would everyone have gone along with shipping a Rey/Poe romance? Is Kylo's redemption a little too little and too late in this version? Sure, there are some problems, but for the most part, it seems like Duel of the Fates could have been a crowd-pleaser that didn't overly rely on nostalgia or retcon. And, most of all, it actually fixed something J.J. Abrams introduced in The Force Awakens.

For nearly four years, fans debated about the meaning of Rey's vision in The Force Awakens. In it, the Knights of Ren stand ominously in the rain. In the Duel of the Fates script, we learn Kylo Ren killed Rey's parents, and that vision of the Knights came from that exact moment.

On page 69 of the script, we get an early hint as to the meaning of that scene. Rey is fighting Hattaksa Ren, and when she looks at this Knight of Ren's mask, she has the Force Awakens flashback again and responds in anger. Then this happens:

This vision stirs a deep, vengeful ANGER in Rey. One she can’t yet explain but knows to be true.
Shoots
Hattaska brings his saber down...but she extends her good hand, teeth clenched, eyes burning.
PURPLE FORCE LIGHTNING flows from her fingertips.
Hattaska Ren’s skull flashes within his helmet as the electricity destroys him.
The body falls, smoking.
Rey rises. Poe and Chewbacca are watching her, disturbed.
REY
I- I had no choice.
POE
It’s okay. Jedi do that. Right?
REY
Rey shoots force lightning strikes
I’ve seen that mask before. All of them.

So in Duel of the Fates, Rey does shoot lightning, but not because she inherited it from grandpappy Palps. Instead, she uses this ability after recognizing the Knights of Ren masks from her memory. During the epic lightsaber fight between Rey and Kylo at the end of the movie, Kylo admits it outright:

REY
My parents didn’t sell me for drinking money. They were hiding me from you.
KYLO
So you remember.
FLASH TO The Knights of Ren in the rain--the image from Rey’s Force vision when she first touched the lightsaber.

Rey Shoots Force Lightning Mcqueen

A distant child SCREAMS.
KYLO (CONT'D)
Snoke made his orders clear. Find anyone who could destroy him. It didn’t take us long to find you.
REY
You killed my parents.
KYLO
You blame me for your life on Jakku. You should thank me for it. You were safe.
REY
Say it! Did you kill them?
KYLO
I did.

Turns out, Ben Solo was not a good boy in the original Episode IX script and the reason why Rey had such a profound vision of the Knights of Ren is that they were all present at the murder of her parents. Which, in this version, she apparently aware of through the Force, and remotely 'saw' their murder from Jakku, as a child. Heavy.

These scenes may not make us like Kylo Ren, and feel darker than the Episode IX that we got. Still, this script makes sense relative to Force Awakens. In Duel of the Fates; Rey understands why she had the vision of the Knights of Ren. In The Rise of Skywalker, we never really get that clarity. Sure, the Knights of Ren are in the actual movie more, bu we're never really sure why she saw them in that damp dream sequence.

Lightning

Instead, Abrams created a proxy for this plot point with the Sith agent Ochi, the true killer of Rey's parents. Clearly, Abrams was intent on turning Kylo Ren back to Ben Solo and giving him a heroic end, so the idea that Kylo murdered Rey's parents wouldn't have worked. But what about the other Knights of Ren? Was there no way to incorporate them into that backstory?

As it stands, The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker have several dangling, unresolved threads between them. But, the one that stands out the most is easily Rey's connection to the Skywalker lightsaber and her ominous vision in The Force Awakens. For better or for worse, Duel of the Fates would have made this connection clearer. And just like Rey building a double-bladed blue lightsaber, cobbled from Anakin's old saber and her staff, it sounds like it would have been amazing. Grittier and dirtier than The Rise of Skywalker, but certainly something everyone could have accepted. Maybe.

Rey Shoots Force Lightning Gear

The Rise of Skywalker is in theaters now.

Nov 26th, 2019
Gear
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Rey shoots force lightning
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  1. Rey arrives on the planet Exogol where The Emperor (Sheev) is attached to his life support chair.
  2. Sheev talks to Rey, citing the same speech he used when talking to Luke in Return of the Jedi.
  3. The Emperor tells Rey that she is his granddaughter, but doesn't go into who her parents are (my note: In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, J.J. Abrams hinted there is a reason why Rey can learn things quicker than Luke Skywalker).
  4. Rey asks Sheev how he is still alive as Darth Vader killed him 31 years ago (in Return of the Jedi).
  5. The Emperor reveals that he is the real one and that the one Vader killed was a clone.
  6. The Emperor says he foresaw everything and knew Vader would turn on him, so he created clones to hide the fact he knew what was going to happen, protect himself, keep himself a secret, etc.
  7. The Knights of Ren are also said to be clones.
  8. A younger clone of The Emperor walks in, played by Matt Smith.
  9. The 4Chan leaker notes that this implies that Palpatine willingly allowed The Empire to fall, that it directly negates Vader's sacrifice in Return of the Jedi, and that it 'makes everyone post-ROTJ look like massive idiots who got bamboozled.'
  10. Kylo Ren approaches the Throne Room, but he is stopped by the Knights of Ren. Rey then 'Force teleports' Leia's lightsaber to Kylo Ren which sees Kylo kill the Knights of Ren.
  11. The Emperor smiles and says how Rey and Kylo have finally been brought together, mirroring Snoke's speech in The Force Awakens (the leaker notes this is one of the things that JJ Abrams meant by 'honoring' The Force Awakens).
  12. The Emperor says to 'Execute Order 67' which sees the Sith Armada of Star Destroyers rise from the water that are mounted with Death Star cannons.
  13. Leia and Hux (from the First Order) join forces and assemble the Resistance Fleet and engage the Sith forces over the planet Exogol.
  14. The Emperor cackles and unleashes Force Lightning which disables the entire Resistance Fleet.
  15. The Millennium Falcon gets blown up; Leia, Lando Chewie, 3-PO and R2-D2 all die (described as supposed to be the 'saddest' part of the film).
  16. Rey and Kylo try to fight off The Emperor, but Sheev again uses Force Lightning and kills Kylo sending him into the abyss.
  17. This causes Rey to get angry and channel every Jedi ever (my note: this seems to contradict the Jedi code of not getting angry, so how could Rey get angry and channel EVERY Jedi??).
  18. The Emperor blasts Rey with Force Lightning, but she deflects it back at him causing The Emperor to blow up, dying once and for all.
  19. Rey then shoots Force Lightning into the sky and disables the Sith Armada.
  20. The remaining Resistance ships finish off the Sith Armada. Victory ensues. Everyone cheers for Rey.
  21. The end sees Rey go to Tatooine to bury the Skywalker's family stuff (lightsabers). A stranger walks up to her and asks who she is. She takes on the 'Skywalker' name as a title and says she has found her place in life, etc. She says she is 'Rey, Rey Skywalker.'

Rey Shoots Force Lightning