The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition by Rae Carson

The Rise of Skywalker: Expanded Edition by Rae Carson

     Although the Last Jedi novelization was all around a better book (it did a superb job of filling in gaps that I didn't even know were there and extending the story beyond what was seen on screen), I prefer the plot of Rise of Skywalker and so would rate both books as equally wonderful in their own rights. I will say that the part in the TROS novelization covering Ben giving up his life for Rey nearly brought me to tears and was incredibly beautiful. In fact, there were many moments during my time reading this book that my heart beat quickly, my jaw dropped, and my eyes widened in anticipation. It truly was an absolute joy to read this movie in novel form!! Now on to the nitty-gritty... I'll be loosely basing this overview around each character in turn.

     In speaking to Rey about meditation and her training with Luke, Leia says, "There were times on the Senate floor when the meditations I'd practiced with Luke were the only thing that kept me from causing a galactic incident." I love this so much! Leia can certainly be fiery and determined, just like her mama, Padme, *heart*. We learn even more about her training in and experiences of the Force: "Leia was no Jedi Master, but she had learned from the best. And not just from Luke; over the years she'd occasionally heard the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi through the Force, and even more rarely, that of Yoda. Some days it had felt as though she'd learned from the Force itself." I SO want to know the stories of her communications with these other Jedi!!!! What a great story that would be! 

     The descriptions of Leia in this book are so beautiful and heartfelt! For instance, "The general could put so much into a single word: chastisement, acceptance, amusement, fondness. Maybe that's why she'd become such a powerful leader." And the fact that Leia's near-death experience is taking its toll is made very clear, "Rey had noticed that her movements  had slowed recently, as though her bones ached." She had resisted giving in to these aches and pains for so long because she feared it would be a sign of losing hope...but then she finally realizes that the ultimate hope is leaving what you've worked so hard for in the hands of those who come after you, thus allowing them to embrace their own destinies as leaders! *tear* "She was Leia Skywalker Organa Solo. As she caressed Han's medal, she fully embraced all those inheritances. And she would pass them all to the next generation. Her Skywalker legacy would go to Rey, Organa to Poe, and she would try one last time to pass her Solo legacy to her son." 

     So a little clarification in regards to Rey's training on Ajan Kloss: the training remotes were guarding flags (the red strips of fabric) that Rey had to grab as evidence of her getting past certain checkpoints on the training course. That makes the entire sequence a whole lot more clear!

     Poor Rey, struggling with visions upon visions of darkness and her potential future on the Sith throne. She even says to BB-8, "But no one here understands...except Kylo Ren. If the son of Han and Leia can be turned, can't any of us?" Later in the story, on Pasaana, she actually uses the Force to keep Finn from following her into the desert as they are all trying to board Ochi's ship! Definitely a dark use of power to Force-influence your friends. We learn more about her past on Jakku in that Unkar Plutt was officially her guardian and actually half-heartedly cared for her for a few years before setting her off on her own. After Finn expresses to her that "destroying" Palpatine doesn't sound like her, Rey thinks, "Oh, but it did. Maybe she was revenge made flesh. Maybe she had been all along. She was a Palpatine, after all." As Rey nears the structure on Exegol, "she knew exactly what--who--she would find inside. Even more terrifying was the fact that the presence was familiar. As though some form of it had been watching her, maybe her whole life." After Palpatine professes her Empress apparent, "The thought swelled in her head, until she was giddy with it. Empress. Would that be so bad? Maybe taking on this mantle would be worth it. To bring peace. To save her friends. The whole galaxy would have no choice but to be saved." Ooooh boy!!! She's starting to sound exactly like Anakin... She notes that she would not have been able to resist the Emperor's inexorable pull if it hadn't been for "the other presence in her mind, bright and shining with light" a.k.a Ben!! My absolute favorite part of the movie is when Rey is whispering, "Be with me" after being struck down by the Emperor and she begins hearing all the voices of the Jedi before her. WELL!!!..."Presences filled her awareness, some recent, some ancient, some still anchored to the living in a strange way. Rey didn't understand. But she accepted." Does this mean Ahsoka might still be alive?!? I'm gonna go with YES!

     Okay, so here it gets REALLY weird but I kinda like it a lot...it's very King Arthur-esque which is something that always gets me excited! When Kylo is on Mustafar, after he kills the cultists in the forest, he walks up to a small brackish lake dotted with the remains of Vader's castle. As he approaches, "A giant emerged, a hairless creature sheening with wetness, bits of lake detritus clinging to its pasty skin. Its eyes were squeezed shut, but it could still see after a fashion, because draped over its massive bald head and across one shoulder was a second creature with long spidery tentacles. The two were locked in symbiosis. Kylo sensed the giant's pain, as though it were a slave to the spidery being that clung to it. Yet neither could it survive alone." The spider-like creature calls himself "The Eye of Webbish Bog" and quizzes Kylo briefly before allowing the giant to point Kylo to a small island in the middle of the lake where the wayfinder rests. Crazy, right?!? I definitely need to know more about what in the world these creatures are, as well as Vader's interactions with them to set up such a roadblock to the wayfinder!! 

     The message spoken of in the title crawl from Emperor Palpatine, reads like so, "At last the work of generations is complete. The great error is corrected. The day of victory is at hand. The day of revenge. The day of the Sith." What a frightening message for all the galaxy to hear!! No wonder it seems to have such import in the opening of the movie! 

     I'm beginning to think there's a bit of a difference between the old Imperial fleet that escaped to the Unknown Regions and the First Order. It's still all a bit muddled to me--hopefully this will become more clear with more content and more time. But, it seems that the old Imperial remnant became the Sith fleet at the same time the First Order was developing in its own right. It is also made clear that Pryde has been working surreptitiously with the Final Order and its fleet for years... Additionally we get this information, "The bridge [of the Derriphan] was filled with Final Order officers, many raised on Exegol […], others from various planets in the Unknown Regions. Several were children of the Empire, following in their parents' footsteps. Many of the crimson-clad stormtroopers had been conscripted by the First Order as children--and then carefully culled and 'disappeared' by spies based on their potential. Everyone on this bridge had worked toward one goal: the return of the Sith." And there are thousands of Final Order troopers and officers!!! What were their quarters like? Did they all live on the star destroyers as they waited below the ground?? And when the Sith throne room collapses, the acolytes are actually crushed...which means they were really there and not just dark figments. I NEED to know more about them!! Where did they live??

     When flying to Exegol, Kylo navigates through a "glowing red mesh of hexes. He'd heard tales of the Red Honeycomb Zone of exotic space--some called it the Blood Net, others called it the Ship Eater." On Exegol, Kylo feels the Force strongly, "but it was different. Twisted, rotten, as though filtered through a miasma of decay." As soon as he hears Palpatine speak he thinks, "Kylo knew that voice. He'd heard it his whole life. As a young man it had been like the wisp of a dream, one he couldn't quite grasp. Then the Emperor's transmission had flooded the galaxy, and Kylo had begun to dread that Palpatine had somehow survived, that his had been the whispering voice that had comforted, guided, tormented him for so many years." How awful and heartbreaking!!!
     Palpatine is hooked up to an "Ommin harness, a mechanical spine once worn by an ancient Sith king" that he otherwise couldn't survive without. And more on the Emperor, "this clone body sheltered the Emperor's actual spirit. It was an imperfect vessel, though, unable to contain his immense power. It couldn't last much longer." The planet itself "was a world populated by the Sith Eternal, true believers in the dark side of the Force, devoting their lives to [the creation of the new fleet]." Later, in the throne room, after Rey's arrival, Palpatine says to Rey, "With your anger, you will take my life, and you will ascend. As I did, when I killed my master, Darth Plagueis." So this leaves me to wonder...did Palpatine in that moment become all the Sith including Plagueis??? But Plagueis didn't overtake his body?? How come?? How does this stuff actually work?? So confusing and so fascinating all at the same time!! A little more on how the Emperor survived post-ROTJ: "Plagueis had not acted fast enough in his time of death. But Sidious, sensing the flickering light in his apprentice had been ready for years. So the falling, dying Emperor called on all the dark power of the Force to thrust his consciousness far, far away, to a secret place he had been preparing. His body was dead, an empty vessel, long before it found the bottom of the shaft, and his mind jolted to new awareness in a new body--a painful one, a temporary one. It was too soon. The secret place had not completed its preparations. The transfer was imperfect, and the cloned body wasn't enough. […] The heretics of the Sith Eternal toiled, splicing genes, bolstering tissue, creating unnatural abominations in the hope that one of these strandcasts would succeed and become a worthy receptacle. The heretics would do anything, risk anything, sacrifice anything, to create a cradle for the god-consciousness. Nothing worked. But their efforts were not entirely in vain. One genetic strandcast lived. Thrived, even. A not-quite-identical clone. His 'son.' But he was a useless, powerless failure. Palpatine could not even bear to look upon such disappointing ordinariness. The boy's only worth would lay in continuing the bloodline through more natural methods. And it was through that eventual union, unexpected as it was, that Rey was born. The perfect vessel. Strong enough to contain all the power of the Sith. His granddaughter..." So again, this doesn't make total sense, because whose personality and consciousness were in the 'son' clone if Palpatine's consciousness was in a succession of dying clones that could not contain his immense power?? And what in the world is a strandcast??! Was Snoke considered one of these?? And there's more bizzaro information!! Palpatine had "tried to create a dyad with Anakin, as his master had tried to create one with him. The Rule of Two, a Master always in desperate search of a yet more powerful apprentice, was a pale imitation, an unworthy but necessary successor to the older, purer doctrine of the Dyad." Woah, this new info on the Rule of Two blew my mind...makes me see a lot of stuff in a whole new light.

     There's a wonderfully humorous contemplation by Poe on Klaud, "Poe had no idea what species Klaud was or where he came from, and he'd thought General Leia was losing her mind when she'd assigned him to Rose's mechanic team. For one, he had no arms; in fact, Poe thought he looked like a giant slug on flippers. For two, he spoke a language only the droids understood. But it turned out to be a good decision because Klaud could occasionally manipulate objects with his prehensile antennae, and his keen mind made short work of mechanical problems. He and R2-D2 worked well together." And a little about Boolio, "a mine overseer who'd been siphoning surplus minerals to Resistance-friendly transports for months." Apparently, the Resistance had been told by Boolio that he had a rare part they needed for the Tantive IV and that's why they came to him at the Sinta Glacier Colony. I'm guessing sending word that you have a secret message from a spy would be too risky...but then in the movie, Rey specifically asks if there was a spy...I think this may be a discrepancy...really the only one though!
     It is made clear that TIE fighters now have the capability to follow through light speed which is why we see them planet hopping right along with the Falcon.
     We learn more about the ape-like creature who fixes Kylo's helmet, "Albrekh was the first Symeong whom Kylo had ever encountered. He was small and thin, with a jutting jaw and long, pointed, wide-spaced ears that twitched with every sound or breath of air. Most important, he was a Sith alchemist trained in classic metallurgy, capable of smithing feats unheard of in the modern galaxy. He stood before a heavy stone table, awaiting the shards Ren had promised." The red stuff that holds the shards together is Sarrassian iron--the toughest ore in the galaxy. We also learn that Kylo had separated from the Knights of Ren for a time (hence why we don't see them in the other two movies in this trilogy) and he had just recently brought them back together.
     Kylo's singular focus is always and consistently on Rey: "the ambition that cut into his being was the thought of reigning side by side with her." And there's more, "You had to kill the past, yes, but you had to kill the light, too, to fully claim the darkness. He finally understood. Han Solo was his past. But Rey was his light. That's why Kylo was still in agony. That's why he couldn't shake the memory of his father's hand against his cheek, of those eyes full of love and understanding. Kylo hadn't yet destroyed his light." And then, as he's searching for Rey's whereabouts and trying to figure out her mission, we get a glimpse of a "deleted scene" during which he interrogates Chewie. It is deeply heartbreaking: "Kylo should have felt pleasure in reaching out with the Force, inserting himself  into the Wookiee's mind, ripping away his memories and thoughts. Instead, it was exhausting. He saw flashes of the Wookiee laughing with a much younger Han Solo than he himself remembered. Felt Chewbacca's joy when his best friend married the woman he'd come to love like a sister. Saw the Wookiee cuddling a human toddler, teaching an older boy to fly a speeder, target practice with a young man, their blasters set on stun against a haphazard dummy made of rocks. Uncle Chewie, he'd called him back then." Later, after Rey escapes from Kylo's command ship, post-Palpatine's granddaughter revelation, and Kylo reflects on the troopers killed by the blast from the Falcon, "Kylo considered it a small price to pay to encounter Rey again, to provoke her into a rage, to say the word dyad and watch the truth of it wash over her lovely face." The "no one does" followed by "But I do" lines from the trailer of the movie is spoken here through mental communication as Kylo bursts through a wall of water on the remains of the Death Star II. After Ben turns we get this beautiful passage, "Why had his mother loved him right up until her last moment? Snoke had lied about that. Snoke had lied about all of it. All those voices in his head, torturing him throughout the years, they had promised him that a moment like this could never happen. They don't care about you. Just their precious New Republic. And later, Just their precious Resistance. All lies. His mother had sacrificed herself to reach him. Then Rey had healed him, at great cost to herself. In spite of everything he'd done. He had failed to kill the light within himself because it had been all around him all along. In Rey. His mother. Even...his father." So sad. I absolutely LOVE how this book describes the dyad as it comes up throughout. For example, "Their bond--refined in the fire of mutual searching, shared grief, rage and hate, but also of compassion and empathy--was the one thing [Palpatine] had not foreseen." Rey and Ben's connection gets incredibly deep and incredibly strong as when something happens to one, the other can feel it to their very soul as if they themselves are experiencing the something. So powerful! Once he struggles up to Rey's corpse, he begins to reflect on his life, "Ben pulled her against his chest and hugged her to himself for a moment. He'd just found her, really found her. He'd wasted his life, he knew that now. But anyone who could have shown him the way forward, helped him be Ben again, was gone. Luke. His parents. And now Rey." In other words, he realizes there's no one left who would forgive him and thus he might as well give his life to save what he loves. I think this description and deep felt meaning behind his sacrifice is incredibly poignant and beautiful! again...*tear* Following this, we get: "And then, wonder of wonders, she leaned forward and kissed him. A kiss of gratitude, acknowledgement of their connection, celebration that they'd found each other at last." Talk about a fairytale ending!!! And again to the point I just made, "He had given Rey back to the galaxy. It wouldn't atone for the darkness he'd wrought, but it was what he could do."
     Hux and the situations surrounding him in this book are wondrously funny including the following: "Hux distrusted masks on principle, but he was glad for Ren's because it spared him the indignant assault of the Supreme Leader's hair. A good leader led by example, and Ren's hair was the furthest thing from regulation. A small detail, to be sure, but details mattered, and this one represented everything Hux hated about Ren. He was the exception to everything. Outside the rules. Disordered." And as he lays dying on the star destroyer floor, "His last thought was of the scavenger. He hated that girl. She had ruined everything. Yet over and over again, she had faced Ren and survived. It gave him one bright shining spark of hope against the oncoming dark: Ren might still lose."
     Throughout the book we see Finn open up to the Force and let it guide him. In one instance, on Pasaana, as Kylo's ship is zooming toward Rey, he senses that it's Kylo as he reaches for Rey through the Force. And later, after the battle is over, just before she dies, Rey reaches out to the Force and senses both Finn and Jannah, much to her surprise. And of course there's the moment Finn senses her death, "Something rent his very soul, and he staggered, barely catching himself on the wall of the corridor." Turns out "the thing" he wanted to tell her when they were all sinking in the quick sand was that he could access the Force. I can't wait to get more stories about Force-sensitive Finn!! Such an exciting turn that took!
     As for whether we'll get more stories from this group of heroes, "'General Leia thought they'd destroyed the Emperor at the Battle of Endor,' Poe said. 'But he came back. More powerful than ever.' 'You think he might come back again,' Finn said. 'Maybe,' Poe said. […] 'Or some other evil will rise. Evil always rises.' 'Naw,' said Finn. 'Not for a long time, anyway.' […] Poe began to smile. 'We're not just one small group,' he said, understanding. 'The Resistance is a million people, a thousand places.' 'General Leia united a whole galaxy. This time it's for real.' Poe's grin became huge, and Finn wrapped his friend in a hug." So this makes me think that the saga really is over...but I guess we'll just have to see. I, for one, hope that this really is the ending because it was a bang up, firing on all cylinders, heck of an awesome ride!!
     And finally, we come to the very last scene on Tatooine. Apparently no one accompanied Rey on her trip and she DID NOT stay! For all those who were complaining that she's now alone forever because she was staying in Luke's old house...news alert! That is not true and never made ANY sense! Anyway, after the old woman asks for Rey's last name, the scavenger looks over and sees Luke and Leia shimmering in the distance--"Luke gave her a gentle nod, It's yours, Rey." He gives her the name of Skywalker. And she takes it because who you are at your core and who you accept into your life and keep in your life by your own choices is much more important than tainted bloodlines. She becomes who she was truly meant to be by taking on the Skywalker mantle.

Trivia:
-High Command of the First Order consists of: Quinn (the guy Kylo Force-shoved into the ceiling), Pryde, Hux, Parnadee, Engell (tasked with recruitment of the galaxy's young), and others.
-Maz Kanata and Commander D'Acy (the lesbian!!) are Leia's advisors.
-The Aki-Aki fires on Pasaana are where they believe their ancestors live and thus lighting them shows gratitude.
-Tishra Kandia was the First Order officer who brought the necklace back to Kylo after analysis.
-The fanged worm creature in the tunnels on Pasaana is a vexis.
-I wanna know what the Pits of Griq are!
-As of the time of TROS, the Falcon belongs to Rey.
-The Intracluster Gatherers is a gang on Kijimi.
-Babu Frik speaks Anzellan and his shop is based in the Kozinarg Guildhouse.
-The walkers on Kijimi are UA-TTs.
-Skordu is a popular Kijimi alcoholic beverage "distilled from a high-altitude fungus that grew in icy caves and crevices." Ultra-Ox is another Kijimi alcoholic beverage.
-The execution chamber on First Order ships is "a small room, with jets built into the walls. Once they were dead, the jets would release heat and toxins to break down their remains, then vacuum everything up, leaving a perfectly sterile chamber. All physical trace of their existence would be obliterated."
-An interesting bit of geology in regards to Kef Bir (the location of the second Death Star's remains). "Kef Bir used to be entirely underwater. But recent decades had seen several cataclysmic events, which had vented water into the atmosphere and caused tectonic upheaval, revealing more and more landmasses. Some theorized that the destruction of the Death Star was to blame. Debris from the moon-sized base not only had rained down for years, but had collided with several nearby asteroids, creating a chain reaction of bolide hits to the moon's surface and atmosphere."
-Jannah's group of stormtroopers mutinied at the Battle of Ansett Island.
-The Sith star destroyer that destroyed Kijimi was called the Derriphan and was captained by Chesille Sabrond, a woman who was raised belowground on Exegol.
-Wicket's son's name is Pommet!! And Wicket thinks C-3PO must be the savior that destroyed the Final Order. *love!*

Canon Connections:
-Reference to what we discover in Resistance Reborn in that the First Order has been "doggedly pursing [Resistance] sympathizers, restricting communications, cutting off supply lines, capturing or even assassinating allies." This answering the question of why nobody answered their call in The Last Jedi.
-Mention of 2 fighters "liberated from the Corellian scrapyard"--presumably referring to Resistance Reborn as well.
-Phantom Squadron calls out a "standing by" once they arrive in Exegol's atmosphere along with all the other hoards of ships. Remember them from the Aftermath trilogy as well as Resistance Reborn.
-The Ghost calls out a "standing by" but no hint is given as to who is flying it...
-Alphabet Two and Zay Versio with Inferno Squad each call out a "standing by"--both from the Alphabet Squadron trilogy.
-The Fireball!!! Complete with Kaz being chatty, followed by a chastisement by a deep voice (presumably Yeager *heart*) calls out a "standing by"!! I had so hoped these guys were in the big fight and now my hopes are confirmed!! I wonder if the Colossus itself was there along with all the Aces??

Phew!!! That was intense and took forever but I hope you find some interesting tidbits in this curation of a wonderful novelization of an incredible movie!! I highly recommend reading this one!