Rich and Mike’s The Rise of Skywalker Predictions Video

Nah, it’s probably “damn, that corrupted ewok idea is better than what I’ve actually done?”

Josh James

Yep. My thoughts exactly…

Zorii Bliss is secretly Mara Jade (played by Keri Russell).

Mara Jade is seen in an extended flashback to be travelling across the deserts of Jakku to an encampment of tents at sunset where she speaks to a seated man in a cowl with the voice of Mark Hamill who pulls back his cowl to reveal that he is a convincingly de-aged Luke. It can be inferred that Mara is there to tell him the good news that she is pregnant with their child, but Luke is very preoccupied having just had a Force Vision about the coming final battle between the Empire and the Rebellion.

Luke persuades Mara to leave without ever being told that he will become a father.

Mara has their child in the Royal Palace of Naboo and names her Rey, but Mara has a past, and she used to work for Snoke as his assassin, and he sent her to kill Luke only for her to fall in love with him. Mara knows that Snoke wants her dead and would want to kidnap and corrupt the impressionable Rey before she receives any Jedi training from Luke. Snoke’s forces come for Mara and Rey and compel them to flee, so when Luke arrives on Naboo following the Battle of Jakku he can’t find his wife.

Mara goes back to Jakku with a four year old Rey and can’t find Luke and knowing that Snoke’s forces are following them both she pays Unkar to act as guardian to Rey whilst Mara is temporarily away dealing with the threat to them both. However, Snoke would be able to search for a human child of a certain age (like Herod with Moses in the Bible), so Mara has to wipe her daughter’s recollection of her and implant false memories in her mind that her parents were nobodies who sold her for drinking money and are now unverifiably buried in unmarked graves in the Jakku desert.

This is a traumatic memory that Rey is keen to repress. She does not want to believe that her parents didn’t love her and sold her for beer.

The trace memory Mara couldn’t erase, as she was leaving and couldn’t be there to wipe it away, is still in Rey and that is what Rey bases her delusion that her family will someday return for her. This actual history is glimpsed in Rey’s Force Vision on Takodana where she sees herself as a young girl being entrusted to Unkar whilst Mara leaves in a ship. It simply doesn’t make sense for her parents to sell her for drinking money, leave Jakku,, then return and die to be buried in pauper’s graves. Why come back? They can’t simultaneously be buried in the Jakku desert and be seen to leave.

This explains the Throne Room scene.

Kylo probes Rey’s mind and claims to know her repressed truth that she finds to painful to admit to herself. Technically, Kylo doesn’t lie. This is good because Kylo lying would be an annoyingly cheap solution. It is better to have Kylo see that Rey is nobody and have Rey tearfully admit it. We believe this revealed truth at the time, then we find out deeper layers of truth that make complete sense in terms of the Force Vision we saw Rey experience on Takodana. It all fits, and audiences will think _The Last Jedi_ is better when viewed again after seeing _The Rise of Skywalker._

Rey fights Kylo against a backdrop of a spray of water from waves crashing from a turbulent sea, it is unclear if the Force is manifesting this.

Rey kills the irredeemable Kylo, only to unleash the evil spirit within.

Snoke only died so easily in _The Last Jedi_ as the evil spirit within him made him focus on Kylo’s rage to the extent he did not sense the lightsaber turning on the arm of the Throne next to him.

The evil spirit then throws Rey across the rock, and renders her unconscious, and is set to electrocute her with Force Lightning when Luke’s Force Ghost returns to protect her. Luke then fights Kylo’s Sith Force Ghost on the Astral Plane, and this allows them to have a full contact lightsaber battle. When the Luke Force Ghost defeats the Kylo Force Ghost, he finds that he has to fight the Snoke Force Ghost, and then the Palpatine Force Ghost, and then the Plagueis Force Ghost who started all of this by allowing himself to be murdered in his sleep by his apprentice so he could possess him and get him to execute his long term strategy to eradicate the Jedi and conquer the galaxy.

Interestingly, when Palpatine died the Plagueis Force Ghost inhabiting him went to haunt Ben Solo, and it was this apparition that Luke saw and ignited his lightsaber to attack. Ben woke at the sound and turned to see his uncle standing over him and brought the ceiling down on Luke’s head, making him misremember the events he recounts as an unreliable narrator in his _Rashomon_ style Ahch-To flashback. Neither account of this historical event is correct in _Episode VIII_ and we get to see the true version of events that exonerates Luke from attempted nepoticide in _Episode IX._

The Plagueis Force Ghost then possesses Evandor Snoke who his Master, Darth Sidious instructed to go into the uncharted Unknown Regions in order to form the First Order (so named as it predates the Empire) and prepare a contingency plan for the military conquest of the known galaxy following the annihilation of Coruscant, should SIdious fail to be elected Chancellor of the Old Republic and then appointed its Emperor in a time where the ineffectual bureaucracy recognises the need for strong leadership.

This Plan B isn’t needed by Palpatine as his Plan A is a success.

Palpatine bends but does not break The Rule of Two in taking Anakin as his second apprentice, as he is confident that neither apprentice will learn of the other’s existence and team up to usurp him.

So, it all comes down to a fight between Luke and Plagueis, which is very similar to what you said. Although, I have Luke survive to be with the Force Ghost of Mara (who was killed by Kylo and which contributed to his exile on Ahch-To, providing a better reason for him being super depressed), and she has told Luke he is a father and they are reunited with Rey as Mara tells her why she had to leave her on Jakku (which is a conversation we don’t hear because this is the end of the movie). So, Rey is a Skywalker and Luke didn’t realise he was in the presence of his daughter when she arrived on Ahch-To as he had cut himself off from the Force so he was not in touch with his familial Force Bond to any member of his family. This explains why he doesn’t know Han is dead via Leia’s grief.

The planet of Batuu is worked in there somehow (as it is needed as product placement in order to promote Disney’s new theme park), possibly Hux on the run, maybe Phasma as a bounty hunter who has a choice to kill a very important character with a sniper rifle and decides not to go through with her grudge as the First Order is all but collapsed now, and it is meaningless to carry on this vendetta. This allows Phasma to be in comics and videogames. Lando and Chewie take possession of the Millennium Falcon and fly off together for unspecified future adventures we can write fan fictions on.

This middle “ensemble adventure” part is the bit I am least sure about, I think it will open with an extended flashback of a younger Luke and his wife Mara. It will have an impressive space battle in orbit above Jakku with Imperial Interdictors preventing a losing Rebellion from jumping away, and Luke striding out into the desert and reaching out with both arms to bring a couple of Star Destroyers out of the sky and into the dunes, with plenty of J.J.Abrams hallmark lens flare. These wrecks are the pair that Rey flew the Falcon through in _Episode VII._

Thousands of Stormtroopers run out of these distant wrecks and the Rebels land infantry carriers for a ginormous ground battle where Luke pitches in to slash enemy turrets in half. Anyone not happy that they didn’t get enough prime Jedi Master, Luke Skywalker in _Episode VIII_ will get it in this which is effectively set between _Episode VI_ and _Episode VII._ Expect to see this ridiculous Force Grab in the next main trailer to bring doubters back to the cinema even though it is a major spoiler best kept for the film. Disney are desperate and will likely overcompensate and make something akin to the _Star Wars: The Force Unleashed_ videogame. It has to be born in mind that Lucasfilm is making this for an International audience who likes spectacle like _Avengers: Endgame._ One Star Destroyer flying overhead doesn’t impress them anymore. It wouldn’t be credible for current age Mark Hamill to do crazy stunts, and it could risk laughter from the audience, so a de-aged one works better, and the technology was tested out on Samuel L Jackson in _Captain Marvel._ Disney don’t care if lore freaks are upset about it as they are seeking a new broader mainstream audience, some who have no point of reference on what it is supposed to be like (a space fantasy that follows the pattern of the Hero’s Journey), or particularly high expectations for it compared to any other blockbuster.

So: Flashback (Jakku) / Ensemble Adventure (Batuu) / Luke kills every host of Plagueis in most recent order of possession.

You’ve just come up with the one theory that would get me to watch this movie

Hello, Murica! Star FUCK IT Wars: Episode IX – Revenge of the Mystery Box

any hopes I had are pretty much gone now.

I also thought about that, it would be kinda funny

And then ghost Luke looks at him defiantly and says “That might be true for now, but A New Hope will come and stop you!”

No one reads comics anymore.

Chugargonfan I do; the stuff coming out now just lacks a lot so I stick with the back issues.

Typical Jewish nepotism.