Star Wars Episode IX: Rise of the Force (Story) (Patreon)

A galaxy divided! A year on from the brutal attacks by the evil FIRST ORDER, the NEW REPUBLIC struggles to keep control of the inner rim worlds. The space not controlled by either faction are patrolled by crime gangs and pirates.

The First Order’s Supreme Leader, KYLO REN, rules with an iron fist, leading the charge against the Republic, as those who once followed him lose confidence in his command.

The Republic’s only defence, lead by POE DAMERON, strikes back against the First Order, while hope weighs heavy on the shoulders of REY, the last Jedi, in restoring balance to the galaxy….

A star destroyer and TIE fighters fly overhead against the starry backdrop, as the jagged blade of a red cross guard lightsaber blasts into view, held aloft by Kylo Ren. He stands upon a stage, flanked by guards and officers, in the middle of a street amidst celebrating residents of the newly conquered city. Stormtroopers stand to attention, AT-ATs and AT-M6s tower over all, lining the streets as the First Order’s banner is hoisted high. Despite the celebration, Ren seems down, dejected.

Kylo had been following in Vader's footsteps for so long, he doesn't know what to do with this power he has. Now burdened controlling the bureaucrats and the senators who keep the FO running, the FO is stretched thin and on the verge of collapsing under poor rule. Funds are funnelled to weapons and ships but rebellions are spreading across the galaxy, the FO’s hold is loose. He storms from planet to planet, stealing Jedi and Sith artefacts, the honour of running captured planets falls to the highest bidder. Sometimes the greatest leader lucks out. Most times it’s the one with the fattest wallet. Unfortunately, this planet saw the latter, a man who gleefully rubbed his hands at the thought of profits to be made from mining the planet’s natural resources.

Across the outer rim, other planets suffer the same fate. Those who do no submit are herded into pens, those who trip and fall find a stormtrooper’s boot in the face. The First Order and the Empire before it ruled through fear, but even this was enough to give many of the brainwashed soldiers pause.

Most occupation was met with resistance, as seen on a world of lush forests. As soldiers tossed thermal detonators out from cover behind a log, and stormtroopers were blasted into pieces, Kylo Ren would step forth, leading the charge. His helmet reforged, light armour plating over his dark robes, cross guard sabre in hand. He stormed the battlefield, cutting down countless soldiers, crushing their chests with the force, stamping out rebellion.

But Kylo Ren could only be in one place at one time, and his Knights often fought by his side. On the first planet, dissidence had sprung up, stormtrooper’s bodies lined the streets, gunned down by their very weapons. Commandeered AT walkers ploughed through First Order facilities, the commanding officer hauled from his office to the street. The people took their city back. It would not go unnoticed. The First Order could capture it once more, but a lesson would not be learned. People froze or fled as the star destroyer appeared in their atmosphere, its shadow cast over the buildings and streets. The First Order may have no longer had a Death Star or Starkiller Base, but a barrage of blaster fire from the destroyer’s underside was enough to obliterate the city almost entirely, the survivors broken as their lives before them lay in ruin.

There was hope however, as the Resistance, rebuilt in the year since came to the rescue. New larger cruisers, B-Wings, X-Wings and A-Wings, and leading them all the Millennium Falcon. Landing in the remnants of the Main Street, we see disembarking Rose Tico, dressed in a vibrant orange jumpsuit and pushing a trolley of medical supplies. Finn, hair longer and braided, his outfit ready for action, partially covered in repainted stormtrooper armour. Poe Dameron, dashing as ever, greying and bearded, dressed like an explorer, and Rey the Jedi, blueish robes matching her old outfits shape, hair now cut short and tied back. They give assistance to the wounded, clear the rubble to find bodies. The survivors are grateful, but the rescue efforts are cut short as BB-8 warns of approaching enemy fighters.

A First Order outpost many miles outside the city, TIEs with folding wings ascend and tear forth, blasting down the high street as people pile into the cruisers. Rey steps forwards and draws her lightsaber, made from the end of her old staff, the blade blue and jagged but still strong. She raises it high and deflects many of the incoming blaster bolts from troops advancing down the street, before Finn grabs her by the arm and pulls her onto the Falcon as they take off into the sky.

Poe is at the controls “We’ll try to divert them from the rescue craft!” But the TIEs split up, taking each of the fleeing ships. Poe grunts and hauls the ship back, chasing each of the TIEs down who seem to anticipate their every move. “Don’t swerve so hard!” Rey yells, the two fighting over the controls as Finn and Rose try to get to the guns. “It’s like they’re tracking our every move!”
Sure enough the TIE pilots are, new tech installed in their experimental craft hacking the Falcon’s encrypted navicomputer, reading their every move, hearing their every transmission. But even despite this advantage, and a few close calls, Poe manages to catch them off guard and blast them from the sky. The way cleared, the Resistance ships blast off back to base.

In the jungles and caves of Ajan Kloss is where the Resistance calls home. The last year has been kind to them, with funding and support supplying them more ships, some new, many old and classic, the Resistance uniforms vibrant shades of red, orange, gold, blue, lavender, and moss green. The Falcon and the cruisers land as the refugees are taken to the med bay, Poe and BB-8 run to the conference room, beginning a meeting about this latest development, speculating the First Order has new comm hacking technology. They’re growing stronger, despite their losses the First Order has claimed many worlds used by the New Republic as salvage yards for the tools of war once used by the Empire. These resources are being used to upgrade their fleet and build new ships.

All eyes are on Poe to lead, and take charge, to authorise a mission of Chewbacca’s and Artoo’s volunteering, to infiltrate the First Order’s cache of blueprints and find a way around their latest tools. Poe looks to Leia, standing back in the shadows, hoping for guidance, and she indicates it’s his decision to make. He allows the mission, and chases after Leia as she leaves the conference room. “You’re the leader, Poe, lead.” She tells him.

“But Chewie and Artoo going on this mission to hack their Order’s cache? It’s too much, I can’t handle it-“
Leia turns to look at him, and rests a hand on his chest. His mother’s ring hangs there on a chain. She gives him words of wisdom, to trust and believe in himself and his choices. But what of the elderly Artoo Deetoo, he asks. “Never underestimate a droid,” she smiles, leaving Poe and BB-8 be.

After BB-8 has an encounter with a familiar astromech with a high body count, Chewbacca and Artoo load up the captured First Order shuttle to infiltrate the base, Chewbacca less than enthused to see they’re to be accompanied by Threepio, who insists he’s the assistant of the curmudgeonly Artoo . They set off, and with stolen codes and hologram trickery, infiltrate the First Order cache and locate the data files to the comm hacking devices, and stumble upon something else. What appears to be an old Empire blueprint, more recently revised, redone, and approved, one that could spell doom for the Resistance…

Back on Kloss, Rey meets with Finn and the two talk. They’ve been meeting often over the last year, a kinship found in their stolen past, forging an identity for themselves against the great unknown. Finn asks how her lightsaber feels, she comments the cracked crystal within, taken from the husk of Luke’s old hilt, feels broken but stable, for now. Finn asks about the Force, and how it feels, a moment where an object he reached for flew to his hand during the TIE chase earlier seems to trouble him, but he can’t bring himself to say. Rey has studied the Jedi texts for answers on how a Jedi should conduct themselves, but she finds herself at odds with their teachings. The Jedi way suggests detachment, she feels compassion is the way to heal. She’s mostly used the books for lightsaber forms and guides to powers and artefacts. When Finn asks her what it means to be a Jedi, she can’t seem to say, as it goes against all she holds dear.

The First Order’s highest ranking officials have met for a conference, discussing the recent behaviour of their Supreme Leader. Hux is keen to suggest a coup in the event of Ren’s future failings, a point the battle scarred but alive Phasma, and the old Empire Commander Pryde agree with. The Empire fell thanks to a squabble over the Force, an ancient religion coveted by the now wiped out Jedi and Sith, the latter Kylo Ren tries to emulate to the detriment of the First Order. The Force, as the say, is not needed, only military might and desire to shape the galaxy into order, without the wizards and their magic getting in the way.

A stormtrooper captain, 926, is called before them and given the secret order to prepare his officers to bring down Kylo Ren should the coup come to pass. Concerned for their wellbeing of his troopers, he confers with TZ-1719 and gives her a way out if Kylo Ren falls.

Chewbacca and the droids crash back to Ajan Kloss, barely having escaped the First Order as they fled with the stolen plans, passing them along to the engineers to try and find a workaround. But they have also made a startling discovery. The Order has built themselves a massive gravity well, a large star destroyer that can generate an artificial gravity field so strong it could tear ships from hyperspace. Once used by the Empire during the Galactic Civil War, this new revision is even bigger and more powerful, able to fling ships at speeds faster than light as weapons. In the wake of the so-called “Holdo Manoeuvre” the year before, the First Order can weaponise the Resistance’s own ships against them and wipe out entire fleets and potentially planets.

The gravity well is put to the test as the ship is arrives at a pirate commandeered ship yard in the mid rim. The Weequay leader is brought before Hux, who commands the well be activated, forcing the pirate captain to see the shipyard torn to shreds by itself, manipulated by the gravity well, its fierce destructive power on display.

The Resistance receives a distress signal from a palatial planet in the mid rim; Lando Calrissian, Wedge Antilles, and many other key Resistance members are trapped by a First Order blockade. The team suit up for a rescue mission, Rey anticipates and prepares for a battle with Ren, and Finn is called before Leia, Maz Kanata, and Winter Celchu. He’s presented a box by Winter, within it the lightsaber Leia created after Return of the Jedi, but set aside years ago. Leia gifts the sabre to Finn, he has confided with her in privacy over the last year, the Force growing within him, and she trusts he will use it well and need it for his journey ahead.

The Falcon slips past the blockade and makes it down to the planet’s surface. The rescue party, Finn, Rey, Rose, Connix, and Poe, infiltrate the palace and rescue Lando, Wedge, and the others. As they make their way back, a large blast door parts opens before them, and there stands Kylo Ren, armoured, hood up, glaring down Rey from behind his mask. She tells them group to run, as she draws her blade. He doesn’t care about the others, he’s here for her. Rey realises Finn has stayed behind, panicked she tells him to leave as Ren slowly lowers his hood and begins to take off his helmet, but Finn steps forward, and draws Leia’s lightsaber.

And Kylo loses it.

He throws his helmet aside and screams in anger, blade out and attacking Finn. How dare the traitor stormtrooper wield his mother’s lightsaber? The duel is fast, angry. Rey and Finn are pushed to their limits, Rey doing her best to shield her friend. They go through the corridors, to the palace garden, sparks flying, tree branches lopped off, walls with gashes taken out of. Rey force shoves Kylo out a window and tumbles over in a flower bed, picking himself back up. They’re always moving, he attacks, the others defend and retreat. For a portion the blades are lost as they resort to using the Force to fight. Ren drags Finn towards him, Rey shuts the door and severs the connection as Ren runs his way through the door with his saber. To the hangar, the blades back out. Rey blocks a blow and holds it, stumbling, as Kylo pushes down, she falters, and the hilt explodes in her hands, singeing her arms, the crystal entirely shattered. Finn helps her up and grabs the broken pieces, as they barely escape into the Falcon.

Tearing out of the atmosphere they’re greeted by the sight of the Resistance Fleet, Leia in command, blasting upon the First Order frigates, before the sun is blotted out by the arrival of the gravity well carrying star destroyer. The Resistance capital ship is ripped from the sky and drawn into that star destroyer’s hanger. As the battle furiously rages in the atmosphere, Leia is cuffed and escorted into a cell, looking towards her son on the observation deck, who can’t bare to look at her.

As Hux gloats to Pryde about their victory capturing Leia, and keeping the Resistance fleet frozen in place, Phasma notices over his shoulder via the cell’s CCTV, Leia escaping her binds, using the Force on the stormtroopers guarding her, and escaping down the corridor. Kylo, desperate to find her, Hux, desperate to keep an eye on Ren, and Phasma with a squad of stormtroopers, storm the corridors, as Leia sneaks about towards the reactor room, a stormtrooper blaster in hand. She enters the reactor room, before one of the large batteries powering the weapon, before stormtroopers pour out from every angle. Back on the Falcon, using the workaround discovered back at base, they patch into the cameras looking over the reactor. Rey stares into the middle distance, as if she can see in somehow, and Finn, feeling the same. It’s through Kylo’s and Leia’s own eyes, as he has entered the reactor, frozen in place, finally staring her down as she turns the blaster on the battery and fires.

The battery explodes, a hole blasted out the top of the star destroyer, those troopers and officers not obliterated in the explosion sucked out into space. Those aboard the Falcon cry out in anguish, as Poe fights through tears and shock as he and the rest of the fleet, free of the gravity well’s hold, blast into hyperspace. Hux is pulled back to safety by Phasma and 926, as Kylo stands on the end of the remnants of the catwalk, flames blasting around him as he stares into the space where his mother last stood. Shaken, breathing heavy and not just because the vacuum sucked the artificial atmosphere from his lungs, he heaves himself to the sealed corridor, as Hux barely contained the urge to seal him outside.

The Millennium Falcon returns to Ahch-To, a warning out Ajan Kloss is being evacuated. Rey trudges out and up the stone steps in a daze, Finn and Rose behind her, as Poe and Connix have slumped to the floor in the Falcon’s cockpit, Lando leaning by the door as they try to talk about what just happened.

“I think it is obvious what has happened here,” says Pryde back onboard the star destroyer “The Supreme Leader is compromised, his personal attachments and failure to act has seen to the near destruction of this weapon and the loss of dozens of lives.” 926 steps away and contacts TZ-1719, telling her now is the time to leave and he’ll make sure her and the other deserters get out on time.

Ren strides down the corridor to the bridge, the Knights of Ren marching behind him, to be met with the sight of Hux, Phasma, and stormtroopers with their blasters trained on him. Hux declares him a traitor and relieved of his post, Kylo refuses, and the stormtroopers open fire. Kylo and his Knights retreat down the corridor, fighting off the hoards as the corridor becomes thick with smoke. Their retreat is not one of panic or desperation, Kylo and the Knights easily defend themselves, but it’s a strategic one A thrown thermal detonator is lobbed back and Hux barely escapes the explosion, as Kylo and two of his Knights slip into an escape pod and jettison away from the ship, Hux ordering the cannons fire upon the fleeing pods, ignoring Pryde chastising him for being present at the attempted arrest. The other Knights cut their way through the stormtroopers, boarding their ship Night Buzzard in one of the hangars, and setting off after Ren in his pod.

Rey and Finn hug, in shock and upset at the loss of Leia. Reaffirming they’re both there for one another, Rey excuses herself as Finn takes a seat overlooking the sea. She makes her way up to the ruin of the tree, the temple, Luke’s old hut. The Force is quiet, she can’t feel anything. The pieces of the lightsaber in her hands, the crystal shattered beyond repair. Slumping to the floor she breaks down, overcome with grief, knowing it’s not the Jedi way to feel like this, chastising herself out loud, before exclaiming she can’t do this, how crippling it is to try and conform so rigidly to the Jedi code. Maybe she should just throw it away? A familiar voice speaks up behind her. “It’s funny, Leia felt the same way.”

Luke’s ghost sits beside Rey and tells her of the time years before when he trained Leia in the ways of the Jedi. In flashback we hear, but never see front on, Luke deliver a direct reading of the Jedi code, not to love, not to form attachments, not to give in to the dark side. Leia took issue with this. Emotions are powerful, they can be useful, not just in anger and hatred but in good and the better, to lock them away allows them to fester, and corrupt. Perhaps that’s why the Jedi would fall to the dark side? Luke wondered if Leia was right, he took her words to heart, though she did not follow the path of the Jedi, and he tried to change his order for the better, only to cast that aside after Kylo’s fall. Rey is not a failure, she’s human, and she can’t fault herself for feeling the way she does. She allows herself to grieve and feels better for it.

As Luke leaves, Finn appears, and the Force calls out to Rey, drawing her to Luke’s hut, where she finds a golden kyber crystal. Rebuilding her lightsaber from the remnants of her old, she and Finn return to the Falcon, who has received a message from the Resistance, that the First Order is back in action and pushing forwards. Word comes through the First Order has apparently fixed their gravity well, and are advancing on the New Republic.

Reuniting with the Resistance fleet, Poe now taking command, Connix reports her team of engineers have uncovered a flaw in the well’s plan, and that it could be fully disabled from within, without the method Leia employed. As they’re about to set off the fleet picks up a distress signal from a nearby planet. Dozens of stormtrooper deserters, TZ-1719 amongst them, flag them down and pledge allegiance to the Resistance and the Republic. Poe and the others seem wary and suspicious, Finn assures them the stormtroopers are on their side, and they should trust them as Poe did him. Finn asks TZ-1719’s name, something she says she’ll have to think about.

The fleet arrives in the atmosphere of planet hosting the New Republic, a world of forest with cities of tall skyscrapers lining the coast. The gravity well holds the air traffic hostage, but we learn from Pryde the weapon is still irrevocably damaged and far beyond working properly. The Falcon, piloted with Chewbacca, with Rey, Finn, TZ-1719 Artoo and Threepio aboard, hurtle into the star destroyer’s hangar, stunning their way through the stormtroopers and donning disguises, journeying through the maze of corridors to find the gravity well generators, Artoo disabling security as they go with TZ’s help.

The generator requires the activation and deactivation of 4 people, all turning and pulling their handles at once. One in the centre, and four at opposite ends of the cavernous hall. Rey takes the centre, intending to turn one from afar with the Force, as Finn, and TZ, now calling herself Jannah, take the others. Naturally, stormtroopers pour in from either side, and as Rey deflects the blasts coming her way, she feels a dark presence behind her, and blocks and blow from Kylo Ren, who had levitated down from a level above.

He toys with her, goading her, what were they there to do, sabotage the weapon? He was there to do that, to spite Hux and the traitors, but now he thinks he might let the weapon be. Tiring of the fight he goes in for the attack. Finn sense this, glances back, reaches out…and Force pushes Kylo off the catwalk to fall 50 feet. He lies motionless at the bottom of the generator. Turning their handles and deactivate the weapon, they gather their things and run out the generator room, Kylo’s body now mysteriously vanished.

Outside, the battle is in full swing, as more and more ships from the First Order and the Resistance pile out of hyperspace. Poe commands from the bridge of the cruiser as Leia did before, and knowing the First Order is listening in, Poe announces his intention to fly at light speed directly into the advancing Star destroyers, sacrificing themselves and wiping out half the FO’s numbers. One of the leading captains who bought his way up the ladder, panics and orders a full retreat, his vessel ploughing into the newly arrived reinforcements, the sky ablaze with fire as debris rips through the fleet. Hux, Phasma, Pryde, and the others stare on in horror as Poe and the others cheer.

Making their way to the hangar, they’re confronted by the Knights of Ren. Rey and Finn ignite their sabres and battle the Knights, letting them attack, as surrounding stormtroopers fire upon the Knights. With one remaining, he’s blasted by Chewbacca, who’s returned in the Falcon to help them escape, the group also helping fleeing helmet-less stormtroopers.

On the bridge, the doors slide open dramatically as Kylo enters, locking every other exit and beginning his massacre of the First Order high command. Dozens fall by his blade, Phasma giving up a good fight, the blade glancing off her armour, before he catches her unawares and slices her down. All that remains his Hux, who manages to get the door open and runs out into the hall, screaming to the stormtroopers to open fire on Ren, only for Ren to throw his blade after Hux and impale him through the chest, his body clattering to the floor at the stormtrooper’s feet. Calling his blade back he once again shuts the door, and sets about ordering the gunners to fire upon the Resistance fleet. It’s only then he realises the battle is lost, the star destroyer is failing, and his death is imminent.

The ship blows up, and the Resistance pull back, landing upon the beaches and fields outside the New Republic City. Enemy fighters are escorted down, officers and commanders arrested as the heroes reunite and embrace. Breaking away, Poe is alerted an unidentified First Order shuttle is approaching, escorted by Resistance fighters. Landing in a field, Poe stands flanked by heavily armoured troopers, as the boarding ramp lowers and Kylo Ren exits, hands held up in surrender. Poe, hiding his surprise, nods to the troopers who step forward and cuff Kylo. The two men stare into each other’s eyes. “so.... Who talks first?” Kylo asks in a flat drawl. Poe shakes his head and orders Ren be escorted to a cell.

Kylo Ren, once Ben Solo, sits alone in his cell, staring at the floor. He tries to look out, but catching sight of his reflection is painful. An apparition appears before him, he looks up and is shocked by what he sees, a Force ghost of Leia, reaching out to him. The realisation of all the pain his caused, the death of his parents crashing down on him, he breaks down and appears to embrace her, sobbing. The first steps on his long road to redemption.

Rey and the others stand in the field, BB-8 rolling up to her side as they watch the sun set, peace from the chaos of the Empire and First Order achieved at last.

***

Thank you for reading through this. It was a few months ago talking with a friend we challenged each other to craft our own versions of episode IX, and the ideas I had stuck with me. With the approach of so many Star Wars anniversaries, being two years since the release of The Rise of Skywalker, I wanted to make something special with this story, and a bunch of art safe for work and not so safe for work to accompany it.

The challenge I gave myself was to craft a story within the constraints the real episode IX would’ve had, namely the cast. New characters like Pryde and Jannah, and the fact Carrie Fisher wasn’t available to provide new scenes. It’s through this I allowed the story to be grounded and try to tie into what had come before, not just from the Skywalker Saga, but the spin-off films, the games, and the animated series. No constraints and total freedom would just lead to chaos and lacks any challenge. By sticking close to what came allows for comparisons to be made.

Starting with Leia, for her I reused the infamous “never underestimate a droid” line from a deleted TFA scene, reused for TROS, here now referring to her lifelong companion R2-D2. I imagine if this was to be filmed, sparing use of a voice soundalike, and a body double, with strategic placement of cameras, lighting, and sound effects, would help with new dialogue scenes. Deepfakery and CGI recreations would not be used, instead the many reactions, and alternate takes given new meaning thanks to the context of the scenes.

Maz Kanata is a character I’m not terribly fond of, her inclusion here wraps up the mystery of her keeping Luke’s sabre safe, and Winter Celchu, a childhood friend of Leia’s from the noncanon Legends continuity, is revealed to have kept Leia’s sabre and give dialogue on Leia’s behalf.

The flashback with Luke would also steer clear of CGI recreations, instead showing the silhouettes of Luke and Leia, Old Boy style with the young Luke not in frame when the old Luke is, and vice versa. Leia’s voice actress from Battlefront 2 argues her case with the young Luke in this scene.

The stormtrooper commander 926 was from a deleted scene in TLJ featuring Tom Hardy. Seeing Finn’s heroics in that film he works to make sure his squad, including Jannah, survives the downfall of the First Order.

Kylo Ren was the one to declare to forget the past in TLJ, this story finds him directionless without a master, unable to shoulder the burdens of actual rule, having trained only for war. His fall back into the ways of the Empire, to find some security and stability in the familiar is more a personal regression rather than one of character, while he as a person regresses his character continues to progress to a point where he’s able to make changes and find redemption. It’s through living with the consequences of his actions he’ll be able to achieve that.

Rey meanwhile seemed to fall back on the old ways in TLJ, and it’s here she’s able to learn from the mistakes of history and make better choices for the future. Her misunderstanding of the Jedi Code is somewhat emblematic of real confusion over the Code in real life, some writers taking the “no attachment” to mean the Jedi were cold and detached, directly at odds with Anakin claiming in AOTC the Jedi “are encouraged to love.” Rey and Luke’s discussion of the matter hopefully addresses the real and in universe confusion of the Code, the past failings of the Jedi, and allows her compassionate nature, present since TFA, to shine through.

The gravity well super weapon was featured in the series Rebels, and seemed like a perfect countermeasure against the “Holdo Manoeuvre” in TLJ, which was treated with far too much flippancy in TROS and seen by many fans as a legitimate tactic and not sheer luck/the Force’s will. The gravity well so powerful it could already rip ships from hyperspace is the perfect defence and would totally weaponise the enemy’s own ships against them, and hopefully make for a visually interesting spectacle.

There’s a silhouette to Leia’s “Huttslayer” attire including the shape to the shoes, that has a quality I find really cool, befitting a rogue-like character, and gave that silhouette to Rey in this. The greys and blues lean a little towards Ahsoka’s getup in Mandalorian and the finale Clone Wars series. Her lightsaber is built from her staff, the blade jagged like Kylo’s thanks to the shattered crystal from Luke’s old saber.

Finn’s design is partially inspired by the flack jackets Mandalorians wear, with repainted stormtrooper armour on his shoulders and legs, and The Clone Wars Jedi style armour on his chest. Poe’s look gets more grizzled and displays a passage of time in this story, ending on a larger beard than the story’s beginning.

Kylo reverts to the silhouette he had in TFA, but more regal, and more than a few of his moments are reminiscent of previous Sith in the series. His intro to the duel with Rey and Finn is a throwback to Maul’s grand entrance in TPM, complete with Duel of Fates, and his execution of the First Order high command has shades of Vader killing the Separatists in ROTS. The return to this visual look are signs of him trying to cling to the past and as the helmet smashes when he throws it aside in the duel, just how fragile that hold is, how unstable his rule is.

The Empire was made up of people wanting to restore order to the galaxy in the wake of a devastating three year war run by wizards. With the revelation Palpatine and Vader, the leaders of the Empire, were followers of similar magic and essentially lead to the Empire’s downfall, it’s what’s instilled in Hux and the other commanders that they want Kylo out.

There are of course little moments and scenes the treatment couldn’t delve into, like the memorial discussion between Lando, Poe, and Connix, the confrontation BB-8 has with Chopper, R2-D2’s and 3PO’s bickering, and more. But if you have any thoughts, and questions, comment below and I’ll answer them soon, I hope you enjoy this story, and look forwards to some Rise of the Force art soon.