Star Wars 9 Rise of Skywalker clue reveals why Palpatine NEEDED Luke in Return of the Jedi

Star Wars Episode 9 won’t just wrap up the latest trilogy. Fans are expecting it to bring home some major storylines that have been running through all nine movies across 42 years. The shock revelation Emperor Palpatine will return suddenly rebooted long-cherished theories, prophecies and foreshadowings. Nobody knows yet if Palpatine (or Darth Sidious) is back in corporeal form, or pulling strings from beyond death. A new official canon book just opened up a horrifying possibility that links directly to that climactic scene in Return of the Jedi.

How is Palpatine back, or does he still need to complete one last awful step to truly return?

Why did he want Luke so badly as his new apprentice? The whole Sith system is badly flawed since it encourages masters to seek the best and strongest apprentices who will implicitly eventually want to take their place. And not after a polite handshake and cosy retirement plan.

Palpatine’s desire for Luke was based on sensing Vader’s emotional limitations, but he didn’t just want Luke, he needed Luke for even more selfish and ruthless reasons. Luke was the key to the Sith lord’s survival and immortality.

The clue is in Claudia Gray’s latest novel Master and Apprentice.

The book is about Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi but also features flashbacks to Jinns’ time as Count Dooku’s apprentice when he started to sense his master might be falling towards the Dark Side.

A clever Redditor spotted a hugely important passage where Jinn worries Dooku is obsessed with the Jedi prophecy: “He who learns to conquer death will through his greatest student live again.”

Assuming Palpatine also knew about it, was he ready to discard Vader fro Luke because he needed to make sure his greatest ever student was capable of ensuring his own return?

The theory adds: “It’s safe to say that Palpatine has conquered death and this prophecy is coming true. The only other question is who is his greatest student?”

There are two main possibilities. Since Luke rejected Palpatine, Vader remains his greatest student. However, the phrase “through his greatest student” could refer to that student’s bloodline. This leaves Kylo Ren in prime position.

Ren also killed his master, Snoke, the ultimate test for any Sith apprentice. Many fans also now believe Palpatine was pulling Snoke and Kylo’s strings, meaning he is also Kylo’s hidden teacher.

A second option is Palpatine has been training a new apprentice. Could this be the still unconfirmed character played by Matt Smith?

ORIGINAL THEORY ON REDDIT via INVERSE