Creating a story from the concept art
The leaked concept art seems to illustrate a completely different movie to the one we got. Some of it does appear to fit in with Colin Trevorrow’s leaked early draft of IX, but it seems odd that they’d do this much concept art if they’d decided not to go ahead with his story. JJ and CT allegedly started from scratch when they came on board but it’s very strange that there is barely anything related to what was actually in their movie. This whole thing makes my head hurt but, just for fun, I’m going to try to piece a story together.
It begins with the First Order heading out on a mission. We see the new Sith Troopers who are loyal to Supreme Leader Kylo Ren.
They land on Mustafar where we see Kylo Ren slice his way through Vader loyalists.
He fights his way through to the remains of Vader’s castle.
He seeks out the mysterious ‘Oracle’ for guidance as he is struggling with his role as Supreme Leader. He is also very conflicted between the Dark and Light and doesn’t know how to make sense of his feelings for Rey. This creature calls him out on his conflicted soul and his love for Rey and informs him that they are a ‘Dyad in the Force’.
Cut to Rey continuing her training. She’s repaired the broken lightsaber and fused it with her staff to create a double edged blade that can be split in two (rather than randomly introducing Leia’s saber).
Kylo tries to open up the bond so he can tell Rey what he has learnt, but she aggressively continues training and rejects his attempts to speak to her.
Instead, he goes to talk to Vader’s mask. Which then turns to ash?? It’s trying to tell him something so he follows it.
Through some means, the mask gives him a message that the answers he seeks are on Coruscant.
He heads to an old Sith Temple where he encounters a Sith Master who gives him a Sith Holocron. It has a message from Emperor Palpatine. He had a contingency plan if Vader did attempt to kill him, and it’s revealed that he’s still alive in some capacity through Vader’s mask. He is the one who has been communicating with Kylo and telling him to do things.
It also reveals there is another hidden Holocron somewhere, the other one being a Jedi Holocron. When the two of them come together a great power will be forged.
When Kylo touches the Holocron, his bond with Rey opens up and both of them see visions of Rey turning to the Dark Side.
Kylo had thought he wanted Rey to turn to the Dark Side and they could rule side by side, but what he sees horrifies him. He makes the decision to do whatever it takes to stop this vision from happening.
We also get hints that Hux is not happy with the Supreme Leader and his recklessness. It’s clear he is planning to overthrow him (with the help of General Pryde?).
Through the bond, Rey heard all about the Jedi Holocron and is determined to find it before Kylo does. She scours the Jedi texts and discovers that Pasaana might hold the key.
She says farewell to Leia, who tells her the repaired lightsaber(s) belong to her now and says something about Ben (maybe foreshadowing that he will wield one of them?). She watches them fly off in the Falcon.
Rey, Finn, Poe and co head to Pasaana. They encounter the cave where Rey heals the injured snake using her new Jedi healing abilities.
Kylo is struggling to deal with the news that he was not communicating with his grandfather, but it was Palpatine the whole time. He begins to have an identity crisis and has doubts about whether he is on the right side. He is also determined to stop the vision of Rey turning to the Dark Side from coming true. He desperately keeps trying to open the bond back up and eventually succeeds and figures out she’s on Pasaana.
He heads straight there and sends Stormtroopers (who can fly now...) to capture them.
Kylo comes after Rey personally, hoping he can capture her, but her power has gotten a lot stronger since they last fought together. Rey does the awesome backflip manoeuvre and chops one wing off his TIE whisper (the darkness is already starting to corrupt her, that’s why she’s acting very aggressive).
Kylo walks out of the wreckage unscathed.
Rey is descending into the dark while Kylo is rising to the light. They’re on parallel journeys.
They don’t end up finding what they were searching for on Pasaana, and during the whole debacle, Chewie gets captured. Rescuing him becomes their most urgent mission.
Kylo is aware that Chewie has been captured and tries to avoid having to face him. After what he did to Han, the thought of facing his fathers best friend makes him feel ill. He leaves Hux in control of their prisoner and is shocked when he is taken (against his wishes) to see the torture he is being put through. Hux knows this and is doing at as a test, seeing if Kylo will break so he can take control of the First Order. Kylo doesn’t let his true feelings show but he is very shaken by the whole thing.
Through Rey’s Jedi abilities, they find their way to the location of the Star Destroyer. Finn and Poe go off to rescue Chewie, and Rey heads to Kylo’s chambers to find the Holocron.
Kylo can sense that she is on his ship but doesn’t know where. He tries to open up the bond but she keeps resisting. He captures Finn and questions him, but then the bond opens back up and he sends everyone out of the room.
Kylo tries to have an honest conversation with Rey, but she ignites her lightsaber. He manages to tell her that they’re a ‘Dyad in the Force’. She refuses to believe him (she’s still hurt by everything that happened in TLJ), even though deep down she knows what he’s saying is true. She starts to attack and smashes something and Kylo realises she’s in his chambers.
Kylo meets her in his chambers and they have a physical duel throughout the Star Destroyer (not through the bond).
Kylo gets the upper hand but he will not finish her off. He tries to talk to her. He tires to save her from the darkness that has already begun to consume her. But then the Falcon shows up and he lets her go.
Kylo tries to open up the Holocron again, to see if there is anything else in there but comes out with nothing. He is frustrated that nothing is going right and has a temper tantrum and trashes the room. The bond opens back up and he finds Rey standing there with her lightsaber ignited.
She sees the Holocron and rushes to take it (as matter can now pass through the bond). The Holocron opens and they both see the message that reveals the location of the second one. The bond is severed and Rey rushes off to Kef Bir to the wreckage of the second Death Star alone.
She swims underwater and encounters Kylo. Both of them want the Jedi Holocron and a fight ensues.
They have their epic lightsaber duel on the wreckage of the Death Star as the waves crash down around them.
A dark force has really taken hold of Rey and she overpowers Kylo and gets him on the ground. Much like in the movie, he’s distracted and while he’s unarmed Rey stabs him with his own lightsaber.
She comes to her senses and heals him. Kylo Ren symbolically dies and Ben Solo is reborn. Rey leaves him and takes the Jedi Holocron. She is unable to access it though, because it can only be opened by a Jedi and she is being influenced by dark forces.
Ben is alone on the Death Star and is visited by the memory of his father. Much like in the movie, this is the real turning point for him. His mother calling out to him, making peace with his father and wanting to save Rey, all of that is what pushes him back to the light.
There is absolutely no mention of Palpatine in the art book so I don’t think he was originally meant to be the big bad. The climactic battle was supposed to be the First Order vs the Resistance.
With Kylo gone, Hux is now Supreme Leader of the First Order and controls the Sith Troopers. They launch a huge space attack on the Resistance.
The Resistance fight back hard. Maybe Finn (and Rose?) lead a Stormtrooper rebellion. This is the huge climactic moment of the movie where the stakes are very high.
During the big battle, Ben and Rey come face to face. Rey has almost completely lost herself to the Dark Side. She looks something like this.
They fight, Ben desperately trying not to harm her and bring her back to the light. She has both of the lightsabers and during the duel, Ben gets one and they clash them together. They’re equally matched.
Two halves of one lightsaber, just as they are two halves of one soul, and the Holocron’s are two halves of one fusion. Three different visual representations of two halves coming together as one.
As their Force Dyad is a power like life itself, when they come together a huge wave of power overcomes them and everyone in the space battle.
The surge of Force energy ends the war and brings balance to the Force.
Ben and Rey are both knocked out, but Ben is still conscious due to Leia holding on and giving him the remainder of her life force.
Ben heals Rey, repaying the favour from earlier. They accept that they both have dark and light inside them and that’s okay. Things happen much like in the movie. They kiss, then Ben dies and fades away.
Rey heads back to the Resistance base where her friends are a little wary of her after she wasn’t acting like herself when the darkness was influencing her. Everyone reunites and celebrates the victory.
Rey exiles herself to Ahch-To. She feels guilt for letting the darkness get to her and blames herself for Ben’s death. She buries the two halves of the repaired lightsaber there, as the home of the first Jedi Temple is a fitting place for them to be laid to rest. She burns Kylo’s TIE whisper as a funeral for Ben.
She is then called to the cave just as she was in TLJ. She falls into the water and comes to the mirrors. There is a strange sense of déjà vu as almost the exact thing that happened last time happens again.
As the shadowed figure approaches her, it cuts to Ben in the World Between Worlds. He senses her and begins walking towards the rays of light.
Cut back to Rey’s point of view as Ben appears on the other side of the mirror. They’re so close yet they cannot get to each other.
Rey keeps repeating ‘be with me’ and the fallen Jedi appear to her. They help her bring Ben back into the world of the living.
The movie ends with a time jump where we see Ben and Rey training the next generation of Force users as Gray Jedi. Ben with facial hair, and Rey possibly in this cream coloured outfit, which could symbolise the balance she’s found within herself.
As the theme of the movie and the saga as a whole is BALANCE, the ending shows how dark and light coming together and meeting in the middle is how the galaxy has finally found…
STAR PEACE.
