Summary
- Palpatine's return in The Rise of Skywalker showcased his failure to learn from past mistakes and rely on superweapons, as they are usually doomed to fail.
- The history of previous movies in the Star Wars saga, including the destruction of the Death Star and the Starkiller base, proves that superweapons are just bigger targets and not a guaranteed path to victory.
- Despite the repeated failures of superweapons, Palpatine's response in The Rise of Skywalker was to bring in even bigger, more powerful Star Destroyers.
Superweapons are doomed to fail in Star Wars, and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker proves that Palpatine never learned this lesson. Palpatine returned in The Rise of Skywalker, which retconned not only Return of the Jedi’s ending but the first two Star Wars sequels as well. The Rise of Skywalker established that the First Order was part of Palpatine’s contingency plan all along, and that Snoke was a clone deployed by the Emperor. Another portion of Palpatine’s secret plan to retake the galaxy involved a massive fleet of superweapons, which set up the tone for the Skywalker saga’s final battle sequence.
Darth Sidious’ return in The Rise of Skywalker had many problems, mostly because the film never properly explained how Palpatine returned. Regardless, the Emperor now had, in theory, more firepower than the Empire’s weapons ever had. Still, Palpatine’s The Rise of Skywalker plan ignored his first two major failures and led to yet another defeat.
The Destruction Of The Death Star Proved Superweapons Are Just Bigger Targets
Palpatine’s Death Star plan failed twice in Star Wars. One of the most iconic Star Wars moments is Luke Skywalker destroying the Death Star, which would then become a Star Wars trope when Return of the Jedi did something similar. In both cases, the Rebels explored a design failure within the Death Star to destroy the superweapon using nothing but a few X-Wings. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story would retcon A New Hope decades later, establishing that the first Death Star’s design flaw was put there for a reason. The problem with Palpatine’s approach remained, though, as the second Death Star suffered a similar fate.
Star Wars’ Death Star trope would return 32 years later in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, during which the First Order launched the Starkiller base. As Han Solo put it, the Starkiller base was essentially a Death Star bug bigger. Once again, a few X-Wings managed to destroy this superweapon by exploring small flaws in its design. Similarly, the Supremacy ship was nothing but a big target for the Resistance’s fighters to aim at. The Empire and the First Order’s failures proved more than once that superweapons are just bigger targets, and that they are not a clear path to victory.
Palpatine's Response... Was To Go For More Superweapons
Despite all the times the Empire or the First Order failed due to their superweapons being easily destroyed, Palpatine went for more superweapons as his ultimate plan against the galaxy. Instead of just one Death Star, Darth Sidious’ “final order” brought countless Xyston-class Star Destroyers from his secret Sith fleet into the galaxy. Each of those ships was sort of their own Death Stars, as they had enough firepower to destroy an entire planet. Still, regardless of the mighty presence of the Sith fleet, those ships were defeated by the Resistance’s ships and soldiers relatively easily.
In theory, Palpatine’s fleet in The Rise of Skywalker was the biggest demonstration of power in all of the Star Wars movies. However, with only a few minutes left for the entire Skywalker saga to be concluded, it was clear that the Resistance would find a way to take down the Xyston-class Star Destroyers and save the day. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker expanded the scale of its final fight way too much with Palpatine’s new superweapons, making it impossible for it to have a fitting conclusion. In of the story, Palpatine repeated his original Star Wars mistake almost 40 years later.
