Plenty of Star Wars fans still bristle at the mere mention of The Rise of Skywalker, which was a rushed and ultimately underwhelming conclusion to a story that had taken nine movies and 42 years to tell. It was almost as if J.J. Abrams had rejoined the franchise specifically to perform damage control on a fanbase left divided by The Last Jedi, doubling down on nostalgia and callbacks to the detriment of the story.
Palpatine’s return is literally explained by Poe Dameron saying “somehow, Palpatine has returned,” which is almost hilarious when you think about it, before the expanded universe tie-ins were left to fill in the gaps in the mythology. Indeed, it’s been novels and comic books tying up the loose plot threads, which isn’t a good look for a mega budget blockbuster that doubled as one of the most highly-anticipated films ever.
One of the biggest retcons was the revelation that Palpatine was responsible for the creation of Supreme Leader Snoke as a means to lure Ben Solo to the Dark Side, but a new issue of the Darth Vader comic book run appears to have indicated that the DNA of Ben’s uncle was used to pull off his masterplan, as you can see below.
Admittedly, it would explain why the clone was Force-sensitive, but it would also technically make Snoke part of the sprawling Skywalker family tree, with the comic seemingly implying that Darth Vader extracted Luke’s Midichlorians from his severed appendage and used them to imbue the future Supreme Leader with enhanced abilities, which is every bit as wild as it sounds and continues expanding the tangled legacy of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and not always for the better.