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A Bothan’s fever dream of alternative Ep IX, ch4

The old Bothan stretched. He stopped talking for several minutes, and fell asleep. The prisoners were relieved, thinking it was all over. But suddenly, the old Bothan twitched in his sleep. And his eyes shot open. The prisoners yelled in disbelief as the old Bothan said, ‘I think I can weave it all together now in chronological order.’ He continued to speak:

“Scene 1: Rey senses a disturbance

The ceremony proceeds and Rey receives a green kyber crystal, which used to have a twin. The First Order attacks with Kylo and the two remaining Knights of Ren. Rey pulls off near impossible feats effortlessly. Suddenly, Rey sees something amiss. Instead of doing her duty, she feels pity for Kylo and doesn’t kill him. She then feels a huge power drop for some reason she can’t explain. Kylo sees this opportunity and strikes her down, severely injuring her, but stops just as he gets the chance to kill her. He senses something is wrong- why did Rey suddenly lose power? He asks if she’s mocking him, but she denies it. In this hesitation, Rey is able to be saved. But since she could not stop the First Order, the planet is ravaged. The Resistance is distraught, and now claim they need to resort to far harsher methods to win.

Scene 2: Rey ponders about her feelings

Back in base, the Resistance leaders question Rey on why she stopped. She said she felt sorry for Kylo and could not bring herself to kill him. One of the Elders claims it’s her sympathy for Kylo that led to her power drop. Rey is skeptical, and becomes determined to get to the heart of the matter. Finn tries to defend her, but is silenced when the Resistance leaders bring up how Finn disobeyed orders and got many fighters killed. The leaders stop questioning Rey and instead tell her, in a sympathetic tone, that many depend on her. She can’t let her personal feelings about Kylo get in the way. They depart and leave her by herself with Finn.

Scene 3: Knights of Ren

The scene cuts to the First Order being led by Kylo. He has his mask back, and discusses matters with the last two remaining Knights of Ren. It’s revealed that many Knights of Ren, traitor students of Luke, were killed by Snoke after they disobeyed his orders and failed him. Only two who escaped into hiding managed to survive, and managed to cloak themselves in the ancient Jedi locations (revealed later on; for now, just call them mysterious ‘hiding spots’) that Snoke could not sense them in. One of the Knights of Ren, Halder, tells the other Knights of Ren, Serei, that he just wishes for peace, and thought the First Order would achieve it. He begins to see that the First Order is wrong. [Halder lates kills Serei and takes over as the villain, becoming a puppet for the Royals to continue the fake war]. Serei cares more for herself than the cause. Phasma is back again and is tracking Finn, but whose side she’s on remains to be seen, as the First Order appears to be disappointed with her performance and have let her go...

Scene 4: The Resistance scolds Finn

The Resistance has a ‘you’re either with us or against us’ mentality. A few years have passed since Ep VIII, and Leia has passed away, so now the Resistance is going in a different direction under new leaders (who were there in the beginning but seize Leia’s death as an opportunity to take over). In their next mission, they have to protect a city, but discover they’ve been double crossed. During this battle, Finn briefly is able to move some objects at a distance, and is startled, then can’t do it anymore no matter how hard he tries. The Resistance manages to push back using harsh tactics and wins. When a group of civilians is found to be collaborating as double agents, led by a long-time hero of the Resistance who turns out to be a double agent, the Resistance orders them imprisoned and separated from their children. Finn protests, saying that the civilians had no choice because the First Order promised to help them out of poverty, which the Resistance ignored. One main Resistance leader, Gnovel, questions Finn’s loyalty. He says that one of the heroes turned out to be a double agent the whole time- so if she could be one, why couldn’t Finn? His past heroic actions are meaningless in this context. Finn, in his anger, brings up his knowledge that the Resistance is getting weapons from shady rich weapon dealers, who also deal with the First Order. Gnovel shouts at Finn and turns the rest of the rebels against him, saying that the Resistance has to do whatever it can to survive, since the First Order is far worse. He says that buying from the same dealers doesn’t mean they also support the First Order, as the First Order would buy from the dealers regardless of the Resistance’s actions- the rich have enough money to supply the First Order without the Resistance as customers. He brings up the horrors of Starkiller base and other atrocities. The other rebels go against Finn, fearing he’s putting the whole cause at danger.

Scene 5: Rey and Finn discuss the Force

After the ordeal, Finn is attacked by the others for questioning the Resistance. They don’t listen to his reasons, but claim he’s acting out of hatred due to his upbrining in the First Order, as he sympathizes with the civilians who had to do ‘whatever it took to survive, even abandoning their ideals’. They cite all of Finn’s attempts to escape. Rey, Poe and Rose try to defend Finn from the most vile rumors and attacks, but even they tell him that he’s wrong. When Rey steps in, everyone stops because they worship her as the figurehead hero. Finn mentions how the Resistance has flaws, but the Resistance ignore all his reasons and only focus on these small implied insults, misinterpreting his meanings to silence criticism.

Finn goes to the only person he knows who suspects something’s wrong: Rey. In secret, she reveals to him that she thinks everyone only likes her because she’s powerful and can protect them. If she wasn’t this way, then no one would like her, just like she was on Jakku. Finn tells Rey that she’s wrong, and that he liked her even before she was the savior of the Resistance. Rey smiles and thanks him. Now Finn tells Rey that he had experienced briefly moving objects. He’s not sure if it’s just his imagination, but he feels something different now. Rey tells Finn about her childhood: though she was alone, she always felt there was some nurturing spirit watching over her, helping her out from terrible dangers and abuses. She says she witnessed miracles that are impossible to explain rationally. Then she says she believes that the Force has always been with her. Rey tries to teach Finn about what she knows about the force, but he has a hard time empathizing with her.

Scene 6: Rey discovers the Force needs help

Abnormalities in physics were being created. Gravity did not always behave correctly, though it would quickly correct itself. And people were suddenly gaining Force powers in booms and busts- no one could explain why. Before, Rey had seen actual distortions in space and time. When she reaches out to touch the distortion, she felt an agonizing scream, as if the Force was being tortured. When she sees one again, she reaches her whole body into it, and something is calling out to her. Rey tells Finn about this, and Finn cautions her that it could be a trap- he reminds her of what happened when she went to Kylo. Rey insists it’s different this time, and that Finn can’t understand because he’s not as strong in the force as she is. Finn thinks Rey is being too arrogant and leaves her. Rey plots a way to run away so she can find the voice. She sneaks out with the Jedi books (that she has a hard time interpreting; she got frustrated and had given up on them, but after a moment of hesistation, she reluctantly takes them just in case she cracks their code. Also, they’re the only external things that can “understand” the Force like she can, so she feels a connection to them), and the Resistance is in turmoil when she’s gone without anyone noticing. They blame Finn, as one rebel saw Finn arguing with Rey.

Scene 7: Rey finds Luke

Rey flies to a planet with transparent stones and wheat-like grass taller than trees. It always seems to be an afternoon bliss. Once on the planet, the mysteries she read in the books start to make sense, and she cracks part of their hidden messages to find strange artifacts. But as Rey follows the voice deeper and deeper, she realizes there’s danger. Her powers are being cut off. When she reaches into a hole, she feels searing pain and for the first time, sees a faint outline of the Royals. The Royals panic, as they’ve been revealed. Though Rey can’t see who they are, they tell her that she has to obey. If she does not, her powers will become weaker and weaker, and she’ll be cut off from the force. The Royals are holding the strongest aspects of the Force from her, telling her she can only get it back if she’s good. Fearing that her connection to her childhood guardian angel will be lost forever, Rey panics and tries to fight the Royals, but is punished with a ghostly figure going to restrain her.

Suddenly, this ghostly figure is stopped by something. Rey turns around and sees a hooded figure. The figure takes off its hood and reveals that it’s Luke. Rey can’t believe it- didn’t Luke die?

Scene 8: Finn and Poe set out to seek the truth

The scene cuts back to rebel base. Finn is barred from participating in any upcoming missions, and is shamed as a suspect. Poe and Rose try to defend him, but fail. Rose is silenced as the Resistance scolded her from stopping Finn- she chose to save one person rather than the whole cause. Feeling guilty, she thinks she has to redeem herself and does not defend Finn. She’s called away to other duties, leaving only Poe and Finn, who discuss their conflicting ideologies. They argue for a short time. He vehemently denies there is something fishy with the Resistance, but after Finn brings up a certain point, he finally reveals that Leia had said something cryptic to him a few times, saying that if this [certain point] happens, then they should look inside files in a droid she left behind, with a password only Poe knows. Why she entrusted this to only Poe- out of all the other resistance leaders- is a mystery for now. But Poe and Finn go to find these files. When they do, a distorted hologram and voice, implying Leia had to hide her identity, speaks to him. It mentions that she suspects corruption within the Resistance. Poe and Finn are shocked. It leaves additional clues for them to follow. Finn gradually discovers his connection with the force (later, it’s revealed it’s because the Force got disrupted and sought help by giving Finn a connection to it, as Finn uses the Force to guide him to uncover the truth. This ‘conscious’ act of the Force is like how Anakin was prophecized to bring balance to the Force. That prophecy is directly connected to the Faceless and ancient Jedi).

Scene 9: Luke and Rey set off to save the Force from the ‘watchers’

Back to Luke and Rey: Luke reveals to Rey that someone is messing with the Force. He doesn’t know why or how, but when he was dead, he managed to speak with the Force on another level, and discover it’s being leashed around, and that it’s in “pain”. Luke tells Rey how he was driven insane, which he wasn’t aware of being since he was insane, and other details writen in pt 1. Luke says he was drawn to this location by the Force, for the same reason that Rey was. Now Rey tells Luke what she decrypted from the Jedi texts, and she pieces it together with what Luke told her. They still don’t know who is doing this, and why they are doing it. Suddenly, Rey remembers her duty, and feels ashamed she ran away from the Resistance when they relied so much on her. She gets up to try to go back, but Luke stops her. Luke tells her that whoever is messing around with the Force is watching them. He tells her a way to conceal themselves from these watchers by creating a “dummy spirit” that the watchers think is them, but is just a substitute. The downside to this is while they are sneaking around like this, they will have only a very weak connection to the Force; the stronger the dummy proxy, the weaker they become. Luke says he suspects something is amiss in the Resistance. Rey disagrees, saying that she can’t believe Luke would say something as terrible as that. But Luke asks Rey if she felt something wrong too. Rey, remembering what happened with Finn, reluctantly agrees. Luke says that if Rey really cares about the Resistance, she wouldn’t go there and risk the watchers finding them. Rey is a walking beacon right now, as if she unleashes her abilities, she cannot use the proxy and will be revealed. Rey agrees, but asks Luke what they can even do now.

Luke says that in addition to the proxy, there are certain ‘safe spot’ locations in which the watchers can’t see them. These are locations blessed by the ancient Jedi whose original purpose is now unknown. Luke says that these locations contain answers, and combined with the cryptic texts, can reveal what’s really going on. He tells Rey that they must go to these locations. This planet has one nearby, and they will use it to camp out and train for now. After that, they should head to the next location, on another planet, that Luke knows about. Luke leads Rey to the location and she sees an X-Wing. Luke says that he reappeared on the Jedi island he died on, almost deprived completely of the Force, and used what he learned when he ‘died’ to construct a proxy (a technique the force he learned when he learned about the watchers). He slowly learned to use the Force again and rebuilt his X-Wing. Luke tells Rey that she should fly her ship into the safe location, and they will train for a bit before heading out the next morning.

Scene 10: The watchers converse

The scene changes to show the ‘watchers’, whose bodies aren’t seen, only a dark outline. The main watcher (Snoke) isn’t present; only the 3 are discussing among themselves, and the leader is speaking for Snoke. The watchers reveal they can never know precise locations, only knowing the ‘general area’ Rey is in (which is why the proxy works). This is seen on a map projected they’re gathered around. They comment that Rey has left the Resistance, but since they are tracking her, they notice she isn’t with whoever disrupted their connection. They say it’s possible, and it’s highly suspicious, though they have no evidence to conclude she’s with that person. They don’t know who that person is. They say that they expected Rey to rebel eventually. Their hold over the Force is weakening, and it’s causing disruptions and a lack of control. They need to double down on their efforts and enact the stronger rituals- it’s the only way. And as for Rey, they’re going to have to remind her about what she’s always wanted in life. A last resort, but now a necessary one.

Scenes 11-20: Luke and Rey’s training and journey, Finn and Poe’s journey, Kylo’s backstory

Now Rey’s power has been taken away by the ‘watchers’, and she struggles to learn about the Force in a new way. In pt 1, it’s said she’s impulsive and is used to instantly winning, so she gets frustrated, but slowly learns to be supervised by someone. She’s a hard worker, but doesn’t like following orders about tasks she feels are meaningless and have nothing to do with the Force. While Luke isn’t a good teacher, he guides her in the right direction, and 90% of the training is Rey interpreting those directions and training herself using the old Jedi texts. Without Luke’s help, she would never discover these directions that require facing her deepest fears. Luke comments that Rey is quick on her feet when improvising, but lacks planning oversight. Also, he notes that she’s patient as a scavenger, but just not when it comes to obeying a teacher, which she’s not used to.

Luke and Rey begin visiting other planets and training. These were planets Luke visited during his journey to try to establish peace after the Empire. Some thank him, but as Rey learns, some hate Luke for not helping them firmly. Luke tried not to take sides whenever he felt both sides had parts where they deserved to have their own opinions that weren’t pure evil, or when both sides had good things they fought for that unfortunately took away from others due to limited resources, and Luke sought to negotiate peace and understanding between the sides, hoping they would understand each other. In one case, it worked, but in another case, it didn’t, and they were antagonistic. In a third case, it led to a horrific ravaging of the home planet, and Luke becomes ashamed. More is revealed about Luke’s past and how he came to help the royals (feeling guilty for his failures), and why it led him down the path of fearing that he was losing his power and the only chance he would get to stop Ben was in that pivotal moment.

During this journey, it sometimes switches back to Poe and Finn’s buddy adventure. At one point, Finn tries to use the Force to contact Rey, and fails. Later, he tries again, and briefly gets in touch with her. This becomes permanent. Though they can’t see each other fully and have limited means of communication, they devise a way to share the clues they found, which they use to piece together what the New Republic is doing.

Rey also communicates with Kylo in a similar manner, due to the link Snoke established between them not fading. Rey learns more about Kylo’s past with Han, Luke, and Snoke (whom Kylo hates now, despite saying he was all he had before; see pt3-2 for details), and Rey tells him about her childhood with the Force, as she feels lonely and needs someone to talk to (Luke sort of brushes that stuff aside since it seems inconsistent with what he knows about the Force, saying it’s not a conscious spirit that helps certain people in such obvious ways). Rey feels like these events weren’t her own doing, but something else’s. Kylo doesn’t comment much, but merely listens.

Scene 21: Rey gives in to the watchers to save civilians

During the second mission (there are 2 or 3 explicitly shown in total, plus a montage), Rey comes across one of the places that Luke failed to save due to not being firm enough and taking one side over another (leading to both side annihilating each other), and they are currently being attacked by the First Order. Luke has to hide himself as he can’t reveal his power (this doesn’t mean he doesn’t fight occassionally to protect people; he just sensed the watchers in that location and can’t reveal himself or else they would focus on tracking him and destroy the plans to find out who the watchers are), and Rey isn’t strong enough by herself to stop them. Rey disobeys Luke’s orders as she wants to save the people there. Suddenly, while being defeated, she hears the voices again. The watchers have found her- they only know her general location, but knowing location is different than communicating directly. When they communicate directly with her, they can see her precise location. They suspect she’s been blocking them, but don’t know how. [The watchers were able to guess where Rey would end up next based on clues that people have visited certain locations; this would logically be the next spot of the ancient Jedi that the previous locations points to]. They tell her that Luke had failed before, and now the only way to save the people is by getting the power. Rey is tempted, and gives in, and uses incredible power that Luke had never seen before to save the people. Then Rey realizes what she’s doing after saving the people, fears what Luke would say, and rejects the power again, putting the proxy up and cutting off from the watchers again.

Scene 22: Luke and Rey argue over about the watchers’ moralities

Luke argues with her after the event, saying she’s giving in to what the watchers want. Rey shouts, “Why’s that so bad?” The watchers are harsh, but have a reason for doing so- when faced with great evil, harshness is necessary, which Luke lacked. Luke stays calm, but is hurt by these statements. Behind Luke’s back, Rey is secretely communicating with the watchers. She won’t tell them who she’s with, and they suspect someone but know it’s possible for her to follow these locations too using only the Jedi texts, which the watchers haven’t read but know she has. Rey begins to learn more about the watchers’ motivations and learns the name the ‘Faceless’. The watchers lie to her that they control the force to defeat the First Order, as Snoke was too powerful for even Luke (who failed)- this is a lie, as later on it’s revealed the watchers orchestrated the entire conflict and created both sides. During these meetings, Rey sees her power taken away, and the Resistance have found themselves a new hero: a new unknown boy with immense force abilities. The watchers have given the force to him, and the Resistance seems to have forgotten Rey. Rey fears she will be forgotten and her surrogate family and fans will not like her anymore. Also, they drop the bomb that they were the Force in her childhood all along, and that they nurtured Rey by giving her all this power because they cared for her. During another mission, she secretely agrees to take only a little of the power, to save a few people and get praise over other heroes. Luke finds this suspicious, and during the next training session, he pushes her far over the top in tasks she would never accomplish at her current level. Luke discovers she’s been getting just a little power, and he gets angry, saying that it would lead her down a road she cannot control. Luke says this is an unnatural use of the Force- someone has been tampering with it, and Rey is supporting those who are tampering with it. Luke says they have to stop the Royals, but Rey says that if the Royals are not there, who would stop the First Order, if Luke is unwilling to go out of hiding for fear of being discovered by the watchers, and Rey can only have power to match Kylo if the watchers help her? Rey then leaves him, wanting to go back to the Resistance because she can’t stand the possibility of losing the only family she’s ever had. She starts to journey back.

Scene 23: CLIMAX- The war is revealed to be a fake war that someone is puppeteering

Finn and Poe have discovered a file which makes Finn questions his own beliefs- maybe the Resistance IS right. Finn feels guilty for snooping around. He thinks maybe his First Order indoctrination is messing with his mind. He doesn’t know the watchers are connected with the Resistance yet. Finn tells Rey that the Resistance was likely right the whole time- there are traitors spreading lies about the Resistance, which is why Finn thought otherwise, and now Finn vows to capture them. But after conversing with Rey, in a spark of insight, he’s able to piece together one more file location, and when he goes to it, he finds concrete evidence that the Resistance and First Order are fighting under a fake war to make the New Republic look good and unite the people under a common enemy. Not only that, but Gnovel plotted to assassinate Leia, and suceeded. The ‘traitors’ were those who found the truth, and the New Republic is claiming the traitors are lying. Finn tells this to Poe. Poe has a mental breakdown and loses hope in himself. He tries to tell Rey, but his message is mushed up, as the watchers have discovered their connection and cut it off. Rey fears her connection with Kylo will be lost too (though it’s stronger and harder to the watchers to disconnect; the watchers say this explicitly during one of their inner meetings) tells Kylo that something is wrong, and he HAS to look inside one the disruptions himself. Sensing something amiss, Rey puts up her proxy again, which she has gotten better at using to fool the watchers. She doesn’t know what to do anymore and stays where she is, confused and frustrated.

Scene 24: Finn, Poe and the True Resistance escape from the New Republic

Suddenly, the Resistance leaders discover Finn and Poe’s snooping around. They brand the two as traitors and Finn and Poe try to spill everything, but they lack the concrete evidence, and no one trusts them. Rose tries to, but she feels more loyal to the Resistance. Finn and Poe are arrested but immediately find a way to break out when it’s revealed there are many in the Resistance who also sense abnormalities and admire Finn for speaking out; others are loyal to Poe. Many of them are killed, but this group manages to escape with the sudden appearance of Phasma, who Finn fought against just before but now has to aid Finn if she is to escape the Resistance from capturing her too.

Scene 25: Kylo discovers Snoke is alive; Kylo exiled from the First Order

Meanwhile, Kylo and the Knights are recovering from the defeat, when Kylo suddenly decides to take Rey’s advice to heart. For the first time, he reaches into one of the disruptions, and connects with the Force, but is interrupted by the watchers. Kylo shouts who they are, and manages to reach in deeper, discovering that Snoke is one of the watchers and had faked his own death. Kylo pieces together what’s happening, and the watchers (mostly Snoke) say that now Kylo knows this much, they have to justify their own reasons for doing this. They explain how Luke had failed to establish peace, and that they were young royals who found a way to break down the force so they could control it. They were to take the force away from everyone and establish central control to ensure a utopia. Kylo’s role was to destroy the Skywalker name so that the people would be loyal to the new organization, not Luke’s “weak” ideas about compromise. Then Kylo remarks that he’s inferred something new. When Rey had told him about the Force in her childhood, and how the watchers (before, Kylo had no idea Snoke was a watcher, so he thought this was unrelated to him) ‘cared’ for her, Kylo now believes that Rey is being used a figurehead pawn to head the New Republic. The watchers are forced to say that this is true. Rey was a nobody they nurtured. The proxy war was meant to unify the people and have them trust the New Republic as the new saviors, forgetting about the Skywalkers that still controlled their loyalties; the First Order was always meant to lose. But Kylo knows that things went haywire- they don’t have total control, as shown by how impossible feats have happened with both the Force and physical reality. The Royals are forced to explain that yes, they don’t have total control yet, and their infighting has contributed to it; however, they are learning to get better each moment. Kylo scoffs at this. Snoke reminds Kylo how he was there for them when no one else was. Kylo rejects this, and turns against the Royals.

Kylo exits the trance and briefly tells Serei that the war is fake and Snoke is alive; he’s controlling them. Serei believes him and they go to tell Halder so they can escape the crumbling First Order. Halder agrees to escape with them, but just as they do, Halder kills Serei from behind. Halder explains that he has longed for war to end. He joined the First Order because he wanted central control to take over; Luke had caused chaos by not being a firm dictator to quell infighting. Halder says that if the Royals are doing this, then he will take over the First Order and let it lose. Kylo attacks him but then the entire First Order army, commanded by the Royals (some commanders are aware of the Royals; they work in the shadows!) defend Halder. Kylo has to fight off the whole army. During this, the Royals taunt that they won’t take away his power; the more damage he causes, the more the First Order and the rest of the galaxy will hate him, and he will further taint the Skywalker name. Kylo escapes with severe injuries.

Scene 26: The Resistance defeats the First Order, declares that Second Order is a new threat

Meanwhile, after Kylo escapes, the Resistance launches a sneak attack (some Resistance commanders know of the Royals too, so the Royals order them to attack as they have a change of plans involving Kylo) and defeat the First Order once and for all. Hux is executed in public, and an announcement is made by the Resistance leaders. Gnovel takes over as chief commander. They say Kylo, knowing the First Order is about to be defeated, has defected from the First Order to start his own branch, as he disagreed with the direction the First Order was going in. He has taken some First Order members and traitors of the Resistance with him. They deem this the Second Order (Finn sees this broadcast and remarks “How original”). The Second Order is hiding their leader Kylo, who is on the run, and will lie that they aren’t working with him. The Second Order, they claim, can never be trusted. They will claim the New Republic is evil, but one cannot give in to their lies- the Second Order wants to re-establish the Empire, and everyone knows the horrors of that regime.

Scene 27: Rey and Kylo meet

Kylo manages to connect with Rey and tell her what happened. Rey offers for Kylo to join her and Luke, and they meet in secret, as Rey had taught Kylo how to use the proxy. However, Kylo still hates Luke for suppressing his dark side, and says that he’ll fight both Luke, the First Order and the Resistance if he has to. Kylo, in desperation, tells Rey that she was just a figurehead pawn, and the Force did not care for her- it was just like how Snoke manipulated Kylo. Rey is hurt by this, and cuts Kylo off because she doesn’t want to believe it’s true. They part ways. With Rey fully rejecting Kylo, the watchers are notified of a huge sudden change, and take advantage of this weak point to cut Rey and Kylo’s connection off completely.

Scene 28: The True Resistance Rises

Cutting back to Finn and Poe: after much turmoil, Finn and Poe help each other regain their confidence. The True Resistance, as they’re called, pull themselves up again by reminding themselves what Leia’s secret messages imparted. The True Resistance has help from Maz and DJ, and it’s revealed Maz hired both DJ and Phasma to help Finn escape, after Finn and Poe relayed to her messages about the Resistance’s corruption as they were uncovering what’s going on. Leia’s messages had mentioned that they have to ‘obtain artifacts that will help revive lost heroes’. With Rey and Luke’s revival of the force, now the force ghosts can appear again as their true selves, not illusions concocted by the royals. When Finn solved one of the artifacts a while ago, nothing happened. But now Obi Wan, in his younger state, appears to Finn and Poe. Obi Wan says that when the artifact was solved (in required conjunction with Rey simultaneously connecting with Finn and hitting their respective artifacts), Obi Wan was able to appear as a voice again. Obi Wan is now in concrete form, so he can’t go back and communicate with Luke what he found out with Finn (he re-emerged nearer to Finn’s location and now can’t find where Luke and Rey are). Thus, he can’t tell Luke and Rey that Finn is actually with the Second Order, and the Resistance is working with the Royals.

Scene 29: Obi Wan reveals to Finn about the Royals, Finn realizes they’re heading the fake war

Obi Wan talked to Luke, who thought it was just him going insane again, as he couldn’t talk to Obi Wan for decades since he went insane. Luke, not telling Rey as he wasn’t sure if he was imagining it or not, tells Obi Wan all about the Royals’ disruption of the force (the Royals told Rey it was to ‘defeat the First Order’, but that’s a lie- in reality, it’s to create a new regime). It’s revealed to Finn and Poe that with the Force being corrupted by the Royals, the force ghosts could now be summoned back as people, or use their powers to harness the strength of nature if they’re still ghosts. Finn and Poe have to journey to one last location to enact an ancient Faceless ritual to control the ghosts before the Royals- who know of this too- can. The ritual can only work after Rey and Luke interacted with the artifact that revealed the lore behind the Faceless- Obi Wan heard Luke tell him that he and Rey would eventually go there. Since the True Resistance lacks troops, they must use the spirits of fallen heroes to help them. Finn and Poe rally up the resistance to the location. This location is precisely where that city is, and the Royals predict the True Resistance will go there. The Royals concoct a plan to say the Second Order is going there to kill the people. In secret, Halder merges the First Order commanders (who talk with Royals) with the Resistance and Halder, who had a mask on before, takes his mask off and becomes a ‘new commander’ of the New Republic. The True Resistance will be stopped before they can head into the city and find the final artifact; the New Republic will claim they’re stopping them from invading the city. In the city is a in-progress “weapon”- currently an energy reactor used for good that can be turned against people only when it’s at its infant stage- that is strong enough to annihilate the entire galaxy, so the fate of the entire galaxy is at stake. The main goal of this, besides gaining enough troops, is to buy time for another front of the True Resistance to race to spread the real information (using concrete evidence) to the rest of the galaxy, and this is headed by Maz and DJ- they must hack into the broadcast channel to show this evidence.

Scene 30: Rey and Luke vow to protect civilians against the Second Order; Rey decides she must work with the watchers to gain enough power to do so, despite them disturbing the force.

AFTER Rey heads back to Luke, Rey and Luke learn of Second Order broadcast while they’re staying with civilians. Rey doesn’t know Finn is one of the traitors, as in the last message, Finn said he’s with the Resistance and has to find those traitors. Since Kylo said her childhood spirit was a lie, Rey wants to believe that Kylo is lying to her- which he has done every single time in this story when he tries to lure her into a trap when Kylo says he’s ‘changed’ (the only truths he tells are about his past, which Luke confirms are true). Rey doesn’t believe that the proxy war may be a real thing. She knows Kylo hates Luke, and would try to lure both of them towards him and the Second Order. Luke says that there is one last location: one that will reveal who the Faceless are. He encourages Rey to go with him before she decides to head back to the Resistance, which she tells Luke she’s made up her mind to go back to, as people need her.

[If split into Ep IX and X, insert more scenes here by expanding the rest of the following scenes]

Scene 31: The backstory behind the Faceless

In this new location, Rey uncovers the truth about how the Sith and Jedi rose as a reaction to how the Faceless took away everyone- except the elite’s- power to establish a “utopia” (see pt1 for lore details). Now Rey suspects the watchers and doesn’t fully trust them either. She tells this to the watchers, demanding them to tell her all the details. Knowing they have to justify themselves, they do, but in a biased fashion. They claim the ends justifies the means, and Rey knows this. They threaten Rey, saying no one will like her if she doesn’t do what they tell her to do. In a new broadcast, it’s shown that Kylo and the Second Order are planning to attack not just the New Republic, but an innocent city of millions that Rey and Luke had visited before and had cared for them. The New Republic announces they will go to this location to defend it.

Scene 32: Kylo converses with Anakin, is cornered into attacking innocents

Meanwhile, Kylo is alone. Anakin’s ghost appears to him and tries to dissuade him of his hatred. Kylo resists, but inside, he begins to see things in a new way. Just then, the New Republic appear to Kylo. They force him into the location of the final battle- and force him to choose his life or the innocent city’s. NOTE: This planet is not Tatoonie, as that planet is sparsely populated. Tatoonie, however, was one of the planets Rey and Luke visited in their journey. Kylo chooses his own life, and attacks the people. Now the New Republic can justify that Kylo is attacking people. Neither Luke nor Rey know it’s because Kylo is acting out of self-defense. Rey sees this broadcast, and tells Luke she must go there to protect the people, as only she has the power to stop him and the Second Order. Luke cautions her, but seeing no one way to save the entire galaxy, allows her to go. Rey tells Luke one thing, but deep inside she also wants what the Royals can offer her: a sense of belonging and admiration. Luke senses this, but decides that in the end, only Rey can choose what she will do.

Scene 33: Rey sets off to protect innocents from Kylo and Second Order

Luke tells her that it seems like they actually are so someone has to help them in some way, so he does not stop her from going, but warns her that though she can make compromises and play just a little into the Royals’ hands as the Royals are not always wrong (no one is always completely right vs completely wrong), at some point there is no turning back from her actions, so she has to use what she learned wisely to distinguish right/wrong, not just follow labels or groups claimed to be ‘utmost good vs utmost evil’. Just because a group supports an evil aspect, does not mean all aspects it supports are automatically group together as evil too. Luke had planned to go with Rey, but just then, they are attacked by a mysterious bridage labeled “Second Order” (in reality, the Royals have ordered their own people to claim they’re second order, which is a fake boogeyman). Luke says he can act as a diversion against these troops while Rey escapes and goes to save the city.

(see pt1, 2 and 3 for details of the final scenes):

Scene 34: The Final Battle- True Resistance vs New Republic

During the final battle, physical reality and the Force become incredibly haywired in a way never seen before. Finn and Poe manage to sneak in, but Poe’s leg is injured and is captured. Finn goes to save him, and is confronted by Rose. Though she almost decides to stop Finn, at the last moment, she chooses to help Finn because she believes him, and sacrifices herself to let the shields down to let a few members of the True Resistance sneak in. Poe, though injured, is carried by Finn to a ship, where Poe flies them inside of the temple. However, they are stopped by Gnovel and Halder, who race against them to enact the ritual. Each of the old heroes has a small artifact. Gnovel and Halder have a few (such as Maul) while Finn and Poe have others (like Windu). In the scramble, they lose their artifacts and have to reclaim them, and it’s unknown who has what. In addition to major heroes, there is a gigantic chest of armies of no-name soldiers who fought in many wars- clone wars, rebels, ancient wars, etc. Finn and Poe manage to grab this chest, but so does Gnovel. Finally, the heroes are resurrected (temporarily). The New Republic has taken a few Jedi under their mind control, while Anakin and Mace Windu are on their side. Finn briefly wields a lightsaber. Phasma returns and is working with the True Resistance since the First Order collapses. Sort of resembles Battlefront. Finn is able to use a lightsaber against Halder. Though he has no training, because the Force has been corrupted, he’s able to take advantage of its illogical oscillations to believe in himself and defeat Halder and Palpatine while fighting alongside Anakin Skywalker and Mace Windu. Yoda, as a force ghost who can’t physically fight but influences nature, defeats Gnovel and his huge battalion. Obi Wan fights Maul again.

Scene 35: Rey defeats Kylo, but saves him and they turn against the Royals

There are two fronts: one side has Kylo, while the other side has the True Resistance. The Royals put up an illusion barrier where they can’t see or communicate with each other. Rey goes to where Kylo is, and defeats him. The Royals order her to kill him because he endangers the lives of Finn and Poe. Kylo keeps on insisting to Rey that she has to believe him. Ultimately, she cares about Kylo too much, decides to trust him instead of killing him. The illusion barrier is shattered, revealing that Finn and Poe are on the other side aiding the “Second Order”. Kylo is not under a threat anymore because Rey found a way to protect them both, so he does not kill the innocents. This was a risk taken by Rey, one that’s a bit similar to the boat scene in The Dark Knight. Now, Rey cleverly finds a way to protect her and Kylo, sneaking into the shaows. She also uses a method she learned to draw the Royals out of hiding and into the battlefield, revealing who they are. Everyone is confused, and the Royals are forced to kill any witnesses, though the other side of the front manages to see who they are. The Royals put up a barrier dome around them so that no one else can enter and see them. Now, only Rey, Kylo and the Royals are left in this location. The Royals are angered that Rey betrayed them, and now tell her they will paint her as a traitor aiding the Second Order, and will use the boy as the new hero. Rey doesn’t care. The 3rd and 4th Royals attack both of them. Overpowered, they can only use guerilla tactics while hiding in the vast location. The reason it’s vast is because of Rey’s plan, which allowed them to have these hiding spaces. Rey utilizes the planet’s environment. Each royal targets only one of them, either Rey or Kylo, as they’re separated from each other.

Scene 36: Luke saves Rey and Kylo

Just as Rey and Kylo are about to lose, Luke is able to sneak into the battle with the Royals by temporarily severing his conection to the force. Rey discovers that the only way to stop the royals, who are more powerful than anyone as they’ve absorbed the souls of the ancient Faceless elites, is to bring about an ancient Jedi power and an ancient Sith power that both come from the unknown regions. She learned about this while training. This power was what finally sealed the Faceless elites off. She tells this to Kylo, as he needs to wield the Sith power while she yields the Jedi. The catch is that after using this power, they must both become exiled into the unknown region- most likely isolated ones without any contact. This is because the old power will be used up, and there needs to be power that replaces it and continues to seal the Faceless elites. Without this replacement, this seal cannot exist. Kylo and Rey must both become this new replacement; they can never return to this galaxy and see their loved ones in it ever again. They cannot choose to break the seal once they choose to be the replacement, and just have to live in the unknown regions forever. Kylo doesn’t care about the galaxy, but Rey tries to save it. They both have the common goal of stopping the royals as they hate how they puppet their lives. With this action, Rey makes the ultimate sacrifices, giving up what she wants the most (to have praise and be among people who care about her) to save those she loves. (This plan involves something about the 3rd and 4th royals that Rey and Kylo have to siphon power from into themselves??? Probably not.)

Scene 37: Poe’s speech

Meanwhile, Maz and DJ succeed in hacking into the system, and the galaxy learns about the proxy war and the Royals through concrete evidence of their meddlings. Though the battle still continues, people’s hearts begin to change. Poe makes a great speech about how “there will always be sparks, conflicts, etc” and that the Royals may obtain peace, but they are destroying freedom of ideas. It is not the people or organization themselves that matter, but the core principle of the “rebellion to save freedom” that survives. Thus Poe asserts he has never left his cause, which does not swear allegience to certain people but to an idea. He was downtrodden before that all he did was in vain as the war was a sham, but now he is reinvigorated. This is inspired by the writings that Leia left behind when she suspects something is wrong.

Scene 38: Luke sacrifices himself to protect the entire galaxy

After defeating the 3rd and 4th royals, Luke heads into the main ciy, and is broadcast live. Everyone is surprised to see Luke Skywalker. He dies while stopping the top two Royals from combining their ultimate attack with remotely detonating the ultimate weapon in the city and destroying thousands of important planets, then blaming it on Kylo and Rey (who they have lost control over; thus they must claim she is part of the Second Order now too and has killed many innocents). Luke sees Kylo and Rey, one of them walking towards the other in order to enact the ritual of gaining the ancient Sith and Jedi powers (which takes time to bring into their bodies), and since they are on a cliff, the white and red lights make them look like a Binary Sunset. These lights are so bright they shine through the dome, so everyone in the broadcast can see them. At peace, he surrenders his body, leaving only his robes behind, and the Obi Wan death music plays; Rey and Kylo become solemn but have to focus on the task at hand. The attack is managed to be stopped as Luke’s spirit crushes it. After that, Rey and Kylo have finally gained the new powers and can prevent the two Royals from charging up another attack.

Scene 39: Royals are defeated, Rey parts ways with the galaxy

Rey and Kylo defeats Snoke (Alstair) and his partner. Rey and Kylo have a bittersweet aftermath, and confess what they feel about each other. The mysterious dome just put up is destroyed, and the entire army notices this. Finn rushes in to find Rey, who explains what happened to him. She tells him that in order to defeat the Royals, she had to be bashined into the Unknown Regions. They share a touching moment, and Rey goes with Kylo to slowly vanish away.

Scene 40: Finn and Poe lead the galaxy in a new direction

At the end, Finn, who had learned he’s force sensitive during the story, begins practicing, but still has trouble. With Rey, Kylo and Luke gone, and only the ancient Jedi texts left (Rey tells Finn where she left them before she departed), only Finn is left to lead the new force sensitives. He’s like Leia at the end of the OT- he has potential, but it’s not explored in the movies. Once the Force returns to the people, the Force does not go out of control and cause disasters anymore, which plagued the entire galaxy during the sequel trilogy, causing people to go mad and unpredictable strange events to wreck havoc. The story of Finn ends with a scene that ends with a shot of all the heroes who survived and remain in the galaxy, which is the typical star wars ending. These heroes are in a ceremony honoring Rey, Luke and Ben, along with all the other heroes who died in battle.” Rey is remembered as a hero but is alone. She and Kylo are both flung to the unknown regions but in different parts that are very far away, and don’t know how to find each other. Rey becomes a lone scavenger again, as the story describes the environment she ends up in, yet finds purpose as a wanderer, now free from anyone’s control. She is also content with her life, feeling good that she made her own decisions instead of being a pawn as some destiny’s ‘chosen one’ (she was literally chosen by the royals as part of their master plan and ritual).

Scene 41: Ending- Rey gazes into the horizon of the Unknown Regions

When Rey and Kylo are teleported off into their distant locations, never to return to the galaxy unless their powers are to be used to fend off the royals again (which requires them to die), Kylo is not seen again by the audience. The final scene shows Rey wandering in an isolated landscape, and she comes across a single droid. Among her are vast ruins- presumed to be from the Faceless. She speaks to the droid, saying that she’s looking for someone, and if the droid can help her. This is reversed from BB-8 in the beginning; BB-8 searches for Poe and needs Rey’s help. The two journey on into the sunset, a classical ending.

NOTE: Due to the length of this, split it into EP IX and X. IX ends after the reveal of the proxy war. X is about the True Resistance rising up again, Kylo discovering himself, and Rey and Luke completing their journey to uncover the past lore of who the Faceless are. If this two parter is realized, then instead of just one battle, it could have Finn going to various locations to retrieve hero artifacts/tokens, and Rey and Luke continuing to uncover artifacts that reveal who the Faceless are while fighting the fake Second Order and sometimes mixing it up with the True Resistance. Rey and Luke also protect people from the fake Second Order. Finn keeps on trying to contact Rey. The majority of Ep X, though, would by on Kylo, since he lacked screentime in Ep IX. It would be about his journey to change while Anakin follows him around. This two parter is optional, so I will write as it there was only Ep IX, though this can easily be expanded into Ep X by inserting scenes in b/w the True Resistance being visited by Obi Wan and the Final Battle.”