Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker

{Spoiler - click to view}
Leia had trained as a Jedi, since I felt like that was a major missed opportunity from the end of the original trilogy. Not sure about the Emperor as the villain, but I guess it makes sense if you look at the whole thing as a family saga. It's a shame Maz and Rose are just there with nothing much to do, but I do think it's quite funny they brought Denis Lawson back for one shot of him flying an x wing, since that's pretty much all he did in the original films anyway.

Palpatine is Rey's mother's father, which is both a hideously creepy thing to think about, and profoundly underwhelming.  The central thesis of TLJ was that the Force - a universal power that connects good and bad, life and death, and unity with nature - belongs to you and me. The thesis of this film is, NOPE! Better hope daddy comes from a good family.

Palpatine is also Vader's father. OK, yeah, this was established in a comic a couple of years ago, so mebbe you missed it, and perhaps that's contentious.  I could swear there was a line in TROS, though, that mentioned Palpatine being Anakin's progenitor which would make Palpatine Kylo's mother's father's mother's father. screenrant.com/star-wars-anakin-father-emperor/2/

OK, sure, mebbe I misheard, mebbe I'm reading too much into it.  Nonetheless, that'd make Palpatine Rey's grandma, and Kylo's great-grandmother.  That makes Rey and Leia cousins, and Rey and Kylo are first cousins once removed, I think - or is she his aunt?

OK, mebbe it's not blood. We don't know if Palpatine got his leg over. He impregnated Schmi using Midochlorian magic, and mercifully we're spared the biology of Rey's parents. Mebbe 'blood relative' was wrong. Mebbe Kylo and Rey are 'Midocholorianal relatives'. If that's true - and Palpatine's involuntarily celibate, as all the badass villains in this trilogy seem to be (god this film's awful), it somewhat confirms the notion that he also Midochlorianilly impregnated Schmi. Not blood, Midocholrians.  Is that better?

Palpatine does say "My blood flows in you" to Rey, mind, so presumably there are some of his bodily fluids involved.

I don't blame you for missing it - an incidental detail from a comic isn't anyone's priority, and the script tosses this key info off in one line. It's like the Maul reveal in Solo - confusing for people who don't know, boring for people who do.

As a Star Wars fan who so loved the fact that TLJ introduced the Force as a power that lives through people and nature, not bloodlines, the notion that Rey's only powerful because of her rich granddaddy is, well, very 21st century, and very depressing. On this, my point stands - TLJ introduces Broom Boy, a child slave who shows that even the lowliest and most downtrodden are connected to the heart of the universe. TROS says he deserves to remain in slavery and leaves him there to rot and die.

HOWEVER, on the family point, TROS is TERRIBLE at re-establishing it, but yes, Palpatine is Kylo's great-granddad and Rey's granddad. So, that kiss, between aunt and nephew, in front of his rotting corpse...