An old Bothan sits up and yawns. Around him are gray prison-like walls. He gets up from his bed, picks up a cane and walks out of his room in a hallway of jailcells. He spots one jailcell, housing a group of young Bothans, and approaches it. One of the Bothans sees this and whispers to another, "Hey, it's that senile, crazy man again. Old man Bon. He's gonna start talking about how we're all fictional characters in some universe again."
"Right you are!" exclaimed the old Bothan Bon as he struck the youngling with his cane. Now since you are all prisoners who have nowhere to go, and I'm the old prison guard on this shift at the moment, you're all gonna have to just listen and not ask questions, or else I'll make a report."
The young prisoners groan. Bon begins: "You see, we're all just characters in a movie. In between two movies in a trilogy: the 8th and 9th. Now, I had a dream yesterday telling me there's multiple ways the 9th movie can end up. In it, I heard one of the darker timelines. I felt like I was in the body of a writer who had a bunch of ideas for how the film would go. I'm going to role play and pretend I'm that writer, speaking to you as if I was that writer."
Bon closed his eyes, as if channeling a spirit inside him. The other Bothans looked around at each other, clearly confused. He opened his eyes, pretending to be another person, and spoke: "I do not own any of the Star Wars universe characters or elements are my own; this work will never be officially published.
These are my brainstorming notes for a premise set in an alternative universe of Ep IX. I'm putting them up now since I don't know when I'll go about writing the actual story:
In the OT, the main events were pushed into place by the sins of the Skywalker father. Luke learns from these mistakes, and from the mistakes of the detachment-less old Jedi, and corrects them. These events appeared to be how balance was brought to the Force (though it is left for open interpretation): one view is that Anakin corrected the Jedi but went too overboard, and Luke reigned him in to clean up the mess. In the ST, the main events are pushed into place for similar reasons. Luke Skywalker's self-sacrifice compassion allows the royals (described below) to complete their ritual in taking control of the Force. Ben Solo struggles to make the same mistake, but manages to harness his selfishness to correct those mistakes and balance the Force again. Rey is independent from this family issue, and though she influences Ben, she battles her own demons; as the one closest to the royals, she makes herself the one who brings them down. Thus, the Force is in a constant struggle to try to shoot for the balance, and when it overshoots it one direction, it is brought back in the next generation.
Backstory behind the beliefs of the Royals, the Jedi and the Sith:
A hidden organization had been pulling the strings throughout all of Episodes 7 and 8. They were young royals who had uncovered histories that predated even the Jedi and the Sith. Long ago, a civilization, called the Faceless (a name that reflects their anti-individual, puritan and religious-like devotion to being servants of the elite), had discovered how to manipulate the Force as it was some magnetic field or ocean. They found how to channel it into people they wanted, into technologies they wanted, how to spread it out and control it. But they feared it would fall into the wrong hands and destroy all the wondrous work their civilization had built, so only the most elite, educated and royal could decide how it would be used. The entire civilization had built their technologies on this slavery of the Force. This angered many below. Despite living in a utopia where they could have all they wanted because they just needed to pray to the royals to use the Force to help them, they could not stand how the Force was cut off from them and only put into the hands of a few.
A power struggle between the classes occurred and many lower class civilians were slaughtered. Many factions, proto-Siths, emerged to try to use different methods of gaining power, only to fail. On the other hand, many were horrified at the elite's treatment of the rebellion, and so they formed factions to protect the people, attempting to find compromises so that both sides could get what they want while brokering peace. These factions were proto-Jedi who emerged in independent patches throughout several galaxies, and later united into one under a common cause. They were like the overseers of the proto-Siths, allowing the Siths to push for balance while regulating them to make sure they didn't go too far. The proto-Jedi did not like both sides, but believed the Force should not be cut off from any living being, and thus sympathized with the proto-Sith's cause.
The proto-Siths delved into much in-fighting to ensure only the strongest would survive. Through natural selection, one strongest Sith faction emerged. This led the proto-Sith to finally topple the Faceless, who had brought instability to the Force. But without the Faceless, now the Force was even more unstable. It gave power to random people who furthered the instability as they did not know what they were doing, and bent the fabric of reality to create nonsensical events, and twisted the mental psychologies of many individuals. The proto-Sith did not care, however, and now annointed themselves the One and Only True Sith. Though the Force was now in the hands of all living beings again, it was causing chaos and unpredictability because the Sith now wanted it all to themselves just like the Faceless did, and many new powerful force users challenged the Sith too. The proto-Jedi factions, now united under one cause, annointed themselves the Jedi and vowed to stop the Sith. They spread their philosophy and gained many followers who wished for balance. When they finally succeeded, they sought to return the Force to all, but were betrayed by their own Jedi, who had their own ideas of how the use the Force, and so the Jedi split. One remnant faction realized that it is nature for beings to seek power, as there can never compromises that please everyone due to limited resources- there MUST be sacrifices. And so, Sith-like power grabs will always arise. They accepted that the Sith would always come about, and so it is not the Jedi's duty to eliminate the Sith forever, but to keep the peace as referees and oversee the many Sith-like factions fighting, making sure the Force is spread to all while ensuring no one entity controls it all.
This one remnant's philosophy was passed down into the old books. But other Jedi remnant factions took over and bastardized their works. This resulted in the corrupt Jedi order, which aimed to disregard attachments for the greater good. They really wanted to eliminate the Sith, not realizing their hypocratic statements such as "Only a Sith deals in Absolutes." In a way, they acted like the Sith, seeking to control the Force for the entire galaxy in their own way instead of letting individuals interpret it in their own way. Star Wars focuses on one Jedi faction that made its way into one galaxy that was cut off from the rest, which were now in the 'Unknown Regions', where most of the Faceless civilization ruins lay.
A group of young royals had uncovered these truths, but not about the Sith and Jedi, which was written in the ancient Jedi texts. These young royals saw how corrupt the Jedi were, and how bad the Empire was, and could not let the galaxy return to Jedi rule after the Empire fell. They also saw how bad the New Republic's governance was going, and this is described below.
The New Republic after RoTJ:
The New Republic was becoming corrupt in a different way than the Empire, as Luke was focused on helping others but did not have any experiencing in dealing with compromises and sacrifices. This led some communities to believe he was favoring opposing factions over them, and each community viewed the legend of Luke in their own way, twisting him to become their culture's personal hero while demonizing other sides. Luke attempts to show that he is a hero to all and takes no sides, but his lack of diplomatic skills and the fact that there wasn't a solution to bring peace to everyone led to further misunderstandings and conflict. Luke clung onto hope that even if he can't bring total peace, he can bring as much peace as he could. He tries to teach people how to be humble and to share, but with the vastness of the galaxy and the innate selfishness in people, and Luke's belief that he should not force this message but let people hear it, his message is not reached by all.
The young royals lost a lot in these conflicts, and secretely criticized how Luke was not firm enough, which led to different leaders assuming control, splintering off and causing war. They sought to find a way to govern everyone by establishing a centralized control: this way, rebels would not only avoid rebeling as there was no way to challenge an absolute power, but if everyone was content and happy, there would be no need to do so. The young royals sought ways to gain control over the Force and designed ways to govern to make everyone happy (in their own interpretation of 'happy') though this required brainwashing and other restrictive means. The royals were a reaction to the Force-related events that had transpired in the previous sagas.
Through a backstory I won't delve into now, they discovered texts left by Faceless elites who describe how to manipulate the Force through rituals. But they realized these rituals could not be implemented because Luke was powerful enough to stop them. So they devised a way to take him out: they took advantage of his compassion and were able to slip inside his mind to psychologically mess with him, and cut him off from the Force. Now, they began their first ritual and had their first taste with meddling with the Force in a way that neither the Sith nor Jedi could ever harness. This occurred around the time Ben Solo was born. When Ben grew up, Ben was weak yet sought power to live up to the Skywalker name. The royals also took advantage of this and led him further in the dark side, as part of their master plan.
Still, despite gaining immense power, they did not have clear ideas on what to do, and this led to disagreements. One side had its own idea, while another side disagreed. The two sides split and battled each other in a chess-like game where the galaxy was their board and the Force were their pieces. They created tidal waves in the Force to destroy the other side, gave power to random people so that they could win, etc. Eventually, one side won out and assumed total control, but the damage was already done. The Force did not behave like it used to- it now could go against its own established laws, even influencing the laws of physics to give non-force-sensitives the ability to perform feats that seemed impossible.
Now, there were only 4 left: two royal leaders (both lovers), along with their right hand generals. They were all working together, in their own way, to disrupt the Force. The Force was an unwilling animal, unable to be broken in and domesticated. The royals had two master plans: 1) To enslave the Force, they needed to weaken its spirit and show that they were more dominant over it, and 2) They needed to make the people believe in the New Repubic, which the royals were puppeteering, because the galaxy did not like it and were not united against a common enemy.
To enact plan 1, they found that the Force had a 'shield' defending it from those seeking to manipulate it. They needed to break these shields by allowing the Force to try to act out what it's supposed to do, then not allowing it to do what it is destined to do. For example, if the Force would naturally lend itself to individuals strong in it, the royals would use rituals to cut those individuals off and give that power to others who were not in tune with the Force. Like domesticating a wild animal, this would break it down over time and confuse it, weakening its defense and making it seek control. Then the Force would turn to its new masters. They went to force-sensitives and found ways to cut them off from the force, and once Luke had unwittingly been cut from the Force and was put into the royals' grasp, this was the turning point- the royals had the upper hand. This explanation is metaphorically presented with the Force being illustrated somehow as a being/entity being broken down and seeking support. This metaphorical presentation allows this lengthy explanation to be summarized in the story and allow the reader to come up with her own interpretations.
To enact plan 2, the royals, now controlling the New Republic, created two fake puppet organizations: the Resistance and First Order. They superficially mimicked archetypal conflicts, which instilled in the galaxy a sense that the Resistance was definitely good and the First Order was unquestionably bad. Also, the First Order slaughters and does not give each side what they want, while the Resistance promises to free communities from the First Order, so it's really obvious the First Order is bad. Both sides were run by the same source, like how the CIS and Republic conflict was orchestrated by Palpatine. Before this, the galaxy had seen much infighting and rebellion against the New Republic due to both limited resources that could not be distributed to all. Now, by making people see the New Republic as saviors, they hoped the people would be grateful and stop the infighting by uniting against the First Order. Of course, this was only a temporary fix before the Force is enslaved- they could not create a utopia in which most did not give their loyalty to one cause. By rallying most under one cause, dissidents would be ostracized and branded as 'traitors'. Using this peer pressure, many would be united under the New Republic. The royals knew that this unification would not last, but there was a Force ritual which would make people become addicted and entrenched in this unification feeling and blind themselves to anything that would tear them from it. Through this emotion and logic brainwashing, a more powerful Mind Trick, the royals would create a utopia. The prerequisite was that people had to swear loyalty to the New Republic first- once they did, they would be put in a near unescapable bind of wanting peace and unification over any other ideal or need. Everyone would get along. This differed from the Empire because the Empire forced people to kneel out of fear, not out of love and self-sacrifice. Also, the Empire did not have access to force manipulation like the royals did.
And so the members of the First Order and Resistance were unknowingly part of some simulation/theatre-like ritual. The two sides were greatly immersed in a false reality. It was like fattening chickens before slaughter- the fattening was giving hope to the people that their individual communities would be free, while the slaughter was taking their freedom and the Force away. But the royals did not see it like this. They thought the ends justified the means.
The royals have only a faint idea of what they're doing and their manipulations simply cause chaos. They alter the fabric of reality and the Force tries to maintain it, and they're pushing against it. Yet the royals do NOT CONTROL EVERYTHING; like how some are given power by accident, many other disruptions are caused in this wild hurricane with no goal. Personalities, power levels, and the laws of physics are exponentially rewritten with no master goal in mind, only with the singular aim to cause chaos to confuse the Force. The royals are a threat because they wield immense power over reality yet do not understand how to get it to do what they really want, and have strong agendas to take over the galaxy with their twisted philosophies.
The rich are not the ones in ultimate power; they are tools. The New Republic (operated by the royals in the shadows) supports them so they can create resources for their fake war that makes the New Republic/Resistance look like heroes. The New Republic destroyed planets that housed their own government because there were dissidents in the Senate that suspected and would oppose this plan; so NR evacuated the loyals ones secretely and left the others to die.
Luke:
When the royals used their rituals to try to cut Luke off, they did not know what they were doing and did not know what the side effects would be. As a result of their meddling, Luke was driven insane, as the more he tried to reconnect himself to the Force, the more mad he became. So he sought to hide from it and did not know why he was losing his grip, and blamed it on himself. However, he did try to seek answers. This led him to the First Jedi Temple to find the books. Yet every time he tried to read them, he was put into severe pain and insanity. Luke could not find the reason, and so he chose to seclude himself as he was beaten by the manipulators. This was also the cause for Luke wanting to kill Ben for a second. He lost stability of the Force and feared he would not be able to get another chance if he was driven mad. The Yoda that Luke communes with is later shown to be fake and an illusion made by the royals.
Luke's insanity reveals his character flaws. He's reverted back to the way he was as a young adult, having lost confidence in himself. The way he acted in TLJ is the real Luke- he was not being mind manipulated. The reason he seems so different is due to being broken down by the royals, who had made him question his own decisions. It was not one mistake that broke him, but many, which are explored more in this story. Once resurrected (will not delve into reason now), he does not struggle to find a lesson as he had learned it in TLJ, but has to struggle to put this lesson into practice and avoid going back to his broken shell. His journey is to maintain his confidence and train Rey. Besides giving into fear and anger from the dark side that led him to his many mistakes, he also deals with the mistakes over being overly optimistic, compassionate, and not being firm enough as a leader when taking sides. Luke overcomes all of these by the end of the story by becoming firm in his beliefs again and being content with being compassionate, and allows Kylo to become selfish- Luke had held Ben back by forcing Ben to be compassionate when Ben was actually more selfish, and this restraint made Ben boil up inside with no release. It was a major reason that Ben turned to the dark side.
Rey:
The royals needed someone who was a figure of hope that the galaxy could look towards to. Having an actual person would give a face to this 'soulless' New Republic now that Luke was gone. The royals searched the galaxy for a candidate. Due to the Force's laws running haywire from the royal's tampering, Rey was accidentally (as an unforeseen side effect) given the ability to absorb a lot of power through the Force. There was no particular reason she got this ability; just like there's no reason a meteor would fall to a particular city. After the royals detect this, they conjure up a new plan to make Rey a vessel for the royals to give more power to, thinking that with her hopes and selfish side, she will turn to them. They want her to become a figurehead for the royals' new society. They use rituals to make it so that Rey is led to the Resistance and is adopted as their hero. These rituals only say, in general, what will likely happen. There are many unforeseen side effects.
During this story, Rey realizes something is amiss and starts to rebel. But the more she does, the more power is taken from her and placed elsewhere. She expects to win once the power is taken from her, but fails and sees another nobody grow stronger, threatening to take her place as the figurehead, and she fears she will be forgotten and be unloved as the only reason, she suspects, many like her is because she's seen as a hero. But she learns to train by herself using the old Jedi texts that reveal the Faceless and how the Jedi rose to stop them and maintain peace. Rey rekindles her survivor lifestyle and independence from others' approval. The royals are not perfect at taking power away from her; due to limited oversight and understanding of the Faceless's rituals, they fail to see the side effects.
The royals keep on temporarily taking away Rey's power to show her just how much she misses it, and the only way she can have it returned is by doing what they want and becoming their figurehead. She receives what she always wanted: a family, praise, being admired, etc. But it is all actually very fake. The royals reason that they are not doing anything bad because the end goal is to save the people and have them unite.
She struggles between choosing to become all powerful as a vessel and bring upon a utopia (she, too, was affected by the infighting that the New Republic failed to stop) or to let go of the power. Near the end, Rey almost decides to take this power and fulfill her dream of becoming a hero, thinking there will be peace under the royals, but then feels deceived by the lies and rebels. Now cut off from her strong force abilities with only her innate force abilities left, she outwits the royals and defeats them despite having a power downgrade.
Later, Luke returns after everyone thinks, from sensing he's gone from the Force, he has died. This is because the Force has become a senseless and chaotic hurricane that does seemingly random things, though there is a stronger reason he returns- he was not killed, but merely sealed away by the royals, but he was able to escape their prison after some circumstances. Now resurrected, Luke realizes what has been going on though he does not know the cause. He goes to Rey and trains her. Rey discovers the secrets by herself when she reads the ancient Jedi texts, which has sections that Luke cannot access due to being tainted by the royals.
Finn and Poe:
Finn discovers the NR's secret too and becomes conflicted. He and Poe leave but Rose stays. Rose had been scolded for what she did to Finn, and now feels like she has to make up for it by being loyal to the cause; she's in denial that there's any malevolent evil behind the Resistance.
Leia dies but leaves notes that suspect the Resistance has some issue. Finn and Poe follow these clues to discover the truth. Though exiled, they start the true rebellion among the people to attack the so-called resistance and first order together. Like in the episode USS Callister, the people who found out the truth were told to shut up and play a part or else they would face severe punishments. Now, Finn and Poe join DJ (who's still ambiguous in morality) in starting up the true rebellion, in the name of Leia, against this fake war.
Finn rebels because he doesn't like being told what is right and wrong- he wants to figure it out himself. Same with Poe. This is one reason they both bond. Poe finds it very hard to leave the Resistance but his anger over how it was all fake and how it sacrificed both him and others pushes him. Maz learns the truth through Finn and Poe and agrees to help them. It's discovered that the royals gave her the lightsaber as they directed Rey and Han towards her through the Force they were manipulating.
After Finn and Poe rebel, the royals find a way to trick Rey into thinking, even after they talked to Rey about finding the truth, they're still in the Resistance due to 'ends justify the means' and they will dislike her if she turns against it. But once she turns against the, this illusion is broken and she realizes the truth almost immediately.
Kylo:
Kylo was weak in the force until he accepts Snoke's offer. Once powerful, Leia fears him and sends him with Luke. Rey and Kylo both survive while Luke sacrifices himself to stop the royals. Snoke was still a nobody but gained power through the Faceless. Rey's vision was faked and set up by the royals. Rey and Kylo both become severely underpowered when they reject the royals' offer
Kylo was also molded to be evil by the royals and is meant to stay that way. He, like Rey, almost accept the lucrative offers of given immense power. Kylo is given a deal that in exchange for being humiliated with the First Order's defeat, he can go conquer the unknown regions, which the galaxy will never find out because they think he's dead and can't communicate with the unknown regions. But like Rey, he rebels in the end against the role he's meant to play and turns against the royals.
Rey and Kylo need each other because only they can understand what it's like to become the figurehead pawns. No one else knows what it's like to suddenly have so much power yet not know what to do with it, so they can only go along with what they're told to do or what society (manipulated by the royals) tells them to do.
There are 3 remaining members of the Knights of Ren. Kylo is the ultimate figurehead because the royals want people to hate the future Skywalker name- thinking Luke was the last great Skywalker and now that legacy is dead- so that they can accept the new society. Luke becomes a mere legend so that they won't have him oppose them anymore.
Rey, again:
Rey's journey is learning to let go of her attachments of wanting admiration. She turns against the royals because she hates how she had no choice but to go along with these plans because some guy thought that was what she wanted and spoke for her. Luke has to teach Rey the force in a way she was not used to, as she was used to being immediately proficient and now has to learn to stand without the boost. She enjoys the hard work but her impulsiveness and frustration makes her conflicted and she keeps on secretely turning back to accept 'just a little' of the royals' offer while not giving in fully. But she becomes desperate because she thinks she can't save the galaxy without the royals' help. She sees the infighting and agrees with the royals. The turn comes when the royals attack Luke and think they know exactly what Rey wants, but it's not what she wants and she gets angry.
Rey learns to train herself because Luke is a bad teacher, but without him, she could never relearn the force. He only acts as a springboard and compass in the right direction- she does 90% of the hard work herself.
The royals thought they would never be discovered so they would not have to explain this to Rey and Kylo, but Rey manages to outsmart them by solving the hidden messages that the royals never knew were in the ancient Jedi texts, and they did not anticipate that she would steal and actually read them anyways.
Final Act:
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. 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. 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.
The galaxy does not have a clear image of Rey because she does not have a public presence. But Rey is known and her heroic actions are remembered. However, she will never be able to know what it's like to be praised and have this admiration from a community because she's exiled. This is what Rey wanted the most: a family, friends, and a community. Her way of getting one was by becoming a hero. But she realizes that having that support means she actually cares for them, and she decides she would sacrifice even seeing them so that they can be free from the royal's slavery. The royals promised that she would be able to have all this, at the cost that they would be enslaved.
Kylo is exiled without his immense power and cannot build the empire he wanted (he's given no resources for being in the unknown region, which was promised by the royals). The royals threatened Rey that if she rebels against them and loses, they'll tarnish her name and paint her as a villain. It's clear to the audience that the royals are evil; there's no grey area. They're just evil with noble, misguided intentions. Luke's final moments is in protecting the galaxy from the royal's most devastating attack (which they used as a last resort since Rey was very close to finishing the ancient ritual to gain the power and they needed a way for her to end the ritual to put herself in front of the attack; they see the destruction as a means to an end), redirecting it into himself and distracting them so that Rey and Kylo have enough time to enact the ritual to obtain the ancient Sith and Jedi powers. The royals thought Rey and Kylo were the only ones there, but Luke, sneaking into the temple by cutting himself from the Force so he can't be detected, surprises them. Luke defeats the New Republic army and kills the two right hand generals (who Rey and Kylo were each fighting separately, not together, just moments ago) before going down. This allowed Rey and Kylo to fight the last two royals.
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, 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. 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).
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.
Story first scene:
Begins with a ceremony honoring Rey and the Resistance. It's a small ceremony hosted by one of the few planets not under First Order control. They present Rey with a green kyber crystal, claiming it was a twin but the other has been lost, and they hope she is okay with what little they can give her. Suddenly, the First Order arrives with the Knights of Ren."