Did Sheev Palpatine Have a Daughter? Rey’s Family Explained    

Rey is one of the most important Star Wars characters in the current canon, as she is set to take the Jedi Order into a new era in the future. But we did learn in ‘Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker’ that Rey was actually the granddaughter of Sheev Palpatine, who we know as the evil Sith Lord named Darth Sidious. This means that Palpatine must have had a family at one point in time, right? So, did Sheev Palpatine have a daughter, and was his daughter Rey?

Technically speaking, in terms of genetics, Rey was Palpatine’s daughter. That’s because Rey was the daughter of a genetic strandcast named Dathan, who was cloned from the original body of Palpatine. As such, Rey is genetically Palpatine’s daughter because she is the daughter of his clone.

The truth is that Rey actually got her innate connection to the Force from her Palpatine bloodline, even though her actual father was not sensitive to the Force. Palpatine also only kept Rey’s father around to produce someone like her, which was why Rey was so important to the emperor. So, with that said, let’s look at how Rey was sort of like a daughter to Palpatine.

Rey is technically Palpatine’s daughter

Since she was first introduced as one of the main characters of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Rey became an intriguing character because fans always wondered where she came from and who her parents were. We were only aware that her parents left her on the desert planet of Jakku, where she grew up while fending for herself as a scavenger. And it was a chance encounter with BB-8 and the Resistance that Rey became a Jedi.

Of course, it was eventually revealed in ‘Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker’ that Rey was actually Sheev Palpatine’s granddaughter. The resurrected emperor was looking to corrupt Rey so she would go to the dark side and become a Sith. He explained to Rey that joining him on the dark side was always her fate because of her bloodline connection with him.

The fact that Rey was Palpatine’s granddaughter can be quite confusing because we never saw the emperor having a family of his own before he even became the emperor. But the thing is that he did have a son in a rather unconventional manner.

We know that Sheev always wanted to become immortal to rule the galaxy as emperor forever. He knew the secret to immortality, and that was through the transference of his essence and soul into another vessel. But he wanted an incredibly powerful vessel in the Force so that no one could ever challenge his reign. Darth Vader’s body was supposed to be his vessel before Anakin lost his limbs and became weaker after losing to Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar.

As such, Palpatine’s Sith Eternal cult, which was stationed on Exegol, spent their time uncovering the secrets of cloning. They were able to create a cloning method called strandcasting, which made use of different DNA samples, but mainly Palpatine’s own DNA. It was by using Palpatine’s main body’s genetic sample that the Sith Eternal was able to create an exact genetic copy of the emperor.

However, the Sith Eternal called this clone an abomination because it lacked the Force sensitivity that Palpatine needed from a new vessel. But Palpatine still kept this clone around because he knew that he could be useful if he could produce offspring in the future. The clone, however, escaped Exegol and started calling himself Dathan, which was the name of the slave who helped him escape the Sith Eternal.

Dathan met and fell in love with a woman. Soon after, this union produced Rey, who carried Palpatine’s bloodline with her and was born strong in the Force, thus proving the emperor’s theory correct. And because Palpatine regarded Dathan as his son, Rey was his granddaughter.

But because Dathan was an exact genetic copy of Emperor Palpatine, we can say that Rey was actually his daughter in terms of their genetics. Nevertheless, because Palpatine wasn’t the one who fathered Rey in the strict sense, she was never his daughter. Genetically speaking, however, she may have actually been his daughter.

The fact that Rey was a genetic match to Palpatine made her the ideal vessel for him. Of course, her strength in the Force also assured the emperor that he would become just as strong or even stronger in his new body. That was why Palpatine wanted Rey to strike him down so that he could use the opportunity to leave his rotting body behind and take over Rey’s body.

How many kids did Palpatine have?

In the technical sense, Palpatine never had any kids because he never had time to form a family while plotting to take over the galaxy. Of course, in hindsight, he should have formed a fake family if he knew that he would take over Rey’s body to live longer. Nevertheless, he never had a family of his own.

But while that may be true, there were a lot of different clones produced by the Sith Eternal. Dathan was one of the many genetic copies the Sith Eternal created. We don’t know how many of them were created, but Dathan was the only one who survived.

Of course, Snoke was also a clone produced using Palpatine’s DNA. But Snoke was not like Dathan because he was the combination of a lot of DNA samples. The Sith Eternal also created three other genetic copies of Snoke, and that means that there was a total of four Snoke strandcasts that existed.

But unlike Dathan, Snoke was never considered by Palpatine as his son because of how he thought that they weren’t genetically compatible. As such, Dathan remained the only clone whom the emperor actually regarded as his son, even though he never treated him as an actual family member. Like all of the other people Palpatine surrounded himself with, Dathan was just a pawn he wanted to manipulate for his own selfish desires.

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