Up to this point, the novelization for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has adequately addressed the movie’s numerous plot holes, but fans have just found a tiny detail that may canonize a Legends character.
The last movie in the Skywalker Saga, for as much as it promised to conclude the Sequel Trilogy in a meaningful way, not to mention give resolution to the ancient conflict between the Jedi and the Sith, didn’t go out of its way to explain anything regarding the return of Emperor Palpatine, the main protagonist’s lineage, her strange Force-bond with Kylo Ren, the deal with the Knights of Ren, and the significance of the Chosen One and those who came before. Add this to the fact that J.J. Abrams’ concluding movie felt rushed and sacrificed many plot elements to work around the appropriated runtime and you’ll realize why The Rise of Skywalker was just as divisive as The Last Jedi.
The official novelization, though, has managed to resolve a lot of these plot holes and unexplained enigmas, like the fact that Emperor Palpatine did actually fall to his death at the end of Return of the Jedi and who we saw in Episode IX was merely a clone whose body served the late Darth Sidious’ consciousness. Unfortunately for him, the power of the Dark Side was too much for this feeble body and it began to decay. The Sith Eternal managed to keep Palpatine alive on Kaminoan nutrients and a crane that was permanently attached to his body. The novel calls this crane an Ommin harness, which is an important detail.
As hardcore fans may tell you, Ommin was an ancient lord of the Sith and he played a major role in Tom Veitch’s Tales of the Jedi: Knights of the Old Republic comic series, set 4,000 years before the events of The Phantom Menace. Ommin became king of the planet Onderon, the homeworld of Saw Gerrera, but his excessive use of the Dark Side led to the accelerated deterioration of his body. As seen above, the harness Ommin wore is practically identical to Palpatine’s in The Rise of Skywalker, meaning that the Sith cultists had to reproduce that to keep their master alive.
This new detail confirms that a lot more thought went into Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker than we originally conceived. It’s safe to say, though, that fans unanimously believe these extra chunks of information don’t really exonerate the film from removing them in the first place.