The Star Wars saga has become a sprawling epic, spanning numerous planets, alien races,
and massive cosmic battles.
In fact, there's so much stuff happening that sometimes it's hard to keep it all straight.
And that's why we're here to explain the entire Star Wars story.
The Star Wars story begins during a period of relative peace in the galaxy.
A thousand years before the events of the Skywalker Saga, the Jedi Order defeated the
Sith Order, seemingly for good.
While the Jedi became the keepers of peace in the Galactic Republic, the surviving Sith
secretly began plotting to overthrow them.
It was near the end of this millennium of peace that Darth Sidious, a Sith Lord who
was secretly Senator Sheev Palpatine of Naboo, set in motion his plan to eradicate the Jedi
and seize control of the Republic's government.
As part of his plan for galactic domination, Sidious acted as a secret advisor to the Trade
Federation, ordering them to blockade and ultimately invade Naboo.
Once the Trade Federation arrived on the planet, Sidious slipped back into his Senator Palpatine
disguise and advised Naboo's queen, Padme Amidala, that the current chancellor of the
Republic wasn't acting in their best interests.
Working with his his Sith apprentice, Darth Maul, Sidious was able to manipulate and manufacture
tensions in the Republic from both sides.
Meanwhile, on a mission to protect Amidala, two Jedi Knights, Master Qui-Gon Jinn and
his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, happened upon a young Anakin Skywalker while repairing their
ship on Tatooine.
Qui-Gon discovered potentially unprecedented levels of Force sensitivity in the boy.
After taking Anakin with them, Qui-Gon urged the Jedi Council to train Anakin, but the
Jedi were reluctant.
After Qui-Gon's death at the hands of Darth Maul, the Council accepted Anakin as Obi-Wan's
new apprentice.
Palpatine was elected chancellor at Amidala's urging, granting him a place of unprecedented
power to further his plans.
Following the events of The Phantom Menace, tensions within the Republic continued to
rise under Palpatine's leadership.
Anakin Skywalker grew into a young Jedi Knight of considerable Force talents.
And finally, Darth Sidious took on a new apprentice, former Jedi Count Dooku, who adopted the Sith
name "Darth Tyranus."
Dooku, at Sidious' urging, created tension in the Republic by forming the Separatists.
As numerous star systems threatened secession, now-Senator Padme Amidala fought to keep the
Republic together, and was nearly assassinated for her trouble.
Obi-Wan was dispatched by the Jedi Council to find out who was behind the attempt on
her life, while Anakin stayed behind as her bodyguard.
"What about Senator Amidala?
She will still need protecting."
"Handle that, your padawan will."
"Anakin."
Obi-Wan's investigation uncovered an army of clones, seemingly ordered for the Republic
by a dead Jedi Knight.
This discovery led Obi-Wan to discover a Separatist gathering on the planet Geonosis.
Back on the Republic capital of Coruscant, Chancellor Palpatine was granted emergency
powers to use the newly discovered clones in the fight against the Separatists, launching
the Clone Wars.
During this time, Anakin and Padme fell in love, and Anakin's internal anger grew as
he discovered the death of his mother on Tatooine.
The Clone Wars raged for three years, with Dooku as the figurehead of the Separatist
movement and Palpatine as the increasingly powerful chancellor of the Republic.
The war raged across the galaxy, consuming system after system as everyone picked sides.
The Jedi Order were tasked with joining the conflict as generals of the clone armies discovered
during Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.
As the conflict raged, Padme remained a force in the Senate, working for unity while mistakenly
believing she could trust Palpatine.
Obi-Wan and Anakin fought on the front lines, and Anakin even took on a Jedi apprentice
named Ahsoka Tano.
During this time, he and Padme fell deeper in love, and they married in secret.
However, as the war went on, Anakin's darker tendencies grew.
Ready for the final stage of his plan, Palpatine allowed himself to be taken prisoner by Separatist
General Grievous.
This kickstarted a rescue mission, leading Obi-Wan and Anakin to infiltrate Grievous'
ship to rescue Palpatine.
Once inside, they found Dooku, and in the battle with the Sith, Anakin killed the Separatist
leader at Palpatine's behest.
With Palpatine rescued, the Republic pressed their advantage in the war, and Yoda and Obi-Wan
were both sent to the front lines in an effort to finish the conflict once and for all.
Back on Coruscant, Padme told Anakin that she was pregnant, and his dreams became troubled
by visions of his wife dying in childbirth.
Anakin grew even closer to Palpatine, especially after the chancellor hinted he might have
knowledge that could prevent Padme from dying during childbirth...or ever.
"Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise?"
To push his plan into its final stages, Sidious revealed himself as a Sith Lord to Anakin,
while also promising him knowledge of the Dark Side.
Anakin reported Sidious to Mace Windu, who attempted to arrest the Sith Lord.
During the battle, Anakin chose to save the Sith, all in the hopes that Sidious could
save Padme's life.
With Mace Windu dead, Anakin pledged himself to the service of Darth Sidious in the hopes
he could prevent Padme's death.
Sidious dubbed his new enforcer "Darth Vader," and then ordered him to slaughter everybody
inside the Jedi Temple.
This began the Great Jedi Purge under Sidious' Order 66, which required all clone troopers
to terminate their Jedi generals on sight.
Only a handful of Jedi, like Obi-Wan and Yoda, were able to fend off their attackers.
Meanwhile in the Senate, Palpatine used his power to declare the Jedi outlaws, and turned
the Republic into the Galactic Empire.
To end his self-orchestrated war, Sidious sent Vader to the planet Mustafar to kill
the remaining Separatist leaders and shut down the clone army.
Then, Obi-Wan and Yoda made their move.
Obi-Wan went to fight Vader on Mustafar while Yoda confronted Sidious on Coruscant.
Unfortunately, Padme reached Vader first, and when she tried to convince him to see
the error of his ways, he nearly choked her to death.
By the end of Revenge of the Sith, Sidious fought Yoda to a stalemate, while Obi-Wan
defeated Vader and left him to die.
After facing the Sith, Obi-Wan and Yoda regrouped with Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan.
Clinging to life after her husband nearly killed her, Padme gave birth to twins named
Luke and Leia before passing away, leaving the children effectively orphaned.
Leia was adopted by Organa and his wife, while Luke was sent to Tatooine to live with Schmi
Skywalker's relatives, the Lars family.
Obi-Wan moved to Tatooine to keep watch over Luke, while Yoda moved to the swamps of Dagobah
to live in solitude.
In the absence of the Jedi, Emperor Palpatine quickly consolidated his vast power with Vader
by his side.
However, even as he celebrated his victory, a small group of leaders were already sowing
the seeds of rebellion.
One soon-to-be rebel leader was Han Solo, a Corellian orphan living on the streets and
working for a local crime lord.
When he failed to escape the planet with his girlfriend, Qi'ra, Han enlisted in the Imperial
Navy.
After three years, Han deserted and joined up with an outlaw named Beckett to earn a
new life for himself as a pilot.
His journey led him to reunite with Qi'ra, now a trusted lieutenant in the Crimson Dawn
crime syndicate.
Together they embarked on a journey to steal a valuable shipment of coaxium fuel for Crimson
Dawn boss, Dryden Vos.
Along the way, Solo met his best friend, Chewbacca, and obtained his trademark ship, the Millennium
Falcon.
At the end of the adventure, Qi'ra chose to betray and leave Han, leaving Han to work
as a smuggler for the next decade.
In the years after the Great Jedi Purge, the empire tried to exterminate any former jedi
still in hiding.
Meanwhile, a small band of resistance leaders grew more and more organized, and the Rebel
Alliance began to take root.
Nearly two decades after the fall of the Jedi, there was a breakthrough thanks to Galen Erso,
a Rebel sympathizer who'd been forced to work on the Death Star.
Erso planted a key flaw in the Death Star that would allow the Rebels to destroy it.
During an all-out battle at Scarif, Jyn Erso and Captain Cassian Andor gave their lives
to steal the Death Star plans.
Nearly 20 years passed between the end of the Clone Wars and the Battle of Scarif, and
during that time, Leia Organa and Luke Skywalker had grown up on their adoptive homeworlds.
Leia, now princess of Alderaan, was a key member of the Alliance and managed to flee
Scarif with the Death Star plans.
When she was captured by Vader, she hid the plans in R2-D2, who escaped to Tatooine in
a pod with his counterpart, C-3PO.
On Tatooine, the plans fell into the hands of Luke, a farm boy with dreams of being a
Rebel pilot.
After viewing a message from Leia directed at Obi-Wan Kenobi, he sought out the old man,
and when the two met up, Obi-Wan revealed he was once a Jedi Knight.
Determined to get the plans to Alderaan, Luke and Obi-Wan booked passage aboard Han Solo's
Millennium Falcon.
Unfortunately, Alderaan had been obliterated, courtesy of the Death Star.
After our heroes found Alderaan destroyed, the Millennium Falcon was pulled into the
Death Star's tractor beam, giving Luke, Han, and Chewbacca the opportunity to search for
Leia, while Obi-Wan disabled the station's tractor beam.
A battle broke out as Luke, Han, Chewie, and Leia shot their way out of the station, while
Obi-Wan dueled Vader in a long-awaited rematch.
Sadly, the Sith Lord killed Obi-Wan in front of Luke.
Back at the Rebel base on Yavin IV, the Alliance formed a plan to assault the Death Star.
Luke volunteered to join the fight, while Han left with the reward money he earned rescuing
the princess.
At the last moment, Han returned to help in the battle, shooting Vader out of the sky
and leaving Luke free to destroy the Death Star.
With the help of the Force, Luke saved the Rebel base and handed the Empire its biggest
defeat yet.
Three years later, Vader finally located the Alliance base on Hoth and launched a full-scale
assault, prompting a Rebel evacuation.
Han, Leia, Chewie and C-3PO fled in the Falcon, while Luke left with R2-D2 in his X-Wing to
seek Jedi training from Yoda on Dagobah.
The Falcon made its way to the gas planet of Bespin, where Solo met his old friend,
Lando Calrissian...who unwillingly gave the Falcon and her crew up to Vader.
Luke, sensing his friends were in danger, went to Bespin against Yoda's wishes to save
them.
After the bounty hunter Boba Fett froze Han Solo in carbonite to take him to Jabba the
Hutt, Vader and Luke fought in a lightsaber duel.
During the fight, Vader cut off Luke's hand and revealed that he was his father.
Devastated and heartbroken, Luke leapt away from Vader rather than join the Dark Side,
but fortunately, he was rescued by Leia, Lando, and Chewie.
Months passed as the team developed a plot to rescue Han.
Both Leia and Lando infiltrated Jabba the Hutt's palace while in disguise, but Leia
was captured after getting Han Solo out of the carbonite.
Luke sent C-3PO and R2-D2 ahead as "gifts" for Jabba, before entering himself.
Jabba managed to capture Luke, and tried to have both Luke and Han executed by throwing
them into a Sarlacc pit.
Luckily, Luke had hidden his new lightsaber in R2-D2's body, and with the help of Han,
Chewie, and Lando, Luke destroyed Jabba's bodyguards.
Meanwhile, Leia strangled the giant worm with her own chains.
After rescuing Han, Luke returned to Dagobah to find Yoda dying.
After Yoda's passing, Obi-Wan's Force ghost informed Luke that Leia was his sister.
Determined to complete his training and restore the Jedi, Luke returned to his friends.
But in the midst of the war, the Empire had constructed a second Death Star.
The second Death Star was fitted with a shield around its entire exterior, generated by a
satellite dish located on the forest moon of Endor.
The Rebel strike included a covert attack to destroy this shield generator, along with
a full-scale fleet assault to destroy the Death Star itself once the shield was down.
Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewie led the Endor team, while Lando, Admiral Ackbar, and Wedge
Antilles led the fleet strike.
Meanwhile, Luke turned himself in to Vader so he could face his father alone on the Death
Star.
As their battle commenced, Vader brought Luke before the Emperor, who attempted to convert
the young Jedi.
Luke resisted Palpatine's control and fought against Vader.
However, after realizing he was becoming just like his dad, Luke refused to kill Vader.
Enraged by this, the Emperor tortured Luke with Force lightning, which led Vader to pick
up his master and throw him into the station's reactor core.
On Endor, Han and Leia destroyed the shield generator with help from the native Ewoks,
and the Rebel fleet completed its mission, destroying the Death Star and effectively
ending the Galactic Empire.
As the New Galactic Republic began to form with help from major Rebel Alliance figures
like Leia and Mon Mothma, the remains of the Empire retreated to the Outer Rim.
There, they fell under the command of a mysterious Force user named Snoke.
The ashes of the Empire then gave birth to the First Order.
Meanwhile, Han and Leia had a son, Ben Solo, who showed the Force prowess of the Skywalker
bloodline.
Luke made good on his promise to rebuild the Jedi and started a temple where Ben was a
student.
Unfortunately, Snoke began to influence Ben, and the young Jedi turned on Luke, converting
some students and slaughtering others.
Heartbroken, Luke went into exile.
Sensing the threat of Snoke and the First Order, Leia formed an underground movement
separate from the Republic, a group known as the Resistance.
With his military commander, General Armitage Hux, Snoke developed a massive system-killing
weapon known as Starkiller Base.
Meanwhile, Ben Solo, now known as Kylo Ren, sought to find Luke Skywalker.
Skywalker's location was hidden on a piece of starmap obtained by Resistance pilot Poe
Dameron and hidden in his droid BB-8.
The droid was ultimately found by a Jakku scavenger named Rey.
Together with a First Order deserter named Finn, Rey stole the long-dormant Millennium
Falcon and left Jakku, only to run into Han Solo and Chewbacca.
While stopping off at the planet Takodana, Rey discovered Luke's original lightsaber,
before getting kidnapped by Kylo Ren.
With Han and Chewie's help, Finn was able to return Luke's map to Leia and the Resistance.
General Leia Organa and the Resistance launched a desperate attack to destroy Starkiller Base,
while Finn, Han Solo, and Chewbacca tried to rescue Rey.
While there, Han confronted his son, Ben.
Hoping to prove to Snoke that he'd truly turned to the Dark Side, Kylo Ren murdered his father.
Up on the surface of the base's planet, Rey took up Luke's lightsaber and defeated Kylo
Ren with her newly-discovered force powers.
After the battle, Rey journeyed with R2-D2 and Chewbacca to a remote island on the planet
Ahch-To, prepared to ask Luke for guidance.
Following Starkiller Base's destruction, the First Order sent a fleet to the Resistance
base on D'Qar.
Poe Dameron led a massive attack on the First Order fleet against Leia's wishes, losing
most of the resistance's fleet in the process.
While the Resistance fled, Rey found Luke was unwilling to offer her any assistance.
Rey was ultimately able to convince Luke to help her, but Rey began sharing secret, Force-connected
conversations with Kylo Ren.
Ultimately, Luke and Rey had a falling out when she tried to convince him that Kylo was
capable of redemption.
Rey fled the island, while Force Ghost Yoda burned down the first Jedi Temple with ghost
lightning.
Leia and Vice Admiral Holdo staged a last-ditch effort to save the Resistance from the approaching
First Order.
On Snoke's flagship, Rey allowed herself to be captured so she could try to convert Kylo,
who initially seemed to be on her side.
Rather than watch Rey die, Kylo betrayed his former master, and killed Snoke.
But after fighting Snoke's guards together, Kylo asked Rey to join him in ruling the galaxy.
"The jedi, the rebels.
Let it all die.
Rey, I want you to join me."
Rey declined and fled to the Resistance on Crait.
After Vice Admiral Holdo flew the Resistance flagship into the First Order fleet, crippling
their starships, new Supreme Leader Kylo Ren led a ground assault on the last of the Resistance
on Crait.
There, Luke faced down the First Order assault and bought the Resistance time to escape on
the Millennium Falcon.
However, the Luke on Crait was a Force projection, while the real Skywalker was still back on
Ahch-To.
The strain of projecting his consciousness across the galaxy was too much, and while
the Resistance lived to fight on, Luke became one with the Force.
As Rey trained with Leia to further develop her Jedi abilities, the resistance discovered
that Emperor Palpatine had returned.
Palpatine made Kylo Ren an offer: Kylo could rule the galaxy as a new Emperor with the
help of a long-hidden fleet of planet killers if he agreed to kill Rey.
Meanwhile the Resistance went in search of a Sith Wayfinder which could point the way
to Palpatine and stop his fleet before it launched.
As her anxiety built during the mission, Rey discovered a new layer of darkness in her.
Rey's anxieties over who she was built to a peak when Kylo Ren told her that he knew
her true heritage: She was the granddaughter of Palpatine himself.
After learning the truth, Rey nearly killed Kylo in battle, but healed him after Leia
intervened to save her son with her dying breath.
Luke's spirit urged Rey not to give up, and Rey journeyed to Exegol to confront Palpatine.
There, the revived Emperor revealed his true plan: To convert her to become the new Empress
and leader of the Sith. Rey refused his offer and fought Palpatine with the help of a redeemed
Kylo Ren.
In the end, both the Emperor and the fleet were defeated, and the galaxy was saved.
In the aftermath of the battle, Rey forged her own lightsaber and buried those of her
teachers in the Tatooine desert.
Finally, she revealed that she had taken a new name: Rey Skywalker.
"Again, it's like poetry, sort of, they rhyme.
Every stanza kinda rhymes with the last one."
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