The Battle of Exegol, also known as the raid on Exegol or the Sith Eternal uprising, was the decisive final battle in the war between the First Order and the Resistance in which the Resistance and the Citizens' Fleet defeated the Final Order, the Xyston-class Star Destroyer fleet built by the Sith Eternal. The Resistance's victory prevented the Star Destroyers from leaving Exegol to reinforce First Order forces and began an uprising against it across the galaxy. The battle was also the final battle of the ancient, millennia-long war between the Jedi and the Sith, ending in a decisive victory for the Jedi with the destruction of Darth Sidious and prevention of the Sith's return as a whole.
The origins of the battle emerged from the revelation that the spirit of Darth Sidious had returned after his death at the Battle of Endor and was hiding on Exegol in the Unknown Regions, where Sith cultists had constructed a massive fleet to establish a new Sith Empire. Jedi Padawan Rey, having just learned her true identity as the Emperor's granddaughter, utilized a Sith wayfinder to locate Sidious' stronghold, simultaneously showing the Resistance the path to Exegol.
The battle began when the Resistance navy attacked Exegol to prevent the launching of the Sith fleet. A ground team led by General Finn was tasked with taking out a navigation tower while an air team commanded by General Poe Dameron was to defend them. However, when a First Order officer realized the Resistance was targeting the navigation tower, Allegiant General Enric Pryde had the source of the navigation signal switched to his command ship, forcing the Resistance's ground team to land on the hull of his Resurgent-class Star Destroyer Steadfast. The Resistance was nearly destroyed by the Sith Eternal forces until General Landonis Balthazar Calrissian and Chewbacca arrived in the Millennium Falcon with a massive makeshift citizens' fleet composed of over fourteen thousand starships piloted by volunteer civilians from all across the galaxy.
Meanwhile, Darth Sidious attempted to turn Rey to the dark side of the Force, exhorting her to sacrifice him and rule the galaxy as a Sith. In truth, Sidious planned to have his spirit transferred into Rey, which will allow him to possess her body, with the help of a ritual that he learned from his master Darth Plagueis. However, Ben Solo arrived to help her; they defeated the Knights of Ren and Sidious' Sovereign Protectors, but Sidious used their connection to heal himself. The Dark Lord disposed of Solo, using the Force to cast him into a nearby abyss, and ascended the Throne of the Sith himself, from where he unleashed torrents of Force lightning into the sky, electrifying the Resistance's fleet and the citizens' fleet. However, Rey was restrengthened by the spirits of past Jedi, allowing her to stand and face her grandfather, who refocused his lightning towards her, giving the Resistance an opportunity to finish their mission. Finn and Jannah destroyed the command ship, disabling the signal and preventing the Sith fleet from leaving Exegol, while the citizens' fleet and starfighters destroyed a large number of Sith Star Destroyers.
Rey defended herself from her grandfather's Force lightning with the lightsabers of her masters, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, causing the lightning to deflect back at the Sith Lord and disintegrate him, killing the Emperor and his disciples and preventing the return of the Sith. Rey died, but Solo reappeared and sacrificed himself to resurrect her, giving his life force to her. With the Sith fleet destroyed, Rey and the rest of the Resistance and citizens' fleet departed from Exegol. During their return to their base, they learned that people were rising up against the First Order all across the galaxy.
Despite his imperfect resurrection, Darth Sidious planned revenge on the Jedi and the Resistance.
Following the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, the Dark Lord of the Sith and Emperor of the Galactic Empire Darth Sidious managed to return after his death and arrive on the planet Exegol in the Unknown Regions in a clone body, albeit requiring to be sustained by an Ommin harness due to his new body being physically impaired. On Exegol, the Emperor was attended to by a Sith cult, the Sith Eternal. During the following years, the Sith Eternal constructed a massive armada of planet-destroying Xyston-class Star Destroyers for what Sidious called the Final Order, with the goal of establishing a new Sith Empire and restoring Sith rule to the galaxy.
In 35 ABY, by which point the First Order, a military junta formed by former Imperial officers, nobles, technologists, and warlords who had fled into the Unknown Regions after the fall of the Empire, had controlled large swathes of the galaxy as part of their war of conquest. An unexpected broadcast was put out across the galaxy using the voice of Emperor Palpatine, long thought to be deceased, which promised revenge.
Seeking to crush any potential threat to his rule, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, who had risen to rule the First Order after assassinating his master and predecessor, Snoke, sought a path to the Emperor. Ren acquired his grandfather's wayfinder device and used it to travel alone to Exegol, where he found Sidious, who did return to the land of the living, and his followers. The Sith Lord revealed to Ren that he created Snoke, and told Ren that the First Order was "just the beginning." He promised Ren the might of the Final Order if he killed Rey, the last Jedi, who he revealed to Ren was his granddaughter.
The Resistance devised a plan to stop the Sith fleet.
After a series of missions with Poe Dameron, Finn, Chewbacca, C-3PO, BB-8, and D-O, Rey acquired the Emperor's wayfinder. However, it was destroyed by Ren to stop her from facing Emperor Palpatine without him, who had also informed her that she was the Emperor's granddaughter, making her a Palpatine. Rey defeated Ren in a lightsaber duel after he was distracted by the death of his mother and Rey's Jedi Master, General Leia Organa, and took his TIE whisper. Initially giving into fear and exiling herself on Ahch-To, where she destroyed Ren's ship, Rey was motivated by the spirit of her first Jedi Master, Luke Skywalker, who encouraged her to face her fear to win the war and restore the Jedi Order to its former glory.
Rey traveled along a safe route to Exegol in Skywalker's X-wing, Red Five, using Ren's wayfinder and transmitted her plotted course to the Resistance, allowing them to travel along her passage. Through information acquired from D-O, a droid that had been owned by a Sith cultist, Ochi, the Resistance learned that the Sith fleet required a signal from a navigation tower in order to deploy off of Exegol, and devised a battle strategy to take out the tower. Poe Dameron and Finn, the former who had become the leading general of the Resistance after Organa's death, sent General Lando Calrissian and Chewbacca on the Millennium Falcon to the Core systems to try and recruit any of their allies to aid them. Meanwhile, Ren experienced a vision of a memory of his father, Han Solo. Confessing his love for his father, Ren threw his lightsaber into the sea and renounced the dark side, redeeming himself and assuming his born identity as Ben Solo once again.
Emperor Palpatine contacted the First Order's Allegiant General Enric Pryde, who, as an Imperial veteran, had previously served the Emperor, allowed Sidious to formally take charge of the First Order, which gained the Sith fleet in order to increase their resources so they can become strong enough to restore the Empire. General Pryde subsequently pledged his personal allegiance to the Sith Lord. The Emperor then declared that the Final Order was beginning; he ordered Pryde to meet him on Exegol, and sent him a ship from the Sith fleet, which Pryde used to destroy a planet known to the Resistance on Palpatine's orders, Kijimi. Pryde arrived at Exegol on his Resurgent-class Star Destroyer, the Steadfast, which served as the Sith fleet's command ship.
The First Order was officially pledged to Darth Sidious by Allegiant General Pryde.
The Resistance arrived on Exegol to find a massive armada of Xyston-class Star Destroyers, which comprised Darth Sidious' fleet. They realized the fleet had the potential to destroy any planet in the galaxy when they received Palpatine's demand for the free world's immediate surrender or else they perish, since every Star Destroyer was equipped with the same cannon as the one that destroyed Kijimi. Poe and Finn opted to launch a ground assault over an air assault in order to disable the navigation tower while at the same time avoiding Sith Eternal tracking. In response to the Resistance's attack, Pryde ordered all Star Destroyers to open fire using their ion cannons only, to minimize damage from friendly fire, while deploying swarms of TIE/dg starfighters. However, a First Order officer spotted the assault force and informed Pryde, who immediately recognized the threat and had the source of the navigation signal transferred to the Steadfast, intending to guide the fleet out themselves.
Resistance forces arrived on Exegol to prevent the launch of the Final Order.
When the lander realized the signal had been transferred, Finn reached out with the Force to identify the new source of the command signal. Identifying the Steadfast as the source because it stood out among the Sith Star Destroyers, they went forward with their ground assault and landed on the hull of the Resurgent Star Destroyer instead. Pryde ordered a large group of Sith troopers onto the hull to stop the boarders, along with an electromagnetic pulse to disable their speeders. To his disbelief, another officer told him that they weren't using speeders; instead, they were using orbak mounts. The strike team managed to disable the tower after a brutal battle. Pryde was not concerned, and simply ordered it to be restarted. As the Resistance strike team prepared to leave, Finn and Jannah stayed behind to stop them from resetting and switching the signal to another Star Destroyer. Poe then ordered the starfighter pilots to launch an attack on the Sith Star Destroyers until General Calrissian and his reinforcements arrived.
A redeemed Ben Solo stood with Rey against the resurrected Darth Sidious, wielding the Skywalker lightsabers in tandem.
While the battle raged above, Rey entered the Sith Citadel and found Darth Sidious in the throne room, which contained an arena filled with Sith loyalists. Sidious expressed his satisfaction at finally seeing his granddaughter, while telling her that the Resistance was walking into a trap. Above the throne of the Sith, he opened the ceiling, revealing an outnumbered and outmatched Resistance and its seemingly imminent failure against the Sith Eternal military. Sidious exploited Rey's feelings for the Resistance, telling her that the only way to save them would be for her to strike him down in anger, calling her "Empress Palpatine" and encouraging her to take her rightful place on the throne of the Sith and no one has her back like how Luke was rescued by his father. This would ensure the Sith Lord's essence's transferal to Rey, which will allow him to possess her body, thus renewing the Sith Eternal for the reign of a new Sith Empire that would control the galaxy. Rey was faced with a confrontation of wills as the desire to save the Resistance as well as her uneasiness of being a Palpatine collided in her mind. With the Sith loyalists chanting, Darth Sidious prepared to be killed by Rey.
However, a glimpse of hope came when Rey sensed the newly redeemed Ben Solo through the Force. Landing his TIE scout next to Red Five, which Rey had used to reach Exegol from Ahch-To, Solo made his way into the Sith Citadel, shooting down some Sovereign Protectors. On the way, he encountered his former comrades, the Knights of Ren. He attempted to get past them by Force pushing Cardo to the ground. However, Kuruk and Ushar responded by Force pushing Solo.
When Vicrul attempted to attack Solo with his phrik scythe, Solo caused him to stumble. The other knights, Cardo, Kuruk, Trudgen, and Ushar, attacked the unarmed Solo, scarring his face. He contacted Rey through their Force-bond and nodded. Pretending to strike down Darth Sidious, Rey instead used their Force bond to transfer the lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker to Solo as she ignited the lightsaber of Leia Organa. Solo then proceeded to use the Skywalker lightsaber to kill his former comrades, starting with a fatal slash to Kuruk and Cardo's chests and grazing Ap'lek's Mandalorian executioner vibro-ax.
The Sith Lord attacked the dyad with the dark side, draining Solo and Rey of their essences to restore his broken body.
Blocking swings from Ushar's war club and Trudgen's vibrocleaver, Solo Force pushed Ap'lek to his death, as he restrained and felled Vicrul. Trudgen attempted to attack his former leader but was effortlessly stabbed in the chest. Ushar attempted to attack too but Solo leapt over him and stabbed him from the back. After Ushar dropped dead, Solo then arrived at Sidious' lair and reunited with Rey, who had just finished off Sidious' Sovereign Protectors.
At first, Darth Sidious intended to kill both of them, but realized that the duo together made a Force dyad, a phenomenon that, according to Sidious, was a power like life itself and had not been seen in generations. Realizing that their powers combined would allow him to fully return to life, Sidious used the Force to drain the life energy of both Rey and Solo to restore himself to the form he had before his first death at the hand of Solo's grandfather, during the Battle of Endor. Drained of their powers, Rey and Solo collapsed to the floor. Having no further need for Solo, Darth Sidious used the Force to throw him into a nearby abyss, exclaiming revenge and declaring the death of the Skywalker family.
During the battle, the Resistance fleet was augmented by a citizens' fleet.
Up above, the Resistance was taking heavy losses, as Finn and Dameron continued to lead the fight. Major Temmin Wexley was shot down by Sith TIEs, making Poe realize that they were losing the battle. However, General Calrissian arrived in the Millennium Falcon, bringing with him the Citizens' Fleet, a massive armada comprised of over 14,000 ships from all points across the galaxy. Amongst those gathered included the Mon Calamari fleet, the Phantom Squadron, the Ghost, the Anodyne two, the Alphabet two, Zay Versio from the Inferno Squad, the Fireball piloted by Resistance pilot Kazuda Xiono, and more. The citizens of the galaxy had come to aid the Resistance in their hour of need.
Dameron quickly ordered the fleet to target the superlaser cannons, to considerable effect. Pryde was stupefied at the appearance and size of the fleet, arguing that the Resistance had no navy. Admiral Griss, on the other hand, realized that it was not a navy but ordinary people that finally had enough of the Emperor's tyranny and banded together to bring him down once and for all. Sith Star Destroyers began falling to cruisers and fighters alike, with one being brought down single-handedly by a lone Y-wing piloted by Zorii Bliss, who had escaped the destruction of her homeworld with Babu Frik.
Sidious unleashed torrents of Force lightning on the Resistance and the citizens' fleet.
Darth Sidious, having been fully restored to his former self, told his faithful loyalists to not fear the attack of the Resistance, as nothing would stop the Sith's return. He then proceeded to ignite a powerful storm of Force lightning into the air, which disabled all Resistance ships up to the size of Nebulon-B frigates, including those of Poe and the galaxy fleet, and sending them plummeting toward the ground, including the legendary Tantive IV. Much to Poe's shock, he realized he was losing control of his X-wing. Weakened and seemingly defeated, Rey heard the voices of past Jedi, including her first Master Luke Skywalker, Luke's father Anakin, Anakin's former Padawan Ahsoka Tano, Anakin and Luke's Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan's Master Qui-Gon Jinn, Grand Master Yoda, Master Mace Windu, Master Luminara Unduli, Master Aayla Secura, Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus, and Master Adi Gallia encouraging her and lending her the strength to carry on against the Sith Lord. She had embraced peace and calm, experiencing a state of oneness.
Aided by the spirits of the Jedi, Rey turned her grandfather's power against him, destroying the Emperor and aborting the return of the Sith.
Rey then stood up, with her new courage and strength received from the Jedi before her. Darth Sidious, noticing this, ceased his Force lightning attack on the Resistance fleet and their friends. General Dameron, having realized that his starship's systems were back online, regrouped the allied forces along with his own and resumed their assault on the Sith fleet, stating that they had one chance to take out the armada of Sith Star Destroyers. Telling Rey that her death would be the end of the story of the Rebellion, Darth Sidious launched a barrage of Force lightning at Rey. Rey then attempted to block it with Leia's lightsaber, but Sidious told Rey that she was just "a scavenger girl" that was "no match for the power in" him and that he is "all the Sith." However, Rey issued an immediate rebuttal by telling Darth Sidious that she is "all the Jedi," calling back Anakin's lightsaber and igniting it, using the two lightsabers to deflect Darth Sidious' lightning back at him. Sidious initially resisted the attack, but his frail body was very soon unable to take the immense strain of his own lightning being used against him. Sidious eventually screamed in horror and anguish as he was quickly disintegrated by his own lightning. In a massive explosion that decimated the entire citadel, Sidious, and all of the Sith Eternal under him, Darth Sidious—the former senator of Naboo, the last Supreme Chancellor of the Old Galactic Republic, Dark Lord of the Sith, the Phantom Menace, self-proclaimed Emperor of the entire Galaxy, and the man who wrought evil upon countless worlds throughout the galaxy for an entire century—was finally destroyed both physically and spiritually permanently, bringing the Sith Order, as well as the conflict between the Sith and the Jedi that had lasted for many millennia, to its final conclusion.
Rey gave her life providing the sheer force required to utterly destroy Darth Sidious, an event felt by Finn, and her limp body collapsed to the ground. However, Solo had survived the earlier ordeal with Sidious, and climbed up the cliff from the abyss, running back to Rey. Finding Rey's limp body near the throne, Solo mourned her and cradled her in his arms. However, seeing that Rey needed to carry on his master's legacy, Solo then decided to sacrifice himself so that Rey could live again. He put his hand on her and transferred his own life force into her body, resuscitating her. Rey and Solo then shared a kiss before Ben Solo, the last Skywalker and redeemed Jedi, vanished into the Force, having, alongside Rey, brought balance back to the Force just as his grandfather Anakin Skywalker had. Simultaneously, back on Ajan Kloss, Maz Kanata watched with a sense of peace as Leia Organa's body became one with the Force, seemingly ending the Skywalker bloodline.
With the destruction of the Steadfast, the Sith fleet was trapped on Exegol, where it met a destructive demise.
Meanwhile, above Exegol, the Resistance and citizens' fleet were continuing to press the attack against the remaining Sith forces. Finn and Jannah successfully destroyed the Steadfast by turning its turbolasers against the ship itself. The Steadfast burst into flames, killing all on board. It then fell towards the ground and crashed into the surface of Exegol, while Calrissian and Chewbacca rescued Finn and Jannah aboard the Millennium Falcon.
With the Steadfast destroyed before it could transfer the signal to another friendly ship, the entire Sith fleet became trapped on Exegol. The Resistance and the galaxy fleet destroyed the rest of the Sith Star Destroyers in a similar fashion to the Steadfast, by blowing up their axial superlasers. With the Final Order fleet destroyed and all the ships falling to the ground in ruins, Rey, the Resistance and the galaxy fleet emerged victorious and left Exegol to return to Ajan Kloss, where they celebrated the end of the First Order/Resistance War.
An uprising against the First Order began after the Resistance and citizens' victory on Exegol.
As the Resistance and their Citizens' Fleet left Exegol, they learned that across the galaxy people were rising up as the weakened First Order began to collapse without their cultist allies to reinforce them or the leadership of their Emperor. Across the galaxy, people rose up and destroyed the Resurgent-class Star Destroyers, as seen on Cloud City, Jakku's Starship Graveyard, and on the forest moon of Endor. The Resistance returned to the their base on Ajan Kloss, where they celebrated their victory, among them Rey, General Finn, and General Dameron.
The end of the battle saw the ushering of a long-awaited peace across the galaxy. Through Rey and Ben Solo, the ancient conflict between the Sith and Jedi finally ended with Darth Sidious return prevented, which marked the end of the threat of any renewed Sith rule across the galaxy forever. Through Finn, Poe, Lando, and the rest of the Resistance and the galaxy fleet, Sidious entire fleet collapsed on Exegol, with no threat of return, ushering in a new sense of hope and courage across the galaxy as people gathered the will to rise up and destroy the remains of the First Order.
Afterwards, Rey, along with BB-8, traveled to Anakin and Luke's homeworld Tatooine. As she stood in Luke's old homestead, she started to reminisce about everything that she had accomplished, before she went outside the homestead to bury both Luke and Leia's lightsabers into the sand using the Force. Following the burial she revealed she had constructed a lightsaber of her own, and ignited its yellow blade. When an old woman who just so happened to be passing by asked who she was, Rey, with both Luke and Leia's Force spirits watching in the distance, confidently declared that she was "Rey Skywalker." In her task to restore galactic peace, Rey eventually became a Jedi Master, just as Luke had done before her.
The Battle of Exegol served as the climactic battle of the 2019 film, Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker, the final installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
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