Summoning the Lightning
In The Last Jedi, Yoda returns from beyond the grave and appears before the ancient Jedi tree on the secluded Jedi planet Ahch-To. Despite having previously died, the aged Jedi unleashes a shocking display of power, summoning lightning that shoots down from the sky.
This moment is closely paralleled – or inverted – in The Rise of Skywalker. After returning from beyond the grave to appear before the ancient Sith throne on the secluded Sith planet Exegol, the aged Sith Palpatine shoots a massive burst of lightning up into the sky.
In both scenes, a wizened master of the Force demonstrates power not only over the lightning but over death itself. However, the differences between the two scenes are as significant as the similarities. For one thing, they underline the difference between the kinds of immortality sought by the Jedi and the Sith: Yoda is a Force ghost, a benevolent spirit, whereas Palpatine is a grotesque, unnaturally reanimated corpse. The Jedi peacefully pass on into the immaterial realm, whereas the Sith cling to their material existence and render it a living hell in the process.
The inverted priorities of the Jedi and Sith are also reflected in the different directions of the lightning strikes in these two scenes. The Sith draw their power from “below” – from the appetites and passions, the “lower” parts of the human spirit. As Anakin says in Revenge of the Sith, “The Sith rely on their passion for their strength.” In contrast, the Jedi draw their power from “above” – from a “higher” plane of reality that is immaterial and spiritual. When Rey communes with the spirits of past Jedi while lying on the floor of the Exegol throne room, the camera flies up into a field of stars that twinkle as the old masters speak encouragingly to her, almost as if these heavens are where their spirits now reside.
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Concepts: ascent and descent / Jedi / life and death / materialism / passion / power and weakness / Sith
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This is an excellent follow-up to your post "The Jedi Tree and the Sith Throne." I think you should have posted this right afterwards. Do you see the connection between them? Yoda destroys the tree, not out of irreverence or iconoclasm, but to help Luke let go of something that's not needed anymore (true to Jedi teaching). Palpatine wants Rey to take the throne and by joining his spirit with her, he's basically taking it for himself (typical for a Sith). I never saw how much these two sequences parallel each other before.
Another lovely compare/contrast. It reminded me of Rey's meditation, "be with me." Sometimes we practice what isn't working in the moment so that when it's needed the skill is there.