Dathan, also known to the Sith Eternal as "the Abomination," was a human male hybrid strandcast genetically engineered by Sith cultists on the planet Exegol in 12 BBY. The Sith cult utilized the template of Darth Sidious—the Dark Lord of the Sith and Emperor of the Galactic Empire—to create cloned vessels for the preservation of his essence. The strandcast who became known as Dathan was a byproduct of the cult's experiments, however he lacked a strong connection to the Force, despite his genetic connection to Sidious, and thus was deemed a failed experiment by his "father." Although Dathan was treated by Sidious with disdain for his powerless nature—being referred to as a "useless creature"—the excellent health he possessed nevertheless made him permitted to live as a means for continuing the Palpatine bloodline.

For his father's neglect, Dathan ultimately rejected him and the ways of the Sith in a similar fashion by escaping from his homeworld, intent on pursuing a life away from the dark side of the Force. He eventually married a woman named Miramir, who gave birth to their daughter Rey in 15 ABY. Unlike Dathan, Rey was strong with the Force, and so was deemed a viable host for her grandfather's essence. Determined to claim his granddaughter at all costs, Sidious sent the assassin Ochi of Bestoon to find and bring Rey to Exegol.

Dathan and his family settled for a time on the planet Jakku, where he and his wife struggled to survive in the desert as junk traders during the New Republic Era. They were kidnapped and impaled by Ochi with a knife in 21 ABY, though not before Dathan and Miramir hid their daughter by leaving her behind with the junk boss named Unkar Plutt. Rey remained hidden on Jakku for several years before discovering her dormant connection to the Force, which in turn led to her path to becoming a Jedi.

Biography[]

Origins[]

Little was known about the life of^[8] Dathan,^[4] but his origins could be traced back to the Imperial Era when the Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious—publicly known as Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine^[8]— and his followers experimented with cloning on the planet Exegol for several years prior to the Sith Lord's demise at the Battle of Endor.^[9] Secure in power as Emperor,^[10] Sidious withdrew from the public eye and began to probe the secrets of the dark side of the Force.^[11] In his quest for immortality, the Sith Lord and his followers experimented with cloning technology to extend his lifespan and sustain it indefinitely.^[10] The Sith Eternal utilized a method of cloning known as Strand-Casting in addition to modified cloning technology,^[12] producing countless modified cloned bodies of Sidious' original body in the attempt to give him a vessel worthy of containing and preserving his essence, so he could ultimately obtain immortality.^[7]

Early life[]

The son of Darth Sidious was created^[4] in 12 BBY^[2] on Exegol. An unnamed hybrid strandcast,^[4] the infant boy was a result of the Sith Eternal's efforts to produce a body worthy of his vast power,^[7] but the only survivor of the cloning process,^[4] so was the main byproduct of Sidious' genetic research.^[12] However, he would prove to be nothing but a source of disappointment for the man who sired him^[13] through science.^[4] Despite having the blood of the Palpatine family,^[7] he was devoid of any strength in the Force, unable to harness its abilities like his donor, who reveled in such capabilities.^[13]

Sidious ultimately rejected the "inferior" child spawned from his flesh; Though the Sith Lord did recognize their blood connection to each other, indeed acknowledging his own status as the boy's "father" and the failed clone as his "son", he nonetheless saw the strandcast as a "useless creature"—referring to his son as "it"—and shunning him.^[7] However, despite being powerless^[13] and deemed a failure^[7] the strandcast's health^[1] afforded Sidious with other potential uses for him.^[7]

Surmising that his cloned progeny having the Palpatine bloodline within him, regardless of not possessing a sensitive connection to the Force, might one day prove useful, Sidious permitted his genetic offspring to survive.^[7] The strandcast's health afforded the Emperor the means to continue on and preserve his bloodline, and potentially yield more favorable results in producing a vessel worthy of containing his spirit through more natural means.^[1]

Formative years[]

Shunned by the Sith[]

Because of the disappointment his "son" turned out to be, historians surmised that Sidious would have likely neglected the boy.^[13] Indeed, Sidious could not bear to look upon his powerless failure of a strandcast, disgusted with what he considered an example of such "disappointing ordinariness"^[1] and viewing the strandcast as undeserving of his family's legacy.^[7]

As a failed strandcast created from the genetic template of his Darth Sidious, Dathan was also shunned by the Emperor's Sith Eternal acolytes, who refused to give him a name and instead called him the "Abomination." The only reason the cloners on Exegol did not "recycle" him was because Sidious offered the strandcast a modicum of protection, believing there might still be some usage to the failed clone. However one of the Exegol slaves acknowledged him; he was raised by the slave administrator Dathan, a Symeong slave who enjoyed a limited degree of autonomy. Dathan showed him how to find food and survive on the barren world of Exegol. He also educated the boy by hooking him up to teaching machines.^[4]

Escape from Exegol[]

Around 3 ABY,^[14] the boy witnessed the arrival of Ochi of Bestoon and his father's apprentice Darth Vader, watching from the shadows as they entered the Sith Citadel. After wandering some more and pondering what the meaning of his life was, as if possibly by the design of his father, the clone decided to leave Exegol and seek help from Dathan to leave the planet,^[4] finally rejecting a life of darkness^[10] and the ways of the Sith.^[7] Dathan arranged for him to be smuggled offworld on the visiting starship that had carried Vader and Ochi. Before leaving, Dathan gifted the boy with an amulet, with a Sith Eternal crest on the end, that would render him "invisible" during the journey. Vader and Ochi's ship then traveled to the space station Koke Frost. After arriving, the boy finds work with a sun-scooper's engineering team.^[4] As such, he gave up his identity^[5] and took on the name "Dathan" after the Symeong who had helped him and been his only friend.^[4]

Having grown to desire the life of an ordinary man^[1] by the time he matured,^[7] he was also errant to his cruel "father," finally rejecting him as the man had rejected him as his "son." Despite that mutual rejection, Sidious nevertheless viewed this as an unforgivable betrayal to himself, and that once his son had fulfilled his purpose and was found, he would be punished accordingly.^[7]

Darth Sidious' reign ended with his death at the betrayal of his apprentice Darth Vader during the Battle of Endor^[7] in 4 ABY.^[15] Dathan became aware of his father's fate, but like the rest of the Galaxy would be unaware of his father's spiritual resurrection^[4] in a clone body of his original on Exegol^[7] for several years to come.^[4]

Father of Rey[]

In addition to rejecting Sidious,^[7] Dathan married a woman named Miramir, whom he fell in love with.^[4] Together, they conceived a child, their daughter Rey, who was born^[1] in 15 ABY.^[17] Although he renounced the Sith Eternal and his donor,^[7] the Palpatine bloodline would prosper through him,^[13] just as Sidious predicted.^[7]

While Sidious had not anticipated Dathan's relationship with Miramir, he nonetheless saw it as an opportunity because his granddaughter, unlike his clone, inherited his connection to the Force. Rey was therefore deemed the perfect vessel for her grandfather's essence.^[1] Dathan eventually settled with his family on Jakku, a backwater world where Rey's parents struggled to survive as junk traders^[1] and moisture farmers.^[4]

Despite his efforts to stay hidden from his father's agents,^[1] they eventually tracked the clone and his family to Jakku. Following the Sith assassin Ochi's hunt for them, Dathan and his wife stole Ochi's starship, the Bestoon Legacy, to return to Jakku;^[4] the threat of discovery compelled Rey's parents to leave her with Unkar Plutt. As reluctant as they were to leave Rey behind, they did so to protect her from Sidious.^[1] As they bid their goodbyes, Dathan also noticed as Miramir took a necklace of Aki-Aki beads from Plutt, which she stated would be their insurance.^[4]

Capture and death[]

As they departed Jakku, Dathan and Miramir were captured by Ochi, who had tracked them aboard a Corporate Sector Authority ship due to a homing beacon implanted on the Bestoon Legacy by High Colonel Enric Pryde. With Ochi reclaiming the Bestoon Legacy,^[4] he held them prisoner. The alien demanded to know the whereabouts of his master's granddaughter, but neither of them would cooperate.^[6] The clone remained silent^[5] while his wife lied to Ochi, claiming that Rey was nowhere on Jakku. Ochi knew that they had tried to deceive him, an action he considered intolerable.^[6]

Failing to coerce information from either captive, Ochi killed both of Rey's parents. The clone was the first to die as Ochi impaled him in the stomach with his knife. Miramir, who watched her husband die in front of her, was then impaled to death, also on Sidious' order.^[1] Their bodies were subsequently disposed of; Ochi stuffed their bodies in a crate and sent it drifting in space. The crate was soon found by Lando Calrissian and R2-D2, who recovered their bodies and took them to the frozen world of Neftali, where they buried them together with the help of Luke Skywalker and Komat. However, Miramir's misdirection with the Aki-Aki beads worked, as it tricked Ochi into traveling to the dangerous world of Pasaana instead of heading to Jakku.^[4]

Legacy[]

The name of Rey's father was forgotten; both Dathan and Miramir became little more than fragments of memory to the daughter that they left on Jakku. There was no record that Sidious' cloned son inherited his father's power in the Force, leading historians to surmise that the strandcast was a source of much disappointment to the Sith Lord who created him.^[13]

In his book, The Secrets of the Sith, Darth Sidious remembered Dathan as his errant clone whom he rejected for not possessing any sensitivity to the Force, who rejected him as his "father" and the ways of the Sith Order, and who betrayed him for taking his granddaughter away into hiding with his mate, temporarily robbing him of the chance to ensure that his legacy as a Sith Lord arose once again.^[7]

Rey remained on Jakku for years, learning to support herself as a scavenger while unaware of her dormant Force powers or her relation to Emperor Palpatine. During this time in her life, she had all but forgotten the parents who left her when she was a child,^[18] having subconsciously suppressed the memories of her childhood.^[16] Despite this, she was hopeful that her father and mother would eventually return to her, giving her a reason to stay on her homeworld instead of exploring the wider galaxy.^[18] Yet a lifetime of isolation also left Rey struggling with feelings of solitude and abandonment, which contributed to the emotional bond she would form with Ren during the First Order-Resistance War.^[19]

Ren, having seen who Rey's parents were and how they lived through the Force-bond that he shared with their daughter, urged Rey to admit the truth about her parents. When Rey confessed that her father and mother were no one significant, Ren elaborated, revealing that they were junk traders who bartered their daughter away in exchange for money.^[19] Ren had learned the identities of Rey's parents through a Force vision, and told Rey that her father was an insignificant junk trader^[1] who sought money to feed his alcoholism.^[16] Though she later believed that Ren had only divulged this information as a means to turn her to the dark side,^[11] Rey sensed that he had not tried to deceive her,^[19] yet was still reluctant to admit that she was born to parents of no background.^[19]

Although Ren had not lied to Rey about her parents, he later realized that the vision he saw of them was incomplete. He eventually learned the full truth from Sidious while confronting the Dark Lord of the Sith on Exegol. Sidious revealed that Rey's father was his son, making Rey his biological granddaughter. The revelation of the scavenger's origins reignited Ren's desire to rule the galaxy with Rey at his side. In addition, he discovered that together they formed a rare and powerful dyad in the Force, which only further convinced him of their shared destiny.^[1]

Rey, who began training as a Jedi apprentice, was astonished to discover her biological connection to the fallen Emperor. As a Jedi, she struggled to control her anger, but the knowledge that Sidious gave the order to kill her parents fueled her desire for revenge. Yet her devotion to the Jedi Order and the light side of the Force helped to restrain her from giving into the impulse to kill in anger. It was also the memory of her father and mother that prevented Rey from turning to the dark side; whereas Sidious believed this made her as weak as her parents, she considered them to be strong for protecting her. During the Battle of Exegol, their daughter vanquished the reborn Emperor with the aid of the spirits of past Jedi.^[1]

Personality and traits[]

Dathan was genetically a human male;^[5] a hybrid strandcast that was the produced^[4] as the offshoot of the Darth Sidious' follower's cloning experiments with donated blood cells and other tissue samples.^[12] Though a modified specimen created from the Sith Lord's genetic template through the Strand-Casting method,^[7] Dathan was not a direct clone replicate of his donor,^[4] therefore not quite identical in appearance to Sidious either.^[1] The son of the Emperor^[5] had short, dark hair,^[4] blue eyes,^[6] and light skin.^[5] He was young when he became a father, and had a scruffy red beard by the time he lived on Jakku.^[6]

Though he was cloned from the Sith Lord^[1] who masterminded the fall of the Galactic Republic and ruled the Galactic Empire through fear,^[20] the strandcast sought to live as an ordinary man with his family;^[1] he rejected his father and the ways of the Sith,^[7] and pursued a life apart from darkness.^[10] Having inherited neither his progenitor's power nor his character, he was regarded by Sidious as a powerless and useless disappointment. Despite the harsh conditions of Jakku, he took on the difficult life of surviving in a desert environment in order to keep Rey hidden from her grandfather.^[1] Dathan was haunted by his past, and revisited his time on Exegol in his nightmares, truly not looking back on his time on his homeworld very fondly. He also loved his wife very deeply, and fondly remembered his time with her on her own homeworld.^[4] Like his wife, he was saddened by their decision as parents to sell their daughter. Before leaving Rey with Unkar Plutt, Rey's father promised that she would be safe on Jakku.^[6]

During his time of Exegol, Dathan knew fear, but not of his father, the dark side of the Force, or the cultists, but instead of himself; he often pondered the meaning behind the protection his father granted him and what he was meant to do with his life, fearing what he could become, if he were to lead the Sith cultists in their quest to find the secrets of the planet, or become evil and cruel like Sidious.^[4] Regardless of not being like his father in terms of character^[7] or power in the Force,^[1] he was known to have a "glib tone and a charming smile,"^[4] traits that he shared with Sidious, his progenitor, who was known to be a charmer and a manipulator.^[21][22]

Skills and abilities[]

Despite being created from the base genetic template of Darth Sidious,^[13] one of the most powerful Sith Lords to have ever lived,^[7] the Emperor's son was an ordinary man^[1] who had no ability to harness the powers of the Force.^[13] However, as Dathan was part of the Palpatine bloodline^[7] and in excellent health,^[1] he was able to sire a Force-sensitive child^[23] with strength in the mystical energy comparable to the Emperor.^[7]

Dathan was physically strong enough to survive the harsh conditions of the desert planet Jakku,^[6] and was skilled enough with^[1] his wife Miramir^[4] to keep himself and their child hidden from Sidious^[5] for years until being found by Ochi of Bestoon.^[1]

Behind the scenes[]

Dathan was first mentioned, albeit indirectly, in the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, the first installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.^[18] He first appeared in a flashback sequence of the 2019 film Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker, where he was portrayed by Billy Howle.^[5]

In Star Wars Legends, Emperor Palpatine also had experimented with cloning himself, to which he intended to transfer his spirit.^[25] In another work, he also had a son^[26] named Triclops, who first appeared in the 1993 book Mission from Mount Yoda, the fourth installment of the young-readers Jedi Prince series written by Paul and Hollace Davids.^[27] Similarly to Dathan, Triclops also conceived a child with a woman, and that child became an apprentice of Luke Skywalker as well.^[28]

Adam Christopher, the author of the book Shadow of the Sith, named the character after a childhood friend named Dathan. The author wanted a name that sounded earthly, like Luke and Ben, but not too common.^[24] According to the author, "Dathan" rhymes with "Nathan."^[29]

Appearances[]

Non-canon appearances[]

• LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Appears in cutscene(s))

Sources[]

This in-universe list is incomplete. You can help Wookieepedia by expanding it.

• Star Wars Character Encyclopedia: Updated and Expanded (Indirect mention only)
• Star Wars Helmet Collection 47 (Databank A-Z: Max Rebo–Sabacc) (Indirect mention only)
• Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary (Indirect mention only)
• "The Final Order and the Battle of Exegol" — Star Wars Encyclopedia (Indirect mention only)
• Skywalker: A Family at War
• Star Wars: The Secrets of the Sith
• "A Certain Point of View" — Star Wars Insider 206
• NYCC 2022: Rise of the Red Blade Inquisitor Novel Revealed, and More Highlights from the Lucasfilm Publishing Panel on StarWars.com (backup link)
• Star Wars: Best of 2022 on StarWars.com (backup link)
• "Launchpad" — Star Wars Insider 217 (Indirect mention only)
• "It's About Time: The Inside Story of Star Wars: Timelines" — Star Wars Insider 217
• Star Wars 100 Objects
• Star Wars: Timelines
• Ochi of Bestoon in the Databank (backup link) (Picture only)

Notes and references[]