Featured image: The Sith Eternal Star Destroyer fleet above Exegol. One ship from this fleet later destroys Kijimi; this is NOT the shot striking Kijimi. Lucasfilm source →
Final Order display
planetary destruction
collective punishment and terror
- Year
- 35 ABY
- Continuity
- Canon
- Setting
- Kijimi system
An inhabited world selected for a demonstration
After the Resistance discovered clues to Exegol, Emperor Palpatine directed the Final Order to demonstrate the destructive power of its fleet. Kijimi was chosen because it was known to the heroes, not because its inhabitants had launched an invasion of Exegol. The world contained ancient urban settlements and people already living under First Order pressure.
The Derriphan fires
A Xyston-class Sith Star Destroyer called the Derriphan traveled from Exegol to the Kijimi system. Its axial superlaser destroyed the planet, killing most of its population. The incident proved that the Final Order's warships were equipped with planet-killing weapons resembling the destructive capacity once concentrated within the Death Stars.
A few survivors escape
Zorii Bliss and Babu Frik escaped Kijimi before its destruction and later participated in the citizens' fleet at Exegol. Their survival was exceptional rather than a sign that the destruction was incomplete or confined to an isolated outpost.
Anthropological assessment
The annihilation of a planet is an attack on living societies, not simply the loss of a location on a star chart. Kijimi's communities, built environment, religious remains and informal trading organizations were destroyed together. Its residents' varied relationships to the Resistance did not justify collective punishment.
Interactive evidence lab
Was the destruction of Kijimi carried out by the original Death Star?
No. A Sith Star Destroyer of Palpatine's Final Order fired the destructive superlaser.
Compare the source event, the institutions involved, and the anthropological interpretation.
A planetary demonstration of Final Order violence
Kijimi becomes the target of a Final Order Xyston-class Star Destroyer's planet-killing superlaser. The weapon demonstrates that the Sith Eternal fleet carries destructive power across multiple capital ships rather than relying on one Death Star. Residents and settlements are destroyed on a world the heroes had recently visited.
The attack is intended to terrorize resistance movements and demonstrate capacity to punish entire populations. Destroying a planet should not be interpreted as evidence that every resident supported the resistance or that the victims had control over Palpatine's military decisions. Kijimi's destruction is a discrete event before the climactic confrontation at Exegol.
Source and date boundary: Lucasfilm's official Episode IX account. The year 35 ABY is the chronology label; the precise day and any postwar settlement are not asserted where unstated. Anthropological interpretations are editorial analysis.
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Canon · original evidence analysis
The destruction of Kijimi
Kijimi's destruction in The Rise of Skywalker demonstrates the weaponry assembled by Palpatine's Sith Eternal. A Xyston-class Sith Star Destroyer could destroy a world with its superlaser, and the film depicts a ship attacking Kijimi to display that threat. It is not accurate to describe the image of the entire Exegol fleet as a photographic record of the moment the beam struck Kijimi.
Kijimi's settlements had been home to residents, guilds, families and criminal organizations that negotiated life under a First Order occupation. The planetary attack therefore destroyed more than an identifiable target on a military chart. Some people, including named characters who departed, survived elsewhere, but a reference summary does not provide a verified complete offworld refugee census. This event should be separated from the later Battle of Exegol, even though the same hidden fleet and political campaign connect them.
Check your interpretation: Was the planet destroyed by a weapon launched from the ground on Kijimi itself?
Explanation: No. A Sith Eternal Star Destroyer mounted with a planet-killing superlaser launched the attack.
Compare a related history → · Skywalker and sequel-era research guide →
Source reference: The destruction of Kijimi — official Lucasfilm or publisher source. Individual motive, source perspective, exact dating and offscreen outcomes are discussed as interpretations, not quoted eyewitness evidence.
Canon · 35 ABY · Source analysis
The destruction of Kijimi is a demonstration of coercive reach
Palpatine's armada is not merely a larger version of the First Order navy. Lucasfilm identifies Xyston-class Sith Star Destroyers as ships capable of destroying planets using belly-mounted superlasers. Kijimi becomes the target of an attack intended to establish the credibility of the Final Order's threats beyond Exegol. The published reference material identifies the attacking vessel as the Derriphan. The film's central verifiable outcome is the destruction of the inhabited planet, not a precise audited census of the dead.
The target had already endured First Order occupation and contained people with different interests, including tradespeople, residents and spice runners. Those distinctions do not protect it from the incoming weapon. The account should not imply that every resident was a Resistance soldier or that Kijimi's destruction was a battlefield defeat of an organized planetary fleet. Zorii Bliss and Babu Frik survive and later appear with the citizens' fleet, but their survival is not evidence that the planet itself escaped destruction. The film establishes a deliberate choice to destroy a world known to the Resistance.
IDS interprets the assault as collective punishment and the use of spectacular force to demand submission from other societies. This is analysis, not a numerical claim about the affected population. The earlier droid workshop records people and institutions the planet supported. The final fleet battle is the later attempt to stop similar weapons from leaving the hidden Sith world.
Lucasfilm reference: Lucasfilm Databank: Sith Star Destroyer. Narrative events are from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Official Databank pages provide corroborating context; interpretive arguments are original IDS analysis. Publication year is not the 35 ABY story date.
Sources and method
The Rise of Skywalker; StarWars.com film story gallery and Kijimi Databank. Kijimi · complete planetary dossier → Read original or official story background →. Film events and interpretive commentary are distinguished in separate sections.