The Rise of Skywalker Spoiler Review/ The State of Star Wars

*DISCLAIMER*: This article is an opinion piece by one writer. It is in no way, shape or form a definitive guide to Star Wars Saga, the people involved in its making or it’s fan base as a whole. It is strictly the ‘certain point of view’ of one writer. Take it as you will.

*DISCLAIMER #2*: Spoilers ahead. 

                Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker is meant to be the culmination of a 42-year space opera that dates its inception back to the year 1977. The series creator, George Lucas, always envisioned his movies as a family drama whose impact echoes through the generations and across the stars. Not only has this come to pass in the three trilogies that make up the Skywalker Saga, but life has echoed art in that the movies have been passed down and impacted generations of fans around the world.

Marketed as “the end of the Skywalker Saga,” this film was bound to be divisive from the start. Coming off the heels of the previous installment, The Last Jedi, the first viewing of The Rise of Skywalker can be jarring in its pacing, story, and overall linear execution. This is a far cry, or as some would say a return to form, from the themes, ideas and execution of The Last Jedi. For the critics the movie played as a simple paint by numbers affair that attempted to undo what has been perceived as the many mistakes that The Last Jedi introduced into the franchise. In contrast many fans see The Rise of Skywalker as the most Star Warsesque movie of the Sequel Trilogy, maybe even the entire franchise.

My own opinion of The Rise of Skywalker began from the initial release of the first teaser trailer back in April of 2019. With the first note of Palpatine’s iconic cackle at the end of the trailer, I knew that this movie was in trouble. I instantly felt that the movie would be straightforward and predictable from start to finish. This was the least excited I have ever been for any new Star Wars content, but I went into the movie holding on to a shred of hope that I was entirely wrong. Upon seeing the film twice in its entirety my fears would be confirmed to a degree, but also subverted in a few pleasant ways. I left the theatre feeling conflicted, much the same way Anakin Skywalker was conflicted throughout the course of Episode III by his role and the philosophies of the Jedi and the need to save his wife from the death he foresaw for her.  It felt like this movie had put the Star Wars Saga on life support and confined something that was once great into a dark and uncomfortable cage that still looks good on the outside but is at war internally and would take something extreme to break itself out of. Once again, my feelings parallel those of Anakin Skywalker as he transforms and is caged by the character and suit of Darth Vader. I enjoyed The Rise of Skywalker for the fact that it was a Star Wars movie that mixed together some basic elements with familiar themes and tropes. Other than that, the movie was a predictable and massive disappointment to me.

What follows is my detailed analysis of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. I will also touch on the various elements of storytelling, the movie The Last Jedi, the Star Wars Saga as a whole, the Expanded Universe (now known as Legends), the state of the fandom as it is currently, and the vision for the future of Star Wars going forward.  This analysis will be spoiler heavy and is not intended for individuals who have yet to see the movie. If you have not watched The Rise of Skywalker, please feel free to read this article after you have had a chance to view the movie.  One final reminder that this is an opinion piece. It is not made to attack other viewpoints or other fan opinions or perceptions. It is intended to analyze the film and spark a healthy debate among fans currently and going forward.

What I Liked About the Rise of Skywalker

                The easiest, and shortest, way to dive into this analysis of The Rise of Skywalker is with what I genuinely liked about the movie. I will list them out in bullet form to make it easier to read and explain. 

• The movie was Sith centric

o   We learn more about the state of the Sith in the galaxy.

o   We see a Sith cult in live action for the first time. This is a good carry over choice from Legends into Canon.

o   Sith Sorcery is implied to play a part in the resurrection of Palpatine when he quotes his line from Episode 3 (“The dark side is a pathway to many abilities some would consider to be unnatural”) and we see his scarred and unnatural face post Return of the Jedi for the first time.

o   We find out Palpatine has been manipulating Kylo Ren since he was a boy. The voices of Snoke and Vader appear briefly to illustrate this point. This answers the question as to why Darth Vader’s helmet won’t show Kylo the power of the dark side as it once did when he touched it and raises a whole bunch of new questions and reignites the curiosity of exactly who or what is Snoke?

•          We travel to familiar locations but with new elements added to their topography.

o   Mustafar 

o   Endor

•       The canonization of ancient Sith Lords from Legends material courtesy of the Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary.

o   The Red Sith (Stormtroopers) seen in the climactic battle of the film are organized into legions named influential Sith Lords from the hidden history of the Sith.

o   The 3^rd legion is named after Darth Revan, a fan favourite from Legends continuity, and my personal favourite Sith.

o   The 5^th legion is named after Darth Andeddu, in Legends canon, Andeddu was known as the immortal god king. He was the first Sith to discover the ability of Essence Transfer – a dark side ability that allowed the user to transfer their consciousness into the body of another being and take over as the dominant personality therefore effectively creating a form of immortality. 

o   The 26^th Legion is named after Darth Tenebrous. Tenebrous was the Sith master to Darth Plagueis, who in turn was the Sith master of Darth Sidious/Palpatine.

o   The 39^th Legion is named after Darth Phobos. Phobos was female Sith Lord from the Legends canon that established her own Sith cult to strike at both the Sith and Jedi after an attempt on her life during a bid for power among the Sith of old.

o   The 44^th Legion is named after Darth Desolous. Desolous was a Jedi Master that studied the teaching of the Sith to better understand his enemy. In doing so he fell to the dark side and was expelled from the Jedi Order. He took up the Darth mantle and trained his own army to seek revenge on the Jedi. Prior to his death he had managed to kill some 2000 Jedi alone.

•      Some decent character interactions and story arcs were a joy to see.

o   The bickering between Rey, Poe, and Finn. This felt true to life and connected us with the characters on a more human level. All three are amazing actors, but props goes to Daisy Ridley. She goes above and beyond in this movie.

o   Princess/General Leia – Carrie Fisher’s character was bittersweet in every interaction. She felt like she really belonged in the movie.  Her central role in the redemption of Ben Solo felt organic and necessary to that story arc.

o   Han Solo – Harrison Ford reprising his role as Han Solo for the redemption of Ben Solo was a genuine surprise. I quite enjoyed the contrast him and Adam Driver had in their scene together versus the one they had in The Force Awakens.

o   C-3P0 – Finally they gave Anthony Daniel’s character a story arc that isn’t reliant on comic relief! This felt immensely satisfying and heartfelt. I only have one small problem with this scene and that is that they had a backup of C-3P0’s memory. They should have permanently wiped it. His sacrifice would have more impact that way.

o   Kylo Ren – Ben Solo’s redemption arc felt like the most established story line and had the most groundwork laid down for its culmination in the entire sequel trilogy. Adam Driver is a powerhouse actor. 

o   Zora Bliss and Babu Frik are a delight and offer some good interactions with Poe and the new trilogy core trio. Props to Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films) for making Babu so adorable through the use of just her voice.

o   Lando Calrissian and Wedge were a pleasure to see again. Billy Dee Williams is as charming as ever.

o   Finn’s implied revelation (later confirmed by Abrams via post-release interview) that Finn is force sensitive. This is a nice tie back to the EU/Legends where Kyle Katarn was also a force sensitive former storm trooper who later went on to become a Jedi.

o   Rey actually doing some Jedi training was a pleasure to see. 

o   A younger Luke and Leia training with lightsabers was a nerdgasm and a half. I wish that scene ran a little longer.

o   Rey’s mastery of force persuasion was humorous. The stormtroopers really stole that scene.

o   Great cameo by John Williams in the bar scene. Thanks for the music maestro.

What I Hated About the Rise of Skywalker

Pacing, Playing the Game and Plot Coupons

     My first few issues with Episode IX stem from the movie’s choppy pacing, shallow plot, and heavy reliance on the use of multiple McGuffins, otherwise known as plot coupons.  For those who are unaware a McGuffin is an object or device, often physical, used to advance the plot forward and motivate the characters into advancing the plot. It is also often something insignificant or unimportant in itself. To be fair, George Lucas himself has relied on the use of McGuffins in his films, but he emphasizes that a McGuffin should be “and object or character that the audience truly cares about.” The original Star Wars trilogy and the prequel trilogy used R2D2 as the overall McGuffin to tie the overall story together. He is the one character present in every single film during pivotal moments in the Skywalker Saga. Lucas has always stated that the Star Wars stories, from Episode 1-6, could be viewed as R2D2 retelling a story that happened a long time ago…in a galaxy far, far away (those opening lines hit different when viewed in that context).

The number of McGuffins in Rise of Skywalker is ludicrous. With the use of the Sith way finders (those little pyramid structures that echo the design of Sith Holocrons), the Sith dagger, Leia's lightsaber, the Jedi texts, Ochi's ship, the First Order Captain's medallion and Luke's X-wing acting as a tracking beacon, the movie felt too convenient and linear. None of these McGuffins follow what Lucas believes a McGuffin should be, an object or character that the audience truly cares about.

This heavy-handed use of plot coupons results in a series of video game like fetch quests playing out on the screen. The plot of the movie is entirely reliant on this element. In video game design a “fetch quest” would be given to the main character by a “quest giver.” The goal is usually to obtain an item to help the player along throughout the story.  Fetch quests are often used as fillers in video games to lengthen the time a player spends playing a game and gives the player a sense of false value in the item that they are seeking out.  In my opinion, the use of the Sith way finders would have been enough. The quest to find the second Sith way finder was cool, but ultimately pointless and should have been scrapped as a plot device. It just ended up feeling like filler that the movie didn't need. As Kylo had already found one way-finder it would have made more sense for the main cast to work on his redemption arc more directly and eventually have Kylo show them the way to Palpatine. Another issue that I have with this is that the Final Order fleet, the Star Destroyers we see in the climactic battle, are all crewed by people who already knew the location of Palpatine's planet. There is no way that many people could keep the secret of the reborn Emperor for that long. Someone would slip up somewhere on a supply run or by being accidentally captured by allies of the Resistance. The line of thought effectively diminishes the role of the Sith way finders as plot device.

The overall reliance of the fetch quest trope and the shallow plotting of the movie that allowed the characters to find Palpatine hurt the Rise of Skywalker throughout the entire movie. To me it just feels like lazy writing and lack of focus on the Sequel Trilogy as one contained story.  The lack of unified vision for the entire Sequel Trilogy really stands out in this movie. More on that topic later.

Crappy Dialogue

From its inception, Star Wars has always had a problem with crappy dialogue. The Prequel Trilogy itself is riddled with cheesy character interactions and one liners. In comparison to the Sequel Trilogy, particularly the Rise of Skywalker, those cheesy moments from the prequels now seem humorous and endearing.  I feel like this will be the same case for the new generation of Star Wars fans as future movies come out. They will compare those movie’s dialogue to the first Star Wars movies that they saw and find that what came before is better than what is currently being presented. This will probably always be the case with Star Wars and at best is just a minor issue in a series of problems that plagued the Rise of Skywalker.

Production Problems/ The Dramatic Pause/ A Poor Closer and a Lack of Unified Vision

The Rise of Skywalker has been plagued with production problems from the get go.  The movie went through a series of rewrites prior to the start of filming and even during post-production. While this is a normal practice for any good film or book, it was ultimately the deciding factor that led to the shaky plot, choppy dialogue, and overall failure of this film as an end cap to a 42-year saga.

Pre-production on the Rise of Skywalker began back in 2014 with the announcement that Rian Johnson, the writer and director of The Last Jedi, would write a story treatment for Episode IX. Following the massive negative fan backlash for The Last Jedi, Johnson's treatment was quickly scrapped to appease the fan base and the first rewrite of the movie began in earnest.

In August of 2015 Collin Trevorrow, whose previous production credits include both Jurassic World and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, was brought in to rewrite the script, alongside his long-time collaborator Derek Connolly, and direct what was to become The Rise of Skywalker.  By August of 2017, Trevorrow was ousted as both writer and director of the film due to “creative differences.” In that same month it was announced that Jack Thorne, an English screenwriter and playwright, had been brought in to rewrite the script for a second time.

Just one month later, in September 2017, Disney announced that J.J. Abrams, the writer and director of Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, was brought in to rewrite the script again and to direct the final movie of the Skywalker Saga. J.J. partnered with his own long-time collaborator Chris Terrio*.  That is a total of 6 different writers for one film.

In regards to J.J. Abrams, the man was put in a tough spot. He was brought on late into the production process and had to work quickly to finish this movie prior to its release date, which had already been changed from May of 2019 to December 2019. Big props to him for taking on such a monumental task and producing what he was able to. That being said, Abrams, in an interview with The New York Times, states that “I've never been great at endings. I don't actually think I am good at anything, but I know how to begin a story. Ending a story is tough.”  This is a statement that I can believe and the proof is in the contrast between The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker.  The Force Awakens, while being beat for beat a rehash of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, sets up the Sequel Trilogy on a semi-nostalgic, but effective, if not magical, footing.  There was hope and optimism after the release of Episode VII.  Episode IX, in contrast, was a shit show. The choppy plotting, the overuse of the dramatic pause prior to a character saying a one liner that lead directly into some sort of action sequence, and the shitty dialogue permeates the fabric of the film.

The entire Sequel trilogy, as a whole, suffers from the same mistakes that Episode IX did: a lack of unified direction, writing, and the consistency that comes with one person guiding a trilogy of films from start to finish.  The blame and responsibility for this fall squarely on both the head of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, and Disney CEO, Bob Iger**. In contrast, George Lucas' Original and Prequel Trilogies are elevated, in my eyes, from the singular direction and vision of George Lucas as the helm of both projects.  Many online articles state that Lucas himself was brought in to consult heavily on the production of the Rise of Skywalker by the time that Abrams took over the writing and direction of the movie.  Many of Lucas' original ideas of Star Wars Episode VII, which were wholly scrapped in favour of what became The Force Awakens as we know it, were used to make this film.  Unfortunately, the lack of set up for many plot elements in Rise of Skywalker, that could have been done in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, stick out and are glaringly obvious and jarring. No amount of exposition and the expansion of ideas and concepts that this film introduced, with the addition of other media such as novels, comics, and video games can make up for this lack of oversight and direction for this movie and the entire Sequel Trilogy.

*[Update: Since the time that this article was written, Chris Terrio has gone on record with publications such as The Wrap, The Hollywood Reporter, and Indie Wire with a series of interviews explaining the plot elements, the struggles, and the creation of the Rise of Skywalker. The fact that a writer has to come out and explain the finer points of the movie after its release, instead of relying on the audience to discern it or other Star Wars media to fill in the gaps, reinforces the lack of unified direction that this movie and trilogy has had to deal with. Chris Terrio seems like a passionate fan of the franchise, but I believe he shouldn't have to go to the lengths he is currently going to as to paint this movie into anything other than the mess it is.]

**[Update: Bob Iger has gone on record to say that future Star Wars movies will be moving away from the trilogy format as Disney and Lucasfilm feel it is too constrained to tell a proper story. While I don't personally hate this, I disagree with the reasoning. Lucas was able to make two complete and engaging Star Wars trilogies while the oversight of one man, himself. The trilogy format absolutely works if there is a clear plan from the onset. The singular movie format works as well, as was the case with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but again, only if there is a single vision controlling the direction of the movie from start to finish.]

Fixing the “Mistakes” of The Last Jedi/ The Toxic Fandom

                It is impossible to critique the Rise of Skywalker without first dealing with the backlash that emerged from its predecessor, The Last Jedi. Star Wars Episode VIII is easily the most divisive movie of the Skywalker Saga. The film, while almost universally praised by critics, was reviled by a majority of the hardcore Star Wars fan base.  For the record, I will state right now that though that The Last Jedi is hardly a perfect film, I am a fan of the movie for the direction it took story wise, its visuals and the risks it took in giving the Star Wars franchise new life and grounds to walk on for future movies that keep them fresh and subverting expectations.

The negativity surrounding The Last Jedi stems from many things that long time fans feel are not indicative of what Star Wars is. To that notion, I say what Star Wars means to each individual fan is entirely subjective and will always be a point of contention and debate in the Star Wars community. There is also nothing wrong with debate and theorizing. It is actually one of the things that makes the movie and other media materials so enjoyable, at least up until the release of The Last Jedi.

For one group of fans The Last Jedi is a rejection of the Star Wars stories and elements that proceeded its release. People want to see the hero's journey replayed over and over for a new generation through the force sensitive scavenger Rey.  The people want their devilish rogues with hearts of gold.  This manifests in the character of Poe Dameron and to a lesser extent, Finn. They want their cute but quirky comic relief that came in the form of BB-8 and the portly little chickens called Porgs. The people want to see familiar faces like that of Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, and even force ghost Yoda. They want to see the underdog take on an evil empire and their big bad weapon of mass destruction; enter the planet sized Star Killer base, the First Order Dreadnought, and the miniature Death Star Canon. Do they really want an evil empire in the story again? You bet. Here, have some Supreme Leader Snoke and the First Order to wet your appetite. How about an evil enforcer wearing a sinister mask that has a strong familial connection to some of the major original and prequel trilogy characters? Presenting Kylo Ren/ Ben Solo for your viewing pleasure. Wanting these things aren't bad. Hell, it's why most of us fell in love with Star Wars in the first place. We want things we can identify with, those things that help us recapture the feelings we had when we originally saw our first Star Wars movie.

For some of the new generation of fans, along with some of the old, the approach that Rian Johnson took in The Last Jedi made Star Wars intriguing and relevant/ ground breaking again.  The movie's plot, colour pallet, character arcs, and expansion of Star Wars lore, the movie strove to not return or rely on the same beats and concepts that have played out movie after movie for the most part. From the moment a disillusioned Luke Skywalker throws the Skywalker family lightsaber over his shoulder, some of us knew that this Star Wars movie was different.  True to its promotional material, the movie did not go or end the way we thought it would. Our hero, Luke Skywalker, became a cynical old man but also attempted to introduce a true to life concept of balance of the light and dark to the Force and to Rey as he reluctantly teaches her what he has learned. He believes, in essence, that the Jedi Order is responsible for a lot of the tragedy of the galaxy and it must end (I'll cover this topic more in depth later). Throughout his role as teacher in the film, Luke continues to struggle with his nephew's seduction and transformation into the dark side warrior Kylo Ren. Luke's defining moment in the movie, and in my opinion the moment where he truly became a Jedi Master, came when he was able to push past his struggles, let go of his self-imposed responsibility to end the Jedi, and rejoined the fight against evil as he force projected himself across light years and planets to confront his nephew and his minions on the plains of Crait.  Luke's actions here gave our hero's the time they needed to escape the corner they were trapped in. These actions ultimately claimed Luke's life through the massive amount of energy he expended in preforming his force projection. The force projection itself led to an amazing duel that was conducted in the truest detention of what a Jedi is. Drawing on the Prequels and A New Hope's definition of the Jedi Knights we can see here that the Jedi “were guardians of peace and justice for a thousand generations.” Not a single blow was landed on or by Luke. Luke kept the peace by doing no harm to his enemies. He guarded justice by allowing the remaining hope of the galaxy to escape and regroup.

As for the “I am your father moment” in the Sequel Trilogy, that was given to us in The Last Jedi, but not in the way most fans expected.  First off, the supreme and powerful in the force character of Snoke gets cut in half by his apprentice in a giant WTF moment. Then we are told that Rey, who up to this point has been subjected to many fan theories of what powerful lineage do her overpowered force abilities come from, is told that her parents are essentially nobodies. They were just common junkies looking for their next high. They were neglectful parents too by stranding a child on Jakku in exchange for some credits to buy their next hit of spice. Talk about subverting expectations. So, Rey isn't a Skywalker, a Palpatine (at this time unconfirmed), a Kenobi, or even a Ginn? Is she really someone new? In this movie Rey represents the idea that you don't have to be someone special or have a special family line in order to do great things and be powerful in your own right.

Enter the ugly side of the Star Wars fandom. This little section reared its ugly head in response to the later view of The Last Jedi. Hate and venom was spewed at Rian Johnson and Lucasfilm for shitting on the fans, the franchise, and the charters and tropes that had come in previous Star Wars films. Everyone's theories on Rey's parentage and who exactly is Supreme Leader Snoke were tossed out the window. They called this the worst Star Wars movie ever made (like people just forgot the Holiday Special still exists). The fans were loud and boisterous. This ultimately led to Rian being removed from consultation on The Rise of Skywalker and rumours about the trilogy Lucasfilm had offered him being cancelled started to run wild.  This toxic behaviour bled down to affect the cast as well. Kelly Marie Tran, a bright eyed and charming newcomer to the Star Wars universe, was subjected to months of online abuse that caused her to shut down all her social media accounts and seek therapy. Fans were attacking and blaming an actress for a part and plot that was just the product of poor writing*.  The army of nerds became divided. A dark stain emerged and laid itself to rest over the franchise and its fan base.

*[Side Note: The Rise of Skywalker relegated Tran's character, Rose Tico, to just 76 seconds of screen time in the entire movie. The movie's official run time is 2 hours and 26 minutes. While Chris Terrio has recently stated that this was the result of needing someone to fill in the scenes with Leia at the Resistance base in order to make them feel more authentic, and that most of those scenes got left on the cutting room floor, I still call bullshit. That just seems like some Disney damage control post-production. Her relegation to a super secondary character in the Rise of Skywalker almost comes across as racist at the least, and at worst, it shows that Disney and Lucasfilm desire and ease of bowing down to toxic fan demands and abandoning support for one of their actors.]

Episode IX Retcons

                Following the train of thought presented about The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker seems like it purposely set out to fix what the fan base didn't like in the previous movie. Found below are a list of retcons that I managed to catch in Episode 9. 

• Rey was a nobody in The Last Jedi. This changed to her being a descendant of Palpatine.  Her father was introduced as being a son to Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker (Try getting the image of Palpatine doing the nasty out of your mind now. Hard right?) (Side note: mega backstory needed for this character stat.) Her father and mother chose to leave her on Jakku to protect Rey from the Sith hunter Ochi.

• Luke catches the Skywalker lightsaber and says to Rey that she should treat the weapon of a Jedi with more respect. This is a complete 180 from The Last Jedi. (I can understand this one. Luke's character arc to mastery is not complete until he receives Yoda's pep talk on failure in The Last Jedi. Luke choosing to risk his life in a fight to distract The First Order completes his road to mastery as he sacrifices himself in a feat of force strength while upholding the ideals of the order by confronting Kylo and doing no harm.)

• The Holdo Maneuver – audiences questioned if the Holdo Maneuver (the one where Admiral Holdo light-speed rams her cruiser into a flotilla of Star Destroyers in The Last Jedi) actually is possible. In the Star Wars universe it usually takes some time and computer work to calculate a lightspeed jump. The Rise of Skywalker clears this up by explaining that the move was a billion to one chance. It was a super rare event that cannot be replicated twice.

• In The Last Jedi Rose saves Finn from sacrificing himself to take out the miniature Death Star Canon attacking the base at Crait. In The Rise of Skywalker Finn is once again ready to sacrifice himself for the cause as he plans to storm the bridge of the Star Destroyer that controls the Sith Fleet in order to buy the Resistance more time during the final battle. Rose goes to stop him but he tells her to let him go and then abruptly dismisses her.

• The burgeoning romance between Finn and Rose is established in The Last Jedi. By the time of Rise of Skywalker they decided only to remain friends.

• The character of Rose is caught in a weird spot between both movies. Rian Johnson subverted the trope of the noble sacrifice and gave a secondary character real screen time and purpose in The Last Jedi. J.J. Abrams returns to the trope of the noble sacrifice and relegates the character of Rose to a super secondary character with barely over a minute of screen time in the whole movie. Rose is the casualty of two different styles of storytelling, fan backlash, and the need to appease Disney executives and shareholders. It's a damn shame especially with the mental and emotional distress the actress portraying Rose had to go through in the last year.

• The first lightsaber (Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary) – Change to the lore. I will cover this in the next section.

• Luke's magically repaired X-wing – Parts of Luke's X-wing were used to create the door on his hut on Ahch-To. How is his X-wing repaired and whole then when he force pulls it out of the water? How does a ship that has been sitting in the water for over 30 years not have any rust on it?

• Luke holding on to Leia's lightsaber – There was absolutely no setup for this. In the Last Jedi Luke has withdrawn from combat and galactic problems. He no longer even has his green lightsaber with him. He doesn't care about his family lightsaber either. Why would he offer to keep Leia's? This inadvertently gives the Jedi a way to conduct violence and continue down the path of old.

• Luke's view that the Jedi must end is changed in The Rise of Skywalker. He burdens Rey with the responsibility of continuing the Jedi Order by saying 1000 generations live in her now. Why shouldn't the Jedi Order end? I will cover this more in the next section.

• Rey and Kylo's force bond – The final scene of The Last Jedi shows Rey breaking her force bond with Kylo by choosing the Resistance as her family. We see the last shot of Rey looking down at Kylo from the boarding ramp of the Millennium Falcon before actively severing the link.  In the Rise of Skywalker we see the force bond back and stronger than before. This changes into the concept of a Force Dyad (actually a cool concept).

• Snoke was Palpatine all along. Lazy way to get rid of additional backstory to an interesting but undeveloped character.

Lore Changes

                Episode 9 brought about some lore changes that don't sit well with me. Found below are the four that bother me the most. The deeper lore of Star Wars is something that I am very passionate about, but only if the reasoning behind the lore is sound. What is found below does not sit well to me and makes me feel that Disney is retconning and adding lore at a whim without thinking through its wider implications and creation of lore conflicts.

1. The first lightsaber (Rise of Skywalker Visual Guide) – The guide states that it was a Sith Lord who was the first to discover the use of kyber crystals on the planet of Illum. Illum as we know has been home to the Jedi kyber crystals in The Clone Wars, mind extensively for death star tech, and would eventually become the First Order planet known as Starkiller Base. The visual guide states that the Sith were the first to create and perfect lightsaber technology. The problem with this is that the Sith as we currently know them are descended from the Dark Jedi that were exiled during the 100 Year Darkness (both in canon and legends). In legends, it is also stated that the first protosaber was created by the Jedi and then perfected by the Sith. The changes to the lore creates a problem as the Sith come after the creation of the Jedi. If the Jedi proceed the Sith then what sort of weaponry did they use in that time? How did the Jedi discover the planet of Illum if it was a Sith controlled world?

2. Luke claiming that the Jedi must end/ "Jake Skywalker" (these ideas are taken and shared by me from the video “How the Last Jedi Saved the Prequels” by Houstonproductions1 on YouTube. Please check out their page for more awesome videos) – In A New Hope, the original role of the Jedi is described as being, “The guardians of peace and justice for over a thousand generations”. The legends material takes this even further and establishes the Jedi as mystic philosophers or monks. To date, the Disney canon has not revealed the origin of the Jedi. If they follow the same pattern of pulling Legends material into canon, this should not change much.

◦   The idea that Luke presents in The Last Jedi that the Jedi order must end resonates with me in that the Jedi themselves can be seen as villainous, though with good intentions, and the architects of their own downfall. For their hubris, Luke believes that the order as it is traditionally known must end. 

◦   It can be seen in the original trilogy that the Jedi have never been good guys at all and have a questionable sense of morality. Obi-Wan lies to Luke about the identity of his father. He uses the explanation of “a certain point of view” to hide his lie of omission. Yoda himself also withholds the same information and pushes Luke to train to destroy Darth Vader. Both Yoda and Obi-Wan do not seem very Jedi like in this case. The desire to kill Vader also goes against the teachings that we see Yoda preach to Luke in Empire (“A Jedi uses the force for knowledge and defence, never for attack.”)

◦   Luke states that he can't kill his own father. Vader's redemption comes with Luke defying his mentors and showing his father compassion. By the end of The Return of the Jedi it is hinted at that the old ways of the Jedi don't work and need to change.

◦   The Prequel trilogy shows the Jedi at the height of their power and also their most arrogant. The very practices of the Jedi in this era call in to question their morality and the view of how good they really are. The training of Anakin Skywalker can be used as a good example.

◦   The Jedi in the prequels take a slave child away from his mother to be trained in their mystic arts. This child is told to forget about his mother and never look back on countless occasions. He is brought before the council, judged, and tested.  He is then told he is too old to begin the training as he may be set in his emotional ways, have already formed attachments, and will be less pliable to the teachings than say a force sensitive child that is a few years younger.  The boy, Anakin, only receives his training after the death of the man who discovered him and only because of his incredible potential in the force.

◦   An individual’s force strength and sensitivity is measured by the number of microscopic magic cells (midichlorians) they have in their bodies which allow them to connect to the force. The person's inherit value is determined entirely by this metric and forms a sort of hierarchy within the Jedi order from a young age. 

◦   The Jedi of the prequel era were heavily involved in politics and policed the galaxy to keep the peace. They come across as arrogant, pious, and each one has an inherent superiority complex. This depiction of the Jedi mirrors the ancient and sometimes current Catholic Church.

◦   The Jedi are supposing to be non-violent keepers of the peace. But their actions speak otherwise.  One such example is Mace Windu beheading Jango Fett in the First Battle of Geonosis in the Attack of the Clones.  Fett could have been disarmed and knocked unconscious but instead Mace chose to take his head clean off.  

◦   The Jedi's manipulation techniques, known as force persuasion, is used freely and expected to get results. This sort of arrogance is demonstrated in The Phantom Menace when Qui-Gon Jinn attempts to force persuade Watto to take his Republic credits for payment for the parts he needs.  The trick doesn't work on members of Watto's species and he calls out Jinn for thinking he can just wave his hand and get his way. This arrogance is again shown in Attack of the Clones with the scene of Obi-Wan waving away the death stick dealer and telling him to go home and rethink his life. While humorous, the fact that the Jedi can use that sort of power so causally, even with good intentions, speaks to the arrogance and superiority of the Prequel era Jedi.

◦   The hubris and arrogance of the Jedi is further demonstrated by the ease in which they allowed themselves to get dragged into the Clone Wars and the fact that they barely investigated this surprise army of clones that they just happened to have ready and waiting for them for when a war broke out. The sheer fact that they allowed themselves to be dragged into the Clone Wars speaks volumes on their desire for more direct power over the events of the galaxy. They eagerly became generals and lead armies into battle that destroyed countless worlds and civilizations.

◦   The destruction of the Jedi through Order 66 is due entirely to the Jedi believing that their power could not be challenged and their complete reliance on the force to warn them of any coming danger. For being all powerful, they could not see through or thoroughly investigate the manipulations of a senator from Naboo into becoming Supreme Chancellor of the Republic even though they had their suspicions. They trusted their clone soldiers implicitly and barely questioned the way they came into being and overall purpose. The Jedi continuously shunned and scorned their most powerful member because of his emotions. Anakin was constantly being told to let go, to train himself to not have any attachments, berated and dismissed for his feelings and dreams by both his direct master (Obi-Wan) and the Grand Master of the Order (Yoda).  Anakin is never taught to deal with his emotions and is ultimately manipulated by them and gives in to his darker impulses to save the woman he loves. This results in the revenge of the Sith order against the Jedi and almost the complete destruction of the Jedi Order and the rise of tyrannical Empire.

◦   The questionable decisions, moral fluidity, and arrogance of the Jedi is the entire point of the prequel trilogy.  The Jedi were being shown for what they have become – power hungry war mongers.   They are a far cry from the noble warrior monks/mystics that they originated as and that the games, novels, comics, and toy advertisements paint them out to be.

◦   Enter old man Luke Skywalker (or Jake Skywalker as Mark Hamill calls him-a point of view I do not share) in The Last Jedi and his explanation of why the Jedi must end.

▪   “Now that they're extinct, the Jedi are romanticized, deified...but if you strip away the myth and look at their deeds, the legacy of the Jedi is failure.  At the height of their powers they allowed Darth Sidious to rise, create the Empire, and wipe them out.  It was a Jedi Master who was responsible for the training and creation of Darth Vader.”

·         These few lines by Luke contextualizes the role of the Jedi in the prequels entirely and re-frames them as not the heroes being defeated by the Sith, but as the story of the arrogant Jedi inadvertently causing their own downfall.

·         The fact that Luke acknowledges these facts about the Jedi tie all three trilogies together neatly into one great story arc describing the fall of the Jedi through their own failures and offers many lessons and morals in the subtext of the plots and character moments.

·         Yoda, in The Last Jedi, also acknowledges his own failure as a master and leader of the Jedi Order in the Prequels. In Revenge of the Sith Yoda admits he has failed and must go into exile. In the original trilogy we see him training Luke to destroy the Sith, one of which is his father. Luke achieves this goal through his sense of compassion which redeems the chosen one, Anakin Skywalker/ Darth Vader.

▪   In The Last Jedi Yoda says to Luke: “Pass on what you have learned. Strength. Mastery. But weakness, folly, failure also (insert everything said about the Prequel Era Jedi here). Yes, failure most of all. The greatest teacher failure is.”

·         The Rise of Skywalker seems to retcon this acknowledgement of the failure by the Jedi during the final scene where Rey finally communes with all of the Jedi from the prequels and some from the original and sequel trilogy.  They ask her to bring back the balance by destroying the Sith and everything will be good again, like the issue of balance in the force is that black and white. There is no acknowledgement of failure on their part. It makes the ending of the movie the weakest part of the film in my eyes. Additionally, the concept of balance is now meant to be taken as an absence of Sith in galaxy as the dark side and its use by the Sith are considered a stain or cancer on the Force. I don’t particularly like this definition of balance in the force.  They were on to something that looked more like balance in the form of the Bendu in Star Wars: Rebels. I feel like they wasted an opportunity there and copped out on the issue of balance in the force with the way they portrayed it in The Rise of Skywalker.

3. The Sith Rule of Two – This was established in the Legends canon. The Rule of Two is an elaboration on why we ever just see a Sith Master and Sith Apprentice in the Original Trilogy (the Emperor and Vader) and the Prequels (Sidious and Maul, Sidious and Dooku, and Sidious and Vader). In Legends continuity the Rule of Two was implemented to trick the Jedi into believing that the Sith Order had been extinguished in the final battle of Ruusan, where the Brotherhood of Darkness unleashed a weapon called the Thought Bomb that trapped both Jedi and Sith souls in a stasis field for all time.

◦   Darth Bane, the only Sith survivor of the Thought Bomb, recognized that the Sith always lost to the Jedi not because the Jedi were superior in numbers or in their connection to the force, but through the greed and in fighting for power that occurred whenever a bunch of Sith gathered together into an organized army. 

◦   Bane created The Rule of Two so that the Sith could plot their revenge in the shadows and grow in power to one day take down the entire Jedi order. This plan came to its ultimate fruition with Palpatine declaring himself Emperor and Vader destroying the majority of the Jedi Order in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. 

▪   Side note: Bane got this idea for the Rule of Two after studying Darth Revan’s Holocron on the planet of Rakata Prime. So, in essence, Darth Revan created the Rule of Two. Bane just implemented it.

◦   The most basic tenant of the Rule of Two is stated as such: Only two there shall be. A master and an apprentice. One to embody the power, the other to crave it. To become a master, the apprentice must attempt to slay their master and, if successful, take on an apprentice of their own. This cycle would repeat itself over and over for 1000 years until the revenge of the Sith was complete. With each new dark lord that rose, it is believed that they were subsequently more powerful than the dark lord that came before them.

◦   The Rise of Skywalker has changed the reasoning for Bane’s implementation of the Rule of Two.  It is stated that Bane wanted the passing on of Sith power to be concentrated in two individuals, not only to protect and strengthen the Sith legacy, but to create a Force Dyad as seen in the individuals of Kylo Ren and Rey.

▪   A Force Dyad, introduced in Star Wars Episode 9, is the pairing of two Force sensitive individuals and making them one half of a whole in the Force. Pysically, they are two separate individuals. In the force, they are one.  The power of the dyad is considered to be as strong as life itself and the individuals who share the dyad have the ability to connect with one another across space and time. In combat, the dyad’s abilities mirror one another and allow them to fight in perfect unison and amplify each others power.

▪   Prior to Rey and Kylo, there had not been a Force Dyad for generations. Kylo and Rey make up a dyad of both light and dark side. It is possible to make up a dyad of two light side users and also two dark side users.

▪   Bane’s ultimate goal was to create the Force Dyad between two Sith Lords as stated in The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary. They believed that this would give them a greater advantage in their plot to take over the galaxy and gain revenge against the Jedi. The Force Dyad would be considered the ultimate goal of the Sith Rule of Two and contingency plans to be worked on until the creation of a Sith Dyad came to pass.

▪   While I am not a huge fan of this addition to the lore, I may grow to like it as we are introduced to other Force Dyad individuals in Star Wars canon lore.

4. Balance in the Force/ The Chosen One Prophecy – The Jedi prophecy of a Chosen One is an ancient legend that foretold the coming of a powerful Force – sensitive being who would restore balance to the force.

◦   From the beginning the prophecy was been a point of contention and interpretation. Some version of the prophecy state that a Jedi will come to destroy the Sith and bring balance.

◦   The Sith had their own version of the prophecy called the Sith’ari – a  perfect being that one day will arise and be free of all restriction – the ultimate Sith. That being would lead the Sith to supreme power, but then destroy them, only to make them stronger than ever.

◦   In Star Wars Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan states that "I have scanned this prophecy; it says only that a chosen one will be born and bring balance to the Force; nowhere does it say he has to be a Jedi."

Leaks (Pre and Post Release of The Rise of Skywalker)

               

                During the release of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, I was heavily involved in following the online Star Wars community that discussed the leaks that had slipped out during the production of both films. One reliable source by the name of Jason Ward from MakingStarWars.net was unbelievably accurate with his information. Additionally, the subreddit r/Star Wars Leaks was also a reliable source of rumour and speculation.

For the release of The Last Skywalker I decided to stay off of these sites prior to the release of the movie.  Now that the movie has been released, I went back to these sites, along with the exploration of some Star Wars focused YouTube channels, to see how accurate the leaks for Episode IX were (yes, I was aware that there were leaks going into the movie, just not the specifics). It turns out that a post on the Star Wars Leaks subreddit by a user called Jedi Praxis had nearly 100% accuracy of the movie’s plot in detail and that it had leaked out a month or so prior to the release of the movie. If I had read these leaks prior to seeing the movie, I would have disliked The Rise of Skywalker more than I already do.

As of January 2^nd 2020, a new set of leaks have been released on the subreddit Saltier Than Crait that detail the production of The Rise of Skywalker and some of the issues that the movie has faced. I will detail these rumors for you below. Please note: these are strictly leaks and rumors. Always take them with a healthy dose of skepticism. Additionally, if some of these leaks stayed in The Rise of Skywalker, the movie would have been more enjoyable in my eyes.

• J.J. Abrams is upset with the theatrical version of The Rise of Skywalker.

• The movie was rushed into production to make its release date.

• Too many changes occurred during writing, pre-production, shooting, and post-production.

• The leakers that released all the accurate information are secretly tied/employed by Disney directly. J.J. Abrams is highly in demand as he has a successful track record of rebooting franchises. The DC movie universe is struggling in comparison to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The rumor is that they have been eyeing J.J. to reboot the DC Universe for a long time. Disney, who owns both Marvel and Star Wars, is nervous about J.J. going over to DC and creating competition for them. The changes they implemented in Rise of Skywalker are part of a bigger strategy to tarnish J.J.’s reputation a little and keep him employed strictly to Disney properties. 

• Disney executives interfered and demanded changes in direction for The Rise of Skywalker. These changes cut a lot of JJ’s original story and changed the direction of the story entirely. A lot of the original story scenes were shot and never used. Audio was rerecorded and altered with existing scenes to make them work for the theatrical version of the film.

• J.J. Abrams was brought back for Star Wars Episode IX by Disney CEO, Bob Iger, and not Lucasfilm president, Kathleen Kennedy.

• After the fan backlash from The Last Jedi, Disney executives demanded less controversy and more fan service in the final film. 

• Disney executives insisted to J.J. that he would have more creative control this time around (J.J.’s creative control was limited by Disney executives and Lucasfilm prior to the release of The Force Awakens). This turned out not to be the case a few weeks into shooting. J.J. wanted to shoot some unknown scenes that were crucial to the story (2 total). Disney shut down those shoots claiming budget constraints. In May of 2019, J.J. came back and insisted that those scenes were absolutely crucial to the story.  He decided to back down from one scene if Disney approved the creation and shooting of the other scene. Disney approved the production of this unknown scene. In July of 2019, this scene was shot at Pinewood Studios. This scene apparently had a lot to do with the ending of the film where the voices of the Jedi appear. Past Star Wars actors such as Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), and Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu) were present along with other previous actors in Star Wars films. The actors were all in actual costumes to reprise their roles and become force ghosts. In the film they would serve as a sort of barrier between Palpatine and Rey (think the ghosts in the graveyard scene in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire). The rumor is that this scene was cut because it would create too much controversy in the Chinese movie market (the 2^nd biggest market for Disney). Disney had so much control over the scene that they apparently had to approve the shades of blue used for the force ghosts prior to the effects being placed in post-production.

• Disney insisted on specific scenes to be shot in the movie so they can use the items and people within them for marketing and to produce products for merchandising purposes. 

• J.J. delivered a cut of the film to Disney in November of 2019 that was 3 hours and 2 minutes long.

• In January of 2019, J.J. Abrams knew that there was just too much material to cover in one movie. J.J. And Chris Terrio proposed to break the final film into two separate films. Disney declined this request but did approve the creation of a 3 hour cut of the film.

• Over the course of 2019 more and more of J.J. Abrams’ proposed scenes and original cut was thrown out the window by Disney executives. It is rumored that Disney’s agenda was to play it safe to please shareholders and were okay with letting Episode IX bomb commercially in order to protect their future interests that are unrelated to Star Wars (see above regarding J.J., Marvel, and DC).

• J.J. hesitantly agrees to cut down the movie to 2 hours and 37 minutes in early December 2019. This is still not the final product we got in theatres. The final cut totals in at 2 hours and 22 minutes.

• Many crucial and emotional scenes were cut.

• Rey’s first scene with Rose came shortly after her training scene at the beginning in of the movie.

• The two women who shared a kiss at the end of the movie were to be seen holding hands as the damaged Millennium Falcon landed back on the Resistance base at the beginning.

• The opening scene with Kylo on Mustafar was 2 minutes longer. At one point, in front of the wreckage of Vader’s castle, Kylo would get dizzy mid-fight and his vision would blur. Time would slow down and he would hear Vader’s breathing as he got closer to the way-finder. 

• The lightspeed skip at the beginning was much longer and had multiple planets cut from it. Some of the cut planets consisted of Kashyyk, Naboo, and Kamino.

• The character of Jannah is meant to be Lando’s daughter that was kidnapped and taken into First Order Service as a baby. This entire arc was cut, but ultimately implied in on of the final scenes of The Rise of Skywalker.

• When Rey Force Heals Kylo she also heals the face scar that she inflicted on him in The Force Awakens. This effectively heals the darkness in Ben Solo, killing Kylo Ren.

• Leia uses her force powers to create a manifestation of Kylo’s thoughts and inner turmoil to sway him back to the light side. This scene is shown with the manifestation of Han Solo talking to his son on the ruins of the second Death Star, though it is never explained and poorly implied in the movie due to cuts in the overall scene. The only way to do this was to do a similar act to Luke’s force projection in The Last Jedi that caused Leia to expend the last of her life energy.

• Late November 2019 cut (the last one J.J. himself approved of) – has more meaningful scenes with Rose in them. J.J. felt that the backlash against Rose was unwarranted and wanted to give her an important arc in The Rise of Skywalker. Disney executives felt that it was too risky. They rewrote Rose into the Leia scenes at the beginning to make the reuses footage of Carrie Fisher seem more organic. There were apparently 4 additional scenes with Rose of varying lengths, 2 of which saw her teaming up with Rey.

• In the 3 hour cut, Finn explicitly states he thinks he is force sensitive to Rey. Later on, during the scene where he is running atop the Star Destroyer, Finn actually uses the force to move an object and is surprised when it actually happens.

• Babu Frik was almost entirely cut out of the film. Disney feared he would become a new Jar Jar Binks. The character was J.J.’s original creation. 

• A lot of Rey and Kylo scenes were cut. Some are quiet moments of reflection where both characters had to deal with what was going on around them. We would see Rey struggling and going through the realization that there was something mysterious and sinister about her past. We would also see scenes of Kylo Ren going through cycles of regret and remorse for his actions leading up to The Rise of Skywalker, but trying to block them out. These scenes are rumored to be intense due to Adam Driver’s amazing acting ability. These scenes also supplied much more meaning and depth to his multiple battles with Rey and his redemption at the end. It would not have seemed so sudden as with the theatrical cut that we received.

• Kylo’s death scene is about 4 minutes longer than what we received and there would be much more dialogue. Kylo was always suppose to die in every draft of the movie.

• J.J. was against the Reylo kiss at the end of the movie in general. This scene was Disney’s attempt to please both sides of the fandom.

• The final film is a mix of J.J.’s story and Disney’s edited story. 

• J.J. is gutted over the final result.

• The public most likely wont see the J.J. cut of the movie unless someone leaks it (HINT HINT).* 

• *Update: As of January 6-8^th there have been rumors circulating that Disney plans to release the J.J. cut in theatres and #ReleasetheJJcut has been trending on Twitter.

Conclusion

                The Rise of Skywalker, while not a perfect movie by any stretch, is the culmination of the Skywalker Saga.  For those fans who enjoyed the movie, I’m glad you had a good time. Star Wars holds a special place in my heart and I wish I could have enjoyed this movie alongside the rest of you.  As it currently stands for me, The Last Skywalker is close to the worst Star Wars movie ever made. I hope that the J.J. cut eventually gets released and I have the opportunity to be swayed into ranking it higher in my personal list of best Star Wars movies in the Skywalker Saga. My final rankings for the Skywalker Saga movies are as follows:

1. Empire Strikes Back
2. The Last Jedi
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. A New Hope
5. The Force Awakens
6. Return of the Jedi
7. The Phantom Menace
8. The Rise of Skywalker
9. Attack of the Clones

Going forward Lucasfilm and Disney need to have a more solid plan for the Star Wars universe and allow for a single focused vision from film trilogy or similar groups of films. With such talents as Rian Johnson, Jon Favreau, and Dave Filoni in the fold, the future of Star Wars content looks bright with such small screen productions such as The Mandalorian Season 2, Star Wars: The Clone Wars-Season 7, and Star Wars: Rebels-The Sequel Series. Rian Johnson currently also has his unannounced Star Wars trilogy in the works as well. Disney and Lucas film should continue to bring in a diverse range of directors into their fold but allow for far more creative freedom and stop worrying about fan controversy. They need to better publicly support their actors and crew that are targets of toxic fan behaviour instead of leaving them to the wolves.  As for the fan base, I believe it has been, since Disney acquired Lucasfilm, and will remain toxic. Fortunately, there are movements within the fandom that are currently helping to bridge the divide and create more positive places to discuss and debate Star Wars as a whole. The future of Star Wars is full of infinite possibility. I can’t wait to see what is next.