Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker may have not been perfect..
The “Skywalker Saga” for Star Wars may be over but the universe is not.
2019 was an exciting year for Disney and Lucasfilms. Star Wars Episode 9 capped the “Skywalker Saga”. The Mandalorian has “Baby Yoda” and enough “Space Cowboy/Space Opera” to entertain folks at large. We touched on what the name “Skywalker” could mean before.
Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker was not perfect. In fact, after Johnson and Kennedy wrote the story into a corner. J.J. Abrams did as well as he could with what he had. Without spoiling more than you’ve probably already heard we can safely say “Thank goodness it’s over”.
The Last Jedi was entertaining if you turned your brain off. Because of the forced humor and propagandist character “Center Staging” was tacky at best and abominable at it’s worst. Rose, who could have had a more complex character development was shoehorned as a love interest in that one but they pulled her into being a “side” or “background” character in ROTS while still giving her some respect.
The characters of Finn and Poe got further fleshing out and to be perfectly honest made the movie better for it. Their interaction with Leia was not as ideal as we’d hope but she’d been put as the episodes “Jedi Master” and included in this film was an explanation behind her force ability.
The writing wasn’t horrible, it was a series of retconns, which had to be cobbled together by almost a dozen plot-lines all converging into a single point. Because of this regular film-goers were entertained but fans weren’t.
Much of the film was carried by “Flashbacks”, “Memories”, and “Ghosts that have enough power to actually be combatants and have an effect on the mortal realm but exist purely to provide exposition and direction” which act as a driving force behind the characters rather than their own agency.
When ghosts, the phantom emperor, and sad memories are all that drive the plot there is little more to it than simple “Space Opera”. The fact that they cut George Lucas out of the process and didn’t invite him to the Premier speaks volumes. J.J. “Star Trek’ed” Episode 9 and saved it for general audiences.
However, fans of the extended universe while given nods were not too happy. The long-story-short if you were to Summarize it was “The Old Guard is gone and a new generation is here to stay” oh and “All the Sith Worshipping Cultists are killed with rocks”.
-Written by R.A.G. Rankin, Author of Eon Legacy