While the Star Wars sequel trilogy does have its share of admirers, most fans were displeased with the latest batch of movies. A bunch of flaws have been pointed out, from inconsistent character arcs to the fact that there was no narrative roadmap from the beginning, but the truth is that no version of a sequel trilogy was ever going to conclude the story of the Skywalkers better than Return of the Jedi already did in 1983.
In the lead up to the release of The Rise of Skywalker, Disney’s marketing team rebranded Episodes I to IX, which had previously just been known as the Star Wars saga, as “the Skywalker saga.” Rey taking the name Skywalker at the end of the movie appears to have been forced just to make this name work. Anakin turning to the dark side and being brought back to the light by his son is the saga of the Skywalkers. Including the sequel trilogy in “the Skywalker saga” was just a way for Disney to tout The Rise of Skywalker as Star Wars’ version of Avengers: Endgame, but it was nowhere near as satisfying a conclusion as Endgame, especially since Star Wars is a story that already had the ideal conclusion.
The third act of Return of the Jedi sees the Emperor’s decades-in-the-making plan finally coming to a head as a powerful young Force user is primed to become his new apprentice, construction on the second Death Star is almost complete, and he’s tricked the entire Rebel fleet into flying straight into a trap. Ultimately, Luke refuses to turn to the dark side, appeals to the shred of good that is still in his father, and love trumps hate as Vader hurls his Sith master into the station’s reactor core. This is the perfect culmination of Star Wars’ themes and storylines. The Jedi triumph over the Sith, the Rebels triumph over the Empire, and more broadly, good triumphs over evil. Peace is restored in the galaxy once and for all. The end.
Except it turns out it wasn’t the end, because there was more profit to be had. On paper, making a sequel trilogy wasn’t a bad idea and could’ve turned out great under the right circumstances, but right out of the gate, The Force Awakens did everything in its power to undermine the victory at the end of Return of the Jedi. The New Republic crumbled into another struggling rebellion before the movie even begins. Kylo Ren’s worship of Vader, promising to finish what he started, negates Anakin’s redemption. Emperor Palpatine’s death is no longer the moment that peace was restored in the galaxy, because the very similar Supreme Leader Snoke just rose up in his place (and he was later retconned as one of Palpatine’s creations and Palpatine himself was brought back without explanation).
Return of the Jedi is far from a perfect movie. Between the escape from Jabba’s barge and the final battle, there’s no action in the movie’s middle act. And of course, it has such controversial elements as the interminably cutesy Ewoks – which concept artist Ralph McQuarrie refused to design because he could tell they were created purely to sell toys – and Boba Fett’s unceremonious death, which was later retconned. But it’s a masterpiece compared to The Rise of Skywalker. J.J. Abrams’ overstuffed movie is riddled with plot holes, from Palpatine’s unexplained resurrection to an ancient Sith dagger whose markings line up perfectly with a giant chunk of wreckage from a space station that was shown exploding without a trace.
The Rise of Skywalker could’ve provided a more satisfying ending if Abrams stuck to his original plan to make Rey a Kenobi and the Skywalker saga had ended with a Kenobi saving a Skywalker from the dark side, as Obi-Wan failed to do with Anakin, but alas, she’s a Palpatine, which creates even more plot holes, like how did Palpatine find the time (or partner) to start a family during the Clone Wars?
It all builds to an incomprehensibly gargantuan final battle that pales in comparison to the unbridled fun and palpable suspense of Richard Marquand’s climactic battle sequence in Return of the Jedi. The closing moments of The Rise of Skywalker are filled with empty, pandering fan service like Chewie receiving a random medal or a token same-sex kiss. Rey burying Luke and Leia’s lightsabers on the Lars’ moisture farm was baffling, too, because Luke hated it there and couldn’t wait to leave and Leia has never even been there. But since the moisture farm and the binary sunset hold a special place in fans’ hearts, Abrams once again played to nostalgia instead of organic plot development. All in all, The Rise of Skywalker is a complete mess, totally unbefitting of being the final chapter in the Star Wars saga.
If one version of the sequel trilogy was going to satisfy Star Wars fans, then it probably would’ve been George Lucas’ version. Lucas included story treatments for sequel movies in his company’s sale to Disney, but the Mouse House chose to disregard them and rehashed the Death Star plot instead. Just like the prequel trilogy, a Lucas-helmed sequel trilogy still would’ve polarized the fan base, but no matter what happened, at least it would’ve ended the Star Wars saga in the way its creator intended. And also like the prequels, it would’ve told a consistent story with a singular vision, which is apparently asking a lot since the sequel trilogy changed its creative direction in every movie and, as a result, contradicts its own themes and storylines constantly.
According to Lucas, his version of the sequel trilogy would’ve revealed Leia to be the real “chosen one” as she was re-establishing the Republic. Luke would rebuild the Jedi Order and Darth Maul would be the villainous overlord while his apprentice Darth Talon would be the Vader of the equation, driving the action. It sounds like there were a lot of exciting ideas in Lucas’ trilogy, but he would’ve needed to give it a heck of a finale to top the cathartic conclusion of Return of the Jedi.
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