6 Things The Star Wars Sequels Got Wrong
Oh boy, another article “bashing” the Star Wars sequels… Oi Vey! Honestly though, regardless of whether you liked the films or not. There are some glaring issues with many aspects of the final three films of the Skywalker saga. This list here will take a look at 6 of those issues all while doing our best not to bash any one of the films in the trilogy.
Make sure you check out our 6 Things The Star Wars Sequels Got Right after reading this.
R2-D2
R2-D2 may have been the most important character through the first six films of the franchise. In 1977 he is the droid that is carrying the plans to the Death Star which gives the Rebellion their first significant victory over the Empire. We then see him save everyone’s butts in The Empire Strikes Back when he fixes the hyper drive on the Falcon. Finally, he and Luke execute a daring rescue mission on Tattooine to save all their friends. Let’s also not forget how he saved the Naboo ship in Episode 1, played a role in the start of the Clone Wars and witnessed the fall of Anakin Skywalker.
All that and he is relegated to less than 2 minutes of screen time in The Force Awakens, a somewhat heart warming scene in The Last Jedi, and simply a comedic break in The Rise of Skywalker.
Look, BB-8 was an excellent addition to the saga, but at the expense of losing R2 some may say it may not have been worth it.
The “Mystery”
You know why “No, I am you father.” worked so well in 1980? Because there were no preconceived notions that it was going to happen. Viewers knew Luke’s story to that point. They knew his father was a Jedi Knight like Ben Kenobi was. We all heard the story of Vader hunting down and murdering the Jedi, including Luke’s dad.
The comments coming out of TESB were, “He was lying. He had to be!”
It was THE MOST shocking moment in cinema history.
The Sequels attempted to do this with Rey. It started from the marketing and the trailers. “Who are you?” The fans desire for Rey to be connected to our original heroes was something JJ knew was going to happen. He thought it would be best to explore later in the trilogy. Then Rian Johnson decided to give a middle finger to the fans and tried to make her a nobody. There was no shock there. It wasn’t a surprise. Especially since The Last Jedi constantly tried to trick the viewers. The trope got old fast and didn’t sit well with many fans.
Jump to The Rise of Skywalker and JJ rearranges what Rian Johnson intended and made Rey a Palpatine. Revealing it in a very insignificant way. While I like that version of the story better than her being a nobody, there had to be a more cinematic way of revealing this.
Time
In the Last Jedi the Resistance has only 18 hours of fuel before the First Order destroys them. Okay, I get they had to find a way to make the circumstances a bit dire but doing this completely hurts the other stories that take place in the film.
Rey travels to Ach-To and in the span of 18 hours is supposed to get as much training as she did? I call bollocks! Then we have Finn and Rose, ugh, who go on the most unnecessary adventure to ever be shown on film and they have all of like 6 minutes to get stuff done. Honestly, you cannot make any sense of the use of time in Episode 8. It’s impossible.
The Rise of Skywalker isn’t much better though. With just hours to find the way finder and ultimately the Final Order the heroes go on a journey across the Galaxy hitting multiple planets and even finding time to hangout on a rooftop and talk to former love interests.
I get that writing can be difficult, but there is no need to spell out everything. Especially in a film series where time has never been a concern. This comes down to lazy writing and poor choices from the storytellers. Really if you remove the time aspect out of the films it actually makes it seem a lot more dire than with the time used.
The Galaxy
Star Wars has always been about exploring new and exotic worlds while also revisiting old and unforgettable ones. On top of that, a political system and hierarchy has always been in place. While the prequels took a deep dive into those themes the sequel trilogy stayed away from it all together. Yea we got new planets but rarely did we ever get ones we already knew.
Don’t get me started on the lack of explanation on the New Republic and their refusal to accept the First Order as a threat. (Yea, books explain it… I know) Some understanding would have been nice for the non-reading viewers.
Luke Skywalker
I really struggled with putting this on here because I truly believe his portrayal is the best part of The Last Jedi. Where my issues come in is the lack of Luke that we get through the sequels. The saga has been dubbed the Skywalker saga yet the final three films have very little to do with any specific Skywalker. (Yes, I know Kylo was technically a Skywalker)
What I am trying to say is Luke was the connection to the previous two trilogies. His connection to Anakin/Vader in the OT is what really brought those two trilogies together. Would have been nice to see him have a similar connection to Ben.
Ending the Saga
I still have a suspicion that the Skywalker Saga isn’t completed. They just had to market it this way to get butts into seats. Especially after the mess Episode VIII left. While the blood of a Skywalker doesn’t technically exist. (can be easily retconned) The Legacy of the family lives on.
While I do enjoy the ending of the film, I’m not crying….I swear. I think it was a bad decision in ending the Saga as they did. Star Wars IS the Skywalkers. Expanding the universe is great and all. Telling stories of the Old Republic or even things like Solo and Rogue One are good fun. But let’s not lie to ourselves. The Skywalkers are what bring us back. The films without the Skywalkers will surely see a lower turnout than those films that do have them. It wont be due to over saturation or poor storytelling. It will be because there is very little to no emotional connection to the characters they introduce.