--- description: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker significantly revises plot points from The Last Jedi. Here's why that decision is problematic. title: Why It's Problematic That Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Retcons The Last Jedi image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt099d90318c95c6e0/698a07bc4ee2626216316cfa/star-wars-rise-of-skywalker-rose.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why It's Problematic That _Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker_ Retcons the Plot of _The Last Jedi_  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:15 PM CUTPublished: Dec 20, 2019 12:00 PM CUT  Kelly Marie Tran as Rose and Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Kelly Marie Tran as Rose and Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of SkywalkerJonathan Olley—Lucasfilm Ltd.  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Updated: Dec 12, 2023 8:15 PM CUTPublished: Dec 20, 2019 12:00 PM CUT **Warning:** This post contains major spoilers for [_Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker_](https://time.com/5751746/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-review/ "undefined"). It’s impossible to assess _Star Wars: The_ _Rise of Skywalker_ in a vacuum. Each movie in the latest _Star Wars_ trilogy has been a response to the one that came before it. If J.J. Abrams’ first entry, _The_ _Force Awakens_, tried to avoid the fate of the ill-reviewed prequel movies by hewing a little too closely to the plot of the original _Star Wars_ film, _A New Hope_, then Rian Johnson’s [inventive _Last Jedi_](https://time.com/5061707/star-wars-the-last-jedi-review/ "undefined") questioned why fans and directors worship at the altar of old I.P. instead of forging ahead with something new. If Rey’s parents were nobodies, as Johnson tried to establish in that film, that meant that not just Skywalkers and Palpatines could be the heroes and villains of these stories: Anyone could be a Jedi (including the enslaved kid with the broom featured in the last shot of Johnson’s film.) Shaking off the dust of past movies allowed for new kinds of character arcs and stories, and a path for Rey that didn’t fall in step exactly with Luke’s before her. Hero Luke Skywalker and villain Kylo Ren don’t agree on much, but in that movie they kept repeating the same sentiment over and over again. To quote Kylo: “Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to.” Only then could the new cast step outside the original trio’s shadows and create something fresh. Johnson’s thesis offered a way forward for films too often bogged down by their predecessors. And yet it proved rather unpopular with a small but loud contingent of fans who have put quite a bit of time and energy into their worship of what came before, namely [Luke Skywalker](https://time.com/5064407/star-wars-the-last-jedi-luke-skywalker-scene-explained "undefined"). The harassment targeted at Johnson and several of the cast members — most notably Kelly Marie Tran, who was [driven from social media](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/movies/kelly-marie-tran.html "undefined") by racist and sexist trolls unhappy with the film — manifested in a [campaign to “remake” _The Last Jedi_](https://www.remakethelastjedi.com/ "undefined"). (There are, of course, legitimate critiques of the movie not rooted in sexism or racism, but as with all things on the Iinternet the bigots tend to find a way to be the loudest.) We’ve seen this kind of thing before. Leslie Jones faced a [starkly similar experience](https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/20/movies/leslie-jones-star-of-ghostbusters-becomes-a-target-of-online-trolls.html "undefined") when she took a role in an all-female _Ghostbusters_ reboot. Another set of fans tried to tank the Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Marvel’s first female superhero movie, _Captain Marvel_, before it was released — forcing the site to [change how fans review films](https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2019/03/rotten-tomatoes-captain-marvel-review-ratings-system-online-trolls/584032/ "undefined"). So it’s not all that surprising that a film in which an iconic male hero reveals himself to be a rather cynical grump and a new female hero rises to become even more powerful than the men who came before, would rankle a loud subset of fans. What _is_ somewhat surprising, however, is that Abrams seems to have capitulated to that contingent of fans with _The Rise of Skywalker_. If Johnson begged the franchise to let the past go, Abrams counters with a movie so obsessed with history that it literally resurrects every important character from the original George Lucas trilogy, as Force Ghosts, memories or, in the case of Palpatine, some sort of Force zombie. _The_ _Rise of Skywalker_ is not just a thematic refutation of what came before. It feels as if Abrams read every critical tweet in Johnson’s mentions from the last two years and answered each one, scene by scene. The tension between the two filmmakers pervades every directorial devision. Take the lightsabers: In the last shot of Abrams’ _The_ _Force Awakens_, Rey presents Luke with his old lightsaber. The camera spins around the two figures as they stand for an awkward amount of time staring at each other, epic music swelling in the background. Johnson returns to the same scene in the _The_ _Last Jedi_, but immediately subverts expectations: Luke takes the lightsaber, a prop coveted by fans for decades, and tosses it over his shoulder, off a cliff. It’s a thesis statement for the rest of the film: Out with the old and expected, in with the new and unpredictable. Mad about Johnson’s cheekiness? Don’t worry, there’s a scene in _The_ _Rise of Skywalker_ in which Luke awkwardly explains that he was wrong when he said the Jedi Order needed to end and that Rey should go confront the big, bad Emperor Palpatine to save the Jedi religion. When Rey tries to toss away her lightsaber, Luke scolds her, “A Jedi’s weapon ought to be treated with more respect,” admonishing his actions in the last movies as much as hers. _The_ _Rise of Skywalker_ even brings back Luke’s lightsaber _and_ throws in Leia’s heretofore unseen lightsaber for good measure. The characters in _The_ _Rise of Skywalker_ quite literally cling to these tokens from the past. Kylo destroyed his Vader-like helmet (a symbol of his childlike obsession with his grandfather) in _The_ _Last Jedi_ but pieces it back together and resurrects a shrine to his grandfather in _The_ _Rise of Skywalker_. Abrams brings back Lando Calrissian so he can fly the Millennium Falcon in the galaxy-defining battle at the end of the film, just as he did in _Return of the Jedi_. Rey flies Luke’s old X-Wing. When trying to commune with her son, Kylo, [Leia](https://time.com/5065392/star-wars-the-last-jedi-carrie-fisher/ "undefined") holds a medal she gave to Han and Luke at the end of _A New Hope_. So much for letting the past die. For those who complained that Rey, Finn and Poe — the new trio of heroes — were all split up in the last movie, _The Rise of Skywalker_ features at least three different MacGuffins for them to pursue together. In perhaps the most shameful apparent surrender to toxic fandom, launching Rey with Finn and Poe into space means that Kelly Marie Tran’s Rose is sidelined. She stays at home, working on ships, uttering only a few lines. The kiss she shared with Finn at the end of the last movie is never acknowledged or discussed. It’s hard not to see this as a victory for the trolls. And then there’s the biggest change of all: Rey’s origin story. There was a rather sexist argument circulating that Rey couldn’t _possibly_ become such a powerful Jedi in such a short period of time, despite the fact that Luke had done just that. In what feels like a direct response to that silly argument, _The_ _Rise of Skywalker_ includes a very long scene of Rey training to be a Jedi on an obstacle course. And for those who believed that Rey _had_ to be related to _someone_ we’d seen before in the _Star Wars_ universe in order to ever wield that kind of power, guess what? Abrams retcons Johnson’s [decision to make Rey a nobody](https://time.com/5063696/star-wars-the-last-jedi-rey-parents/ "undefined") in an incredibly clunky conversation between Kylo and Rey. Kylo awkwardly clarifies that he didn’t _technically_ lie to her before when he said her parents were filthy junk traders because her parents were _hiding_ as filthy junk traders. Great dialogue, it was not. And so the truth that Abrams plotted all along is revealed: Rey’s father was the son of the evil Emperor Palpatine. No, Rian Johnson, not anyone can be a powerful Jedi or Sith. Only these two _really specific_ people related to the two most famous families in the galaxy can be the heroes of this story. Palpatine is just one of many characters resurrected for the sake of paying homage to the Lucas films. Chewbacca seems to have died in a crash, until it’s revealed he was on another hidden ship and survives. C-3PO’s memory is wiped, and he bids goodbye to his friends — until R2-D2 simply restores 3PO’s memory backup. Luke, Han and Leia all make cameos after they’ve died to help Rey and Kylo along on their missions. And Rey and Kylo, too, suddenly has the power to heal and, apparently reverse death. Each, in turn, uses the Force to save the other from dying. But being able to bring back any character means death doesn’t carry much weight in this universe anymore. What’s to say the Emperor couldn’t resurrect himself yet again? When Kylo revived Rey at the end of the movie, it wouldn’t have been shocking if she had done the same for him, each transferring their Life Force into each other for the rest of eternity. (Free idea, _SNL_.) By refusing to let go of the past, this series has become devoid of meaning or consequence. Abrams has always praised _The_ _Last Jedi_ for its “subversions” and “bold choices,” but he also recently [told the New York _Times_](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/movies/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-jj-abrams.html "undefined"), “I don’t think that people go to _Star Wars_ to be told, ‘This doesn’t matter.’” (The cast, similarly, seemed to throw Johnson under the bus, with John Boyega intimating that _The_ _Last Jedi_ was a “hard shoot,” Daisy Ridley admitting she cried for joy when Abrams rejoined the films and Mark Hamill admitting he was “demoralized” by Johnson’s choices.) But fans don’t make great filmmakers. Their reverence for what came before leaves little room for artistry or invention. And their [bullying](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/boycotts-bullying-bigotry-history-star-wars-fans-ruining-star/ "undefined") ruins the fun — both on and off camera. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5751752/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-the-last-jedi/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5751752/star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-the-last-jedi/"},"headline":"Why It's Problematic That Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Retcons the Plot of The Last Jedi","datePublished":"2019-12-20T12:00:38.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-12T20:15:18.000Z","description":"J.J. 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