How Obi-Wan Kenobi Fits in the Star Wars Timeline

24 minute read
Updated: | Originally published:

A new Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi is winding back the clock on the Star Wars story, so it’s time to re-watch the prequel films. And yes, it’s okay if you fast-forward through all the boring senatorial bits.

Ewan McGregor, who played Obi-Wan Kenobi in Episodes I, II, and III, will reprise his role as the legendary Jedi who struggled to keep Anakin Skywalker from turning to the Dark Side but strove in his twilight years to protect Anakin’s son, Luke Skywalker from a similar fate. Hayden Christensen, who played a surly teenage Anakin and (briefly) a wailing Darth Vader, is also set to return for the show.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is set between the events of Episode III and IV when Obi-Wan, one of the few Jedi to survive the conspiracy to wipe out all of the warrior-monks, is on the lam from the Empire. He’s still smarting from his final, fire-filled showdown with Anakin and determined to look after a young Luke—though Luke’s Uncle Owen (Joel Edgerton) may have other plans.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is reportedly a bit dark. But that shouldn’t be a surprise given that important and oft-repeated Star Wars motifs include parents dying in their children’s arms, loss of limbs, and the mass murder of children training to be Jedi. For a story that emphasizes hope, it’s pretty bloody.

Here’s how Obi-Wan Kenobi fits into the Star Wars timeline—and the tidbits you need to remember from those prequel films to understand why Obi-Wan is so obsessed with safeguarding Luke from the Empire.

Episode I: The Phantom Menace

32 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin, i.e. when Luke blew up the first Death Star)

Anakin Skywalker
Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I - The Phantom Menace"Mary Evans—Lucasfilm/Ronald Grant/Everett Collection

Forget the insanity about midichlorian measurements and pod racing and Jar-Jar Binks. Here’s what’s important to remember: Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) becomes obsessed with the idea that a boy from Tatooine by the name of Anakin Skywalker is the prophesied “Chosen One” destined to restore balance to the Force. The Jedi Council tells Qui-Gon and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi that Anakin is too susceptible to the Dark Side of the Force to be trained (and they’re not wrong!) Qui-Gon completely ignores them. Meanwhile, little Anakin (Jake Lloyd) gets a crush on Queen Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) and asks her if she’s an angel in one of the more cringe-worthy scenes in cinematic history.

Darth Maul (Ray Park), who has a cool double bladed lightsaber and spikes coming out of his face, kills Qui-Gon in a fight scene that actually stands up to the test of time. Obi-Wan cuts Darth Maul in half. Qui-Gon’s dying wish is that Obi-Wan will train Anakin, and the Jedi Council assents because I suppose you can’t overrule a man’s dying wish—even if it’s a dumb wish that will doom the galaxy.

Read More: We Ranked the 40 Greatest Star Wars Moments

Episode II: Attack of the Clones

22 BBY

Princess Leia
Hayden Christensen and Natalie Portman in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, 2002.Lucasfilm

Obi-Wan and Anakin are tasked with protecting Padme (who is now a senator) from assassination. Despite the fact that Anakin was a teeny, tiny boy in the last movie, he’s somehow now around Padme’s age, and the two fall in love, even though Jedi are supposed to be celibate. Obi-Wan hunts down bounty hunter Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison), who ordered Padme’s assassination, and stumbles on a planet of clones based on the genetic template Jango. Meanwhile, Anakin keeps having dreams that his mother is in danger and goes to Tatooine to save her from a group of kidnappers. Anakin’s mom dies in his arms, and the young Jedi-in-training goes ballistic and murders the entire tribe that kidnapped her. Padme is perturbed, but not perturbed enough to dump this newly-minted mass murderer.

Obi-Wan discovers a guy named Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) is behind the assassination attempt, and Senator Jar Jar Binks (yes, really) proposes a successful vote to grant emergency powers to a politician named Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). Palpatine promises that he’ll definitely give back dictatorial control after Dooku is caught, and everyone believes him because they don’t have the play Julius Caesar in this universe. Padme and Anakin try to save Obi-Wan from Dooku, but they’re all captured. Yoda (Frank Oz), Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson), and a bunch of Jedi save the trio, and Windu kills Jango Fett to the dismay of Jango’s clone son Boba Fett. Dooku cuts off Anakin’s arm in a battle, and escapes a fight with Yoda. Dooku delivers a super-weapon to the Sith Lord Darth Sidious. Anakin marries Padme in secret.

Clone Wars & The Clone Wars

22-19 BBY

Ahsoka Tano
Ahsoka Tano in Clone WarsDisney+

The movie and television series told the story of the war between the separatists and the republic. Much of the story centers on Ahsoka Tano, who trains to be a Jedi under Anakin Skywalker. She becomes a mentor to other Jedi before being kicked out of the Jedi Order because of a misunderstanding. The Jedi later offer her her place back in the order, but she has become disillusioned and walks away.

The series reveals that Darth Maul is still alive and building up his own crime syndicate, including taking over the planet Mandalore for a time. Bo Katan, who will later pop up in The Mandalorian, leads a rebellion against Darth Maul on Mandalore. But mostly the show exists to chronicle the slow descent of Anakin who, even before he officially turned to the Dark Side.

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

19 BBY

star-wars-episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sith
Lucasfilm Ltd.

Obi-Wan and Anakin are sent to save Supreme Chancellor Palpatine from a kidnapping. At Palpatine’s urging, Anakin decapitates Count Dooku. When Anakin reunites with Padme, she reveals she’s pregnant, and Anakin begins having nightmares about Padme dying in childbirth. Anakin figures out that Palpatine is in fact Darth Sidious—the way he relished ordering Anakin to decapitate someone was probably a tip-off—and reports him to Mace Windu. Windu corners Palpatine, but Palpatine tells Anakin that he can prevent Padme’s death using the Dark Side of the Force. Anakin cuts off Windu’s hand, and Palpatine kills Windu by sending him through a window. Palpatine backpedals on the whole defying death thing, but Anakin is stuck with his poor decisions now. Palpatine knights Anakin Darth Vader (dun dun dun).

Palpatine issues Order 66, commanding his clone army to kill all the Jedi. Darth Vader, no stranger to mass murder at this point, kills a bunch of doe-eyed children training to be Jedi. Obi-Wan tells Padme that her husband is a child murderer. Vader at this point turns into a jealous maniac and assumes that Obi-Wan and Padme are having an affair. He strangles Padme nearly to death. Obi-Wan and Vader duel in what’s basically an active volcano. Obi-Wan gets the high ground and warns Vader not to try to fight him. But Vader tries to jump over Obi-Wan anyway, and Obi-Wan cuts off both of Vader’s legs and his one remaining non-mechanical arm. The rest of Vader’s body then catches on fire. Obi-Wan leaves Vader for dead. Palpatine rescues Vader and sticks him in the iconic Vader suit.

Padme gives birth to twins named Luke and Leia and dies soon after. A medical droid tells Obi-Wan she was physically fine but died of a broken heart, which…sure. Palpatine tells Vader that Padme is dead, and Vader yells, “Noooooooooo” in an extremely meme-able manner. Obi-Wan and Yoda hide the birth of the twins from Vader and separate them, sending Leia with Bail Organa (Jimmy Smits) to his home world of Alderaan, and Luke with his step-uncle Owen to Tatooine.

The Bad Batch

18 BBY

The Bad BatchLucasFilm

The animated series follows a group of genetically enhanced clones from The Clone Wars, Clone Force 99, known as the Bad Batch. In the aftermath of the Clone Wars they take on mercenary missions. This series is truly a deep cut and mostly caters to fans of the Clone Wars TV show.

Solo

Around 13-10 BBY

Film Review Solo: A Star Wars Story
This image released by Lucasfilm shows Alden Ehrenreich and Joonas Suotamo in a scene from "Solo: A Star Wars Story."Jonathan Olley—AP

A young Han (Alden Ehrenreich) and his love interest Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) try to escape a local gang, but Qi’ra is captured. Han joins the Imperial Navy, and they give him the name “Solo” because he’s standing there alone when he signs up—and origin story better left untold. Three years later, Han makes friends with a Wookiee named Chewbacca. Han, Chewbacca, and a robber named Beckett (Woody Harrelson) join forces but fall into debt to a gangster named Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany). When Han goes to meet Vos he discovers that Qi’ra works for the crime lord.

Han proposes paying back Vos by stealing coaxium (fuel for ships) from Kessel. Qi’ra introduces Han to Lando Calrissian (Donald Glover), and the group steals the coaxium using Lando’s ship, the Millennium Falcon. Han escapes in a daring feat known as the Kessel Run that will be referenced ad nauseam in other Star Wars properties. Han becomes sympathetic to a rebel faction that needs the coaxium, and tries to trick Vos so he can help the rebels. But Beckett betrays Han and takes Chewbacca hostage. Qi’ra kills Vos and sends Han after Beckett. She then contacts Maul, now a crime lord himself, revealing that she’s actually somewhat villainous.

Han confronts Beckett, shoots him before Beckett can fire, saves Chewbacca, and proves he’s the kind of anti-hero who “shoots first.” Han then wins the Millennium Falcon from Lando, and the audience leaves the movie theater with relatively useless trivia, like how Han got his last name and made the Kessel Run.

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Around 9 BBY

Ewan McGregor in Obi-Wan KenobiLucasFilm

Set about 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi is hiding out from the Empire while watching over a young Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. Reportedly, the original versions of the script focused on Obi-Wan working to protect Luke, but LucasFilm thought the lone-wolf-protecting-a-child plot was too similar to that of another Star Wars series, The Mandalorian. So the script was retooled, though the creators have remained tightlipped on plot details.

We do know that Christensen is set to reprise his role as Darth Vader, and fans are no doubt are hoping for another Obi-Wan-Vader lightsaber duel. Obi-Wan Kenobi is set to be a limited run series with just six episodes.

Andor

Around 5 BBY

Diego Luna Rogue One
Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) in Rogue One: A Star Wars StoryGiles Kyte—LucasFilm

The forthcoming Rogue One prequel series stars Diego Luna as the rebel spy Cassian Andor. The show is being billed as a spy thriller with Andor carrying out covert missions for the rebels to restore hope in a galaxy prior to the events of the original trilogy.

Rogue One

0 BBY

Rogue One
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story..L to R: Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones) and K-2SO (Alan Tudyk)..Ph: Jonathan Olley..© 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd. All Rights Reserved.Jonathan Olley—MovieStillsDB

A group of Imperial soldiers kidnap scientist Galen Erso (Mads Mikkelson) and kill his wife. A rebel extremist named Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker) finds and raises Galen’s daughter Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones). Fifteen years later, the Rebel Alliance saves Jyn from an Imperial Labor Camp and tasks her with rescuing her father who has been working on the Death Star. Jyn and the Rebel intelligence officer Cassian Andor (Diego Luna) track down a cargo pilot Bodhi Rook (Riz Ahmed) who has defected from the Empire and taken a message recorded by Galen to Gerrera.

The message reveals that Galen has built a vulnerability in the Death Star and somehow nobody in the Empire noticed. Jyn and Cassian find Galen at an Empire facility about to be destroyed by the rebels, and Galen dies in Jyn’s arms. (See: The “parent dying in child’s arms” motif.) Jyn lobbies the Rebel Alliance to steal the Death Star schematics, but the rebels have given up on victory. Jyn and Cassian defy orders and lead a small group who dub themselves Rogue One to the planet Scarif to take the schematics. One by one, each of the Rogue One crew dies, but not before Cassian and Jyn are able to complete the transmission of the plans to the Rebel Alliance. The two die holding each other as the Death Star destroys the beach of Scarif—seemingly wrapping up their story…until Disney+ announced a prequel TV series called Andor. Nothing’s sacred.

Vader boards the Rebel command ship and kills dozens of rebel troops in arguably his most epic fight scene in any of the movies. Princess Leia gets ahold of the Death Star plans and escapes Vader.

Read More: Rogue One Rewinds—and Rewrites—the Star Wars Legacy

Episode IV: A New Hope

0 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin)

American actors Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford on the set of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.
American actors Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher and Harrison Ford on the set of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.Sunset Boulevard/Corbis/Getty Images

Darth Vader (voiced by James Earl Jones) intercepts the ship of Princess Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher). Before he boards the ship, Leia hides the schematics to the Death Star inside the droid R2-D2, who then travels to the planet Tatooine alongside another droid, C-3PO (Anthony Daniels). Jawa traders capture the droids and sell them to the family of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Luke discovers a recording of Leia asking for the help of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and falls instantly in love because he’s a teenager. Obi-Wan (Alec Guinness), whom Luke knows as “old Ben Kenobi,” reveals his true identity and explains the plot of all the Star Wars prequels to Luke. Obi-Wan leaves out one crucial detail about who Luke’s father is. Obi-Wan tells Luke that Luke’s dad was a Jedi who was killed by Vader (which is true in a metaphorical sense).

Imperial stormtroopers murder Luke’s aunt and uncle while searching for R2-D2, and Luke and Obi-Wan hire Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) to transport them to Leia’s home of Alderaan. Before the Millennium Falcon can reach the planet, Death Star commander Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing) destroys the all of Alderaan as a tactic in his interrogation of Leia—proving that the Empire is very evil. Luke persuades Han to help him save Leia and the love triangle commences. Onboard the Death Star, Obi-Wan sacrifices himself in a lightsaber duel against Vader, allowing Luke, Han, and Leia to escape.

Han—always the rogue—abandons the Rebels after collecting his reward for retrieving Leia. Luke joins the rebel’s X-wing squadron in their mission to destroy the Death Star. Han and Chewbacca unexpectedly return to knock Vader’s ship off course before Vader can kill Luke, and Luke is able to channel the Force to destroy the Death Star. Leia awards Luke and Han medals for heroism, though not Chewbacca, which is just rude.

Read More: Billie Lourd on Becoming the Keeper of Princess Leia

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

3 ABY

Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.
Darth Vader in The Empire Strikes Back.Lucasfilm Ltd.

Luke is hiding out on the ice planet Hoth and almost succumbs to hypothermia during a mission. As he’s about to die he sees the Force ghost of Obi-Wan Kenobi instruct him to go to the swamp planet Dagobah and train as a Jedi under Yoda. Han finds Luke and stuffs him in a dead animal for warmth. Ick. The Empire attacks the planet, and Han, Leia, and Chewbacca escape on the Millennium Falcon and bicker like a couple in a 40s-era romance. Vader sends several bounty hunters, including Boba Fett, after the Falcon. Han and Leia travel to Cloud City to take refuge with Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), who betrays them to the Empire.

Meanwhile, Yoda trains Luke, and Luke struggles to control his anger. Luke has a premonition that Han and Leia are in danger and, despite Yoda’s protests, abandons his training to save them. Leia tells Han she loves him. Han replies, “I know.” Vader freezes the smuggler in carbonite and gives him to Boba Fett, who plans to collect a bounty on Han from the Tatooine gangster Jabba the Hutt. Lando frees Leia and Chewbacca, and Luke arrives to fight Vader. Vader cuts off Luke’s right hand (another severed limb!), and encourages Luke to embrace the Dark Side so they can rule the galaxy together. Luke refuses, and Vader reveals that he’s Luke’s father. Dun dun dun, again. Luke drops down an airshaft. Leia senses his presence and saves him, revealing her own Force powers. (Annoyingly, nobody ever hands Leia a lightsaber to see how she’d fare as a Jedi herself.)

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

4 ABY

STAR WARS VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI
Star Wars IV: Return of the JediLucasFilms Ltd.—moviestillsdb.com

Leia tries to rescue Han but is taken captive by Jabba. Luke arrives at Jabba’s lair to bargain for their release but Chewbacca captures him too and sentences the trio to be eaten by a big, mean monster called a Sarlacc. Luke, who has hidden his lightsaber inside R2-D2, battles Jabba’s men, and Boba Fett accidentally falls into the Sarlacc pit. Leia strangles Jabba to death with her chains, which is no small feat because Jabba is basically a giant mud blob. Luke returns to Dagobah to find that Yoda is dying. Yoda reveals there’s another Skywalker before becoming one with the Force. Luke still doesn’t get it, so Obi-Wan’s Force Ghost shows up to explain that Leia is Luke’s twin sister. It’s unfortunate news because Luke and Leia briefly kissed in Empire, but as a society we’ve all agreed not to acknowledge the twin-cest.

The Empire is constructing a second Death Star. (Death Stars seem to be the only weapon the Empire knows how to build.) Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca travel to the forest moon Endor to destroy the new Death Star and meet a bunch of cuddly bear-like creatures called the Ewoks; they will inspire generations of Star Wars characters designed to later be sold as stuffed animals. Luke surrenders to Imperial troops to reach Vader, and tries to convince his father to reject the Dark Side. Vader brings Luke to the Emperor. The Rebel forces, and specifically Admiral Ackbar, discover that the Empire has laid a trap for them. Meanwhile, the Emperor tries to turn Luke to the Dark Side, and Luke fights Vader, then the Emperor. The Emperor tortures Luke with Force Lightning, his evil power of choice. Vader redeems himself by throwing the Emperor down a reactor shaft to his death…or is it?!? (Generally speaking, never trust shaft-related deaths in Star Wars. Luke, Maul, and the Emperor all survive them.)

Vader—you guessed it—dies in his son’s arms. Lando and an X-Wing fighter named Wedge Antilles (Dennis Lawson) destroy the Death Star 2.0. Everyone parties.

The Mandalorian

Around 9-10 ABY

Grogu in 'The Mandalorian'
The Child in The MandalorianLucasFilm

So remember how Boba Fett had cool armor? Well, it turns out that’s Mandalorian armor, and the folks who wear it are part of a religious sect who say things like, “This is the way” a lot and are in a years-long feud with the Jedi. One such Mandalorian, who goes by Mando (Pedro Pascal, though you wouldn’t know it since he wears a helmet all the time) works as a bounty hunter. He accepts a mission from a creepy guy who uses stormtroopers as body guards: He’s given a location and told to bring back the target alive. But when he arrives at the spot he discovers the target is…a Baby Yoda!

Okay, fine, he’s not technically a “Baby Yoda” since Yoda is a person not a whole species. In fact, Yoda’s species doesn’t even have a name. But “Baby Yoda” is what people called the little toddler for awhile, until the show revealed his name was Grogu (which is not nearly as cute as Baby Yoda so we’ll continue to call him Baby Yoda). Anyway, for the next two seasons Mando goes on adventures to protect Baby Yoda from the remnants of the Empire, specifically an evil dude named Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) who wants to experiment on him. Everything Baby Yoda does is adorable—his waddle, his cooing, how he uses the Force to get cookies. You’d think it would get old after awhile, but no, Baby Yoda is relentlessly cute. Eventually, Luke Skywalker comes and finds Baby Yoda and takes him away to train in the ways of the Jedi.

Read More: How The Mandalorian Season 2 Finale Mirrors Rogue One

The Book of Boba Fett

Around 9-10 ABY

boba-fett-1
Temuera Morrison and Ming-Na Wen in The Book of Boba FettLucasfilm

Boba Fett was always a popular toy. He had the coolest suit and a jetpack to boot. But it turns out that cool toys don’t always make for the best television protagonists. Disney+’s less-loved Star Wars series recaps the story of Boba Fett (Temeura Morrison), from his unlikely escape from the Sarlacc pit to his eventual rescue of the bounty hunter Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen). Most of the plot is taken up with Boba Fett trying to set himself up as a benevolent crime boss in Mos Espa on Tatooine.

The show actually spends a lot of time with Mando, who is banished from the Mandalorian sect for removing his helmet and proving that yes, in fact Pedro Pascal is under there. Mando checks on Grogu, and the Jedi Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson, who also appeared on The Mandalorian) warns Mando that his attachment to Grogu will be bad for the little kid’s Jedi training. Luke gives Grogu the choice of taking up Yoda’s lightsaber or returning to his adventures with Mando. It’s no surprise—considering we never saw Grogu in the Episode VII, VIII, or IX and The Mandalorian would be much more boring without the little guy—that Grogu chooses to be reunited with his adoptive dad, Mando. The two fly off together.

Ahsoka

Around 9-10 ABY

Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano in The MandalorianLucasFilm

LucasFilm has begun production on another Mandalorian spinoff series, this one focusing on the former Jedi Ahsoka. The studio has remained tight-lipped about the plot of the series. But Christensen is confirmed to appear as Darth Vader, which means no doubt Ahsoka will be contending with the Force in some capacity. Given the timing, the series could also show glimpses of Luke Skywalker setting up his Jedi training program.

Episode VII: The Force Awakens

34 ABY

Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens.Lucasfilm Ltd.

Thirty years after the defeat of the Empire, the equally fascistic First Order has risen in its place. General Leia Organa leads the Resistance but is also on the hunt for her brother, Luke Skywalker, who has gone missing. A cocky but charming pilot named Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) receives a map with Luke’s location and hides it in a droid called BB-8 before he’s captured by stormtroopers under the command of bad guy Kylo Ren (Adam Driver). An orphaned scavenger named Rey finds BB-8 and saves the droid. (If the whole map-hidden-in-a-droid gambit sounds awfully familiar, buckle up: director J.J. Abrams loves to rehash an old storyline.)

The First Order boasts a new superweapon: Starkiller Base, which is, for all intents purposes, a big Death Star. Disillusioned stormtrooper Finn (John Boyega) frees Poe, and they escape on a plane. They crash land, and Finn assumes Poe is dead. He runs into Rey and together they escape an attack from the First Order on an old junky ship called…the Millennium Falcon. (What are the odds?) Han Solo and Chewbacca, track down their old ship, and explain to Finn and Rey that Luke attempted to rebuild the Jedi Order but exiled himself after one of his apprentices, Kylo Ren—the son of Han and Leia—turned to the Dark Side and slaughtered the other young Jedi. (See: child murdering on your Bingo board.)

Rey gets a bunch of hints she’s strong with the Force, including being called to the lightsaber once used by both Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker. When Kylo captures her, she escapes using a Jedi mind trick. Han confronts Kylo, and Kylo kills his father. Poe, who is still alive, is able to destroy whatever weak spot is again inexplicably built into the bad guy’s base. Kylo and Rey fight, and Rey gives Kylo an intense face scar in the duel. Rey follows the map to Luke’s location on the oceanic planet Ahch-To, where she presents him with his old lightsaber.

Read More: How J.J. Abrams Brought Back Star Wars

Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

34 ABY

star-wars-the-last-jedi-princess-leia
General Leia (Carrie Fisher) in Star Wars: The Last JediLucasfilm Ltd

Luke takes the lightsaber Rey handed him and tosses it over his shoulder. He now believes the Jedi should end—a sentiment that launched 1000 nerdy Star Wars thinkpieces. At R2-D2’s urging, Luke reluctantly agrees to train Rey. Meanwhile, Rey starts Force communicating with Kylo and things get, umm, steamy. Kylo tries to lure Rey with the promise of helping her figure out her parentage and with his bare torso. Rey becomes convinced Kylo can be redeemed and travels to where Kylo is staying with the Sith Lord Snoke (Andy Serkis) .

Meanwhile, the First Order now has the ability to track the Resistance through hyperspace. Kylo fires on Leia’s ship, but Leia survives using the Force. Poe sends Finn and a mechanic named Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) on a pretty pointless mission to a casino planet. They are captured and brought onto the same ship where Rey is confronting Snoke. Snoke orders Kylo to kill Rey, but instead Kylo kills Snoke. Rey hopes that means Kylo has become good, but no dice: Kylo asks Rey to rule the galaxy with him. He gives a pretty compelling “let the past die” speech, which will enrage or delight you, depending on how bored or enraptured you are by the cyclical Skywalker saga.

Kylo also reveals that Rey’s parents are nobodies—but the audience doesn’t buy it because that’s not how the Star Wars stories work, for better or worse. Rey escapes. Luke projects his Force Ghost onto the planet Crait where the First Order has tracked the Resistance to distract Kylo while the rest of the rebels escape. Luke, exhausted, dies.

Read More: Why It’s Problematic The Rise of Skywalker Retconned The Last Jedi

Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker

35 ABY

John Boyega Rise of Skywalker
John Boyega as Finn in Star Wars: The Rise of SkywalkerJonathan Olley—Lucasfilm

Emperor Palpatine is back! Somehow…how exactly? Why did he create Snoke instead of just ruling the First Order himself? Unclear. Don’t think about it too much.

Anyway, Palpatine somehow has a secret armada of Star Destroyers (basically, thousands of Death Stars, because why not?). Kylo captures Chewie. In an attempt to save the Wookie, Rey accidentally destroys a First Order transport with Force lightning, which is not terrific because Force Lightening is a Sith thing. You see where this is going. Rey leads a mission to save Chewie on Kylo’s Star Destroyer and finds out from Kylo that she is Palpatine’s granddaughter. Dun dun dun (again). Kylo and Rey duel. Leia uses the Force to call to Kylo, and in that moment Rey is able to impale him. Rey senses that Leia, too, is dying and is overcome with guilt: She heals Kylo, which I guess is a power she has now.

Luke’s Force Ghost gives Rey Leia’s lightsaber. Meanwhile, Kylo chats with the ghost of Han Solo, throws his lightsaber into the sea, and takes back the name Ben Solo. Rey and Ben confront Palpatine while the Resistance fights Palpatine’s insanely large fleet. Palpatine tries to drain Rey and Ben of their powers so that he can rise again as supreme ruler. Rey hears the voices of past Jedi encouraging her and deflects Paplatine’s Force Lightning with Luke and Leia’s lightsabers. She kills Palpatine before dying herself. Ben uses the Force to revive Rey, and they kiss before he dies. In theory, Rey could use the Force to resurrect Ben and die again herself, but the whole death-and-resurrection cycle could go on for awhile. Instead Rey travels to Tatooine to bury Luke and Leia’s lightsabers and claim the name Skywalker for herself.

Read More: All the Questions We Still Have After Watching Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

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Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com