Expectations were high for the final film in Star Wars' Skywalker saga, The Rise of Skywalker. And boy, did the film really miss the mark in almost every way that mattered. A lot happened in this movie, but whether any of it - or the sequel trilogy overall - actually mattered is still up for debate.
While the jury may be out on the meaning of the sequel trilogy, and what value it actually added to the Star Wars franchise on the whole, we've tried to look for answers in the original trilogy, prequel trilogy, and previous sequel trilogy films. What pieces of foreshadowing did we miss? Here are ten quotes that stuck out.
10 "Always two there are; no more, no less. A master and an apprentice."
The Sith rule of two is a piece of Star Wars history often discussed in the prequel trilogy and expanded works. The Rise of Skywalker offers a loose adaptation of this ideology, in the depiction of the toxic dynamic between the evil Emperor Palpatine and his unwitting granddaughter, Rey.
According to the film's confusing storyline, Palpatine has always been lurking in the shadows, waiting for his granddaughter to return to his side. Why he didn't pursue turning his own son into the Emperor is never explained, but it's clear that Palpatine sees himself as the Master to Rey's Apprentice - an Apprentice that will soon replace him.
9 "You were the chosen one. It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them. Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness."
The concept of bringing balance to the Force is one that has been discussed frequently within the context of the sequel trilogy. Ostensibly, Anakin Skywalker was once the Chosen One who brought balance to the Force, when - as the briefly redeemed Darth Vader - he overthrew his Master Emperor Palpatine and killed him to save his son, Luke.
But as The Rise of Skywalker reveals, the Emperor somehow survived, though the film avoids providing an explanation by stating this fact outright in the opening crawl. The film's final act offers an exploration of the identity of a new Chosen One to bring balance to the Force, with Rey ultimately overpowering and destroying Palpatine once and for all. Well, hopefully.
8 "No one's ever really gone."
When Luke Skywalker told his twin sister Leia Organa this meaningful line at the end of The Last Jedi, it was meant in a hopeful way to offer her comfort about the potential of her son, Ben, still returning from the dark side. The Rise of Skywalker does follow through on that motif, allowing for Ben to be redeemed and return to the light.
But it also uses the refrain in different ways, both satisfying (such as the return of Rebel Alliance heroes Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles) and deeply problematic (the poorly explored return of Palpatine and the completely out of character Luke).
7 "Whomever you're waiting for on Jakku, they're never coming back. But there's someone who still could."
The fact that the sequel trilogy wound up becoming so obsessed with Rey's parentage, to the point of denying her her own power and identity, is deeply disappointing. But as frustrating a choice as that may have been, there were seeds planted early on in The Force Awakens that someone connected to Rey's lineage would return.
Unfortunately, that someone also turns out to be none other than her evil grandfather, Emperor Palpatine. But other figures, though not connected to Rey's past, also make significant returns in the end, including the return of Kylo Ren to his true identity Ben Solo.
6 "Wonderful girl. Either I'm going to kill her, or I'm beginning to like her."
It's hard to find many threads that connect between the original trilogy and sequel trilogy in the end, seeing as the sequel trilogy truly veered off into uncharted territory with its final chapter. But one cheeky moment of foreshadowing can be found in Han Solo's early assessment of his burgeoning relationship with Leia Organa, and how it would predict his son's own romantic future.
When Rey and Kylo Ren first met, their relationship was decidedly that of a heroine and villain. But over time, it became clear that killing Rey was never something he actually considered, as he found himself starting to like Rey in a much more romantic way - and vice versa.
5 "The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is ahead."
The sequel trilogy overall has a very tenuous relationship with the nature of the past, given the ultimately confusing messages of the franchise regarding the history of all that came before. But Maz Kanata was right that the belonging Rey so desperately sought out was never in the past with her blood family, but instead ahead of her with the family she would choose.
In the end, that found family seems to have been in the form of her various mentors - Han Solo in The Force Awakens, the curmudgeonly Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi, and Leia Organa in The Rise of Skywalker - as well as her dyad partner and lover, Ben Solo.
4 "You cannot deny the truth that is your family."
Well, this quote certainly applies to part of The Rise of Skywalker, but flies directly in the fact of another part of it. On the one hand, Rey is allowed to deny the truth that is her Palpatine family, and even allowed to usurp the identity of a family that was never actually her own.
But when it comes to Kylo Ren, Lor San Tekka was right to observe that he would never truly be able to deny his own family forever. It's through the memory of his own father, and the Force connection with his own mother, that Ben Solo finally finds the strength and vulnerability he needs to redeem himself and return.
3 "You have too much of your father's heart in you, young Solo."
Similarly, it's been suggested all throughout the trilogy that the connection between Kylo Ren and the father that he killed, Han Solo, would be his undoing. While some fans may have clamored for him to die because of his murder of his father, it was clear that this wasn't the message the trilogy ever believed in.
Instead, it's Han's unconditional love for his son, even in the afterlife, that gets through to the Ben Solo lingering underneath the surface of the Kylo Ren persona. Han was right when he said, "Kylo Ren is dead. My son is alive." Well, for a while, at least.
2 "You underestimate Skywalker. And Ben Solo. And me. It will be your downfall."
We're not going to begin to touch the confusing nature of Snoke's creation, given the vat of Snoke clones that the film briefly shows. But we're going to take at face value the fact that Palpatine was the one pulling the strings behind Supreme Leader Snoke, and it makes Rey's warning words to the past First Order leader in The Last Jedi all the more prescient.
It wasn't just Snoke who underestimated Rey, Ben Solo, and Luke Skywalker. It was Emperor Palpatine, too, across the entire saga. Luke Skywalker led to his first demise, and Rey and Ben together played crucial roles in ending him once and for all.
1 "This is not going to go the way you think."
Maybe this last entry is a little bit on the snarky side, but it's absolutely true, too. The Rise of Skywalker did not at all go the way anyone could have expected. The movie defied expectations, for better and for the much, much, much worse.
It's a movie that creates conflicts and paradoxes, then never resolves them. It's a movie that directly defies all that came before it, then smugly acts as though it never did anything wrong. It's an ambitious movie, but it likely won't be remembered as a good one.
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