Star Wars: Let’s talk about the ending to The Rise of Skywalker

Among the many issues present in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, its ending was the most significant.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. If you wish not to have the movie spoiled, I suggest you turn back.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a flawed film, and incredibly so. Among the many issues this film presents, its confusing and downright senseless ending should be considered chief among them.

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The film ends with Rey on Luke Skywalker’s moisture farm on Tatooine, where she inexplicably buries Luke’s and Leia’s lightsabers deep in the sand before igniting her newly-built yellow lightsaber. Soon after, an older woman walks by and asks Rey her name, which is when she looks to the distance and sees the force ghosts of Luke and Leia and adopts their last name for, again, reasons unknown. There are several issues with this ending.

First, Rey shares no connection to Tatooine or Luke’s moisture farm. Even Luke barely had an attachment to his home, evident by his shrugging off the brutal deaths of his aunt and uncle in A New Hope. He leaves Tatooine in Episode IV and never returns. Why, then, did Rey go back there? If it was to settle there, that wasn’t clear. And, if it was to bury the lightsabers, why? It had no apparent purpose other than (maybe) unclear symbolism. Rey’s time on Tatooine was ultimately predicated on nostalgia, which was not utilized well in the movie.

Second, Rey adopting the Skywalker name suggested that she is the Skywalker that rose, even though it was obviously Ben Solo who did so. He finally rejected the Dark Side and transferred his life force into Rey, which saved her but cost Ben his life.

Finally, he accepted that Ben Solo was not dead and that he was destined to do good, not evil. He was the Skywalker who rose by helping destroy the Sith and saving Rey. His death meant something; Rey’s taking of the family name did not.

While these are the largest two problems with the ending, other smaller issues need to be addressed. Why did Rey bring BB-8 to Tatooine? That isn’t her droid — it’s Poe’s. Bringing R2-D2 to Tatooine would have been more fitting to the overall story.

Also, Rey had a poor relationship with Luke and an unconvincing one with Leia. The moment when Rey turned to face them and decided to take their name was simply the culmination of underdeveloped relationships between characters.

Lastly, Ben Solo should have come back as a force ghost in that scene. Although he was a Solo, he had the Skywalker blood and was the Skywalker who rose. He manifested himself into the Force after transferring his remaining life energy to save Rey, so it would have been a sweet moment to see him return at the very end.

Although The Rise of Skywalker has many issues, its ending is easily the worst. It was rushed, purposeless, and suffered from severe directorial oversight.

What did you think of the ending of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker?