Star Wars: 3 lessons The Rise of Skywalker failed to learn from The Last Jedi

2. “This is not going to go the way you think.”

In many ways, Star Wars: The Last Jedi was all about subverting expectations, which certainly played a role in how divisive the film became amongst fans. Poe Dameron’s “hop in an X-Wing and blow something up” attitude was severely challenged, and he was shown the error of his ways by the wise and heroic Admiral Holdo.

Luke Skywalker had been warped by his own failures training Ben Solo and ultimately creating Kylo Ren. While Rey is trying to convince him to help her, saying “We need your help. We need the Jedi Order back. We need Luke Skywalker.”

However, Luke pushes back against that. “You think what? I’m gonna walk out with a laser sword and face down the whole First Order?” Luke offers what is presented as an absurd possibility. In the end, we actually see Luke facing down Kylo Ren and The First Order, but it’s not what it appears to be.

Luke isn’t even there, but is instead using the Force to project his image for that final battle with Kylo Ren. He offers the much-needed distraction, which occupies Ren and The First Order long enough for The Resistance to escape and be “the spark that will light the fire that will burn The First Order down.”

No matter how much The Last Jedi tried to teach it, The Rise of Skywalker refused to learn it. Rather than using the subverted expectations and changes that The Last Jedi used, The Rise of Skywalker actively ran away from most of the plot decisions made in the movie. Abrams wanted The Rise of Skywalker to go as close to the way fans might think as he possibly could, which ultimately gave us a lukewarm mess of a film.