Star Wars: 4 best and worst moments from The Rise of Skywalker
We look back at four of the best and worst moments in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which is now available to stream on Disney+.
For Star Wars Day, Disney surprised fans by releasing The Rise of Skywalker on Disney Plus. The finale of The Skywalker Saga hasn’t exactly received universal praise, but it’s not without merits.
We look at the good and bad of The Rise of Skywalker. Four moments stood out as exactly what they got wrong, but four others showed us what is great about Star Wars and could give you all the warm and powerful feelings that make us love the series.
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Best: Babu Frik and D-O steal the show
It was impossible for me to decide between these two. Babu Frik and D-O are without a doubt the two most wonderful new characters introduced in The Rise of Skywalker. D-O is the first we meet, and he immediately becomes one of the most lovable droids we’ve ever seen.
D-O ends up not only being integral to the plot, but is shown as a droid once hurt by his owner who is now surrounded by people and droids that care about him. The way D-O follows BB-8 around is nothing short of adorable.
On the other hand, there’s the enigmatic and over the top Babu Frik who is needed to extract information from C-3PO. Babu Frik’s fantastic “hey heyyy” moment comes shortly after C-3PO’s emotionally powerful look at his friends before his memory is wiped, adding a lightness that is needed in a tough moment.
Worst: Rey is a Palpatine
Nothing felt more forced in The Rise of Skywalker than the ret-conned revival of Emperor Palpatine and the reveal of Rey being his granddaughter. After the work The Last Jedi did to show us lineage isn’t everything and that the force is for everyone, The Rise of Skywalker walked back into an old Star Wars trope at the first opportunity.
When The Skywalker Saga is at its best, it manages to encapsulate the great things about Star Wars without rehashing the past. Unfortunately, this is the biggest rehash of them all. Just how Luke Skywalker was the son of Darth Vader, Rey has now been pushed into the same old story.
There was far more power in the reveal from The Last Jedi that Rey was no one and had no significant lineage. The idea of a nobody from the desert becoming the Jedi that takes down The First Order is so powerful, but instead we got Rey Palpatine…Skywalker.