Star Wars Sequels: Rey should’ve been the villain, not Kylo Ren

Reasons Rey should’ve been the villain: It wouldn’t have been such a dark ending for the Skywalker family

While the ending of the sequel trilogy gives a nice nod to the Skywalkers by making the heir of Palpatine declaring herself a Skywalker, it’s hard to forget that these series of films wiped out the entire Skywalker line, and killed off the heroes many of us grew up with.

Before we get into the actually Skywalkercide these films take part in the sequel trilogy is basically a story of failure for the heroes of the original trilogy. By having Ben fall to the Dark Side, our heroes from Episodes IV-IX all end up failing in their later years. Leia and Han fail as parents, and in their marriage, and Luke fails as a teacher. This is a very depressing outcome for this group, and if Rey was the villain, we wouldn’t have had to become familiar with this dire and bleak future.

Okay, now onto the actual decimation of the Skywalkers. In The Force Awakens, Han Solo is killed by his son. In The Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker sacrifices himself to give the Resistance a chance to escape, and in The Rise of Skywalker, it’s Leia who sacrifices herself to bring her son back to the light. After he’s redeemed, Ben sacrifices himself to save Rey. So the entire Skywalker bloodline comes to an end.

This is a very disturbing and dark ending for the story of this family, who while doing their damage, also saved the galaxy from Imperial tyranny. If the story were different and Rey was the villain, perhaps the Skywalker lineage could’ve lived on.

Rey would’ve been the one to go through a redemption arc with Ben and his love for her, being what brings her to the light. Maybe she gives her life to save Ben or maybe they both would’ve lived, but at least we would’ve had one true blood relative of the Skywalker clan still living at the trilogy’s closure.

What are some other reasons why Rey being the villain would’ve made the sequel trilogy better?