- 8 hours ago
Reflecting back on the biggest head-scratchers of the final trilogy in the famed Skywalker Saga.
Category
đŸ“º
TVTranscript
00:00With the final installment of the Skywalker Saga now well in our rearview mirror,
00:03fans have had time to digest the Star Wars sequel trilogy and explore the positives and negatives.
00:08One thing that all three of these latest jaunts to a galaxy far far away, at least in the Skywalker
00:13Saga sense, have in common is that there are several undeniable plot holes strewn throughout
00:17them. And while some of these plot holes may have been elaborated on and explained in recent comic
00:21books and novels, not everybody who watches the sequel trilogy will be privy to said comics and
00:26books. With that in mind then, I'm Sean Ferrick for WhatCultureStarWars and here are 10 major plot
00:31holes in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Number 10. The Reconstruction of Luke's Lightsaber
00:37Before the Rise of Skywalker, the last time we saw Luke Skywalker's trusty lightsaber was it
00:41being pulled to pieces by Rey and Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi. But magically, by Episode 9 of
00:46the Skywalker Saga, Luke's weapon was in perfect working order. If you remember, The Last Jedi
00:50saw a forced tug-of-war of sorts that saw Luke's lightsaber pulled into a million tiny pieces,
00:55without even the mildest of explanations, this was all forgotten about by the time we see Rey with
00:59his exact weapon in The Rise of Skywalker. One could maybe attempt to make the argument that Rey
01:04repaired the lightsaber herself at some point between the events of The Last Jedi and The Rise
01:07of Skywalker, but that argument can be immediately countered by how the closing moments of The Rise
01:12of Skywalker imply that Rey has yet to ever build or in this case reconstruct a lightsaber. So just how
01:18did Luke's lightsaber get repaired? Who repaired it? How were they able to repair it? And how is it
01:23flawlessly back in one perfectly working piece?
01:269. The Millennium Falcon's Fuel
01:29Seeing the Millennium Falcon fire up an escape from Jakku in The Force Awakens is one of the most
01:33breathtaking set pieces in the most recent Star Wars trilogy. Still, there is one huge plot hole
01:38in amongst all of this. The audience has led to believe that the Falcon has been left to rot in
01:41the desert land of Jakku, with the old girl now merely a big ol' hunk of junk that's long since past its
01:46best days, which makes it all the more head scratching that Rey, Finn and BB-8 power up this most
01:51legendary of vessels and use it to outrun the nefarious First Order. If, as we've first been
01:56told, the Falcon has indeed spent years or even decades in the dusty and coarse landscape of Jakku,
02:01surely it would take just a little while longer to get her back up and running,
02:04even if it was possible to get her working whatsoever. Added to that, just how is their
02:09fuel still in the Millennium Falcon when we're reintroduced to the ship in The Force Awakens?
02:13Even if the Falcon happened to be dumped with a full tank of fuel, that fuel would have dried up and
02:17evaporated way before Rey, Finn and BB-8 stumbled across this bridge that once did the castle run
02:22in less than 12 parsecs. Number 8. Those Force Voices
02:26One of the most impressive, fan-pleasing moments of The Rise of Skywalker saw Rey visited by the voices
02:31of a whole host of fallen Jedi as she's being pummeled by Emperor Palpatine. From what we know,
02:36said fallen Jedi include Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Mace Windu, Qui-Kon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker,
02:42Ahsoka Tano, Kanan Jarrus, Adi Gallia, Luminara Undul and Aayla Secura. The element of all of this
02:48that doesn't make sense, however, is tied to Qui-Gon. Back in The Phantom Menace, Liam Neeson's
02:53Qui-Gon explained how he was the first Jedi in centuries who would be able to communicate through
02:57the Force following his death. This means that Qui-Gon gets a pass on being able to speak to Rey,
03:02but the rest of those Jedi? Not so much. Jinn was killed off before he was able to pass his knowledge
03:07on to any of his fellow Jedi Knights, which would seem to suggest that it would be impossible for
03:12any Jedi other than Qui-Gon to be able to speak from beyond the grave. You could possibly say that
03:16somebody as wise as Yoda could likely teach themselves this particular trick, but it still
03:20feels questionable to have had so many Jedi have this ability that such a big deal was made out of
03:25Qui-Gon Jinn being the first Jedi for generations to be able to pull this trick off. Now it must be said
03:29that his cameo in the Obi-Wan series goes a little bit toward explaining this, but even that took place
03:37after the deaths of many of these Jedi Knights. 7. The Idiocy of Palpatine
03:43Considering that he's lived for hundreds of years and is a supreme being with a vast intellect,
03:47the Emperor ended the sequel trilogy looking like a complete and utter idiot. The famed saying about
03:52the definition of stupidity being repeating your actions but expecting different results
03:56is something that Palpatine is culpable of in The Rise of Skywalker. Despite his apparent genius,
04:00this Sith Lord is made up to look like a total boob as he again falls back to using his lightning
04:05abilities on Rey. Back in Revenge of the Sith Palpatine was left disfigured after just such
04:09an attack on Mace Windu saw this lightning fired back at him, and that is again the source of his
04:13ultimate demise in The Rise of Skywalker, this time with Rey pulling inspiration from Windu's playbook.
04:18Of course this is even without taking into account how well his lightning attack on Luke Skywalker went
04:22in Return of the Jedi, back then it was the reprieved Anakin Skywalker who struck Palpatine while he was
04:27mid-flow on yet another blast of lightning. Speaking in a narrative sense, Palpatine's actions at the end of
04:31Episode 9 make him look like a total bonehead and makes you question why he'd repeat something that
04:36has so clearly failed in previous movies. 6. But can Palpatine just return again?
04:41Upon the first teaser trailer for The Rise of Skywalker culminating with the ever familiar eerie
04:46chilling cackles of Palpatine, the collective Star Wars fandom lost its mind, this of course being the
04:52one and the same Palpatine who was last seen, at least in a chronological sense, thrown to his death
04:56by a reformed Anakin Skywalker at the climax of Return of the Jedi. But just how did the most notorious Sith
05:01survive his Episode 6 demise? And just where has he been in the decades since then? Truth be told,
05:06it's never actually fully explained in The Rise of Skywalker just how the Emperor is alive and well.
05:10Dominic Monaghan's Bowman kin even hazily questions this resurrection at one point,
05:14suggesting it could be dark science, cloning or some sort of Sith shenanigans. The point being,
05:19no finite answer is given to just why Palpatine isn't as dead as we were so long led to believe he was.
05:24At one point, Kylo Ren's bravado of saying he'll kill Palpatine is outright mocked by the Sith Lord,
05:29as he kindly informs Kylo that he's died before. So, if the reason for Palpatine's return here is
05:34never properly explained, then what's to say that his apparent death at the hands of Rey and
05:38thousands of Jedi who she channelled would stop any future Palpatine return?
05:425. Rey's Erratic Force Detection Skills
05:46Granted, The Force Awakens featured a Rey slowly coming to the realisation of just what potential
05:50powers lie at her literal fingertips. But by the time of The Rise of Skywalker, viewers see a Rey who has
05:56pretty much mastered the Force and is at one with her abilities, well bar that lack of an explanation
06:00over the reconstruction of Luke's lightsaber. With that in mind then, there are a couple of
06:04glaring head scratching moments in Episode 9. Firstly, how did Rey not feel that Chewbacca wasn't
06:09actually dead? In amongst all of the presences that we have seen her be able to feel through the Force,
06:14surely Rey would have known all along that Chewie wasn't actually as dead as we were meant to believe,
06:19particularly as later in the movie we see Rey easily detect the Wookiees in her vicinity.
06:23Elsewhere, this same flaw can be pinpointed when Kylo Ren appears on the Fallen Death story.
06:27This catches Rey off guard when it should be even easier for her to detect Kylo due to him likewise
06:32being tethered to the Force. Considering how many other times we see Rey use the Force to sense the
06:36presence of others, these two examples sort of make a mockery of that.
06:414. What was the point of the Knights of Ren? Not necessarily a plot hole per se, but it's more of a
06:46what even was the point situation here. In the lead to The Force Awakens release, the Knights of Ren were
06:51all over the marketing material for the movie. Looking like nothing but pure, unadulterated,
06:56unstoppable badasses, the mere visual of these six warriors at Kylo Ren's side had intrigue and
07:02anticipation levels amped up to ridiculous levels amongst long time franchise fans. Despite all of
07:07the hype surrounding the Knights of Ren, they were barely in The Force Awakens, completely absent from
07:11The Last Jedi, and were simply around in The Rise of Skywalker to serve as fodder for Ben Solo to take
07:17down toward the film's climax. So after all of the badass imagery, and after all of the mystique,
07:21after all of the hope for seeing just what these group of warriors were capable of,
07:25the Knights of Ren were a pointless addition to the sequel trilogy. It's almost as if they were
07:28created purposely to sell a bunch of toys and merchandise, or that the sequel films had so many
07:33cooks in the proverbial kitchen that the creative waters of the trilogy were left muddied and confused.
07:383. Poe's Survival? After a big screen break of just over 10 years, Star Wars raced back to cinemas
07:45across the globe in spectacular fashion with the opening act of The Force Awakens. Used to set up
07:49the four core characters Rey, Kylo Ren, Poe Dameron and Finn of this new trilogy, the film hit the
07:55ground running in glorious fashion, and key to that was Poe and Finn hijacking a TIE Fighter as they looked
08:00to escape the wrath of the First Order. That escape wouldn't quite go to plan and said TIE Fighter was
08:05shot down and left in a burning heap. While Finn managed to escape the crash landing vessel taking Poe's
08:10jacket and the name he gave to the former stormtrooper in the process, it looked far less promising for
08:15Oscar Isaac's character. As The Force Awakens unfolds, we would eventually see that Poe Dameron
08:19actually survived the TIE Fighter crash, although that doesn't really make any sense. It's never
08:24explained how Poe survived, and it's not even realistically feasible for him to have survived.
08:28Going even further down the rabbit hole, the original plan of The Force Awakens' explosive opening
08:32was actually to introduce Poe in a major way before killing him off as we arrive in Jakku.
08:37Both Isaac and director JJ Abrams have confirmed this, and rumours suggest that Poe's role may have
08:42been expanded once an on-set injury to Harrison Ford hit plans hard for Han Solo having a larger part
08:47to play. Reading between the lines here, it appears as if nobody could really be bothered to come up
08:51with a reasonable explanation as to how Poe would have survived in this rejaped script.
08:56Number 2. The further muddling of The Chosen One
08:59For the longest time, it was open to interpretation that the famed Chosen One of Star Wars lore was either
09:04Anakin Skywalker or Luke Skywalker. Some would even offer up Leia Organa as possibly being the true Chosen One,
09:10but now with the sequel Star Wars trilogy behind us,
09:13further questions have been thrown up where this topic is concerned.
09:16By all accounts and purposes, the most likely person to be the Chosen One was Anakin.
09:19This almost Biblical figure was said to bring balance to the Force, which we saw Anakin,
09:23as Darth Vader, do by killing off the Emperor at the close of Return of the Jedi.
09:27Some of the wisest beings in the history of the galaxy worked solely on the belief that Anakin was indeed
09:32the Chosen One, yet that idea was muddied once again by the events of the sequel trilogy.
09:36Outright plot hole? Maybe, maybe not, but the main head scratcher here is that the story of the sequel
09:42trilogy only served to draw up more confusion about the narrative established in the six Skywalker
09:47saga movies prior to this latest triumvirate.
09:50Number 1. Kylo's Kefbeer Escape
09:53While the rise of Skywalker may not have split opinion quite as much as The Last Jedi,
09:58the final part of the Skywalker saga still had its fair share of detractors. No matter what your thoughts
10:03on the film though, it cannot be denied that the Kefbeer battle between Kylo Ren and Rey on the
10:07fallen second Death Star is a phenomenal piece of cinema. That said, this ocean fight did have one
10:13ginormous flaw. After Rey had nabbed Kylo's ride and with all other vehicles suggested to be merely
10:18useless decayed relics, there is seemingly no way whatsoever that Kylo could have possibly got off
10:23that part submerged Death Star, let alone make it off the planet of Kefbeer. Still, make it off Kefbeer,
10:28Kylo did. After a heart to heart meeting with the spirit of his father, the rechristened Ben Solo
10:33managed to make it to Exegol just in the nick of time to join Rey in a showdown with Palpatine.
10:38How Ben got there, we're never told, and that is something that's since stuck in the craw of many
10:42of Star Wars fun.
Comments