Please note, there will be various spoilers throughout this article. 

Overall, Disney has done a pretty decent job with the Star Wars franchise. The movies themselves are done well, and I find all of the Disney Star Wars movies enjoyable. The Rise of Skywalker was no exception, and through the first three quarters of the movie I was almost ready to say it was my favorite Star Wars movie in the sequel series…but of course, leave it to Disney to mess things up. 

Before I slam Disney, I want to talk about the parts of The Rise of Skywalker that were absolutely brilliant. The movie opens up with a slow motion battle scene of Kylo Ren fighting through an army to get a Sith cube which serves as a map to lead him to the planet of the Sith. Outside of the cube there was nothing else important to the plot, but the visuals were epic and made the scene memorable.

Another scene that I feel like I shouldn’t have liked but absolutely loved is when Poe Dameron lightspeed jumps in the Falcon to escape the TIE Fighters…but of course Disney messed up the scene with the mere fact that the TIE Tighters were able to chase the Falcon. How would TIE Fighters follow the Millenium Falcon while jumping in random directions through space at lightspeed? I don’t think a TIE Fighter, being a short distance fighter, could keep up. I’m not buying it, but I’ll let it slide because I enjoyed the scene. 

Throughout the movie it is hinted at that Finn, a former stormtrooper, is force sensitive; something I’ve been expecting since he held his own in a lightsaber battle with Kylo Ren. At that moment in The Force Awakens, I knew Finn was destined to be a Jedi. It is an idea that I’m glad Disney included, even though I expected it. 

Similarly with Finn, Rey’s heritage provides a valid reason for her being able to best Kylo Ren in a duel before she was even trained in the Jedi Arts. It was unexpected and truly shocking when Rey was revealed to be a Palpatine, and I think that was one of the better decisions Disney has made. 

However, at the end of the movie, Disney has Rey change her name to Skywalker. Why Disney? Just why? She isn’t a Skywalker. You can’t just make her a Skywalker by sending her to Tatooine and writing in a cheesy scene where she tells an inhabitant she is a Skywalker. Sure, Luke and Leia gave their approval, but she never even had a connection with Luke. 

I don’t think Disney is considering the plot or lore, but merely adding in scenes like this for cinematic effect is unacceptable. Making the ‘Skywalker” in Rise of Skywalker be about Rey might be the worst mistake of the movie.

Wait, I take that back. The ‘be with me’ scene, where Rey says “be with me” in a way that makes it sound like she’s just acting, takes the cake as the worst scene in the movie. Though for some people, that might be their favorite scene. Of course, I think it’s cool getting lines from the likes of Star Wars legends such as Mace Windu, Qui-Gon Jinn, Kanan Jarrus, Anakin Skywaker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, and others. 

What I hate about the scene is driven by two lines: “I am all the Jedi,” said by Rey, and “I am all the Sith,” said by Sidious. First of all, Sith can’t live on as a Force Ghost, that is a power limited to a Jedi. There’s no possible way that Palpatine could be all the Sith, even if he was on the ancient Sith planet of Exogol, which was a planet created by Disney. 

To make it even worse, there is an actual Sith planet; Korriban, later known as Moraband. Why not just stick to the history instead of creating a new planet? In reality Disney is taking control of Star Wars without taking the history into consideration. 

Ben Solo and Rey Palpatine’s (I refuse to call her a Skywalker) force connection, which Disney explains as a “Force Dyad,” is such a ludicrous idea that’s it’s essentially just a joke. While the connection did appear in The Last Jedi, it was not as prominent and seemed like nothing more than Luke and Vader’s connection in The Empire Strikes Back. But in The Rise of Skywalker, Disney decided it would be okay for them to have a full out lightsaber battle through a Force Connection. 

How would that even work? A Force Dyad is not a part of the original lore, and it just feels forced with Disney introducing it at this point, and further strengthens my point that Disney is sacrificing the story for cinematic impact.

Last but not least, I want to go over the ending ending scenes that were so filled with mistakes that I feel like Disney purposefully chose to drop the ball. When Rey goes to confront Palpatine in the Sith lair (while it is creepy, it honestly feels like they overdramatized it), it opens up a Pandora’s Box of unexplainable events. 

The Ren vs. Knights of Ren battle (if you call it a battle), which could have been the best scene of the movie, turned out to be short-lived and barely worth mentioning. 

Then we see Sidious easily beat Rey and Ben, and then we get hit with the ‘be with me’ scene, and Rey (turns into all the Jedi? what?) magically gets up and kills Sidious, but 5 seconds later she dramatically dies, then Ben brings her back to life and they kiss and Ben also dramatically dies but for real this time. 

I don’t know what was wrong with J.J. Abrams when he wrote that scene. I would have rather Ben lived so we could see him as a true Jedi, but there’s not going to be another entry for a long time, so I guess it doesn’t matter at this point. 

Throughout the release of Disney’s Star Wars movies, many Star Wars fans have been completely negative, but I always kept a “sure it’s not as good as the originals, but it’s still great” attitude. 

After watching The Rise of Skywalker, I’m not as positive as I was previously. Disney hasn’t just transformed Star Wars into something it’s not, it’s thrown away the lore and history behind the series. 

So far, each entry in Disney’s Star Wars trilogy has broken the rules of Star Wars even more than the one before it. I do like the sequels, and I will still watch the upcoming Star Wars movies Disney releases, but I will no longer count them as part of the story that I love. 

Disclaimer: this article is not intended to negatively reflect Disney in any way, but merely the opinions of a dedicated Star Wars fan who wishes the original lore stayed intact.