Star Wars: The Last Jedi was considered one of the most divisive films in the Skywalker saga. It took great narrative risks in comparison to its relatively safe predecessor, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The final episode in the saga, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was released this weekend and seems to be an amalgamation of the two. It offers the sort of fan service typical of the Disney sequel trilogy, while also retconning perceived mistakes made in its penultimate episode.
Whether or not you believe it fulfills all your Star Wars dreams as the capstone of the nine part Skywalker story will rely in some part on your feelings towards Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Director and co-writer JJ Abrams has stepped in to "repair" much of the wrongs from that film, and even some from Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Here are the 5 things they retconned from Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and 5 they kept in.
10 RETCONNED: SNOKE'S ORIGINS
Ever since he appeared in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Star Wars fans furiously theorized about Supreme Leader Snoke's mysterious origins. It was thought Star Wars: The Last Jedi would provide answers to how a hulking alien so powerful in the dark side appeared after the Emperor's death, but instead he was killed off.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker retcons Snoke's origins in the first five minutes of run time. A ghoulish undead Emperor Palpatine explains that he made Snoke (literally) and set him up as a figurehead, to control the First Order as well as play puppet master to Kylo Ren.
9 KEPT: REY AND KYLO REN'S INCREDIBLE BOND
Star Wars: The Last Jedi revealed a unique Force power unlike anything we'd seen in the Skywalker saga before -an interlinking between two Force sensitive people (Rey and Kylo Ren) that gave them the ability to interact with each other's physical environment despite being lightyears away.
Their incredible bond was kept for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and used in some pretty spectacular ways. Snoke had taken credit for their mind melding, but as we've learned, Snoke's puppeteering was really Palpatine's. He believes he'll use their bond (a dyad in the Force) to twist them to the dark side and siphon their power, but they end up using it against him. Go Reylo!
8 RETCONNED: REY'S HERITAGE
In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, we learn from Kylo Ren in a particularly poignant scene that he knows Rey's parents weren't anyone important. They were junkers, who sold her for drinking money. But she wasn't a nobody to him - he didn't care about her origins, and appealed to her desire to belong by offering her a place at his side.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker reveals that Rey's parents "chose to be nothing", to conceal the very prominent heritage of Rey's father, who was in fact the son of Sheev Palpatine. They didn't want him to get to Rey, so they did what they had to do to protect their child from being corrupted by her grand father.
7 KEPT: REY'S UBER FORCE SENSITIVITY
Ever since Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a certain corner of the Star Wars fandom has been irritated that Rey, despite having had no formal Jedi training, seems adept at Force abilities it takes a significant amount of time to develop. Yet she's utilizing Jedi mind tricks and lightsaber movies like a pro.
This was only heightened in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, when she's levitating entire rock slides instead of a few rocks on Ahch-To. In an effort to quell some fans' ire, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker not only gives us some hardcore training montages, where it's clear Rey is an exceptional fighter, it also reveals she has the ability to use Force lightning.
6 RETCONNED: KYLO'S DARK SIDE PATH
Despite not being a true Sith, Kylo Ren still managed to fulfill a typical Sith right of passage by killing his master, Supreme Leader Snoke in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. He becomes the next Supreme Leader of the First Order, and offer Rey a seat beside him to rule the galaxy together.
In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Ren is still shown to be a savage dark side warrior, but midway through the film, it's made clear he won't be filling in as the next Darth Vader, or even the next Emperor Palpatine. He isn't destined to be the through-line villain of the sequel trilogy, and is given a redemption arc.
5 KEPT: KYLO'S PULL TO LEIA
While he had no problem killing his father, Rebel hero Han Solo, when it came time to pull the trigger on his mother, Leia Organa, the Prince of Star Wars couldn't do it. Leia was still horribly wounded by the attack, but it wasn't due to Kylo, who deep down feels shame and regret for betraying her.
Their bond is dependent on Leia's unwavering faith in the belief her son can be saved. She believes he can be pulled from the brink of the dark side, and she sacrifices herself to make this happen. Because of their connection through the Force and family, he is given the opportunity to be redeemed when Rey saves his life and he has a profound memory of his father.
4 RETCONNED: FINN AND ROSE'S ROMANCE
Rose Tico was a divisive figure in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and her plotline with Finn at Canto Bight with the mysterious codebreaker was one of the least successful of the penultimate film. But her willingness to sacrifice her own life so that Finn could live was a poignant moment.
Rose's sacrifice doesn't matter much in Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, not only because she's given nothing more than a cameo appearance, but because Finn is once again involved in a suicide mission not unlike in the Battle of Crait in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Any romantic feelings explored in that film after their kiss are also completely ignored.
3 KEPT: LEIA'S POWERFUL JEDI STRENGTH
Jaws of Star Wars fans were on the floor when they saw Leia Organa survive the vacuum of deep space in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. It was the most powerful display of Force abilities the princess of Alderaan had ever shown, despite being the twin of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker.
Her powerful strength in the Force is maintained in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker when she uses it to not only continue Rey's training, but also connect to the light in her son, Ben Solo. It's their bond that ignites his desire to turn to the light side and face Palpatine with Rey. She even gets a wonderful flashback scene doing lightsaber training with her brother Luke.
2 RETCONNED: KNIGHTS OF REN
The Knights of Ren were built up to be something special in the sequel trilogy, possibly former pupils of Luke Skywalker who turned against him and sided with Kylo Ren. Their mysterious origins made them intimidating, but their attachment to Kylo Ren (especially given his name) made fans feel as though they'd get more explanation about them in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
This was not to be the case, as they were simply background figures in the film. Later, when Kylo Ren was redeemed and became Ben Solo again, they turned on him as agents of Palpatine, making fans wonder if Palpatine, by way of Snoke, supplied Kylo with them in an early attempt to make him feel powerful.
1 KEPT: GENERAL HUX BEING INCOMPETENT
One of the great indignities of Star Wars: The Last Jedi involved turning General Hux from a terrifying warmonger spouting hate speeches about obliterating the Republic into a mewling lapdog that cringed whenever Kylo Ren reached for a water glass.
Hux was poised to join the august ranks of other sanctimonious Imperial officers, whose dogmatic belief in self-righteous bureaucracy was as chilling as any Sith Lord. He was supposed to be the Grand Moff Tarkin of the sequel generation, but after being the butt of Poe Dameron's jokes, he was unceremoniously dispatched in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker like so much unwanted pocket lint.
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