YMMV / The Rise of Skywalker

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A-D

• Angst? What Angst?:
  • Emperor Palpatine announces to the galaxy that he has returned from the dead, but when the Resistance confirms it's true, most people don't react much beyond "Gee, that sucks" without questioning it further.
  • At the beginning of the movie, Palpatine reveals he was the source of the voices Kylo heard in his mind, including impersonating Kylo's dead grandfather whom he idolizes and emulates. Kylo doesn't visibly react to this revelation and he only thinks about it a few times in the novelization.
  • The destruction of the planet Kijimi gets only a few seconds of screentime, and no character expresses any sadness at the deaths of all those people. Poe once lived there and presumably knew many people there, including his old friend Zorii Bliss, who was seemingly trapped there after giving Poe her means to leave, but even he reacts little to the tragedy.
  • Ex-stormtrooper Jannah doesn't appear bothered about killing stormtroopers and Finn continues to show no angst about it, despite both of them knowing that stormtroopers are brainwashed and others may want to defect like they did.
  • In the film, Ben and Rey react very little to being one in the Force as a "dyad" despite such a revelation being presumably a big deal. Rey also has little reaction to his death despite their supposedly close bond.
  • Ben and the Knights of Ren, who have known and fought alongside each other for several years, battle at the movie's climax. The Knights don't express any shock, disappointment, or outrage at their former boss for betraying them and the First Order with his Heel–Face Turn. Ben kills them all and presses on like they were an afterthought.
  • Temmin "Snap" Wexley, a key character from the Aftermath series that readers have seen grow from a young boy to a hero, is shot down in the final battle. Moments later, Snap's step-father and mentor Wedge Antilles arrives with Lando and does not so much as comment on the death of his stepson. This one might be more understandable given that Snap and Wedge's relationship is relegated entirely to the Expanded Universe, so if the viewer hasn't read the associated books the reference will be lost on them.
• Anvilicious: The film isn't subtle about its "bloodlines don't matter as much as choices" aesop; Luke spells it out for Rey and the audience in the third act, and Rey adopts the family name "Skywalker" in the final scene. Some people suggested the filmmakers retconned Rey's origins from The Last Jedi to hammer this aesop in. J. J. Abrams stated he thought it was more dramatic for Rey to find out she didn't come from nothing, but instead from "the worst place possible" and still chose the light after struggling with the dark side.
• Arc Fatigue: Rey's family background dominates her story arc for the entire trilogy. The Force Awakens alone has Maz outright telling Rey and the audience her parents aren't coming back and she needs to let them go to find belonging elsewhere (being Luke as a teacher and possible parent figure). In The Last Jedi, Rey and the audience are confronted with the knowledge that her parents were junk traders who sold her for drinking money and are irrelevant to the story, rather than anyone important. Rian Johnson said learning she was "nobody" was the most devastating answer Rey could get but that she could now move on, which seemed to close this arc. The Rise of Skywalker instead reopens it by abruptly revealing that Rey is actually the granddaughter of Palpatine. And there are still unanswered questions around her heritage by the end.
• Ass Pull:
  • Hux turning on the First Order and being a spy for the Resistance. Nothing in the film sets up the idea he would betray the First Order except for his grudge against Kylo, which in the previous films had been mostly Played for Laughs. Despite the fact the previous movies and books all made it clear he was a loyal follower of the First Order, this film has him willing to sabotage the entire organization he has been helping lead, all because he doesn't like Kylo being in command of the Order (which Kylo kind of was already, back when he was Snoke's right hand). This is not only out-of-character for Hux, but also counterintuitive for a scheming villain like him because, if the Order gets defeated, Hux himself will be judged and probably executed as a war criminal, and no spy work will probably spare him from such a fate by this point, considering he murdered billions by ordering the destruction of Hosnian Prime as his Establishing Character Moment all the way back in his introductory film. This was likely done not only to replace him with the more competent Allegiant General Pryde after the previous film turned Hux into a joke, who kills him for his treachery, but because he's the only First Order character who would have any impact being revealed as a traitor, but the reveal still casts his motives in a confusing way.
  • The whole revelation of Palpatine coming Back from the Dead and being on Exegol with a huge fleet of Star Destroyers equipped with superlasers is this on so many levels. We've never even heard of Exegol before this movie, even though it's supposedly the "lost homeworld of the Sith", and everyone just acts like it's always been common knowledge. How Palpatine even came back isn't really explained. It's implied cloning was involved, but nothing in the new canon suggested that it was even possible to Body Surf into a new clone before this. Finally, it's never explained how he got all the materials and manpower to build the fleet in the first place. While all of these questions are answered, it's in supplementary material released well after the fact, meaning anyone who doesn't have access to that will be as confused as viewers were before any of it was released.
  • You can almost hear the film contorting itself to retcon Rey's parentage reveal in the last film, from weakly arguing semantics ("They were nobody... because they chose to be.") to outright fudging the details (Kylo wasn't lying when he said Rey's parents were nobody... except Rey said that) to changing the previous film's Gut Punch into unintentional comedy (yes, they sold you into child slavery, but they did it because they loved you.)
• Badass Decay:
  • While Palpatine's Force powers are visually more impressive than in his previous appearances, he's not nearly as cunning and manipulative, and he isn't as challenging in battle since he Came Back Wrong.
  • The Resistance hasn't bounced back from their defeat in The Last Jedi. In The Force Awakens, they were a small but capable army who took out Starkiller Base and multiple First Order flagships; now they're a tiny group of rebels who are well-intentioned but don't have the capacity to take down the First Order alone. They're sidelined at their base for most of the film, and they get curb-stomped in their Last Stand on Exegol before Lando arrives with a civilian fleet he pulled together for them. Although tie-material to the film established the former as gaining additional resources (such as Mon Cal Cruisers in one comic), there’s are missing in evidence in the film proper.
  • Snoke turned out to be a Disc-One Final Boss rather than the Big Bad in The Last Jedi and this film cements it by revealing he was a mere puppet for the true Big Bad, Palpatine.
• Base-Breaking Character: Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, especially given how his story arc ends. Some fans think he makes for a good Tragic Villain with a bittersweet Redemption Equals Death, with many of his fans wishing he'd gotten Redemption Equals Life instead (a Vocal Minority take this to Draco in Leather Pants levels). Then there are fans who feel he's Unintentionally Unsympathetic and doesn't deserve redemption because of his previous actions and attitude (unlike Darth Vader, Kylo has pulled a Redemption Rejection twice and appears to actively aspire to villainy rather than feeling resigned to it).
• Broken Base: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Captain Obvious Aesop: The most reductive message of Rey's arc is "being related to an evil person doesn't guarantee you'll be evil". It's not a bad Aesop exactly but given the context, most viewers hardly expected Rey to turn to the Dark Side just because she discovered her long-lost grandpa is the Dark Lord of the Sith. The worst things she's done are accidentally blowing up an enemy military transport she thought contained her friend (which it didn't, so she just got a convenient burst of power to kill a bunch of baby-kicking enemy troops) and angrily stabbing an unarmed Kylo Ren (who had nearly killed her and whom she immediately heals), almost everyone believes her to be a good person and tells her so (including those that know her family history), the one person who insists the Dark Side is "in [her] nature" is a villain who is heavily projecting, plus she only learned she was related to Palpatine a few hours ago.
• Captain Obvious Reveal: Rey being a Palpatine - while lacking foreshadowing in previous installments - is heavily telegraphed in this film. Palpatine telling Kylo that Rey is "not who [he] thinks she is" in the opening scene is just the first of many heavy-handed 'clues'. By the time Kylo reveals Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter near the third act, many viewers had already guessed the twist would be something along these lines (although some were still caught off guard by the specifics of the reveal, as Palpatine had never been hinted to have children).
• Cliché Storm: By the end of the first act, it's easy to predict how the film will play out since it's similar to Return of the Jedi. The hero is related to a bad guy who wants them to join the dark side. The mentor dies heroically partway through to raise the stakes. The heroes make a last stand against the bad guys who are equipped with planet-destroying weaponry, a bunch of extras/side characters get whacked, but they prevail at the last minute by blowing up the bad guy's main ship and getting an unexpected cavalry arrival (unexpected for the characters, that is). The hero goes to confront the Big Bad alone where they're tempted one last time to join the dark side, and they are saved by the sacrifice of a redeemed villain.
• Common Knowledge:
  • People assume that the Death Star II wreckage is on the Forest Moon of Endor, but it's on a nearby moon called Kef Bir.
  • The World Between Worlds isn't the afterlife of the Star Wars universe, contrary to "Save Ben Solo" tweets that Ben's spirit is there. It's actually a Void Between the Worlds where all of time and space is connected by paths and doorways. Characters cannot arbitrarily change time without consequences; if Rey uses the World Between Worlds to save Ben from dying, it would mean he never restored her life, which in turn means she wouldn’t be around to save him.
  • Since the film has only one line that establishes which of Rey's parents is Palpatine's offspring, people who missed hearing it don't realize the film confirms it's her father and believe it's unspecified.
• Complete Monster: See Palpatine's entry on the franchise page.
• Contested Sequel: Some fans who disliked The Last Jedi liked how The Rise of Skywalker sidelines the events from that film. Among those who disliked The Rise of Skywalker, there were instead some who hated this movie specifically because they believe it ignores the events of The Last Jedi in order to pander to the fans who hated that one. Other fans of the original trilogy dislike both movies (or the entire trilogy), thinking neither is a worthy sequel to the story that concluded in Return of the Jedi. And Legends fans reject the entire Disney continuity. Despite crossing the one billion mark on the box office, it also ended up being by far the lowest grossing of the Sequel Trilogy. It also got far more mixed reviews from professional critics than the first two entries; it has a 52% score on Rotten Tomatoes, while The Force Awakens has 93% and The Last Jedi has 91%.
• Continuity Lockout:
  • For people who didn't read Resistance: Reborn, where Finn says he and Rose decided they were Better as Friends, the abandonment of the Rose/Finn romantic subplot set up in The Last Jedi can be jarring.
  • For film-only audiences, Rey suddenly knowing how to heal injuries with the Force seems out of nowhere. Whether she learned it from Leia or the sacred Jedi texts isn't explained. Force healing has previously appeared in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Mandalorian, and dozens of Star Wars Legends works.
• Critical Dissonance: The movie got the first Rotten rating since The Phantom Menace. Critics found it So Okay, It's Average due to it playing too safe with a perceived overreliance on fanservice. Although it proved a Contested Sequel, took less money and scored lower in the opening audience polls (B+ with Cinemascore), it also did not attract the same levels of online backlash for exactly the same reasons critics found it mediocre. And while some websites like IMDB and Letterboxd had viewer scores placing it below its predecessor, others like Amazon, Metacritic, Google and Rotten Tomatoes have it placed higher.
• Designated Monkey: The First Order Stormtroopers. They're constantly subjected to slapstick violence and other gags, and the heroes generally lack sympathy for them, yet the movie also re-emphasizes that most of them are kidnapped children brainwashed into serving evil. Despite this and the fact two of the heroes are themselves ex-stormtroopers, they're still treated as disposable mooks for the good guys to thoughtlessly blast away.
• Die for Our Ship: A lot of negative responses to Jannah and Zorii Bliss perceive them as Designated Implied Love Interests who were only included to "straighten" the Ho Yay of Fan-Preferred Couple Finn and Poe.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Despite Kylo Ren spending over half the movie as a straight-up villain whose main goal is to usurp Palpatine, fanworks often portray him as a hero who's brainwashed into being a villain, often just needing romantic love to make him better, more heroic than the film's actual heroes, or being a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds who doesn't want power. He's frequently given redemption stories without the film's death part, using the expected alternate universe and fix-its to undo or avert his death.

E-K

• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Allegiant General Enric Pryde quickly became popular despite his very little screen time because he spends that little time being a No-Nonsense Nemesis who is extremely ruthless and efficient. His portrayal by Richard E. Grant quickly cemented this view of a minor character.
  • Whether you love the film or hate the film, almost everyone loves Babu Frik, the little alien dude that has one major scene.
  • Rey's dark doppelganger is onscreen for less than a minute, but she left quite an impression on audiences thanks to being equal parts cool and creepy (and quite attractive, as far as some viewers are concerned). Some audience members were fascinated by her even before the movie came out after her brief, but memorable, appearance in a sizzle reel.
  • Klaud, the slug-like alien mechanic in the first Millennium Falcon scene, got a joke following on /tv/ pre-release before becoming a fan-favorite.
• Epileptic Trees:
  • Prior to release, theories about the title's meaning included retconning Rey into a secret Skywalker, Kylo being redeemed and taking "Skywalker" as a surname, delving into Palpatine's role in the Skywalker origins, and a new generation of Jedi using "Skywalker" as a title for high-ranking masters in Luke's honor.
  • Palpatine says that he wants Rey to kill him so his spirit will transmigrate into Rey. Rey fights him knowing this, he ends up dead, and Rey appears dead when she falls. Since Ben also dies soon after reviving her, there's no one else left who'd be able to read Rey's mind or run some Aura Vision on her to see if there's anything wrong... like Palpatine successfully possessing her body. Maybe that's the reason for Rey's Angst? What Angst? about Ben's death. Although, "Rey" kissed Ben after reviving so that's probably enough proof she's not Palpatine (or so we hope), so this is probably just paranoia... right?
  • The inclusion of Ahsoka Tano and exclusion of Ezra Bridger in the voices of past Jedi kicked off speculation about their fates post-Star Wars Rebels. Neither had a canonical death when the film was released, Ahsoka no longer considered herself a Jedi, but Ezra was a Jedi when he disappeared. Dave Filoni, Ahsoka's creator, remarked that her inclusion in the voices of the Jedi doesn't necessarily mean she died.
  • How Palpatine is alive after dying in Return of the Jedi is ambiguous within the film. The Visual Dictionary and novelization explain it's a mix of Sith mysticism, Darth Plagueis's teachings, and a cloned body. Before that confirmation, theories spread regarding whether or not Palpatine ever died or was just injured, if this is the real Palpatine, and how his resurrection was accomplished. Since he did it before, further theorizing considers if he'll do it again.
• Evil Is Cool:
  • Allegiant General Pryde, as played by the inimitable Richard E. Grant, serves as a welcome call back to the likes of Grand Moff Tarkin, standing out as a sinister, cunning, and competent antagonist.
  • Following him are the Final Order, combining the coolest parts of the First Order with Star Destroyers that have planet destroyers mounted on them.
  • Although he does end up having a Heel–Face Turn, Kylo Ren is possibly the coolest he's ever been in a theatrical Star Wars film. He's traded tantrums for Tranquil Fury and the opening scene features him nearly singlehandedly taking out a Sith cult, marching alone into a creepy temple and threatening Emperor Palpatine. He cleverly uses his Force bond with Rey to fight her over long distances and/or identify her location, and he actually manages to turn the tables on her in a lightsaber duel until his mother's death gives him pause. His repaired mask also looks quite cool, especially with its references to the Japanese art of kintsugi.
• Fan-Disliked Explanation:
  • Some fans feel The Reveal that Palpatine was behind everything again rehashes the previous films, wasn't properly foreshadowed, cheapens the Original Trilogy, and causes some retroactive Fridge Logic and plot holes. Two of the biggest are the lack of explanation for how Palpatine survived his death, and that some of Snoke's actions contradict Palpatine's plans.
  • Some fans dislike the change from Rey's parents selling her off for drinking money to selling her as protection from Palpatine; either way, they left Rey behind with a sleazebag to be abused and starved for over a decade. Fans think changing the motivation for their Parental Abandonment makes them none too bright, as there are many better ways they could've gone about hiding Rey, while Kylo's explanation of "They sold you to protect you" comes off as an awkward attempt to explain the contradictions between The Last Jedi and this film. Revealing that Rey's father is Palpatine's never-previously-mentioned son also comes off as an Ass Pull, and it put the image of Palpatine having sex in people's heads.
  • The novelization reveals that Rey's father is a "not-quite identical" clone of Palpatine rather than his offspring via procreation. Although this alleviates some of the squick over Palpatine procreating the old-fashioned way, it further complicates Rey and Palpatine's relationship; genetically-speaking, she could be considered his daughter rather than his granddaughter despite Palpatine referring to her as such. This raises more questions about her family background instead of providing definitive answers, such as why Palpatine would allow a "weak" and "powerless" clone to survive long enough to procreate. It just doesn't sound like what happened between Jango and Boba Fett.
• Fanfic Fuel: There are some plot threads that offer promise:
  • The story of Palpatine's son/Rey's father is fanfiction hyperfuel, the Squicky image of Palpatine conceiving be damned.
  • The exact nature of a dyad and whether Ben will really stay dead.
  • Those broad hints that Finn is a Force Sensitive? Well, if Rey's gonna rebuild the Jedi or some kind of Force-wielding school, looks like she's already got a pupil.
  • Lando and Jannah are headed off on one epic road trip to discover her past. Even if Jannah doesn't turn out to be a biological daughter, adoption (formal or not) is still a perfectly valid option.
  • Rey telling Finn she had a vision of herself and Kylo Ren on the Sith Throne together. They're basically just handing out Alternate Universe Fic fuel with that one.
• Fanon Discontinuity: The film's opening weekend wasn't even over before many fans declared that it had been jettisoned from headcanon. Some fans take this further and disregard the Sequel Trilogy as a whole, choosing to believe that the Saga still ends with Return of the Jedi (or still treat the old Expanded Universe — continuation post-Return of the Jedi included — as true canon). Many fans of The Last Jedi likewise prefer that film as an open-ended conclusion to the saga, due to The Rise of Skywalker walking back or retconning many of the creative choices in that film.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Even though Poe and Finn both get some Ship Tease with Zorii and Jannah, respectively, fans still widely prefer to ship them together. The fact that none of them definitively end up in a relationship by the end, Zorii and Jannah are pretty thinly-etched, the Ho Yay is still strong with them and that Oscar Isaac himself ships the pair certainly helps. Even Mark Hamill wrote a poem seemingly supporting the ship.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content:
  • As more and more details of the first draft of Rise of Skywalker have been released via concept art, many fans prefer that version over the final one. Jannah and her co have a more meaningful role, Palpatine's return is properly built up, the final battle against the Star Destroyers makes far more sense and probably most notable of all, Finn wields a lightsaber in the climax.
  • Fans like the concept art shown in The Art of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker for a new flagship for Kylo Ren as the Supreme Leader of the First Order. Designs proposed include a massive kite-shaped Super Star Destroyer and a double-decker Star Destroyer, but the flagship in the final film is identical to Kylo's Star Destroyer from The Force Awakens.
• Fight Scene Failure:
  • Ben's fight with the Knights of Ren has some pretty bad fight choreography. At one point his blaster simply disappears between edits (similar to the disappearing Praetorian knife in The Last Jedi) so he can't just shoot the six guys with melee weapons. The camera then deliberately draws focus to Ben performing a bizarre move where he bends forward, holds his lightsaber behind him, and just stands there for a solid few seconds as one of the Knights goes out of his way to hit the blade instead of his completely exposed legs, torso, and waist. The way it's shot indicates the audience is supposed to take it in as cool-looking.
  • Rey's fight with the Sith Troopers has some questionable editing. It appears to be the same scene shot at different angles, with the footage spliced together out of order; this results in Sith Troopers somehow getting hit by blaster bolts that weren't aimed at them, Troopers that got shot suddenly being fine a few frames later, Rey's hand motions not always matching what happens onscreen and one Trooper firing at the ceiling for no apparent reason. She ends up killing the same set twice, leaving only one set of bodies.
  • Rey's duel against Kylo on the Death Star ruins has some rather clunky choreography, notably at the start before Kylo draws his own lightsaber. Her first few swings at him are very obviously not actually aimed at his body, and the attempts Kylo makes at dodging don't match her actions at all; at one point, he moves as if to dodge a swing at his stomach, but Rey's swing was actually aimed at his head, so he almost shoves his face into the blade but the swing still misses by several inches.
• Franchise Original Sin: See this film's entries on the franchise page.
• Ham and Cheese: If you've come to see Ian McDiarmid villainously hamming it up once again as Palpatine regardless of how good or bad the film ends up being, you're in the right place.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The Digital Head Swap of Carrie Fisher's face in the flashback of Luke training Leia is less visibly jarring than the same treatment in Rogue One. After the film premiered, audiences learned that Leia's body double was Fisher's daughter, Billie Lourd.
• He's Just Hiding:
  • People are using Ben Solo's death as Fanfic Fuel, theorizing that since we never saw his Force Ghost nor Rey mourning him, he's not really dead. A vocal Misaimed Fandom keeps petitioning Disney to resurrect him, either by re-doing the ending or resurrecting him in a spin-off.
  • Dave Filoni, creator of Ahsoka Tano, has hinted that Ahsoka's voice being among those of the past Jedi does not necessarily mean that she's dead.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Poe gets some crap from Finn and Rey for being a former spice runner, which he never mentioned and expresses embarassment about. Two years later, he's running a whole planet that produces spice.
• I Knew It!:
  • In 2012, a fan managed to guess this movie's title and that the Emperor would return, although they were speculating about the recently-announced Episode VII at the time. Read here.
  • That Rey would get to wield a double-bladed lightsaber like Darth Maul's. Although most speculations thought it would be a "light side" color (like blue), not that it would be a very Dark Side red. Though that's ultimately a vision. Those who thought that the first lightsaber she constructed of her own would be a color other than blue or green were also correct, (twice over if you count Dark Rey's double-sided saber), with yellow as one of the most popular choices.
  • Regarding Rey's family, congratulations if you were among those who weren't thrown off by J. J. Abrams' statement that she's not related to any previous character of the franchise and theorized she's a Palpatine by blood, more specifically Sheev/Sidious's granddaughter. For example, this guy guessed it correctly even before The Last Jedi premiered.
  • As far back as The Force Awakens, some fans had noted that the two ends of Rey's staff looked suspiciously similar to lightsaber emitters. Sure enough, the golden lightsaber she has on Tatooine is clearly made of those two pieces.
  • A lot of fans correctly guessed that General Hux would betray the First Order at some point out of his hatred and enmity for Kylo Ren.
  • Some fans - mainly Rey/Kylo shippers - correctly predicted that Rey and Kylo (or more specifically Ben Solo) would share a Big Damn Kiss in this film. Carrie Fisher herself predicted back in 2015 that Daisy Ridley would get to experience a "space kiss" at some point in the trilogy, though she didn't elaborate on who she thought it would be with.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: A common complaint by viewers is that the movie is simply too short to properly wrap up everything it needed to. It clocks in at a little over two hours excluding credits, causing the movie to have to go through the various plotlines incredibly quickly with no time for the audience to breathe for a moment. Many believe that had the movie been given an extra half-hour, it could've been able to wrap up some of the plotlines more naturally and been able to expand certain plotlines that in the final product are quickly thrown aside, like Hux's reason for turning into a spy for the Resistance. Some have even gone so far as to say it feels like they had to crunch enough material to make two movies into just one.
• It's the Same, Now It Sucks!:
  • Negative reviews often say this film is safe and nostalgia-reliant and prefer the more experimental direction in The Last Jedi, while the prior film got They Changed It, Now It Sucks! complaints in its negative reviews.
  • The Reveal that Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter gets negative comparisons against the Luke, I Am Your Father twist from The Empire Strikes Back, especially among fans who liked how The Last Jedi made Rey "nobody" instead of descended from another character.
  • Ben Solo's Redemption Equals Death is criticized in part because Anakin Skywalker already had that ending; some people believed Kylo would live redeemed or die unredeemed after cast and crew said his character journey would be the opposite of Darth Vader's (although this was actually a misinterpretation of the statement, which was referring to how Kylo goes from vulnerable to confident rather than anything regarding morality.)
  • The Force Awakens, also by J. J. Abrams, previously had a plotline searching for a map to a planet in the Unknown Regions.
• Jerkass Woobie: Kylo Ren/Ben Solo. He's still guilt-ridden by what he did to his father, being Supreme Leader hasn't brought him peace or happiness, and he finds out he's been manipulated his whole life by Palpatine, who even impersonated his late grandfather. His main goal throughout the film is to just be with Rey one way or another. Upon realizing his mother has died, he just stands there and lets Rey stab him. While helping Rey take down the man who has been ruining his family's life for over fifty years, he gets the crap beaten out of him, Rey dies and he's left crying over her body, before sacrificing his own life to bring her back. He gets only a short moment of legitimate happiness in the entire trilogy before dying; Rey is the only one who mourns him (briefly at that) and unlike his granddad, he doesn't even get a funeral.
• Just Here for Godzilla:
  • Rey and Kylo shippers mainly want to see how the ship develops. Many come out disappointed as any romantic potential ends when Ben sacrifices himself to bring Rey back to life and dies after sharing a Last Kiss with her.
  • Some fans who weren't enthusiastic after The Last Jedi and Solo led to a Broken Base only see this movie to once more see Ian McDiarmid gloriously ham it up as Emperor Palpatine.
  • To a lesser extent, people went to see what would become of Princess Leia now that Carrie Fisher had passed away.
  • Others came just to get a sense of closure and to see how the Sequel Trilogy - and the Skywalker Saga as a whole - would end.
  • Some less-informed moviegoers were looking forward to seeing "Baby Yoda", not realizing that he's actually exclusive to the TV show The Mandalorian, which is set 30 years before this movie.

L-R

• Like You Would Really Do It: Almost no one believed that Rey was going to stay dead after defeating Palpatine, especially as they'd introduced Force healing; sure enough, she's revived two minutes later.
• Lost in Medias Res: The film's breakneck pace results in it rushing through important information and plot twists without elaboration. The first five minutes drop bombshells that go unexplained yet form the film's main conflict: Palpatine has somehow returned, Palpatine was secretly behind everything in the Sequel Trilogy, he has a massive new fleet of planet-destroying Star Destroyers, and also Rey has a connection to him.
• Misblamed:
  • Although fans have complained about Leia's storyline in this film, a number of the developments cited resulted from changes necessitated by the death of Carrie Fisher. In particular, Leia's death to redeem Kylo Ren resulted from the necessity of killing her off combined with a desire to give her death meaning.
  • Some people have accused Jannah of only being in the film to show that Finn isn't gay given how she doesn't contribute much. The truth is far more complicated however. According to the Art of The Rise of Skywalker she originally started off as Finn's long lost sister and was part of a plotline involving building a device that could disable the Star Destroyers. However due to changes in the story the plotline of the Star Destroyer jammer was lost and Jannah ended up as The Artifact.
  • Two examples regarding Rose Tico. While many felt her reduced role was Disney and Lucasfilm pandering to the fans who disliked her in the previous film, the film's story already had her in this reduced role when pitched to Bob Iger on the day The Last Jedi was released, thus before any backlash to Rose had even happened. Others also blame J.J Abrams for how little screentime she has in the film even with her reduced role. As it turns out, he actually did film more of her at the Resistance base, and it cutting that screentime down was a choice made in editing rather than principal photography, primarily because the Carrie Fisher footage included in those scenes wasn't working sufficiently enough.
  • Many aspects of the film's story have been accused of being deliberate reversals on The Last Jedi due to vocal online fan backlash such as Palpatine returning to make up for Snoke dying, Rey receiving formal Jedi training from Leia after it is revealed that Leia undertook such training thus explaining her "Force flight", the conflict returning to the Jedi vs. the Sith rather than enter new territory, Kylo Ren being redeemed rather than stay the Big Bad to the end, and Rey not simply coming from nothing and having a noteworthy lineage after all. But again, most of those were locked in place in the pitch presented on the day The Last Jedi was released, so there was no backlash informing such choices.^note And Kylo Ren's redemption was actually one of the only, if not the only, outcomes that was set in stone by Lucasfilm from before The Force Awakens entered production. The only one that was uncertain was Rey's lineage, as J.J Abrams notoriously waffled on which lineage it should be or if he should even go through with making Rey not be a "nobody" at all, but this was more on Abrams than it was on fan backlash.
• Misaimed Fandom: Kylo Ren is intentionally written to be a complex, sympathetic and compelling Anti-Villain rather than a one-dimensional Card-Carrying Villain. As a result, he's developed a strong fanbase who hope for more content featuring Ben/Kylo prior to his death. However, the misaimed fans go beyond simply enjoying the character to viewing Ben Solo as the ''hero'' of the trilogy, defending or downplaying his evil actions as justified or out of his control because of victimization by Snoke, Palpatine, his unloving family, and a galaxy that hates him. They're Viewers in Mourning who believe Ben's death turns his story into a pointless tragedy when he was "supposed to" live, give them hope, and inspire them. They've spammed official Star Wars social media accounts and created trending hashtag campaigns including #SaveBenSolo, #BenSoloLives, #BringBenSoloBack, and #WeLoveBenSolo seeking a rewritten ending or resurrection.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • In the exact opposite of the way that Kylo Ren's lightsaber lets out a buzzing, unstable hiss, the golden lightsaber that Rey creates at the end lets out a strangely melodic snarling sound upon ignition that is absolutely glorious to hear.
  • When we finally hear the voices of past Jedi coming to Rey in her time of need. The voices we hear include: Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn, Mace Windu, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, Luke Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, Luminara Unduli, Aayla Secura, Adi Gallia and Kanan Jarrus.
  • The thunderous bass drop when Palpatine blasts the Resistance fleet with a giant pillar of Force lightning.
• Narm: See this film's entries on the franchise page.
• Narm Charm: See this film's entries on the franchise page.
• Older Than They Think: Many ideas in this film were used in Star Wars Legends:
  • Many people complain that this movie invented "Force-Healing," considering it a ridiculous power that goes against the lore of the franchise, even going so far as to say it undermines key moments in the series (namely Anakin's motivation for falling to the dark side in Revenge of the Sith). However, this ability already existed for years, even before Star Wars was bought by Disney. It can be traced at least as far back as 1987 and the West End Games RPG—if not all the way back to the original film when Ben saved an unconscious Luke from a Tusken Raider attack with Luke suffering no lasting effects. Same with the dark side power of Force Life-Drain, which is at least as old as Knights of the Old Republic.
  • Dark Empire and its sequel share Emperor Palpatine escaping death by fleeing his body, resurrecting in a decaying cloned body, and seeking to transfer himself into another's body. They have a Skywalker lured by Palpatine to the dark side, Palpatine using a secret location to hide and then threaten the galaxy with a massive armada and ship-sized planet-killing weapons, and a ship equipped with a Death Star superlaser.
  • Star Wars: The Old Republic has an immortal Emperor who was slain, returns with an invincible fleet from the Unknown Regions, states his old Empire was but a first attempt, has a family with a parent that tries to flee with the children who are later crucial in his final downfall, and whispers offers of power into the protagonist's mind while intending to use them for rebirth. The Sith Inquisitor storyline heavily features a Star Destroyer equipped with a superlaser.
  • The Emperor wants Rey to become a female apprentice strong in the dark side, much like Mara Jade as the Emperor's Hand in The Thrawn Trilogy.
  • Also, the plot elements of searching for a purportedly resurrected villain after hearing a transmission with a voice message, and finding its source on a planet in the Unknown Regions, that also houses massive war assets that would turn the tide of the war, was the premise for Hand of Thrawn duology (albeit done with Thrawn instead of Palpatine).
  • Palpatine had a grandchild in the young reader book series starting with The Glove of Darth Vader, though this was undone in a Continuity Snarl.
  • Palpatine and Rey tapping into the combined powers of all the Sith and Jedi respectively is similar to Jerec's plan in Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II. Luke Skywalker also called upon the spirits of past Jedi to vanquish an ancient Sith Lord in Jedi Academy Trilogy.
  • Knights of the Old Republic has the Force Bond between Bastila Shan and Darth Revan which resembles Ben and Rey's dyad. Like Rey, Bastila is a light side-aligned Jedi; like Ben, Revan was a Jedi who turned to the dark side and returns to the light with the help of his bond/dyad partner. Rey's appearance resembles Bastila's, including hair buns, outfit with draped elements, and a yellow lightsaber; Kylo's The Force Awakens outfit looks like in-universe cosplay of Revan. Both pairs have Foe Romance Subtext, but unlike Rey and Ben, Bastila and Revan become an Official Couple. The pairs also share the initials "R" and "B.S." The Visual Dictionary says the Final Order named a battlegroup after Darth Revan, and Palpatine tells Rey and Ben their dyad has happened before. Fans suspect this is all an intentional homage.
  • Rey gets a lot of flak for being considered a full-fledged Jedi despite only having a few days and one year’s worth of training in the previous installment and this film, respectively. Luke Skywalker was in the exact same situation in the original trilogy, having only a year of training with the last living Jedi by the time he confronted Palpatine in Return of the Jedi. And unlike Luke, who had to learn everything from scratch, Word of God explicitly said that Rey indirectly learned many of her abilities when Kylo Ren probed her mind on Starkiller Base. That said, the movies don't make it clear that Rey learned Force techniques this way and Luke is still outmatched by Palpatine, while Rey defeats him directly (albeit at the cost of briefly dying).
  • Rey and Ben/Kylo are able to "teleport" objects between them through their Force dyad. This seemngly unique ability actually appears in the Legends novel Vision Of The Future (1998), though it differs in execution.
  • The "I am all the Sith" line and the idea of Undead Sewer Zombie Palpatine body surfing into Rey if she kills him mirror some Epileptic Trees about the ending of the Darth Bane trilogy, where Bane attempts this during his final duel with his apprentice Darth Zannah. Drew Karpyshyn intended that Bane had failed, but it came off more ambiguously than he meant which led some readers to theorize that Palpatine himself was in fact The Nth Doctor of Darth Bane after repeating the feat several dozen times.
• One-Scene Wonder:
  • James Earl Jones reprising his role as Darth Vader only lasts three words out of one sentence... but, hey, it's James Earl Jones reprising his role as Darth Vader. Especially since this would be the final time Jones would physically perform the voice; Vader's dialogue in Obi-Wan Kenobi was A.I.-generated and Jones announced his retirement from the role after the show concluded.
  • Boolio, who only appears in the beginning to tell the Resistance about Palpatine and the Final Order fleet before his next scene showing only his head. His appearance also introduces a new alien species Ovissian who has a rather unique design. Being voiced by Mark Hamill also helps.
  • The dark side version of Rey only appears briefly, in a vision aboard the wreck of the second Death Star, but she makes quite the impression.
  • Harrison Ford returns as Han Solo, who posthumously manages to complete his wayward son's Heel–Face Turn and kick off Ben's heroism in the final act.
  • Babu Frik, the delightfully chummy black market droid smith who steals the scene despite barely 2 minutes of screentime and being rather tiny.
• One True Threesome: The amount of people shipping the Power Trio of Rey, Finn, and Poe together skyrocketed with this film after it gave them scenes together and a group hug in the finale.
• Padding: The main heroes' quest to find Exegol takes over half the film to conclude. They need to locate one of only two Sith Wayfinders that shows the way to Exegol, so they find an inscribed Sith dagger on Pasaana that will point to the Wayfinder's location when translated, but Threepio's programming won't let him share a Sith translation until a droidsmith on Kijimi hacks his programming, then they need to get the dagger back because it was stolen by the First Order, then they go to Kef Bir to use the dagger to find the Wayfinder... and then when Rey finally gets the Wayfinder, the whole quest is nullified due to Kylo Ren destroying it. Instead, Rey uses the Wayfinder that Kylo found in the opening scene to get to Exegol and guide the Resistance. Reveals along the way, like finding out that Hux is the spy and Rey is Palpatine's granddaughter, could have occurred outside this inconsequential plotline.
• Pandering to the Base: The filmmakers appear to be appeasing those who didn't like The Last Jedi by addressing the contested elements of that film. Rose Tico's role is greatly reduced, Rey is no longer a "nobody" but the granddaughter of Palpatine, and General Hux is unceremoniously executed to make way for Allegiant General Pryde. Whether you think this was a good or bad thing largely depends on one's views of The Last Jedi.
• Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading:
  • Lando offers Jannah an opportunity to find out about her past and they smile at each other. This could be the beginning of an Intergenerational Friendship, but since Lando is a Chivalrous Pervert, it looks like Lando is trying to hit on her. The Visual Dictionary adds to it by implying that Jannah may be Lando's long-lost daughter.
  • According to Word of God, Word of Saint Paul, and Finn in Resistance Reborn, Finn and Rey are Platonic Life-Partners. However, many viewers interpret Finn's behavior across the trilogy as reflecting romantic feelings for Rey. In this film, he's interrupted trying to confess something to Rey before the Power Trio sinks into sand, then he doesn't want to discuss it with Poe. This looks to many viewers like an Interrupted Declaration of Love. J. J. Abrams stated that Finn actually wanted to tell Rey he was Force-sensitive, which co-writer Chris Terrio said the film implies, and Finn's actor tweeted:
    John Boyega: No... Finn wasn’t going to say I love you before sinking!
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: C-3PO became a Base-Breaking Character in The Empire Strikes Back for being a shrill worrywart that never shuts up and constantly rattles off unfavorable statistics, and had been a wasted presence since Revenge of the Sith. In this film, he's not only more prominent to the plot but many reviewers and fans say he's funny and his Heroic Sacrifice is genuinely moving; some even say this is the best use of C-3PO in all the saga.

• Ron the Death Eater: Many accuse Rey of stealing Luke's last name, when the reality is that the ghost of Luke and Leia gave her their approval.

S-Z

• Salvaged Story:
  • Unlike the prior films where Rey, Finn, and Poe were never together as a group and spent most of The Last Jedi in separate plotlines, they're now a Power Trio and spend much of their screen-time together.
  • Finn's goofiness has been toned down to oblivion and he instead makes for a rather good Supporting Leader in the climax.
  • Lando is finally added to the new trilogy, after many fans wondering where he was and many believing he was to be in The Last Jedi. He's shown playing a rather important part as well, allowing him to shine in his own right.
  • C-3PO and R2-D2 get more screen time and importance compared to the previous films, where they were Demoted to Extra.
  • Audiences had mixed responses to Luke's cynicism and depression in The Last Jedi. In this film, Luke's Force Ghost appears to say he was wrong to cut himself off from the galaxy while convincing her not to do the same, acts more light-hearted, and has made peace with his past mistakes. While his final moments in The Last Jedi certainly suggests this, The Rise of Skywalker spells it out and has Luke interact with Rey with this mindset.
  • The movie reveals that Luke gave Leia basic Jedi training. Expanded universe novels were vague about the extent of her lessons with him, and the prior films didn't explain if she acted on instinct or training when she used the Force to rescue herself from floating in space.
  • General Hux's Villain Decay and Butt-Monkey treatment in The Last Jedi leads to him being replaced with General Enric Pryde to take over his role and provide a more credible, non-goofy foe.
  • It took 42 out-of-universe years, but Chewbacca finally receives a medal onscreen when Maz gives him Han's as a memento of his deceased friends.
  • Turning Rey into Palpatine's granddaughter and part of a dyad in the Force with Kylo Ren addresses complaints about why she was so naturally gifted with the Force in The Force Awakens and also pays off why Luke likened her natural power to Kylo's in The Last Jedi.
  • After The Force Awakens, some viewers complained that Rey was an Invincible Hero when she defeated the injured and emotionally unstable Kylo Ren despite his years of training with the Force and experience with lightsaber combat. In this film's final lightsaber duel, a healthy Kylo eventually gains the upper hand and is about to kill Rey when Leia intervenes Just in Time.
  • After complaints about Kylo's lightsaber and combat prowess, this film's opening scene shows him as an unstoppable badass tearing through cultists while utilizing the crossguard blades.
  • The novelization validates people who believe Rey and Ben's story arc wasn't about romance by describing their kiss in emotionally heightened but non-romantic terms.
  • The novelization confirms that Palpatine was resurrected via cloning as in Dark Empire, addressing frustration over the lack of a proper explanation in the movie.
  • The novelization confirms that Rey isn't retiring to Tatooine in the final scene; she's just burying the lightsabers and will continue being a hero across the galaxy.
• Shipping Bed Death: Rey/Kylo has been a popular ship since The Force Awakens, but the way it's handled here disappointed a lot of shippers: They're revealed to be a Force "dyad", they team up following Ben's Heel–Face Turn, they kiss after Ben revives Rey...then Ben immediately dies. Some shippers felt there was little build-up to the 'romance' (the creators can't even seem to decide if their relationship is romantic); Rey and Kylo spend the majority of the film as enemies with few emotionally intimate scenes, so the culmination of their relationship can feel tacked-on. Some shippers disliked that the problematic elements of their relationship (such as Kylo being a violent stalker) were never addressed. It didn't kill off the ship altogether, but many shippers were dissatisfied with the onscreen presentation.
  Ricca: It was a profoundly dissatisfying iteration on the idea of Reylo. Okay, yes, they kiss on-screen. Which is somehow less meaningful than the angry looks, or the reaching out, the hand touches [of the previous movies]. Then having it end there, with Ben Solo dying, redeemed kind of, is unsatisfying.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Rey/Kylo shippers and Rey/Finn shippers have frequently crossed lightsabers following the film's release. Reylo shippers argue that Rey and Finn were never intended to be anything but Platonic Life-Partners and have no romantic chemistry, while Rey and Kylo were intentionally given Ship Tease and Foe Romance Subtext, and Rey forgave Ben's villainy and initiated their kiss after he repented. Finnrey shippers argue that Finn is better boyfriend material, some of Rey and Finn's interactions can be interpreted as Ship Tease, Finnrey lacks the problematic elements of Reylo and that Ben's death ended any romantic potential while Finn is still alive. John Boyega's comments on social media poking fun at Reylo and seemingly supporting Finnrey only added more fuel to the fire.
• Shocking Moments:
  • Palpatine returns? Meh. Palpatine summons a massive armada of Star Destroyers from beneath the ground, all equipped with planet-destroying laser cannons? Holy shit!
  • The wreck of the Death Star II returns, and by extension, the Endor system!
  • The One-Scene Wonder that is "Dark Rey", wielding a double-bladed red lightsaber.
  • Rey's true lineage is revealed and she's a Palpatine.

• So Okay, It's Average: Many reviewers and fans agree that the film isn't necessarily bad, per se, but its crammed plot and lack of creative twists make it a disappointment for those who expected better after the previous two films.
• Special Effect Failure: Most of the movie's visual effects are beautiful and impressive. That said...
  • Previously unused footage of Leia was incorporated into scenes with Rey and the Resistance, and it's often obvious that she is not physically present with them or interacting with them. Not helped by the fact you can tell from the inflections in Leia's voice that the scenes were meant for a different context.
  • In the flashback of Luke and Leia training, the faces of the young Luke and Leia are actually taken from footage of Return of the Jedi. Unfortunately the integration of old and new footage doesn't quite work, and many fans joke that the faces look like they came out of the video game Star Wars: Battlefront instead.
  • While The Force Awakens touted its use of practical effects, miniatures, and puppets as a "return to basics," this film's spaceship action has hypersaturated colors and weightless camera motions that remove the sense of presence and believable physics.
• Spiritual Adaptation: According to Cracked's article, the film is claimed to be the remake of the Harry Potter literature series.
  • In a more direct comparison given that it also is a film from George Lucas that was a contemporary of the original Star Wars trilogy and also featured Harrison Ford, it's been noted by some that the movie is also Raiders of the Lost Ark in Space.
  • In an intra-franchise example, the movie's plot takes several cues from Dark Empire, including the main premise of Palpatine returning from the dead.
• Squick:
  • This film confirms Palpatine had a son— the idea of Palpatine having sex is not a pleasant one, even if it was pre-scarring. The novelization clarifies that Palpatine's "son" is his "not-quite-identical" clone rather than the result of reproduction. Hard to say whether this makes the concept better or worse and it still doesn't guarantee Palpatine didn't have sex... Or if it makes his "son" or Rey any less of his family as Boba Fett is to Jango.
  • The retrospective realization after The Reveal of Palpatine's grand plan that the Bad Future, dark side Rey in the vision is actually Palpatine is massively creepy.
• Strangled by the Red String: Kylo and Rey have been, in the words of this film's Visual Dictionary, "sworn enemies" ever since their violent first meeting in The Force Awakens. The Last Jedi gave them Foe Romance Subtext, but not much in the way of genuine affection; Kylo still stalks Rey, painfully invades her mind, kills and attacks people she cares about, rejects her redemption offer and battles her repeatedly, culminating in him almost killing her before Leia intervenes. Despite all of this giving Rey valid reasons to hate and distrust Kylo, in this film she heals a wound she dealt him and kisses him after he revives her. Prior to this, the pair hadn't shared any scenes that weren't antagonistic on some level since The Last Jedi (a year ago in-universe).
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Viewers who liked the fact that Rey wasn't secretly related to any other characters, just Randomly Gifted and thus more unique, were disappointed when this film made her Palpatine's long lost granddaughter. They criticize this for being a trite and underdeveloped plot twist; a few viewers even go so far as to say it undermines Rey's entire character arc.
  • A number of viewers didn't like Poe being revealed as a former spice runner, which had never been mentioned before in the Canon. The main complaints are that it feels unnecessary and adds nothing to Poe's characterization (it's used to explain why Poe knows a droidsmith and then never gets brought up again), and it makes Poe too similar to Han Solo (hotshot, maverick pilot with a shady past).
• They Copied It, So It Sucks!: Some detractors have pointed out how much the final act of the story mirrored that of Avengers: Endgame, particularly the arrival of The Cavalry and the final confrontation between the heroes and the over-arching main villain.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: See this film's entries on the franchise page.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: See this film's entries on the franchise page.
• Too Cool to Live: Kylo Ren outwardly matures a lot before he becomes Ben Solo again (complete with hints of Han Solo's and Anakin Skywalker's devil-may-care attitude) and kicks all kinds of ass alongside Rey, as well as being capable of reviving Rey after she's killed defeating Palpatine. He dies in the end, sacrificing himself to bring Rey back from the dead, thus leaving Rey the only prominent and trained Light Side Force-user in the galaxy (his death also brings an end to the entire Skywalker family, unless one counts Rey adopting the surname after all is said and done). He's still cool enough to become one with the Force upon death.
• Took the Bad Film Seriously:
  • Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley's performances are frequently cited as the highlight of the movie. Driver in particular has been praised for convincingly portraying a post-Heel–Face Turn Ben Solo without any dialogue; following his conversation with "Han", he only says one word and acts purely with body language and facial expressions.
  • Despite his limited screentime and generic lines, Ian McDiarmid once more gives it his all as Palpatine and proves exactly why he's the most dangerous and feared villain in the whole franchise, even more than Vader.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: Most of Finn's screentime on Kef Bir is spent trying to help Rey after she goes ahead of the others to find the Sith wayfinder. By the time Finn and Jannah catch up to Rey, she's fiercely dueling with Kylo Ren and Finn can't do anything to assist her; she even Force-pushes him back to ensure he doesn't endanger himself trying. Ultimately, Finn's actions on Kef Bir don't advance the story or develop his character.
• Ugly Cute: The adults of Aki-Aki (the festival desert planet early in the movie) aren't too notable. Their children? A-fucking-dorable.
• Uncertain Audience: Multiple critics attribute the film's divisive reception to attempting to appeal to both "Sci Fi Ghetto" fans of the original films and "true cinema" audiences that prefer The Last Jedi for deconstructing the genre and franchise.
• Unexpected Character:
  • Nobody expected Palpatine to have plot relevance in the film, just a Call-Back at most, until the teaser trailer at Star Wars Celebration 2019 ended with his signature cackling and the theater lights came on to reveal Ian McDiarmid.
    Ian McDiarmid: [in Palpatine's voice] Roll it... again!
  • Han Solo (Harrison Ford), with no promotional teases or foreshadowing, appears as Kylo Ren's mental projection.
  • Voice cameos by animated characters Ahsoka Tano and Kanan Jarrus; film characters Qui-Gon Jinn, Aayla Secura, Luminara Unduli, Mace Windu; and Obi-Wan Kenobi (voiced by both Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor) and Anakin Skywalker (voiced by Hayden Christensen).
  • Denis Lawson reprising his role as Wedge Antilles for a cameo was especially surprising, because he'd said before he would only return if it was for a leading role.^note Max von Sydow's role in The Force Awakens was originally written as Wedge until Lawson declined to appear due to scheduling conflicts.
• Viewers in Mourning: This film saw Kylo Ren/Ben Solo die shortly after a turn to the side of good. Many fans mourned his death, with many particularly attached fans insisting that He's Just Hiding and begging for him to be brought back. Some Kylo/Ben fans responded by helping raise over $50,000 for Arts in the Armed Forces (a non-profit founded by Adam Driver).
• Visual Effects of Awesome: As with its predecessors, one thing viewers unanimously agreed on is that the visual effects are topnotch and the film looks beautiful. Along with CGI, the film makes extensive and effective use of practical effects to create aliens and monsters.
  • The massive Final Order star destroyer fleet rising up from Exegol while lightning strikes around it.
  • The Galaxy Fleet shot is full of fan-favorites and consists of over 16,000 ships— it took ILM 8.4 million hours of processor time to render it!
• WTH, Costuming Department?: While not the most ridiculous outfit in Star Wars, some viewers think that Zorii Bliss looks more like she's cosplaying as a sexy Power Ranger or a gender-swapped version of The Rocketeer than a tough gang boss, or that she forgot to put anything over thermal underwear; the outfit doesn't look like it would offer much protection in a battle or keep her particularly warm on Kijimi, the snowy planet she's based at.

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