History TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot / StarWars

* The conflict between the [[TheRepublic New Republic]] and the [[TheRemnant First Order]]. When the film opens, the former Rebel Alliance has apparently become a galaxy-wide superpower, while the remnants of the [[TheEmpire Galactic Empire]] have apparently become [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything a small band of rebel militants hiding out in a secret base]]--essentially [[HourglassPlot reversing their roles in the original trilogy]]. Despite potentially being pretty interesting, this angle is never really explored; we never get to see the New Republic in action before [[spoiler: the First Order destroys their capital]], and we only get to see the First Order battling [[LaResistance the Resistance]]--''another'', even smaller band of guerrilla militants. It's especially frustrating when you consider that the Republic's struggle to eliminate the First Order has some rather timely parallels with UsefulNotes/{{the War on Terror}}, which could have gone a long way toward bringing ''Star Wars'' into the 21st century and giving the sequels their own identity.

* Kylo's speech to Rey after killing Snoke sets up an interesting plot idea about the nature of the ''Star Wars'' setting, where in a good aligned order rises, gets overthrown and replaced by an evil one, and then a good one rises up to stop it. With his speech about "killing the past", it sets up an interesting motive for Kylo as someone wanting to change the future by essentially letting the First Order and the Resistance end in order to build something knew. Despite this being a great motivation for Kylo, as soon as Rey rejects him, he decides to just stick to the First Order's goals without any change in motives as its leader. Furthermore, it could have been a great way to have Rey's struggle with her identity feel more than just an InformedFlaw by showing her even potentially agreeing with Kylo, but as mentioned, Rey rejects this without even arguing against Kylo, making the entire idea of the whole "kill the past" motive go to waste.

* Hux's speech upon Starkiller Base offers a tantalizing hint of a deeper ideology driving the First Order. (For comparison, Galactic Empire was not depicted as ideologically driven in the original trilogy; the viewer knew it was a tyrannical military power willing to commit horrific atrocities and that was enough to carry the story.) This would have been an opportunity to depict how the remnants of the Empire had to redefine their purpose and world-view after both the Emperor and the Empire's military might were destroyed. It could also have allowed for comparisons to neo-Nazis (especially as the First order was conceived of as "Nazis in Argentina"), much as the original trilogy drew with the original Nazis. Alas, none of that appeared in the following episodes.

* Jango Fett is killed by Mace Windu just before the clones arrive. Seeing Jango fighting his own clones (maybe even having the clones be the ones to kill him instead of Windu) could have been interesting.
* If you pay attention, you'll notice that all the Separatists' major players are {{NGO Superpower}}s just like the Trade Federation: there's also the Techno Union, the Banking Clan, the Commerce Guild, the Corporate Alliance and the Retail Caucus. The Separatists could have been presented as an ''escalation'' of the same kind of threat posed by the Trade Federation in the previous movie: a collection of amoral [[PrivatelyOwnedSociety Privately Owned Societies]] that react to the Republic trying to rein them in by banding together and threatening to tear the galaxy apart. Instead, the connection is never made clear (and the opening crawl of ''Revenge of the Sith'' states "There are heroes on both sides"). This also leaves ''The Phantom Menace'' feeling much more disconnected from the next two films.

* This one more applies outside the film, but because Anakin and General Grievous's meeting this film implies they never met before, in spin-off works set during the Clone Wars such as the ''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars The Clone Wars]]'', the two can never meet and fight each other, even though Grievous was designed partially as a ShadowArchetype for what Anakin would eventually become as Darth Vader.
* As shown in ''The Phantom Menace'' and ''Attack of the Clones'', Anakin is a former slave and slavery in general is bit of a sore spot for him. Yet despite this, he seems to have no problem whatsoever fighting alongside the clones, who are essentially mass-produced slaves bred for war: They essentially have no rights, they don’t get paid, they have no say whatsoever in whether they even want to fight the war or not, and as we find out in expanded universe materials released later, they even have inhibitor chips planted in their heads, which are somewhat similar to the slave chips Anakin and his mother were implanted with on Tatooine. You’d think Anakin would take a moment to sympathize with the clones’ status and problems, or at least have a moment of realization where he’s like: "Hey, if the Republic is willing to tolerate slavery on backwater worlds like my own homeworld and is willing to use an army of slaves to do their dirty work and fight their own wars for them, then how are they any better than the Hutt Clans or the Separatists?". Heck, you could even have this contribute to Anakin’s growing disdain of the Republic and eventual fall to the dark side, and have Palpatine use this to help push him further down the dark path. But no, the movie never makes that obvious connection, and Anakin isn’t shown to have any problems with the Republic’s use of clones or it essentially turning a blind eye to slavery in general whatsoever. He just goes along with it and seems perfectly okay with all this.

[[folder:''The Empire Strikes Back'']]
* Boba Fett is the only bounty hunter seen after Vader puts a price on Han. It would've been interesting to see some competition between them for who can capture Solo.
* After the full story of the lengths the crew went to assure the big twist wouldn't be spoiled, including giving most of the cast and crew scripts with a false page where Vader tells Luke that Obi Wan killed his father, some fans have said that would have made a pretty great twist on its own and could go in some interesting directions in the following film(s). Mark Hamill himself has said he was quite excited to read it, before he was clued in to the true reveal.
[[/folder]]

* Instead of being a trooper that had a HeelFaceTurn, Finn doesn't do anything evil before deserting the First Order, instead being made out to be a TokenGoodTeammate even before we see him without his helmet on. He defects after failing to kill those that had surrendered in his first mission, despite having apparently never shown issues when he was being trained. Additionally, some fans were disappointed by Finn's [[AngstWhatAngst overall lack of internal conflict regarding his having to fight and kill other Stormtroopers]]. His fellow Stormtroopers would have been the closest thing to a family he had, yet he shows no qualms about killing them, many of whom were likely the same as him prior to defecting.

* Plenty were hoping Starkiller Base would be a super weapon that lasts the entire new trilogy. This was the original plan for the Death Star but Lucas was sure the first film would flop and, since he needed an exciting ending for Episode IV, he moved the destruction forward.

* Having Han and Leia still doing exactly the same things they were doing thirty years ago, apparently having been subjected to decades-long OffscreenInertia. It would have been nice to see how the passage of time could have changed them, but apparently they didn't at all.

* The fact that Luke has exiled himself specifically to Ahch-To, the site of the first Jedi temple ever to exist. The previous film had indicated that it would be significant – perhaps with Luke seeking some ancient wisdom about why his attempt at re-founding the Jedi Order failed so badly. Instead, Luke tells Rey, "I came to this island to die." He could have done that by exiling himself to any isolated habitable planet in the galaxy – the fact that he was at the site of the ''first ever Jedi temple'' was, as it turns out, entirely arbitrary.
* At the end of ''The Force Awakens'', Snoke recalls Kylo Ren to his side and remarks that he is going to "complete his training". At the beginning of this film, Snoke has Kylo Ren brought into the throne room and... yells at him for a bit. And tells him that his helmet looks stupid. This is more of a wasted plot than it may appear at first, because the previous film had included hints that Snoke had been actively manipulating Kylo's mind from the very start, brainwashing him from afar – but this film essentially ignores that as unimportant. (The beginning of ''The Rise of Skywalker'' briefly references the idea again, with Palpatine telling Kylo "I have been every voice in your head, all your life.")
* Poor Finn. His spinal injury that left him in a coma at the end of ''The Force Awakens'' is dismissed as soon as he appears: it gets PlayedForLaughs as he wakes up, forgotten in an empty room, wearing a leaky bacta bag. The hint from his lightsaber fight with Kylo that he could be Force-sensitive is completely ignored, not coming up again until ''The Rise of Skywalker'''s climax. And despite Finn's chemistry with Poe being one of the highlights of the previous film, they share barely any screen time here in the sequel.

** At one point, during his amnesiac stage, Threepio is given Chewie’s bowcaster which Threepio treats as an annoyance in a manner befitting his typical lovable coward characterization. However, given his memories had been wiped, it was an opportunity to explore a Threepio that maybe diverged a little from his usual characterization and audiences could have experienced the sight of Threepio being an action hero for once and firing off a bowcaster instead.

* Some First Order higher-ups clearly have reservations about Palpatine and the Force in general (and this animosity has been present in the previous films too). This seems like a perfect opportunity for an EnemyCivilWar or even some First Order members [[EnemyMine siding with the Resistance against Palpatine]]. Unfortunately, nothing of the sort happens, and any doubters just vanish.

* Palpatine reveals his big {{evil plan}} is to have Rey strike him down, at which point he will pull a GrandTheftMe and take her body for himself to continue the Sith. Despite being presented as his primary goal, nothing is done with this idea. Palpatine never tries to take Rey over during the finale, there isn't any explanation for how exactly this is supposed to work, and it ends up being a useless idea because Rey kills him anyway, and this is treated as different from her seemingly striking him down the way he wanted, presumably since it's done by her reflecting his own power back at him in self-defense. It feels less like a plot point, and moreso an attempt to address any WhyDontYouJustShootHim arguments the viewer might have.
* Despite being the film's big twist, Rey being Palpatine's granddaughter has no lasting impact on her story, or indeed the story at large, beyond offering an explanation as to why she's so powerful (and potentially to appeal to fans who didn't like the 'Rey Nobody' explanation).
** Palpatine could've easily attempted to corrupt or possess Rey even if they weren't related, as he did just that to Anakin, Luke and numerous other people.

* The movie setups the idea that Finn and Kylo are {{Foil}}s to each other, and it isn't hard to find layers to why; both are people associated with the First Order who are running away from something (Finn's being the First Order, Kylo's being his family and the Light side), but attempt to confront it by the end (Finn by fighting Kylo and helping the Resistance, Kylo by killing Han Solo). There is much more that can be done with this idea, but the film ends the idea in favor of Rey becoming Kylo's main opposition. This is made worse by Kylo's reaction when he runs into Finn in the finale, where he is far more angry and aggressive, even calling Finn a traitor, where as with Rey he is more subdued, again setting up the idea that Finn and Kylo could have easily been foils to each other. Alas it never goes anywhere.

* At the end of the previous film, Snoke recalls Kylo Ren to his site and remarks that he is going to "complete his training". At the beginning of this film, Snoke has Kylo Ren brought into the throne room and... yells at him for a bit. And tells him that his helmet looks stupid. This is more of a wasted plot than it may appear at first, because the previous film had included hints that Snoke had been actively manipulating Kylo's mind from the very start, brainwashing him from afar – but this film essentially ignores that as unimportant. (The beginning of the next film briefly references the idea again, with Palpatine telling Kylo "I have been every voice in your head, all your life.")
* Poor Finn. His spinal injury that left him in a coma at the end of the last film is dismissed as soon as he appears: it gets PlayedForLaughs as he wakes up, forgotten in an empty room, wearing a leaky bacta bag. The hint from his lightsaber fight with Kylo that he could be Force-sensitive is completely ignored, not coming up again until the next film's climax. And despite Finn's chemistry with Poe being one of the highlights of the previous film, they share barely any screen time here in the sequel.

* This one more applies outside the film, but because Anakin and General Grievous's meeting this film implies they never met beofre, in spin-off works set during the Clone Wars such as the ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' cartoon, the two can never meet and fight each other, even though Grievous was designed partially as a ShadowArchetype for what Anakin would eventually become as Darth Vader.
* As shown in Episodes I and II, Anakin is a former slave and slavery in general is bit of a sore spot for him. Yet despite this, he seems to have no problem whatsoever fighting alongside the clones, who are essentially mass-produced slaves bred for war: They essentially have no rights, they don’t get paid, they have no say whatsoever in whether they even want to fight the war or not, and as we find out in expanded universe materials released later, they even have inhibitor chips planted in their heads, which are somewhat similar to the slave chips Anakin and his mother were implanted with on Tatooine. You’d think Anakin would take a moment to sympathize with the clones’s status and problems, or at least have a moment of realization where he’s like: "Hey, if the Republic is willing to tolerate slavery on backwater worlds like my own homeworld and is willing to use an army of slaves to do their dirty work and fight their own wars for them, then how are they any better than the Hutt Clans or the Separatists?". Heck, you could even have this contribute to Anakin’s growing disdain of the Republic and eventual fall to the dark side, and have Palpatine use this to help push him further down the dark path. But no, the movie never makes that obvious connection, and Anakin isn’t shown to have any problems with the Republic’s use of clones or it essentially turning a blind eye to slavery in general whatsoever. He just goes along with it and seems perfectly okay with all this.

* As shown in Episodes I and II, Anakin is a former slave and slavery in general is bit of a sore spot for him. Yet despite this, he seems to have no problem whatsoever fighting alongside the clones, who are essentially mass-produced slaves bred for war: They essentially have no rights, they don’t get paid, they have no say whatsoever in whether they even want to fight the war or not, and as we find out in expanded universe materials released later, they even have inhibitor chips planted in their heads, which are somewhat similar to the slave chips Anakin and his mother were implanted with on Tatooine. You’d think Anakin would take a moment to sympathize with the clones’s status and problems, or at least have a moment of realization where he’s like: "Hey, if the Republic is willing to tolerate slavery on backwater worlds like my own homeworld and is willing to use an army of slaves to do their dirty work and fight their own wars for them, then how are they any better than the Hutt Clans or the Separatists?". Heck, you could even have this contribute to Anakin’s growing disdain of the Republic and eventual fall to the dark side, and have Palpatine use this to help push him further down the dark path. But no, the movie never makes that obvious connection, and Anakin isn’t shown to have any problems with the Republic’s use of clones or it essentially turning a blind eye to slavery in general whatsoever.

* As shown in Episodes I and II, Anakin is a former slave and slavery in general is bit of a sore spot for him. Yet despite this, he seems to have no problem whatsoever fighting alongside the clones, who are essentially mass-produced slaves bred for war: They essentially have no rights, they don’t get paid, they have no say whatsoever in whether they even want to fight the war or not, and as we find out in expanded universe materials released later, they even have inhibitor chips planted in their heads, which are somewhat similar to the slave chips Anakin and his mother were implanted with on Tatooine. You’d think Anakin would take a moment to sympathize with the clones’s status and problems, or at least have a moment of realization where he’s like: "Hey, if the Republic is willing to tolerate slavery on backwater worlds like my own homeworld and is willing to use an army of slaves to do their dirty work and fight their own wars for them, then how are they any better than the Hutt Clans or the Separatists?" Heck, you could even have this contribute to Anakin’s growing disdain of the Republic and eventual fall to the dark side, and have Palpatine use this to help push him further down the dark path. But no, the movie never makes that obvious connection, and Anakin isn’t shown to have any problems with the Republic’s use of clones or it essentially turning a blind eye to slavery in general whatsoever.

* The conflict between the [[TheRepublic New Republic]] and the [[TheRemnant First Order]]. When the film opens, the former Rebel Alliance has apparently become a galaxy-wide superpower, while the remnants of the [[TheEmpire Galactic Empire]] have apparently become [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything a small band of rebel militants hiding out in a secret base]]--essentially [[HourglassPlot reversing their roles in the original trilogy]]. Despite potentially being pretty interesting, this angle is never really explored; we never get to see the New Republic in action before [[spoiler: the First Order destroys their capital]], and we only get to see the First Order battling [[LaResistance the Resistance]]--''another'', even smaller band of guerrilla militants.

* Palpatine reveals his big {{evil plan}} is to have Rey strike him down, at which point he will pull a GrandTheftMe and take her body for himself to continue the Sith. Despite being presented as his primary goal, nothing is done with this idea. Palpatine never tries to take Rey over during the finale, there isn't any explanation for how exactly this is supposed to work, and it ends up being a useless idea because Rey kills him anyway, and somehow this is treated as different from her seemingly striking him down the way he wanted. It feels less like a plot point, and moreso an attempt to address any WhyDontYouJustShootHim arguments the viewer might have.

* Jango Fett is killed by Mace Windu just before the clones arrive. Seeing Jango fighting his own clones could have been interesting.