How I Would Have Made The Rise Of Skywalker

I have been a lifelong Star Wars fan. Or at least I was until Disney pretty much upended the franchise with their uneven sequel trilogy. The Rise Of Skywalker is the third and final film in said uneven trilogy. For the record, I have not yet seen The Rise Of Skywalker, although I already pretty much figured out the plot when they said they were bringing back Emperor Palpatine for no apparent reason other than to put butts in the theater seats similar to what J.J. Abrams-who, of course, directed ROS-did with The Force Awakens (which was pretty much a blatant rip-off of A New Hope).

I was thinking how I would have made The Rise Of Skywalker. Of course, I am not an “official” Star Wars writer nor am I “associated” with SW and/or Lucasfilm in any way. Though I have written SW fanfic on Wattpad. (My WP username is @AngelRay66 for anyone who is interested.)

First off, I wouldn’t have named this movie The Rise Of Skywalker since the character Luke Skywalker had very little to do in this film (thanks in large part to the character being unceremoniously killed off in Rian Johnson’s “polarizing” Star Wars flick The Last Jedi). I would have instead called it something like The Rise Of The Resistance or Revenge Of The First Order-which I think would have been a more appropriate title for the second film but I digress-or something along those lines. Frankly, I think the third and final film should have been titled The Last Jedi but, again, I digress.

In the opening crawl, I would’ve said something like: “These are dark times for the Resistance. With Jedi master Luke Skywalker gone and the Republic destroyed, there seems to be little hope for the small band of freedom fighters that now make up the Resistance.”

The opening crawl would go on to say how the First Order, now led by Kylo Ren a.k.a. Ben Solo as Supreme Leader, has constructed a new weapon that’s capable of destroying a planet like Starkiller base and/or the Death Star. (I haven’t decided if said weapon would be a space station of a huge ship.) As a result, the opening crawl would say, the First Order is poised to take over the galaxy.

The movie would start off with Princess Leia’s ship being chased by a First Order ship similar to how her ship was chased by Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer in the opening of A New Hope. Chewbacca and Poe Dameron are rushing in on the Millennium Falcon to try to rescue her but it’s too late as her ship gets destroyed. (And, no, her son Ben is not on the ship that destroys his mother’s ship.)

In this movie, Kylo Ren is a total psycho and is not the whiny emo-type he was in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. He has constructed a new helmet that more resembles his grandfather’s which he wears throughout almost the entire movie. (One of the many mistakes I feel the sequel trilogy made was that he kept removing his helmet thereby robbing viewers of the “mystery” of who he was.) Kylo sends out the Knights Of Ren to search for Rey-whom he is obsessed with finding (similar to how Vader was obsessed with finding Luke)-along with the rest of the Resistance. (BTW, if I was making the sequel trilogy, I would have done away with the whole Knights Of Ren thing and just made Kylo Ren into a Sith lord like his grandfather.) At one point during the film, while he’s “talking” to Darth’s charred mask, Anakin Skywalker appears-starring Hayden Christensen reprising his role from the much-maligned prequels-as a Force ghost where he tries to warn his power-hungry grandson of the dark path he is on and tries to convince him to come back to the light side of the Force. Of course, Kylo doesn’t listen to Anakin and tells him he was going to finish what he had started. (I actually wrote a SW fanfic about this on Wattpad for, again, anyone who is interested.)

Besides Anakin Skywalker, other past characters I would bring back would be Captain Phasma from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi and DJ from The Last Jedi. Captain Phasma, in this movie, would be more of a “cyborg” ala Darth Vader as she would have her limbs replaced with robotic limbs ala Luke Skywalker that she lost in the explosion she was in during her fight with Finn in TLJ. (One thing I never could understand was why they made such a big deal about having a “female” villain like Captain Phasma in the sequel trilogy and yet they really did nothing with her character.) Also in this movie, Phasma would be conspiring with General Hux to overthrow Kylo Ren as Supreme Leader since they suspect he was the one who actually killed Snoke rather than Rey in TLJ.

As for the character DJ, Finn, Rey, Poe and the others turn to Maz Kanata-from both TFA and TLJ-to try to help them with destroying the First Order’s devastating new weapon. During their meeting, she brings out DJ whom Finn punches out immediately upon seeing after his betrayal in the previous film. Maz and the others stop Finn from going after DJ some more. DJ then explains one of the reasons for his betrayal is because he’s the son of none other than Lando Calrissian. He explains that, after they destroyed the Emperor and brought down the Empire, a rogue group of former Imperial Officers tried to bring back the Empire. DJ explains how Lando sacrificed himself to both stop the group of rogue officers and to save Han, Luke and Leia (which would, of course, be shown in a flashback scene starring Billy Dee Williams as Lando). DJ says he always blamed Han, Luke and Leia for not having a father, which he says they were estranged to begin with, and he vowed revenge against them. And that’s why he betrayed Finn and Rose to the First Order since he knew Leia was commanding the Resistance. (Plus, he adds, he also wanted to get paid.) However, he says he felt guilty for having betrayed them-similar to how his father felt guilty for having betrayed his friend Han, Luke and Leia to the Empire in Empire Strikes Back-and that’s why he was helping them now. So he hands them a cloaking device that can cloak a smaller ship like the Millennium Falcon. (And, before anyone harps about that, you’ll recall the scene in ESB where one of the Imperial Officers remarked how “no ship that small has a cloaking device” referring to the Falcon.) When Finn remarks to DJ that he doesn’t trust me, DJ shrugs and says, “Use the device. Don’t use the device. Either way, my debt is repaid.” Then he walks off.

Speaking of Rose, I would include a scene in this movie where she and Finn address “the kiss” in The Last Jedi (which apparently wasn’t addressed in Rise Of Skywalker for some reason). When Finn talks like he wants to start something up romantically with Rose, she says that was “sweet” of him but that everyone knew he had “feelings” for someone else. He asks her who she’s talking about. When she points over to Rey, Finn insists that they’re only “friends”. Rose then smiles at him as she pats him on the shoulder and says to him, “Whatever you say, Finn!” Then she walks off.

In the climactic battle, Rey, Finn, Poe, Chewbacca and the other members of the Resistance sneak onto the First Order’s new weapon on the Falcon using the cloaking device provided by DJ where they plan to plant explosives on the power generator in an attempt to destroy it. While in there, they nearly get captured by the Knights Of Ren who are then shot and killed by General Hux, Captain Phasma and a group of their loyal stormtroopers. At first, Finn is shocked to see his former captain believing that she had been killed in the explosion in the previous film. Phasma explains to Finn and the others their plan to overthrow Kylo Ren as Supreme Leader believing he committed treason by killing Snoke, which Rey confirms, and how she believed the Resistance could be useful in their plans. Phasma adds she knows they’re there to blow up their weapon, and Finn asks why they would save them if she knew that. Phasma then says, “Weapons can be rebuilt” and adds how Kylo Ren was just too powerful for them to confront on their own. If, she says, he perished along with the weapon, that would serve their purpose just fine and she could take over as Supreme Leader.

Of course, Rey and Ren face each other once more. They both draw their lightsabers, and Rey makes one last ditch attempt to try to turn Ben over to the “good side”. And, as she expected, Ben refuses. When she says how she had already “defeated” him when they had fought before, Ben says how “unbalanced” he was then along with being wounded and that now he knew precisely who he was, which was the Supreme Leader of the First Order. When they fight, it becomes apparent that Ben is indeed more powerful than he was when they had fought before. At one point during their fight, Rey manages to knock off Ben’s helmet with her saber. Ben looks at her, and Rey is shocked to see that his face is paler and more sinister looking like he was trying to make himself look more like Darth Vader. They resume their fight, and Ben manages to overpower Rey. (This would done, in part, to address the criticism of how the character Rey was an “overpowered” Mary Sue of which I agree with.) Ben mocks Rey, saying how he doesn’t understand how a mere “scavenger” like her can possess so much power but adds how she can never be more powerful than he is. And it appears to be true as he manages to knock Rey’s lightsaber out of her hand and knock her across the room using a Force blast with his hand. While she’s lying on the floor, she tries to retrieve her saber using the Force but Ben steps on her hand thereby preventing her from doing so. Ben glares down at her and says she could have ruled the galaxy alongside him but that she chose instead to side with the Resistance and, of course, his uncle Luke Skywalker whom he still holds a serious grudge against. Rey pleads with him to stop what he was doing and come with her, but her pleas fall on deaf ears as he slowly raises his lightsaber and is about to strike Rey with it with one final blow but then a mysterious figure suddenly appears seemingly from out of nowhere wielding a lightsaber of his own and blocks him thereby saving Rey’s life.

And the figure turns out to be none other than Luke Skywalker.

Of course, Luke is appearing as a Force ghost but is apparently a more powerful Force ghost since he’s holding a lightsaber. (Again, before anyone starts harping about that since that was one of the criticisms of ROS where Force ghost Luke is able to hold a lightsaber, if you’ll recall Obi-Wan Kenobi warns Darth Vader during their lightsaber duel in A New Hope how if he struck him down he’d become “more powerful than you can possibly imagine” and also in Empire Strikes Back he tells Luke how if he chose to face Vader he couldn’t “interfere” which suggests, at least to me, that Force ghosts can do more than just walk around.)

Anyway, seeing Luke standing there having stopped him from killing Rey enrages Ben who screams at him, “You’re dead!” He then raises his lightsaber above his head and charges at Luke who is standing there silently staring at him. Suddenly Luke’s Force ghost disappears and Rey is standing there aiming her lightsaber right at Ben. She stabs Ben through the chest similar to how Ben stabbed his father Han Solo in The Force Awakens. Ben stumbles backward clutching his saber wound. Rey stands there and stares at him with tears welling up in her eyes, dropping her saber on the floor. Ben lets go of his saber and drops to his knees and begins to fall over. Rey quickly reaches down and grabs Ben. As she holds him in her arms, she cries while she keeps saying “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” to him. Ben reaches up and wipes her tears away with his trembling fingers. Suddenly Ben’s mother Leia’s Force ghost appears and gazes down at her dying son and smiles at him. Ben and Rey look over at Leia’s Force ghost. Leia then reaches out with her hand, and Ben reaches out with his. They touch their fingers together. Leia then nods and her Force ghost disappears. Shortly thereafter Ben dies in Rey’s arms. That’s when Finn and the others show up and tell her they need to go since the explosives have all been set and they’re about to go off. At first, Rey doesn’t leave with them right away as she keeps holding onto Ben. When Finn persists, she reluctantly lets go of Ben and starts to walk away with them, retrieving both her lightsaber and Ben’s saber using the Force. Before she walks away, she looks back at Ben one last time and sees his body disappear similar to how Yoda’s body disappears in Return Of The Jedi.

Rey and what’s left of the Resistance manage to escape just in time in the Falcon before the First Order weapon blows up. (I’m thinking of having Phasma and Hux get killed in a firefight with other stormtroopers where Phasma manages to save Finn by taking a laser blast meant for him. Before she dies, Finn takes off her helmet and we finally get to see what she looks like similar to when Luke takes off Darth Vader’s helmet in Return Of The Jedi.) During their celebration of having finally destroyed the First Order, Rey walks off where she sees the Force ghosts of Luke, Leia and Ben Solo standing before her similar to how Anakin, Obi-Wan and Yoda’s Force ghosts stood before Luke at the end of Return Of The Jedi. Rey’s eyes fill with tears once again as she smiles at them and they all three smile back at her. She turns to walk away and she sees another figure that looks like Han Solo standing before her. He grins at her and says, “The Falcon’s all yours, kid. Take good care of her!”

Suddenly Chewbacca walks up behind Rey and whimpers like he can also see the “figure” of Han. Han looks over at his furry longtime friend and co-pilot and waves at him and smiles. All of a sudden Finn walks up to Rey and, seeing tears in her eyes, asks her what’s wrong. She then looks at Finn and asks if she can see him. He asks who it was she was talking about and, when she looks back over to where Han was standing, his “figure” is gone. She looks back over at Finn and, after they gaze into each other’s eyes for a moment, Rey plants a big wet kiss right smack dab on his mouth. As they were kissing, Poe, Rose and C-3PO show up and look clearly embarrassed. Rose looks on and mumbles to herself, “I knew it!” C-3PO shakes his head as he looks away and says, “I just don’t understand human behavior!” The final shot of the movie before the credits roll show them all together celebrating similar to the final shot of Return Of The Jedi.

That’s more or less how I would have made the movie The Rise Of Skywalker. As you can see, there’s NOT any nonsense about a “Sith dagger” or “Sith troopersz’ ot space horses or especially bringing back Palpatine to try to bring back fans irate about the “polarizing” Last Jedi (which apparently didn’t work nearly as well as Disney and Lucasfilm had hoped since ROS reportedly made the least amount at the box office of all three sequel trilogy films).

Of course, I’m sure there are those who would take “issue” with some-or most-of the plot points I mentioned here while some might even prefer J.J. Abrams’s story to mine. And that’s fine.

In any case, may the Force be with you!