Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker writer Chris Terrio might insist that J.J. Abram's second Star Wars movie didn't really try to retcon Star Wars: The Last Jedi, analysts still look at the film as a direct response to the decisions that Rian Johnson made in his critically-acclaimed, yet divisive, Star Wars entry.
Forbes has just recently released a thorough critical analysis of The Rise of Skywalker. According to the publication's senior contributor, Paul Tassi, Episode IX not only created "fixes" for The Last Jedi, it "flat out obliterated" the film. Watching The Last Jedi after multiple screenings of The Rise of Skywalker, the writer realized that the third and final entry in Disney's sequel trilogy completely ignored most of the subplots introduced by its predecessor.
The publication lists these subplots down, reminding fans that Finn (John Boyega) and Rose's (Kelly Marie Tran) entire storyline in Canto Bight had been completely ignored in The Rise of Skywalker. The two were supposed to have a budding romance in The Last Jedi, however, the relationship between the characters was entirely avoided in Episode IX.
So was the Holdo (Laura Dern)/ Leia (Carrie Fisher)/ Poe (Oscar Isaac) chase subplot. We can list down other concepts from The Last Jedi that The Rise of Skywalker ignored. There's Rey's (Daisy Ridley) parentage. Snoke's death. Luke's (Mark Hamill) demeanor.
Terrio might have been defending Episode IX from accusations that the film's been retconning Episode VIII, but a close look between the two seems to prove that The Rise of Skywalker really did ignore most of the subplots set up by The Last Jedi.
Whether you like The Last Jedi or not, Abrams and Terrio should have created a film that had more cohesion with the other entries in Disney's sequel trilogy.
What do you think? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is currently screening in cinemas.
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Star Wars: Episode IX