Star Wars fans are known for being fiercely critical of the franchise they love, with discussions raging for years about the merits of the prequel trilogy, Disney’s overall stewardship since 2013, and, of course, the endless grousing over everything to do with Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi.
But now the fandom is united in slamming what might be the worst thing about the franchise: dead characters just won’t stay in the ground. A popular post on r/StarWars describes resurrections as “insanely overused” and lists the many characters who appeared to die, but didn’t:
The replies agree, saying that each unlikely resurrection makes subsequent ‘deaths’ much less impactful. Part of this must be Disney’s determination to continue the story of popular characters like Palpatine, Boba Fett, and Darth Maul. But it stretches credibility when the writers don’t even put in the effort to make their comebacks plausible.
The Rise of Skywalker is probably the worst candidate for this, handwaving away Palpatine’s resurrection with a couple of references to clones and “secrets only the Sith knew”.
Others point out that this is emblematic of a wider issue. Despite the galactic scope of Star Wars we always come back to the same handful of popular characters. But hey, if the audience wants more Anakin/Darth Vader they’re going to get him, even if continually bringing him back for more risks breaking the story of the original trilogy.
Let’s hope they put a lid on this tactic soon, as it’s difficult to take any major death in Star Wars seriously when a few films down the line it’s revealed that they survived thanks to some shiny new droid parts. And, let’s face it, long-dead prequel trilogy characters like Mace Windu should stay that way, or we’ll be asking awkward questions about why they didn’t join the Rebel Alliance.
