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‘Star Wars’ fans remain split on a canon-changing shift in ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ dynamics

Is there any redeeming this terrible final entry in the sequel trilogy?

Image via Lucasfilm/Disney

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker almost single-handedly sunk Star Wars. The movie should have been the bombastic conclusion to the sequel trilogy, though a production nightmare combined with Disney and Lucasfilm running scared from the negative reception to The Last Jedi resulted in a confusing, poorly thought-out, and laughably ill-conceived story. We won’t go into details, but let’s just say “somehow Palpatine returned” and leave it at that.

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Anyway, now fans are picking over one of the key moments in the film that’s been raising eyebrows ever since 2019. In the finale, Kylo Ren finally makes a turn towards the light by sacrificing himself for Rey, bringing her back for a kiss just before he dies and returns to the Force. With the benefit of hindsight, is there anything to like in this scene?

The answer, according to r/StarWars is “nah”:

Let’s face it, this is a very weird romance considering their past and everything Kylo Ren has done:

We suppose toxic relationships are very Star Wars:

Was this just fan service for the Reylos out there?

And we’d have loved to see a redeemed Ben Solo trying to atone for the mistakes of his past:

There may be some small chance of redemption for The Rise of Skywalker on the horizon. Lost and Watchmen‘s Damon Lindelof is currently working on a movie set after Episode IX, featuring sequel trilogy characters. We can’t deny there was a hell of a lot of bad decisions throughout this project, but there was the potential for greatness. Let’s just hope that Disney and Lucasfilm have learned from these mistakes.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is available to stream on Disney Plus.