Star Wars 9 has finally hit cinemas and reversed the legacy of The Last Jedi. Episode 8 was loved by critics but divided fans completely. The latest film has met with critical antipathy but overall fan praise. It certainly serves the core fanbase and their devotion to the legacy characters and storylines far better than Rian Johnson’s divisive determination to subvert any angle possible. WARNING: If you haven’t seen The Rise of Skywalker yet, this article obviously contains major spoilers about the ending and some of the important plot points.
The Rise of Skywalker shows Leia’s actual death, bringing back Carrie Fisher through unused and retooled footage.
Luke’s sister then dies in a similar way to her twin, spending the last of her life force to send a final message to her troubled son, Kylo Ren, aka Ben Solo.
The very last scene of the movie shows Rey symbolically travelling back to Tatooine, where Luke grew up, and burying Luke and Leia’s lightsabers together in the sand by the Lars family home.
What she does there, according to the writers, is bring the entire Skywalker sibling’s storyline full circle and right the greatest wrong of Episode 3.
READ MORE: Star Wars 9: JJ Abrams LAUGHED at Rian Johnson’s Last Jedi script
In a major new interview with Indiewire, Chris Terrio said: “We very deliberately in the script described the wrapping of the sabers, as ‘like you were wrapping infants.’
“That’s the thing that you see at the of the third movie, where the two infants are wrapped, and one is sent to Tatooine to be a farmer, and one is sent to Alderaan to be a princess.
“Leia’s home doesn’t exist anymore, so we thought, ‘Well, Luke could take Leia to his home where he grew up, and where we first saw Star Wars.'”
“On a meta level, it was our pilgrimage there to pay respects to George and to all the Original Trilogy had meant to us.
“But for Rey, it was also a pilgrimage, because she obviously had heard the story of the Skywalkers from Leia, if not from Luke.
“Her eyes light up in Episode 7 when she hears the name Luke Skywalker, and so we thought it was a fitting end, that now she, having become part of the Skywalker legacy, would lay the sabers to rest and lay them to rest together.”
Episode 9 also turns the scene into the transcendent moment which reveals the Skywalker legacy will now live on in Rey.
Although many fans were a little disappointed Anakin, Yoda and the newly redeemed Ben Solo did not appear as Force ghosts, the brief vision of Luke and Leia confirmed Rey’s path to her.
The entire saga was about legacies and Palpatine saw his granddaughter as the fulfilment of his.
Instead, she chose to rename herself Skywalker – and the legend lives on.
READ THE FULL ARTICLE AND INTERVIEW ON INDIEWIRE
STAR WARS THE RISE OF SKYWALKER IS OUT NOW
