Why The Rise of Skywalker is my favourite of the Star Wars sequel movies in spite of its storytelling mistakes
Image is the cover of a novel by the TROS name by Rae Carson: https://share.google/wwSCpFcyB43lJTSxA
Why The Rise of Skywalker is my favourite of the Star Wars sequel movies in spite of its (very significant) storytelling mistakes
by Jen Davies, nerd
Dec 10, 2025
Note: This blog was pre-scheduled, but the timing of Daisy Ridley's IGN interview in which she says she is aware of the #savebensolo campaign and appreciates the fan positivity could not have been better timing! Read it here.
A week or two ago there was a flurry of tier-ratings of Star Wars movies online, I’m not sure why. It has never been an interest of mine to do such ratings for anything that I’m into, because I appreciate different aspects of movies and books and ideas for a range of reasons that make them hard to compare. Some of my favourite films of all-time include respected films like:
- Interstellar
- The Princess Bride
- Arrival
- Drive
- The Matrix
In addition I love movies much less likely to make it onto fave-film lists like:
- Young Frankenstein
- Pacific Rim
- Alien (which I see as scifi)
- A History of Violence (which I saw once and will never see again and yet it’s a top movie)
- Blue Thunder (don’t feel bad about Googling for that one, it’s an obscure Roy Scheider movie, but as a teen it gave me so many feels like few others did - don't ask why, I have no answers).
If you can make sense of those as a collection, please let me know - I’d love to know what logic you can apply to them.
I DO have a favourite Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back, and that’s because it “checks all the boxes” of the factors that I’m going to explain below. These factors will also explain why, despite all of its AT-AT-sized storytelling flaws, The Rise of Skywalker (TROS) is my favourite of the three Star Wars sequel movies. This is not a frequently expressed opinion in public online spaces.
You can find deeper dives into some of the narrative structures that Star Wars has been using to underpin their storytelling from better-read analysts. They often identify the flaws in TROS as well, so I will focus on appreciation only in this post. I will be speaking from the perspective of someone with a basic understanding of good general storytelling practices, and a deep appreciation for (though not expertise in) movie-making. And I know all 9 episodes of the main Star Wars trilogy, and pretty much nothing about the comics and books, and I'm only a casual fan of the TV shows/streaming.
You can find my thoughts on why Disney ought to let Lucasfilm make The Hunt for Ben Solo, the film that was written and began preproduction but was then cancelled, in these two previous posts:
Something for everyone
An obvious thing to like about TROS is that there’s something for everyone, no matter what you like most about Star Wars.
Like Ep7 and Ep8, Ep9 (TROS) offers OG Star Wars fans solid connections to Ep4-6, the original movies. In TROS we are re-introduced to Lando Calrissian, who also happens to be introduced in my favourite overall episode, Empire. In addition, we learn in the OG Star Wars films that Han Solo has engaged in quite a bit of smuggling, and in TROS we get a look at Kijimi, the planet where one of the very illegal products - spice - that smugglers transport comes from. Han and Chewie were almost certainly there at some point. There is also an excellent collection of alien species, who are people in costumes and make-up, which is one of the things that I love about Star Wars Ep4-9. There is no substitute for practical special effects, and this is also true in Empire, with tauntauns, our introduction to Yoda, and various residents of Cloud City seeming very real.
There is also excellent action in TROS - the chase scene through the desert is thrilling! In Empire the opening planetary assault on Hoth includes visually stunning ground and air battles. There are also epic laser sword fights in both films: in Empire I’m thinking especially of maybe the most famous light saber fight, at the end of which Luke loses a hand, and in TROS the fight on the ruins of the second Death Star, on a stormy sea. It might be the best light saber fight in all of Star Wars. Lightsaber battles are extra-dangerous vs regular swordfights in movies, so they are always that much more exciting.
Both TROS and Empire excel at bringing us feelings: Both have measures of humour to break up the seriousness. In TROS a lot of the humour comes via the banter between Finn and Poe, and in Empire it comes from Yoda. Most especially, though, both films bring romance, in particular a shortlived kiss (in TROS at the end, and in Empire in the carbon freezing chamber). The relevant scene in Empire also provides what may be the most romantic ad-lib in movie history (“I love you” - “I know”), which also provides a direct tie-in to TROS when Ben Solo finally lets his alter-ego Kylo Ren go, with help from the memory of his father (“Dad…” - “I know”).
Beauty
TROS is a visual treat, and I could almost forgive the storytelling errors if I didn't know that JJ “Lens Flare” Abrams can do better. Some of his writing was excellent (see his filmography). A lot of his directing was excellent. And the visual themes, and the way he used settings as mood-setting and almost as characters in his two Star Wars movies was gorgeous.
In Empire, we have locations that are also mood-setters and almost characters in themselves. Hoth is actively trying to kill Luke. Dagobah is teeming with life in the opposite way to Hoth, and still trying to take Luke out. Cloud City is full of unique perils. And George Lucas created each one with colours and shapes that makes each setting breathtaking.
Technical wizardry for sets and excellent performances
TROS seemed to have had an unlimited budget but still had to deal with practical problems that no amount of money can solve. For example, there are the realities of filming those dyad-interaction-across-locations scenes, like Kijimi - they had to be filmed twice quite precisely so the cuts would be totally seamless. That is a tough kind of shoot for set staff, camera operators, and actors. Similarly, filming what I think is one of the best scenes in all of Star Wars - the crashing waves on the remains of the second Death Star. The worst storytelling mistakes in all of Star Wars happen in those 10-15 minutes as well, in my opinion, but I can't skip them because the wizardry of both the behind-the-scenes movie makers and the actors is breathtaking. Like Ep4, Empire was inventing entire approaches to movie making, and that included rarely-before-attempted world-building. Hoth, Dagobah, and Cloud City were feats of engineering and filming.
The performances in Empire were also incredibly creative and the actors fully inhabited their characters, starting with new character Yoda (Frank Oz). David Prowse and James Earl Jones were an even more seamless Darth Vader unit. Mark Hamill had developed a clear set of drives for Luke. Likewise, Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley really owned their roles as Kylo/Ben and Rey in spite of storytelling errors you could fly a star destroyer through. And the transformations both of them had to work through on camera are exceptionally well-acted, which in the end contributes the most to my frustrations about not getting a Ben Solo movie - we meet Ben here, and he's wonderful, and then get only another 4 or 5 minutes afterward.
There you have them, the reasons why I like TROS the most of the three Star Wars sequels. It offers the three things I have always liked about my forever-favourite, The Empire Strikes Back. It has something for everyone, it's beautiful, and it has technical brilliance in so many ways!
#savethehuntforbensolo #thehuntforbensolo #savebensolo #starwars #adamdriver
For commentary on storytelling in Star Wars, you could check out:
And they often have well-informed guests you can also check out.
Comments
We agree that TROS was beautiful and technically impressive, but also had massive storytelling issues. The story issues were a complete dealbreaker for me despite the film's visual strengths and exciting action scenes, but the opposite was true for you. I still don't love the film, but I understand and respect your love of it, and I think your blog post about it was good food for thought.