RJ Writing Ink

I rewrite the final battle of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

I just got done writing my review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, where I made my issues and praises for the film known. As I was writing it, though, there was one thing that I realized was bugging me more than anything: the final battle between Darth Sidious, Rey and Ben Solo.

I’ve seen what Star Wars is capable of doing with its final battles, and I don’t think that Abrams did enough to make it as epic as possible. So rather than stew over it or complain, I decided to go the fan fiction route. Here’s a summary of how I would have done the final battle.

A Real lightsaber fight

I would have kept everything the same up until the moment when Sidious drains Rey and Ben of their life force. At that point, the Emperor would be restored to his full power. Having no further need for the two, he then attempts to choke the life out of them. But Ben and Rey use their combined Force power to hurl Sidious back into his throne, giving them a chance to recover. Enraged, Sidious vows to break them before making them watch as he destroys everything they hold dear. Brandishing his twin lightsabers for the first time in decades, the Dark Lord then unleashes his decades of Dark Side mastery upon the two Jedi. Then, we start hearing a remix of “Battle of the Heroes” and “Duel of the Fates” play in the background as the duel between the last Sith Lord and the last Jedi begins.

What follows is an incredible display of swordsmanship and skill in the Force as the three combatants put every ounce of their abilities on full display. Lightning-fast strikes, near misses, epic leaps and acrobatics. Basically, it’s what the lightsaber duels should have been like, but weren’t because Abrams couldn’t get it through his head.

The fight continues as the battle in the sky above Exegol continues to rage, with everything proceeding as it does in the film as the cavalry arrives. In the temple below, Rey and Ben are barely able to hold off Sidious, as he’s getting progressively stronger as the fight wears on. By this point, he stops using his lightsabers altogether and begins hurling portions of the temple at the pair. Finally, he then batters the two with thrown debris in a moment mirroring Luke and Vader’s duel in Cloud City. He then hurls Ben into the crevice.

A Final Clash

Having seemingly bested the two Jedi, Sidious then arrogantly decides to make Rey suffer and feel utter despair for her insolence. Thus, he unleashes the full extent of his power on the Resistance Fleet as Rey can only look on. When all seems lost, though, Rey feels a familiar voice and a hand on her shoulder. In her mind’s eye, she then imagines that Luke is standing before her once more, telling her to not give up and let Sidious win. We then see visions of each of the Jedi we’ve come to know throughout the franchise, each offering their own words of encouragement:

• Obi-Wan
• Qui-Gon
• Yoda
• Mace Windu
• Ki-Adi Mundi
• Ashoka Tano
• Kanan Jarrus
• Ezra Bridger
• Leia
• Anakin
• Any Jedi we see in the franchise!

With their words ringing in her ears, Rey then slowly stands, with Luke and Leia’s lightsabers in hand. Now fully committed to finishing his granddaughter, Sidious then brings his devastating force lightning to bare on her. Slowly but surely, Rey pushes forward as we see images of the spirits of all the Jedi Sidious murdered joining her with every step. However, when it becomes clear her lightsabers are not enough, Rey puts them aside and uses the raw power of the Force against the embodiment of evil.

Force Tug of War

Rey continues to bravely stand her ground against the Dark Lord, pushing him back before he begins to retaliate. Right when all hope seems lost, the throne behind him comes hurtling out of the air, forcing Sidious to momentarily shield himself with the force. We then see that this was the result of Ben, who managed to crawl out of the crevice while Sidious was distracted. Rey uses the chance to overwhelm Sidious with his own Force lightning. As the Dark Lord’s claimed by oblivion once more, we then see flashes of all the previously mentioned Jedi standing behind Rey. This symbolically shows that she’s carrying the weight and strength of the entire Jedi as they cast the ultimate evil into the depths of hell. Thus Darth Sidious, the tyrant who enslaved a Galaxy and nearly destroyed the Jedi, finally dies.

That’s How You Do a Final Battle, Abrams

If part of this seems familiar, then there’s a reason for that. I got the inspiration for the final clash between Rey and Sidious from the beam struggle between Gohan and Cell in Dragon Ball Z. That’s a hallmark moment of the series, and a good example on how to kill a good villain.

So, at any rate, that’s how I would have wanted the final battle to play out. I know a lot of it couldn’t happen due to the constraints of budgets and reality. However, I still think we should have gotten that epic lightsaber duel. The Sequel trilogy lacked any good ones!

Do you agree with my idea? How would you have wanted the fight to end?

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My Honest Review of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

I would like to state, for the record, that I’ve always been unsure about the Star Wars Sequel films. I love the franchise to death, but I thought making new movies could end up backfiring. However, I buried by concerns and went to see the new movies anyway. I put up with the fact that The Force Awakens rehashed the original film; and I tried to accept what Rian Johnson did to Luke. Now here I am, having seen The Rise of Skywalker bring an apparent end to the Skywalker Saga. My ultimate verdict: meh. Here’s why.

The Folly of the Sequels

Going into this, The Rise of Skywalker had a lot of things working against it that the original films didn’t. Thanks to the Internet, fans could now be very vocal about what they liked or disliked, and Star Wars became no exception. As we saw with reactions to The Last Jedi, this could divide a franchise’s fanbase in two. As a result, Disney tried to reconcile both parties in the span of a single film and give everyone a satisfying ending. Truth be told, though, I think that making the perfect ending to the Skywalker story was impossible. We can’t please everyone, especially in regards to something as beloved as Star Wars.

Then there’s the effect of The Last Jedi. Despite what critics say, that movie was divisive among fans. Rian Johnson had good intentions, but him trying to subvert expectations split the fanbase in two. I didn’t like how Luke got handled, and I especially didn’t like how Holdo’s actions almost wiped out the Resistance. Needless to say, but The Last Jedi put things in a bind for The Rise of Skywalker.

Lastly, there’s the elephant in the room: the passing of Carrie Fisher. When I heard about Carrie Fisher’s death, I mourned for her like so many others. After that, my thoughts turned to the future of Star Wars. How could they finish the Trilogy without Leia, when The Rise of Skywalker was supposed to give her a prominent role? I think we all knew that this film would be the final chapter in Leia’s story, and the fact that Carrie didn’t live long enough to film it gave the movie a bittersweet tone. That said, I think they did the best with what they could.

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

Now that I’ve gone over all that, time to dive into the spoiler zone as I talk about five major plot threads that left the biggest impact on me. I wanted to do this without spoiling anything at first, but I realized that’s impossible for me.

Palps is Back!

This one’s so obvious I don’t even count it as a spoiler: Darth Sidious’ back. First off, the film does confirm that Palpatine did die in Return of the Jedi like we saw. However, what the film doesn’t confirm is how the Sith Lord came back from the dead. The closest we get to an answer is Palps quoting what he said at the Opera House in Revenge of the Sith about the Dark Side being a pathway to many abilities. So I’m just using the headcanon that he used the Dark Side and cloning to come back.

Fortunately for the Galaxy, the process brought him back more dead than alive; his body’s falling apart and kept alive by life support. However, while he’s as cunning and manipulative as ever, I think death damaged the Sith Lord’s mind. Whereas before he hid his true nature behind a facade, in TROS he drops all pretenses and openly proclaims himself a Sith Lord to the Galaxy. That would explain why his master plan sounds so convoluted, though:

1. Lure Rey to Secret Base
2. Transfer spirit into Rey’s Body
3. Unleash massive armada of retro-looking Star Destroyers with mini-Death Star cannons to reconquer Galaxy

I’m going to have to devote another post to this, but my point is, I think they could have done a little better bringing Sidious back into the films. When you’re so evil that your actor considers you to be more evil than the Devil, you want to do this character justice