When I first walked into the theatre, I was beyond excited to see my favorite franchise's new instalment. What I was instead given was a mediocre and inconsistent story with characters that had real potential. For other movies, this can be forgiven; however when talking about a franchise like Star Wars that is this influential and has so much nostalgia to both younger and older audiences, you can't make mistakes. So when you screw it up, you anger an extremely large fan base and audience. The latest Star Wars trilogy is offensive because, instead of developing an actually good plot, the decisions about plot and character were dictated by the desire to trigger the fans’ nostalgia, as well manipulate the black fan base who were excited to see a black protagonist, 

The characters in Star Wars episodes 7, 8, and 9 have unsatisfying or nonexistent arcs, one of the most frustrating aspects of the movies. Writing for The Daily Californian, Sarah Runyan says, “Although “The Last Jedi” previously established that her parents were “nobody,``''The Rise of Skywalker” reverses this idea and instead reveals her dark origins. This complete change in direction confuses Rey’s arc entirely, making large components of “The Last Jedi” seem almost unnecessary.” When there is a dramatic reversal such as this, it truly makes the viewer confused. Rey’s character arc, starting as a nobody living on a desert planet to becoming the granddaughter of one of the most powerful Sith known to man: due to that, distorts Rey's original arc of being the underdog. Runyan adds that “Kylo Ren’s character is similarly mishandled. Going into “The Rise of Skywalker,” many fans hyped up Ren’s inevitable turn to the Light, something hinted at in “The Last Jedi.” Arguably the best character in the sequel trilogy, it seemed obvious that this movie would make Ren’s turn to Ben Solo a central and vital part of the saga’s finale. Yet, his presence in “The Rise of Skywalker” is underutilized and underwhelming.” Many viewers expected Kylo Ren to gradually grow toward the light and become Ben Solo. However, the audience was misled and was instead given the original Kylo Ren from the first movie: a tyrant with anger issues.

The plot twists are flawed and make for an unearned and unsatisfying ending. Regarding the plot twists, Sarah Runyan says, “...the most confusing of those is the decision to have Emperor Palpatine make his big return to the galactic stage between movies. How do you bring back a dead character and not even let us see characters reacting to that revelation as it happens?” I don’t know why big franchises try to be cheap and put the littlest amount of effort into their products, thinking that it will benefit them. Do they not understand that if they put passion and effort into their products they will gain more acclaim and more money? For instance the Avengers: Infinity Wars and Endgame are excellent examples of beautiful craftsmanship with an ending that both wonderfully wrapped up and sparked a new beginning for future Marvel movies. Instead, this Star Wars movie decided to go the cheap route and create an ending that showed how little the writers and creators of the movie cared. Writing for TheWrap.com, Phil Owen and Ross A. Lincoln complain, “So Rey kills Palpatine, and then dies. Kylo Ren climbs out of the hole he fell into, and somehow uses the Force to revive her corpse. They can just resurrect people now! OK!” This plot twist makes no sense at all because resurrection had never been shown in this trilogy or the previous two. The resurrection makes for an unsatisfying ending that feels cheap and disrespects the audience. 

Over the three movies, Finn was relegated from being a protagonist to a cheerleader. Seeing Finn on the big screen was extremely exciting because it marked the first time that a protagonist/primary character in Star Wars was a person of color. The first movie made Finn seem as though he was going to become a Jedi or some kind of hero. When that didn’t happen, fans were upset. Actor John Boyega, who played Finn, said, “...what I would say to Disney is do not bring out a black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them pushed to the side. It’s not good.” Disney was clearly promoting John Boyega's character because diversity in a movie like Star Wars is very intriguing for people of color and it makes Disney seem like they are “woke.” However, the consequence was that it made Disney seem disingenuous, and it made it clear that John Boyega’s character was a marketing ploy. Boyega went on to say, “They gave all the nuance to Adam Driver, all the nuance to Daisy Ridley. Let’s be honest. Daisy knows this. Adam knows this. Everybody knows. I’m not exposing anything.” John Boyega is right, they did give Daisy Ridley’s and Adam Driver’s characters complexity. However, that was because they were able to build that up throughout the trilogy. Boyega’s character had the raw material of a great character, but they never developed him. He was a normal stormtrooper who had seen the horrors of war and what it had done to his fellow troopers. I had hoped that this character would be faced with a dilemma: be loyal to either his newfound friends or the New Empire. Instead of giving him complexity, they relegated him to cheerleading duty. 

While this was an end to the newest trilogy, this might also be a merciful end of the Star Wars trilogies. Walking out of the theater was a relief, and I immediately wanted to discuss with my friend how terrible it was, but I restrained myself. I knew that it was my friend’s birthday and he seemed to enjoy the film, so I did not want to stomp all over it. However, on reflecting on the movie, I realized that this was not just a bad movie, it was insulting. Disney wasted the great potential in John Boyega's character by placing Finn on the sidelines. Meanwhile, they made character arcs that were disappointing, plot twists that were cheap and unearned, and, to top it all off, an ending that was laughably stupid. This movie was an insult to the Star Wars franchise and the loyal fans who wasted their money on it. While it is okay for a movie to fail, it is important to understand how they did so. For instance, a movie could fail because they were too ambitious with a story and tried to add too much detail to the world and characters. However, when a movie fails because the creators put a minimal amount of effort into making it, fans have a right to be angry and disappointed.