*Note: I’m basically writing this down as it occurs to me, trying to crystallize and put into words why I, personally, found the sequels...lacking.
You really don’t have to agree, and I might even change my mind with the introduction of alternate viewpoints and other good arguments, but for now, this is what I have.
Opinions on the Skywalker Legacy, Rey, and Reylo
Something I just realized about Star Wars and TRoS:
Hope for a better future is important and is a recurring theme in the Star Wars Universe.
The prequels were fascinating and tragic because it covered the Fall of the Republic and its protagonist/hero-figure. We invested a lot in the characters despite knowing how everything would end because we knew, ultimately, there would be a “happy ending” with their children in the Original Trilogy. RotS was heartbreaking because of Anakin’s fall, Padme’s death, the end of an age, and Obi-Wan’s exile, BUT it didn’t feel completely hollow because we got to see a new hope (Anakin’s children) enter the galaxy.
The sequels... took that happy ending away and cemented the Skywalker legacy as being one of loss—specifically, the breaking of a family. Anakin’s life was a tragedy for many reasons, but the recurring theme there was the loss of family to death or estrangement or both. He was locked into a life of loss until the end when he was finally able to break free of the cycle by saving Luke and redeeming himself, thereby reconciling him with his son, his family, the boy Shmi Skywalker raised, and Obi-Wan.
Luke and Leia initially differed from him because they gained and kept what Anakin never could seem to hold. They were supposed to be the start of something better, something new. What made the original trio work was that “found family” dynamic that seems so important to a successful Star Wars story’s narrative DNA. That should’ve been the end of a cycle, but the sequels broke that for everybody. Maybe it was necessary in order to set the stage for the newest Star Wars installment, but still.
When we meet our OT heroes again, Han and Leia are estranged and Luke has lost his hope, lives alone, and is deliberately shunning the family he’d built. Leia and Han are marginally better because they do eventually gravitate and return to each other, but even that is dishearteningly temporary. That sense of distance and estrangement pulls all of them down and never fully goes away.
It gets slightly better when Rey enters the picture, but ultimately, even her arc just reinforces the Skywalker legacy of loss—from two sides even, if we count Rey as a “spiritual” Skywalker with Ben filling in the literal Skywalker legacy category. The writers put a lot of work into developing her relationship with Kylo/Ben and had the chance to break the cycle—once and for all—with these two and surpass the previous generations, but they didn’t.
Was it to “shock” the audience? Was it because the writers believed two characters living “happily ever after” was considered unrealistic? I don’t know, but the more I think about the ending, the more convinced I am that a happy ending...would’ve been the most surprising and fitting path they could’ve taken.
Let’s consider it for a moment: Star Wars is about hope, about being better than the previous generations, repeating themes, and breaking cycles—for the better. Star Wars is about family, found family, and redemption.
Where Anakin lost Shmi, eventually lost Obi-Wan, and had a false “father figure” in Palpatine, Rey could’ve had Han, Luke, and Leia (in a greater, more supportive capacity than in canon—even if only in spirit).
Where Anakin lost Padme due to his own fear, Rey saved Ben due to their faith, trust, and compassion in/for each other—which is why Ben’s death feels like such a great loss to me.
Where Anakin and Obi-Wan lost their brotherhood and Luke and Leia were separated by time, trauma, and guilt, Rey and Finn could’ve developed an even stronger bond, complementing and supporting each other from different viewpoints. They could’ve come into their own identities as a new, better type of Jedi and as an architect of true change in the galaxy as the Storm-trooper who decided he couldn’t live with taking innocent lives, defected, and started a revolution. The writers could’ve developed and explored deeper familial—perhaps as metaphorical twins?—bonds between them, and their similarities as orphan “nobodies” who grew up without their families.
Where Anakin lost his way for decades, existing in a state of being emotionally and spiritually “dead,” Ben and Rey could’ve found and lived theirs. Where absence defined Anakin and Padme as parents, Ben and Rey could’ve broken that mold.
Where Anakin’s Jedi path starved him of his bonds and allowed insecurity and obsession to fester, Ben and Rey could’ve walked a new path and created a new type of Jedi—or something else altogether—not defined by an unhealthy fear of attachment, living in harmony with their emotions, and capable of love without being ruled by fear.
Where Anakin and the Old Jedi Order’s (unintended, perhaps) effect on the Skywalker Family Legacy was loss, isolation, and estrangement from family, Ben and Rey could’ve redefined that legacy into one of unity, support, and togetherness. Where family and attachment was excluded from Anakin’s understanding of the old Jedi, Ben and Rey’s “found family” approach could’ve built up and strengthened the new Jedi. Where Anakin started and lived his Jedi path by losing his mother and his family, Ben and Rey started (in the case of Ben, re-started ) theirs by finding their family.
Where Anakin, Luke, and Leia’s paths lead them to living lonely lives, Ben and Rey could’ve found a path, still following the Force, based in unity and teamwork.
Where Anakin and Padme lost their children, lost their lives, and their chosen paths/vocations (to death or forswearing their oaths), Rey and Ben could’ve found theirs together, creating a stable foundation for a better version of the new Jedi than Luke or the previous generation were capable of building.
Instead of all that... what we have in TRoS is a Rey that is alone (again), naming herself a Skywalker, and adopting a broken legacy she and Ben could’ve—should have, maybe—already fundamentally redefined. We get a warped image of a Rey who could’ve been the beginning of a new era...but is, in reality, the final nail in the Skywalker family coffin.
