The three different movies that were all great in their various ways.
However, from The Rise of Skywalker, there was always a lingering issue with it all. The biggest, and in many ways only real core issue of the sequels was the lack of a coherent plan from Disney/Lucasfilm. Here are 10 ways that show the biggest problem of the sequel trilogy as being a lack of a plan.
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER ENDED UP BEING A FORCE AWAKENS SEQUEL
The Rise of Skywalker was a great, fast-paced, thoroughly entertaining rollercoaster with awesome moments, amazing characters and performances, and overall lots to love despite its flaws. But, perhaps the most glaring of those flaws is the fact it is a The Force Awakens sequel.
The first portion of the film plays like a condensed version of J. J. Abrahms' Episode VIII while the later majority is his vision of Episode IX. Had Disney/Lucasfilm had a clear vision for the trilogy The Rise Of Skywalker would have been able to play off of The Last Jedi, rather than seeming in all honesty like J. J. taking his toys back and doing things his way, even if the film was great.
THE FILMS ARE DISTED
A similar issue with the lack of a plan in place for the trilogy is the distedness of the trilogy. From The Force Awakens to The Last Jedi it is not the worst issue in the world until you get to The Rise Of Skywalker and it becomes clear.
The tone shifts film to film, some of the story points contradict themselves, a lot of it even goes unexplained because stuff is busy being rushed or more important (to the director) things come up. On top of that the messages being conveyed in each film differed and had Disney/Lucasfilm had a plan, there could have been more coherence and more connectivity amongst films.
WASTED CHARACTERS
The sequel trilogy is home to many a phenomenal character, some of Star Wars' best in fact. But, in the same trilogy, a lot of characters have ended up being wasted, whether in one movie or across all three.
Rose Tico is completely dismissed in The Rise Of Skywalker. The Knights of Ren is an absolute travesty of the trilogy and had a plan been in place for their identity and story they could have been fantastic. Phasma is nothing in her two film appearances. Maz Kanata is fascinating but is not even in The Last Jedi save for one scene. Amongst a lot of wasted potentials (which will come up later), perhaps the saddest is R2-D2 who has absolutely nothing in the trilogy.
SOME WASTED ACTORS
In keeping with the theme of waste, the trilogy has seen some actors' talents wasted, despite probably having the consistently best performances in Star Wars. Whether it be by letting directors introduce new actors with no overall purpose or by allowing roles and talents to fluctuate throughout, a tighter, proper plan could have solved it.
An example of this is Benicio Del Toro, he is a fantastic actor whose talents were used in The Last Jedi to pretty poorly further Finn's arc. Speaking of Del Toro, Justin Theroux was used as bait in the same movie. The fantastic Lupita Nyong'o who voices Maz suffers the same issue the character has that is detailed above. Other great actors suffer these issues which could have been easily avoidable.
STORY BEING RETCONNED
The Rise Of Skywalker, to half the fandom's delight and the other half's annoyance, retconned parts of The Last Jedi. With a clear plan and purpose in place, the third film in a trilogy would in no way spend time retconning plot points from the second installment.
Rey's parentage is a key example of this. While Rian Johnson puts forth a message and made Rey's parent's nobodies, J. J. makes her father the Emperor's son. There was also Finn and Rose's romance which was completely done away with. Kylo's deeper plummet to the dark side is a point of contention, along with a couple more things people view as a retcon.
MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
Throughout the sequel trilogy, there are so many beautiful, tragic, and brilliant moments. But, alongside those are moments and things that simply turn into missed opportunities from the films.
The Knights of Ren could have been phenomenal, but they got nothing. There was also the missed chance to see all of our original trilogy heroes together again, as well as seeing more of the heroes of this trilogy together. More Force spirits in the last film, specifically Anakin were missed also. Had a plan been in place, a coherent vision to build on there could have been minimal wasted chances, instead, there were many.
"CREATIVE DIFFERENCES"
Kathleen Kennedy recently said Trevorrow was at a disadvantage because he had not taken part in The Force Awakens and this led to his firing after having looked over his first draft and development for Episode IX.
Why fire Trevorrow for going a different direction when Rian Johnson took what The Force Awakens gave him and went a different direction from the expectation. Had a plan been put in place Disney/Lucasfilm would have known exactly where they were going, would have let this be known to any potential writers/directors and would have saved the typical announcement of separation due to "creative differences."
UNRESOLVED SUBPLOTS & UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
This harkens back to a couple of points and became a serious issue of the sequel trilogy. It could have easily been avoided as a clear plan would have allowed for time to tie up loose threads, as well as leaving very few if any questions left unanswered as they would either have been answered or never asked.
How did Maz get Luke's saber? Also, what is her story? What did Finn have to tell Rey (that he was Force-sensitive but the movie does not tell us that)? Who fixed the saber and how? Who are the Knights of Ren? What is the deal with Luke's Jedi academy? What happened to Finn & Rose? All of these questions and more, the movies failed to answer.
A WASTE OF SNOKE
Snoke has not been mentioned on the list to this point because he deserves his entry. There was no real plan in place for his full arc and had there been, he potentially could have been one of Star Wars' greatest villains, especially with Serkis' talent behind it.
There was nothing necessarily wrong with his death, except for the fact it is revealed he was meant to die and was being puppeteered by Palpatine. The reveal was lazy and meh. Snoke had boatloads of potential for an interesting back story that could have made a fantastic story for him and developed Kylo's more, but instead, he was just a test, nothing, meaningless.
A SHOEHORNED PALPATINE RETURN
When Palpatine's return was announced it sent the fandom into a frenzy. It seemed as though this was the grand plan all along, that Disney/Lucasfilm had always been planning his grand return. When The Rise Of Skywalker came it became clear this was not the case.
Everything surrounding his return was unanswered. He is Rey's grandfather which does not make that much sense. He created Snoke and that is all the information we get. We know nothing of how he survived or how he has lived this long after it put a dampener on his awaited return.
