When a series aims to continue beyond its original run, there are always going to be a few inconsistencies. Why the show or film ended in the first place is often the sequel's first point of call. Something has to change in order to get it off the ground again.
When the Star Wars prequels were announced, everyone knew that something was going to have put an end to the celebrations at the end of Return Of The Jedi. What we didn’t know was how many elements of the original franchise the sequel trilogy was going to ignore, change, or retcon.
Vader Worship
While Kylo Ren is one of the most universally loved elements of the sequel trilogy, there is one thing about his characterization that doesn’t make much sense. He worships the actions of his grandfather, Darth Vader, for his evil traits and command over the dark side.
This is pretty problematic because the ending of Vader’s story was his redemption. This Forces the viewer to overlook what is arguably the most important thing about Vader, leaving Kylo worshipping the evil part of someone who eventually went against everything Kylo Ren desires.
Introducing New Force Powers
There are so many crazy Force powers introduced during the sequel trilogy that it’s impossible to know where to start. Firstly, let’s look at the original saga, which introduced Force pushes, Force lightning, a little bit of mind control, some super-advanced meditative tactics, and cross-planetary communication. That is just about everything.
The sequels introduce Kylo Ren’s ability to stop bullets, a level of Force communication beyond anything seen before, Leia’s ridiculous ability to fly across space, Luke’s ability to wander around as a Force ghost while still alive elsewhere, and, of course, the healing power that The Rise Of Skywalker was built on.
Making Leia A Jedi
This one isn’t so much of a problem, in fact, it’s pretty cool and makes a lot of sense. At the end of Return Of The Jedi, Leia is a powerful princess who is obviously Force-sensitive but has never handled a lightsaber.
While the development of Leia's Force powers goes a little bit far, The Rise Of Skywalker shows that she ended up training as a Jedi, something that the original series never hinted at.
Various New Planets
It makes sense to introduce new planets as the saga expands, but what doesn’t make sense is the fact that no one before the sequels ever mentioned any of them, and now they’re the talk of the town.
Exegol is apparently some sort of mythical Sith homeworld that is never mentioned prior to The Rise of Skywalker. Jakku is pretty much Tatooine but is supposedly also well known as a junkyard, despite having never been mentioned before, not even in ing. Kef Bir is where the Death Star landed after crashing, suggesting that the Death Star was pretty close to it once upon a time. Why was it never mentioned then?
Palpatine’s Death
The biggest retcon of them all. Palpatine wasn’t dead and had been controlling the entire First Order from behind the scenes this whole time. It’s a brilliant twist and the reveal at the end of the first trailer for The Rise Of Skywalker was a goosebump-inducing moment.
However, it does change the conclusion of the original trilogy. It undermines Darth Vader’s sacrifice as his death no longer meant the demise of Palpatine. While this twist works well, it was still an incredibly bold move to change the ending to the iconic original franchise.
Luke’s Personality
One major thing that changed between the original and sequel Star Wars films is their presentation of Luke Skywalker. In the originals, he is surprisingly bubbly, even cracking jokes every now and again, and ends up pretty happy.
Through his unsuccessful training of Kylo Ren, the sequels change Luke’s existence entirely. He became a hermit who was no longer motivated to protect those closest to him. Luke grew moody and sullen, changing into a character who is almost unrecognizable from the original trilogy.
Rey Thinking Luke Was A Myth
The ending of the main series of Star Wars films was supposed to be a galaxy-wide celebration. Peoples of all species, races, planets, and affiliations came together to stop the Empire. Luke Skywalker was at the forefront of the whole thing, acting as one of the main catalysts in the destruction of both Death Stars. Surely this will be a name the galaxy re forever?
Well, Rey thought Luke was a myth. There is a bit of a time jump between the original and sequel trilogies, but not enough for people to question whether Luke actually existed. It sort of undermines the importance and ramifications of the things he did only a few years earlier.
C3PO Should Be Able To Override His Programming
During The Rise Of Skywalker, we are taken on a long quest to override C-3PO’s programming so that the gang can find the secret hidden directions to Exagol, which are buried in the droid's memory. Apparently, C-3PO is forbidden from translating the ancient Sith language, despite the droid being built by a 10-year-old Anakin with no knowledge of Siths.
This doesn’t make a lot of sense in connection to Return Of The Jedi, as C-3PO clearly states that it’s against his programming to impersonate a deity just a couple of minutes before doing so. That suggests he should be able to override his programming, right?
Why Is Finn So Good With No Training?
Something the originals try to get across is that good training is what makes a good Jedi. Obi-Wan explains that Yoda trained him, and Luke went from pretty poor to rather good after a few sessions with Yoda.
It doesn’t seem to add up that Finn is such a natural with a lightsaber, despite having never even seen one the first time he picked it up. This is the same with Rey, but she has a bit of an excuse thanks to that Palpatine lineage.
The Death Star Weak Spot
Technically, this one doesn’t come from the sequel trilogy; however, since this is such a major part of how Disney retroactively changed the canon of the original Star Wars series, it earned its place.
A New Hope revolves around the information that the Death Star has an unexplained, exploitable weakness. This is what everyone agreed to believe for over forty years before Rogue One came about and revealed that this flaw was added on purpose. It makes perfect sense and actually ends up adding to the original film nicely. Well played, Disney.
