Entertainment

'Rise of Skywalker' spoilers: Incredible video breaks down every plot hole

"The Knights of Ren are dumb and then they die."

Love it or hate it, there’s no denying that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is an imperfect movie. Whether the rushed production (they were literally editing it on set while filming) or The Last Jedi’s bold plot twists is to blame is up for debate, but one thing seems clear: This movie is a mess. A fun, exhausting, glorious, confusing mess.

Enter Jenny Nicholson, a popular YouTuber known for rating geeky movies and ranking porgs. In her latest video — titled “Oh no! The Rise of Skywalker was real bad :(“ — Nicholson breaks down the many, many plot holes and just generally dumb things in The Rise of Skywalker.

The whole video (above) is worth a watch, but here’s a quick breakdown of some of the best moments:

  • Chewbacca’s death fake-out makes no sense and doesn’t get the emotional weight it deserves.
  • Finn doesn’t have an arc. He just yells “Rey” and meets the female version of himself (Jannah).
  • Leia’s death also falls flat, and leaving her “body” in the background of various shots feels disrespectful.
  • A lot of the time, characters seem to be unaware of what they’re supposed to be acting against. “Did they know what they were reacting to?”
  • Every time someone lands on a planet the movie has to show someone walking in front of their ship, but we never see them get out of the ship (probably because it’s CGI).
  • “The Knights of Ren are dumb and then they die.”

The video culminates in a devastating breakdown of the final showdown.

“Ultimately the climax of the movie isn’t about internal struggle or resisting darkness,” Nicholson says. “It’s just figuring out a way to kill Palpatine.”

The video does include a few good things about the movie, namely C-3PO’s comic relief and Ian McDiarmid’s scenery-chewing performance as Emperor Palpatine. “He always gives 150 percent.”

Finally, also from Nicholson, here’s a breakdown of all the things in previous Star Wars movies that didn’t matter at all in Rise of Skywalker:

Most of the visuals from Rey’s force vision in TFA
The entire character of Hux
The Knights of Ren
Poe’s arc in the second movie
The literal or symbolic implications of the skywalker saber breaking clean in half, including its kyber crystal, when a slightly cracked kyber crystal is the reason Kylo Ren’s blade is extremely volatile and a kyber crystal/saber is typically a symbol for the soul of the character it belongs to
Rey’s happiness

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is in theaters now.

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