Understanding these 5 Star Wars Sequel Trilogy Scenes Aren’t in the Movies, But Would Have Made Them Even Better
Everybody has an opinion when it comes to the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Although I’m far from uncritical about the sequels, my own opinion on them has always been informed by the fact my nephews and nieces love them. George Lucas always argued that Star Wars is for children, and an entire generation first encountered Star Wars when a desert rat on Jakku stumbled on a runaway droid. At Star Wars Celebration, I was stunned to see Rey was the most common cosplay; social media really isn’t representative at all.
Star Wars is more than a film franchise, of course, and it always have been. Over the decades, this franchise has grown in comics, novels, games, and in pretty much any other medium you care to name. Lucasfilm largely kept away from the sequel era until after The Rise of Skywalker, but since then, we’ve had some incredible new additions that have helped flesh out this part of the Skywalker saga. Here are five of the best scenes, which really would have improved the films so much.
5. What Really Happened to Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Temple
Let’s start with the destruction of Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Temple on Ossus. We only saw glimpses of this in the movies, which strongly hinted Ben Solo destroyed it after his ill-fated lightsaber duel with Luke. But the full story of Ben’s fall to the dark side was told in Charles Soule and Will Sliney’s excellent The Rise of Kylo Ren, published alongside the theatrical release of The Rise of Skywalker. This miniseries showed us what really happened to Ben – and revealed there was so much more to it than we thought. It’s a fantastic story, where you can see Palpatine manipulating Ben every step of the way.
Apparently Ben didn’t destroy the Jedi Temple at all. In the aftermath of Luke’s defeat, a powerful Force Storm thundered down on Ossus, obliterating the Jedi. The comic doesn’t make it explicit, but anyone familiar with wider lore would be well aware this was a traditional Palpatine technique, an explicit nod to the classic Expanded Universe Dark Empire comics. Ben was held responsible, and likely assumed the Force Storm was a manifestation of his own inner turmoil. But it all seems to have been Palpatine, with the Emperor using this to trap Ben.
4. Leia’s Training With Rey
Now let’s move to Madeleine Roux’s fantastic novel Legacy, published only a month ago. This finally fills in one of the most important gaps in the sequel trilogy timeline; it gives us a proper look at Leia’s training of Rey. In the real world, on the big screen, it’s the story Star Wars was simply unable to give us due to Carrie Fisher’s sad passing. But the book is a joy to read a decade later, because Roux captures Leia and Rey’s voices perfectly. I could genuinely hear Fisher’s voice in so much of the dialogue.
The central relationship between Leia and Rey is absolutely beautiful to see. Roux contrasts Leia with Luke, showing how Luke’s own struggles meant he wounded Rey during their time together. Even more powerfully, though, we get the Luke and Leia scene we were denied by the sequels; Luke’s Force Ghost appears to Leia, revealing Rey’s true identity to her. It’s true he doesn’t tell Leia about the resurrected Palpatine, but… at least he gave Leia the lowdown on Rey. Roux’s novel shows the emotional cost of that revelation, and how it shaped Leia’s interactions with Rey (for the better).
“Leia needs to glimpse something in Rey that makes the information feel incredibly dire and that makes her hold it back,” Roux explained to ComicBook. “And Leia is in so many ways the most interesting character to juggle the decision to tell her, because she had her own bloodline exposed to the galaxy in a public, traumatizing way. Leia is choosing to protect Rey in that moment, because she sees how vulnerable she is. And she knows now that Luke was pretty harsh with Rey during training, and some of the things he said are lingering, so she makes the decision to handle her more delicately, become more of a nurturer.”
3. Anakin Skywalker’s Force Ghost Meeting Rey
Yes, you read that right: Anakin Skywalker’s Force Ghost appeared to Rey. Even now, seven years after The Rise of Skywalker, we don’t know why he never appeared to Ben. Whatever the truth may be there, though, we at least know he manifested to Rey. In Legacy, Rey and Leia head to the planet Tython in pursuit of lost Jedi technology to repair the Skywalker lightsaber. Tython is a powerful Force vergence, and it brings out all Rey’s turmoil and pain. In one emotional scene, she flees from others for fear of harming them.
Anakin Skywalker himself appears to Rey then, offering her the counsel she needs to hear. The Chosen One knows what it is to wrestle with the dark side, and he’s able to talk Rey down, ultimately saving her life. The scene is a stunning one, and it helps draw the threads of the entire Skywalker saga together. Frankly, this is the scene that should have been in the movies. It subtly establishes Rey as a true Skywalker, inheritor to a mantle running all the way back to The Phantom Menace, and it makes the saga feel so much more cohesive.
2. Luke Skywalker’s Force Ghost Speaking to Ben
Charles Soule and Luke Ross recently teamed up for Legacy of Vader, a Marvel Comics series set between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Where Legacy focuses on Rey, this is centered entirely on Kylo Ren, as he attempts to establish his rule over the First Order while also seeking more secrets of Darth Vader. It demonstrates Kylo Ren’s true power in the Force, because he’s actually able to reach the Netherworld where the spirits of past Jedi continue to exist. There, in a powerful scene, he has an unexpected reunion with Luke Skywalker.
This is easily one of the best Luke scenes in the entire Disney era. This Luke has found peace in the Force, and he remains confident even Ben can be redeemed. Echoing Obi-Wan all those years ago, he effortlessly divides Kylo Ren and Ben Solo into two beings; but he refuses to believe Ben is dead, killed by Kylo Ren, because he instead says he will always be there for his apprentice. This is Luke Skywalker as the great redeemer, foreshadowing Ben’s redemption in The Rise of Skywalker. It’s simply delightful.
1. How Rey Finally Healed the Skywalker Saber
Returning to Roux’s Legacy, the book answers one last question: how did Rey repair the Skywalker saber? The legendary blade was broken during Rey and Kylo Ren’s battle in The Last Jedi, but it was mysteriously repaired by the time of Rise of Skywalker. Rae Carson’s novelization revealed that Rey healed the kyber crystal using the same Force Heal we saw her use with Kylo Ren himself, channeling a part of her own life-force into the blade. It’s a fantastic trick, but how did Rey learn it?
Legacy is an answer to that question. It’s the theme of the whole book; Rey has headed to Tython in pursuit of lost Jedi knowledge, because this place contains a long-forgotten “Forge.” In reality, of course, the Forge is a place where Jedi themselves are reshaped and reformed; “The initial inspiration was really the Martyrium of Frozen Tears from the Doctor
Aphra and Darth Vader comics,” Roux told us. “It made sense to me that there would be other buried secrets on the planet waiting to be explored.” Those secrets lead Rey on a quest to repair the Skywalker saber at last.
