So it’s been about two months since Star Wars the Rise of Skywalker premiered, and I think it’s fine to dispense with the spoiler warnings. Now I liked about 85% of this film, and enjoyed most of it, at least until the last few minutes of the movie.
As I’m sure that most of you are aware, Ben Solo is dead. He died saving Rey by giving her his life force. As many of you are also aware, he vanishes as many Jedi do who have learned how to become one with the Force. Now, I don’t know when Ben learned it. Neither did Anakin learn it. But George Lucas has said that Obi-wan and Yoda helped Anakin Skywalker become one with the Force, and to become a Ghost (a separate action), and I’m sure Luke must have done the same for Ben. Note that obviously Rey never learned to become one with the Force, as her body did not disappear when she died. Leia disappears the same time as her son, and there isn’t really a clear explanation as to why, but my guess is that this is more symbolism than anything–her son is at peace and so she is.
<–Get The Rise of Skywalker novelization by Rae Carson here!–>
Unfortunately this film has one of the most bizarre ending sequences I’ve seen, and quite badly edited at that.
Rey’s expression at the loss of her dyad-mate is just one more of surprise than sadness for half a second. Then, she leaves Exegol with no real expression on her face, as if nothing devastating had just happened merely half a minute ago. Bear in mind here that Ben was literally HALF OF HER SOUL. The film makes certain we know that a dyad is two people with one existence in the Force [eg: they have one soul]. I suspected at the time that the footage of Rey leaving Exegol was just additional footage from that in which Rey goes to Exegol, and a recent Vanity Fair article on the VFX for the film explains that it was exactly that. They just used the same footage, and digitally added dirt.
I’ve nothing against re-using bits of footage for inconsequential shots but, hey maybe take into account the scene that just preceded the one you are inserting? Because Rey comes off as inexplicably unperturbed about losing the one person she was in love with for two whole movies. Rey will also have zero dialogue between saying Ben’s name before kissing him, and the end of the movie, by the way.
Rey returns to the Resistance. Group hugs, group tears. No dialogue so the audience doesn’t really know if Rey tells anyone what happened on Exegol, or what Rey even cries about–is it meeting her friends? Exhaustion and grief over the loss of Leia and Ben?
Then Rey goes to Tattooine, for reasons I did not understand at the time. However, Chris Terrio, the script writer thankfully explained the scene, not that it really makes anything better, when you realize that Terrio for some odd reason felt that Luke and Leia needed a reunion-in-death scene to rectify the “Original Sin of their separation” (yes, those were his words–not Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, just Luke and Leia not being raised as children together).
We get Rey burying the lightsabers on a planet Luke couldn’t wait to leave, Leia was enslaved by Jabba on, and Anakin hated, and we get to see Rey adopt the name of Skywalker. Now I have no issue with this name adoption, in and of itself. Having the name Palpatine would likely be pretty inconvenient. We see Rey look to the side towards Luke and Leia’s Force Ghosts, who smile and approve. Rey smiles, lights her yellow lightsaber, and leaves with BB-8 for something, I guess, we don’t know what. Also, why does Rey have Poe’s droid?
So, yeah, what the hell happened to Ben Solo? Why isn’t Rey emotionally devastated at the loss of the one person who meant more to her than any other person in all three movies? When I watched this, I was genuinely confused, as were many filmgoers.
Why show Ben dying, but show no catharsis regarding his death? Return of the Jedi handles Darth Vader’s death perfectly. Lucas had not wanted Vader to die of course, but Kasdan talked him into it. Nonetheless, the death is handled well. We see that Luke has a funeral pyre for his father on Endor. We see Anakin’s Ghost alongside that of Obi-wan and Yoda’s Ghost, smiling.
<–Get The Rise of Skywalker novelization by Rae Carson here!–>
This showed the audience that Luke was dealing with his father’s death, and Anakin was happy and at peace with his best friend Obi-wan. Luke can be happy for his father, and so can the audience. We also know that Anakin was an older man that had lived a hellish life as Darth Vader, and dying for his son and daughter to live on brought him peace. It is natural for the audience, that a father would die for his children.
However, none of this happens for The Rise of Skywalker. Ben Solo isn’t an older man that has lived his life–he is a young man and the beloved son of Han and Leia. His family, from Han to Luke wanted him back. I would think Leia would have most likely wanted her son alive and living out the rest of his life in peace than dead as a good boy. You don’t kill off the Prodigal Son.
And of course, Ben also shares his soul with Rey as a dyad, a sort of marriage in the Force. They are the one canon romantic couple of the sequel trilogy and killing half of this couple gives this film some serious cosmic repercussions, made worse by never referencing his death again in the film.
In addition, this trilogy has repeatedly pointed out that Rey never opens up with anyone but Ben/Kylo. She is shown in the previous movies as feeling alone in a crowd, even with Finn because she is an intensely private person. The Rise of Skywalker never shows any change in Rey’s characterization regarding this. She is told she is never alone by the Jedi when she defeats Palpatine, but nothing indicates she overcomes or could overcome losing Ben. Sure, she isn’t alone regarding friends. But that is different than having someone who understands you completely. And THAT’S who she loses–the only person who canonically loves her unconditionally, that she is vulnerable to, who understands her. He just vanishes, and that’s it.
We never see Ben again, not as a ghost, a voice, anything. No acknowledgement he even existed at all, by Rey or other characters.
We have no idea what happened to him, nor how Rey could somehow be fine without him. I suspect TROS intentionally engaged in ambiguity in case they bring Ben Solo back. Showing Ben as a Force Ghost, means he is definitely dead, and by not showing the Ghost, they can explore options to return his character. And really, he needs to come back.
<–Get The Rise of Skywalker novelization by Rae Carson here!–>
However, doing this ambiguous death, and in such a sloppy, badly edited manner, and with Terrio’s single-minded devotion to his Luke and Leia reunion no one asked for or needed, leaves the audience with a sense of bewilderment not only to Ben’s fate, but Rey’s strange and disturbing unemotionality towards a rather traumatic event that just happened to her.
One Twitter user a few weeks after the film quipped that this is the start of Rey’s villain origin story, and I’m inclined to agree. Given her previous history of extreme compartmentalization of trauma to the point of self-delusion, the conclusion of the film could reasonably be interpreted as Rey falling back on this unhealthy coping mechanism in order to get through her life. Which, as we know, would likely lead her to having this hidden grief turning to rage over time, until it boils over, and we have Dark Rey again, letting her inner evil empress run free.
However, I doubt Terrio and Abrams intended this interpretation.
How would I change this?
Well, if Terrio and Abrams felt is was absolutely necessary for Ben to die (and I don’t think it was, but it’s canon now), a simple line of dialogue could have given us the necessary acknowledgement that Rey was dealing with Ben’s death, that the film had not forgotten him, and left in the ambiguity they appear to be going for.
“Let’s go, Ben”.
The final scene of the film plays as you see on screen. But as Rey walks off to look into the sunsets, we hear her say this line. We would not need to see Ben. We would not know if he was alive, a Ghost, or living inside her.
It’s three simple words that leaves in ambiguity, but let’s us know that Rey still talks with Ben. He’s not really gone, and both Rey knows it and we know it. We don’t know where he is, but Ben is fine. And just as importantly, we know that Rey is fine. The audience wouldn’t have left the film wondering why Rey has somehow forgotten the death of a person she was cosmically bonded with, and that she still has that person that understands her as no one else does.
Star Wars fans would still speculate on Ben’s location, but we would not have the emotional dissonance that The Rise of Skywalker left us with.
As I’ve stated elsewhere, The Rise of Skywalker, is a mostly good film. It was clearly rushed to quickly into the theaters, and mostly just needs to be re-edited, something I hope will be fixed a bit before DVD release. Special effects were fine except the blue Force Ghost of Luke Skywalker, not sure what the hell happened there. And of course, the ending of the film itself. The film is fine until just after Rey and Ben kiss, and then goes off the rails. All the same, I think the strange ending could have come off as more cathartic, less regressive of Rey’s character, if Ben Solo was acknowledged, and simply saying “Let’s go Ben” would have accomplished that.
Bonus: I would have had Rey have the dice on her bag, or worn as a necklace at the end of the film. Han’s lucky dice were given to Q’ira as his promise to come back to her in the Solo film, which he does. The dice are returned to Han and the Millennium Falcon, where they come to represent Han’s love for Leia. They also were Ben Solo’s favorite toy as a child, and have come to represent love and devotion in general. As Ben Solo is his father’s son, and has his heart, the one that loves unconditionally, if a bit recklessly, and who comes back, I could see Rey having it. Perhaps Chewy would give it to her if he knows how Ben felt about Rey (Chewy is really the only of the Skywalker/Solo family and friends Rey can talk to now who she is friends with). The dice would have been an excellent symbol of Ben and Rey’s dyad–two separate people forever connected.
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You know what? I’m going to edit my memory of the film and insert those three words.
That would have made a huge difference!
Thanks for the comment! I’ve mulled over the ending for some time now, and I feel like a lot of stuff would have gone down better with just an assurance Ben’s character was active in some way in the mind of Rey, and for the audience. I hope he’ll be brought back in an interesting way, perhaps animated series, or book.