10 Simple Fixes That Would Have Saved Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker
10. The Emperor Has To Go
The Rise of Skywalker is a uniquely frustrating story, not just in the sense that it's a duff conclusion to the Sequel Trilogy, but because it kind of... sorta... breaks Star Wars as a whole?
The Emperor is the source of most of the film's most debilitating issues, literally from the first moment. "THE DEAD SPEAK" is top-tier ham but once it becomes clear that the character's return occurred off-screen (and in FORTNITE too, no less), the story enters free-fall. Kylo Ren tracks the Emperor to the Sith homeworld of Exogol using a Sith 'wayfinder' (the totally not-holocron-even-though-it-is MacGuffin he retrieves at the start), and dear old Palpatine promptly reveals that his latest scheme has been his endgame all along.
He kindly reveals to the audience that he 'made' Snoke, and that's meant literally. There's a tube of Snokes lying around... just because, and Palpatine then explains how he's been seducing Kylo to the dark side all along, mimicking the voices of Vader and Snoke. Also, he definitely has children now. And Rey's a Palpatine. We literally do not care at this point, clearly.
The problem with the Emperor in Episode IX is that he completely invalidates the entire Skywalker Saga. Not only does it not make a single lick of sense (why intentionally lose your Empire to lounge around for 30 years to create... another one?), it also invalidates Anakin Skywalker's sacrifice in Return of the Jedi, arguably the most important moment in the entire series.
Ultimately, the Emperor's return breaks the inner-logic of the Star Wars mythos. It renders decades of material inconsequential and also encourages The Rise of Skywalker's worst offence, back-pedalling on The Last Jedi's inspiring message - that anyone can be the hero of their own story, regardless of where they come from - to reduce Star Wars to a tale of inheritance between two families.
The galaxy far, far away has never felt smaller.