10 Simple Fixes That Would Have Saved Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker

3. Have Ben See The Light MUCH Earlier

Ben Solo Rise of Skywalker
Lucasfilm

The problem with Ben Solo's redemption in The Rise of Skywalker is that it just arrives way too late to make a profound impact. Redeemed Ben shows up on Exogol and has that brilliant moment where Anakin's lightsaber gets Force-beamed into his hand by Rey - and there's even a kiss between them too! - but then he dies and fades away, evidently terrified at the thought of having to answer for his years serving a tyrannical military outfit.

There's not much to extrapolate from Ben's demise other than that it feels really lazy. Not just in the sense of it being a retread of Vader's sacrifice in Episode VI, but also because the audience doesn't get to see Ben reckon with his actions when he turned to the dark side. There's a much more interesting story out there when Ben turns early on and has to earn the trust of the Resistance. Instead, we got a five minute redemption that ended with his death. It just isn't all that inventive.

So, following on from the thread of Kylo Ren being ousted from the First Order by Hux and the Knights of Ren, this version of Episode IX would have Ben's redemption occur much earlier on in the story - perhaps the beginning of the second act. That way you open up a whole new dynamic, get more time between him and Rey to help sell their connection further, and are ultimately left with a more edifying conclusion to his arc.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.