10 Simple Fixes That Would Have Saved The Star Wars Sequels

One of the major complaints of The Rise of Skywalker is that good old Emperor Sheev Palpatine (last seen being torn to shreds by the hand of his own Force Lightning as he fell down an endless shaft in a soon-to-be-destroyed Death Star) conveniently returned in the franchise's last movie with no better explanation than Poe Dameron's exasperating "Somehow, Palpatine has returned." Thanks for clearing that up, JJ.

While the Star Wars story team has since cleared up details of Palpatine's resurrection in other media, audiences shouldn't have to read books to enjoy a series which predominantly exists as a movie franchise.

The Emperor's shadow has always hung over Star Wars and his return wasn't a bad idea in and of itself, but Sheev would have been better utilised in a more minor role, maybe taking the form of a pre-recorded hologram as present in Colin Trevorrow's rejected Episode IX script.

The most exciting thing to come out of The Last Jedi was Kylo Ren's status as the new leader of the First Order. Unfortunately, Palpatine's resurrection meant that we never got to see Supreme Leader Ren unleash his wrath. This decision lead to Kylo following more or less the same story arc as Vader in the Original Trilogy, ensuring The Rise of Skywalker became as much a carbon copy of Return of the Jedi as The Force Awakens was of A New Hope.

To make this surprise appearance less disorientating, Disney really should have teased Palpatine's return at the end of Episode VIII (and no, his brief mention by Luke doesn't count). At the very least, Palpatine's return could have been revealed on-screen rather than being casually mentioned in the worst opening crawl of the franchise (yes, even worse than "The taxation of trade routes ... is in dispute").