Highlights
- Criticism of the Star Wars sequel trilogy has been ongoing, with fans particularly mocking the return of Emperor Palpatine in The Rise of Skywalker.
- However, one Reddit user defended Palpatine’s return, arguing that it made sense considering his history and ability to cheat death.
- While some fans supported this view, others felt that Palpatine’s return undermined key sacrifices and victories from the original trilogy.
Star Wars’s sequel trilogy has gotten its fair share of criticism from fans over the years, and one social media user has come to the defense of the movies, flipping the narrative around one oft-clowned plot point from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Star Wars fans have been openly critical of the prequel trilogy since its release, with both valid criticism and unwarranted disdain for the films dominating the discourse about them for years. However, the release of the sequel trilogy after the Disney acquisition made a large part of the fanbase realize that the Star Wars prequels could be left alone, turning their attention to the newer material instead. Criticism, both justified and otherwise, would plague the trilogy throughout its run and beyond, with many moments from the film receiving particular ridicule.
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One such well-ridiculed moment comes from Star Wars:The Rise of Skywalker, which almost featured the Star Wars debut of Dr. Who’s Matt Smith. In one scene, the character Poe Dameron announces, “Somehow, Palpatine returned,” referring to the unexpected return of the franchise’s paramount antagonist in Sheev Palatine, also known as the Emperor and Darth Sidious. This moment would become a meme and embody the fans’ ridicule of this perceived baseless addition. However, Reddit user Norman_debris recently took to r/StarWars in defense of this point from the movie in a short post aptly titled “Palpatine’s resurrection makes perfect sense,” in which they make their case to that effect. They start the post by reiterating the meme status of Poe’s line and the underlying criticism of Palpatine’s return. Specifically, they reiterate that it was seen as “unnecessary, unexplained, and demonstrating a lack of imagination and lazy fan service.”
The actual point being made is done in one strong sentence and a pairped question, reading “However, it was a significant plot point that Palpatine offered to teach Anakin the power to cheat death. Why is it at all surprising that he managed to return?” Palpatine displays unfathomable Force powers throughout Star Wars, and is also a Sith Lord with access to an unimaginably macabre collection of Sith knowledge, some of which likely dealt with the common Sith obsession of immortality. This is a solid point, but another equally valid point was made by other fans in the comments who point out that there’s no real reason why fans should take Palpatine at his word when he assures Anakin that he can indeed cheat death. Also noted was the fact that the return cheated Anakin’s sacrifice and Luke’s victory.
With no additional context in the prequels to go off of, Palpatine’s return retroactively proves his honesty with Anakin. While there was a lot of potential truth in a deception angle, that doesn’t matter in the face of a new canon installment. All in all, the actual issue isn’t with the plausibility of Palpatine’s return but rather the negative reaction to the sequel trilogy as a whole. Additionally, the perceived subversion of the original trilogy’s ending elicits a strong negative response from many. It didn’t help that most of the audience didn’t actually understand how Palpatine returned in Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker, making the reveal and the line of exposition attached seem that much more unsatisfactory.
While the fandom has shown a penchant for rehashing older content, there’s a lot going on in the present, both exciting and otherwise. Star Wars returning to Fortnite and Outlaws getting more buzz are just some of the things that everyone should be looking into at present instead. Fans will have to wait to see how well other facets of the franchise are developing behind the scenes.
The Star Wars franchise is available to stream on Disney+.
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Source: Norman_debris/Reddit
