Rey’s New Star Wars Story Just Made The Rise of Skywalker So Much More Devastating
There's little getting around the fact that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is a weak point among Star Wars movies and TV shows. Even among those who aren't as scathing about it as others tend to be able to admit that certain parts of the plot are nearly if not outright nonsensical (the shape of the dagger being a map if aligned with the wreckage of the Death star is a great example) and that the ending was largely unsatisfying for various reasons. In the years since, Disney has made a number of choices to attempt to ameliorate that.
Perhaps most famously, The Rise of Skywalker received significant backlash for its "Somehow, Palpatine returned" line and concept, but shows like Star Wars: The Bad Batch and even The Mandalorian have helped to provide some additional context that has made this twist slightly better—or, at least, slightly more explained. There are a number of decisions that haven't really been resolved, though. Among them is certainly Ben Solo's death, which took audiences by surprise and angered many for various reasons.
Worse still, Adam Driver himself had worked on a plan to bring him back, with his proposed movie The Hunt for Ben Solo, yet Disney shot it down. Now, a brand-new Star Wars story has managed to make this death even more frustrating, as Rey Skywalker just received the one thing that might have made Ben's death a bit more acceptable. And, as a result, this already brutal Star Wars story arc just became even more painful.
Anakin Skywalker's Force Ghost Appeared to Rey in a New Star Wars Book
In a brand-new, canon Star Wars novel, Star Wars: Legacy, written by Madeleine Roux, Anakin's Force Ghost comes to Rey in a moment of desperation, marking the very first time that he appeared in the sequel trilogy. The novel, set between Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, provides readers a closer look at Rey's time training with Leia Organa and also sees her on a mission to restore the legendary blue lightsaber of Anakin Skywalker after it was ripped in half during a confrontation between Rey and Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi.
Ahead of this scene in particular, Rey has just come dangerously close to the dark side of the Force, and she runs off, terrified of what has taken place. That is when Anakin appears, giving her reassurance about what she has experienced and acknowledging their various similarities. Among other things, Anakin tells Rey, "I know what it’s like to be alone. We’re hard people, Rey, raised by the desert. There were people that tried to help me, but I didn’t let them."
Anakin goes on to tell Rey how he ultimately only found peace in death, which is a little bleak, but is meant to be a warning to her. Anakin doesn't want Rey to end up the way that he did, so he intervened at this crucial moment, imparting the wisdom he learned from his own brutal Star Wars story arc. While this is a profound moment for both characters, and it's always thrilling to get more of Anakin in Star Wars, this actually makes Ben Solo's death all the worse for one key reason.
The Skywalkers' Abandonment of Ben Solo Keeps Getting Worse
Among the more frustrating aspects of Ben Solo's death is how cold it feels. It makes sense that none of the Resistance fighters feel sympathy for Ben or care about his death outside of Rey, but it is bewildering and even a bit insulting that no Force Ghosts appear for Ben as he dies. Yes, it happened rather quickly, but it would have taken very little effort on Star Wars' part to have Luke, Leia, or Anakin appear as a Force Ghost and look on as he passed. This especially would have made sense considering that he was already redeemed.
Instead, Ben dies alone, at least in terms of his family members being with him. Yet, just a few scenes later, Rey is shown on Tatooine, burying Anakin's lightsaber and Leia's lightsaber at the Lars' farm. Despite not appearing for the death of their son and nephew, respectively, Leia and Luke's Force Ghosts do watch Rey as she does this, which is a shocking decision for The Rise of Skywalker to make. Now, yet again, Star Wars has shown Rey being visited by a Skywalker Force Ghost, whereas Kylo/Ben was left all alone.
This particularly makes no sense in the case of Anakin going to Rey, because if anyone needed Anakin's Force Ghost to impart his wisdom, it was Ben Solo, who spent all three movies promising to finish what his grandfather, Darth Vader, started. Clearly, Vader/Anakin wouldn't actually have wanted that, as he was redeemed in the end, so it makes zero sense that he would not have given this very same talk to Ben at some point in the sequels. In that sense, while it was exciting to see Rey Skywalker interact with Anakin Skywalker, it was also rather frustrating.