- 13/06/2025
Did you know that apparently tHeY fLy nOw?!
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00:00J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson's Star Wars movies certainly had their moments along the way.
00:06However, this was also a trilogy crammed full of absolutely ridiculous developments, idiotic
00:12pieces of writing, and the unforgivable wasting of many a compelling hero and villain.
00:18So I am Gareth, this is WhatCultureStarWars, and here are the 10 dumbest things in the
00:23Star Wars sequel trilogy.
00:2510.
00:26Undoing Rey's Nobody Origins
00:28Coming into The Last Jedi, the Force-sensitive scavenger from Jakku, known as Rey, had spent
00:34years waiting for the return of her parents, with many assuming this was all leading to
00:38the sensational reveal of the central figure being related to another famous family in
00:43the galaxy.
00:44But Rian Johnson had no interest in giving fans what he saw as the easiest thing she could
00:50hear though, brilliantly making Rey a nobody instead as a way of forcing her to find out
00:55who she was for herself.
00:57Then J.J. Abrams took one look at that unexpected and rather bold development, and said that's
01:02great and all, but what if she was actually a Palpatine?
01:05In the director's mind, coming from the worst possible place was the more shocking thing
01:10to discover.
01:11Now sure, Abrams felt this Rise of Skywalker retcon would ultimately show how some things
01:16are more powerful than blood, but Johnson's twist surely did the same thing, right?
01:20So choosing to undo such a strong narrative shift, and instead getting Rey wrapped up in
01:25silly Palpatine Skywalker last name nonsense, just undermined what was already a powerful
01:30message one film prior.
01:32Number 9, Wasting Numerous Antagonists
01:35For every terrifying Darth Vader or despicable Emperor Palpatine, pre-return that is, there's
01:41also been a number of once intriguing villains who ultimately ended up being stupidly wasted
01:46in the Skywalker saga.
01:48That was sadly very much the case throughout the sequel trilogy too.
01:51Though Kylo Ren certainly made for a compelling and layered villain turned hero, the rest of
01:56the enemies on show range from needlessly dumb to ridiculously underutilized.
02:01Captain Phasma once seemed destined to become an icon in her own right.
02:05After catching the eye during trailers for Episode 7, The Force Awakens, but she just ended
02:10up being a slightly shinier stormtrooper to be swatted away a few times.
02:13General Hux could have been the sequel's slightly more unhinged answer to Grand Moff Tarkin,
02:18but just wound up turning into a silly pantomime distraction.
02:22Then you have Supreme Leader Snoke, a properly sinister top villain brought to life by a fully
02:28motion captured up Andy Serkis.
02:30Only instead of backing Ren's master as an even bigger and more horrifying threat than
02:34the last wrinkly menace of the series, Rian Johnson opted to chop him in half before
02:39JJ Abrams came along and made him a silly Strangcast Palpatine puppet.
02:43Why create more engaging and frightening new adversaries for our heroes to overcome,
02:48when you can just idiotically turn them all into unintimidating jokes instead, eh?
02:52Now I've got a quick question for you, who is your favourite Star Wars villain of all time?
02:57Probably not a sequels one, but you let me know in the comments section down below.
03:00Number 8.
03:01Deciding to ignore some of the most compelling central figures.
03:05Along with unforgivably wasting a bunch of interesting new villains during episodes 7-9,
03:10a number of central heroes were also ridiculously ignored in the sequel saga.
03:15After being introduced as another brave Resistance member in The Last Jedi,
03:19the fearless Rose Tico went from being near the centre of our hero's fight against the First Order,
03:24to almost disappearing entirely in The Rise of Skywalker.
03:27Rather than doubling down on Finn's new love interest in the face of racist online bullies
03:32targeting Kelly Marie Tran for her work in the middle flick,
03:35the folks behind Episode 9 ended up giving her a grand total of just over one minute of screen time.
03:41Nice one, Disney.
03:42Then you have the magnetic John Boyega,
03:45who helped introduce the world to the defecting First Order Stormtrooper Finn in The Force Awakens.
03:50Despite being marketed as one of the major players in the new films,
03:53Finn just ended up being little more than a side character,
03:56being sent out on side quests before becoming a completely wasted bit-part player in the final episode.
04:02Boyega himself put it best, telling GQ back in 2020,
04:06Do not bring out a black character, market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are,
04:11and then have them pushed to the side.
04:13It's not good.
04:14Not good indeed.
04:15Number 7, not having Leia hug Chewbacca.
04:18In the wake of the tragic demise of everyone's favourite rebellious smuggler Han Solo,
04:22Rey, Chewbacca, and Finn reunite with the rest of the Resistance towards the end of The Force Awakens.
04:28It's here when an understandably heartbroken General Leia Organa meets Rey for the very first time,
04:33offering the young scavenger a hug as the two grieve the loss of Solo.
04:37Only what could have been a rather touching moment instantly had many puzzled.
04:41Why on earth would Leia choose to squeeze a woman she's never met over the long-time pal of Han,
04:46and her own old friend Chewbacca?
04:49The iconic Wookiee was right there.
04:51And she just wandered right on past the no-doubt devastated Chewie.
04:54JJ Abrams has even gone on record to note how he regrets not having Chewie hug Leia here.
04:59The director explained that the Force-sensitive Rey and Leia would have likely still learned about each other off-screen
05:05before ever meeting, and he also admitted to SlashFilm that his intentions were to show that an in-pain Chewie
05:11was just focused on looking after an injured Finn in the scene.
05:14But with the Wookiee still being in Leia's vicinity so soon after the death of a person they both held dear,
05:20he'd unintentionally felt almost like a slight,
05:23and Abrams' foolish oversight ultimately undermined a potentially quite moving embrace.
05:286. Not Killing Off Chewbacca
05:30Two films after being shockingly ignored by Leia on Dakar,
05:34Chewie was suddenly captured by the villainous First Order during the Rise of Skywalker.
05:38Then as Rey attempted to bring down that Chewie-carrying transport,
05:42whilst Kylo Ren pulled the spacecraft in the opposite direction,
05:45the granddaughter of Palpatine inadvertently pulverized that ship via unexpected Force lightning.
05:51Just like that, one of the OG icons was tragically killed by his mate,
05:55a daring move that highlighted the level of raw power Rey possessed,
05:58and supported the idea that she may even be moving that little bit closer towards the dark side.
06:04But rather than let that heartbreaking and deeply surprising moment be,
06:08Abrams and co. just opted for the coward's way out,
06:11soon revealing that Chewie was actually on another transport the whole time.
06:15Instead of leaving folks watching on relieved,
06:17the lazy twist just irritated many a Star Wars fan,
06:20and made them feel stupid for ever believing Disney would have the guts to commit to such a bold idea in the first place.
06:26Cheers for watching this WhatCultureStarWars video today,
06:29now go and hit that subscribe button down below for more of this sort of glorious stuff.
06:34Number 5, The Sith Dagger matching up with the destroyed Death Star.
06:38As you likely expected coming into this list,
06:41The Rise of Skywalker unfortunately contains more unbelievably stupid moments than any other sequel entry.
06:47Yes, it was also the Star Wars flick that finally brought back the incredible Lando Calrissian,
06:52and chucked one of the finest duels of the series into the Skywalker saga on Kef Beer.
06:57But that latter part of the story also involved one of the dumbest moments of the whole trilogy,
07:02as Rey and co. search for the Sith Wayfinder that will take them to the Sith world of Exegol.
07:07The granddaughter of Palpatine uses the Sith Dagger they've picked up to locate the all-important item.
07:12You see, that special knife just so happened to match up perfectly with the way the completely wrecked second Death Star was lying in the sea,
07:20with its tape-measure thingy then showing the gang where they needed to go.
07:24That's right, not only did the group manage to luckily land on exactly the right part of the planet to view this section of the broken space station,
07:32Rey also conveniently pulled out the Wayfinder Finding Dagger in the precise location needed for it to line up with the one vital chunk of Death Star wreckage.
07:40What are the chances, eh?
07:43As far as plot contrivances go, they just don't come much sillier than this dumb dagger nonsense.
07:48Number 4, Finn has something to tell Rey, but decides to keep it to himself.
07:53As already noted, John Boyega's charismatic one-time stormtrooper Finn was massively underutilized in The Rise of Skywalker in particular.
08:01When our heroes find themselves being dragged into a sinking field on Persona, Finn lets Rey know that he has something to tell her.
08:08But when nudged on the subject after they survive, he simply says he'll let her know later on.
08:13Later, bafflingly, never actually comes in that flick though, with the dumb call being made for him to just keep that interesting information to himself.
08:20Boyega was quick to confirm on Twitter slash X that Finn wasn't going to tell Rey he was in love with her.
08:26Then, after choosing not to deliver the answers to this mystery in the film itself,
08:30Abrams eventually revealed at a Q&A screening afterwards that Finn wanted to tell Rey he was actually Force-sensitive.
08:37Admittedly, there are a few hints to be found in the flick that point to Finn being a Force-user,
08:42like the fact he had a feeling where the nav signal was coming from during the Battle of Exegol.
08:46But choosing not to reveal such a massive detail in the film itself, and just throwing it out casually at a Q&A, was a hugely puzzling move.
08:55Number 3, a good question for another time.
08:59The Force Awakens not only introduced viewers to Rey, Finn, and other new faces like the pirate queen, Maz Kanata,
09:05it also saw the return of an item just as iconic as any member of the original and prequel trilogies,
09:11Anakin and Luke Skywalker's lightsaber.
09:13But how did the little old alien Kanata come to possess such a legendary laser sword?
09:18Well, that's exactly what Han Solo wanted to know in the feature.
09:21Only, instead of just chucking out a simple but intriguing response,
09:25Maz shrugged off that massive question and told the group she'd share another time.
09:29Just like Boyega's thing he needed to tell Rey, that revelation never actually ended up on screen though,
09:35because J.J. Abrams seemingly just gets a kick out of teasing fans with things he has no intention of fully explaining in his Star Wars movies.
09:41The director did actually intend on originally revealing this secret in a montage during episode 7,
09:48but noted during the movie's director's commentary that it was a story they could just tell another time,
09:53before then proceeding to infuriatingly do anything but that.
09:56Cheers, J.J.
09:57Number 2, they fly now.
09:59Closing out with two more totally unwise things that went down during that modern day masterpiece known as The Rise of Skywalker,
10:05poor John Boyega was once again caught up in a rather dumb scenario in that final sequel.
10:11Remember when the gang are trying to keep from being blown to bits by the First Order on Pasana?
10:15Well, as they speed across the desert, Finn spots how these particular stormtroopers are equipped with jetpacks,
10:22meaning that they can very much fly now.
10:24But what may have initially just felt like a poor throwaway joke in the flick,
10:28was actually a somewhat dumb statement when you take a second to think about it.
10:32Troopers soaring through the air with rockets on their backs isn't exactly anything new in this galaxy far, far away, is it?
10:38Boyega himself even rolled his eyes at the stupid line whilst doing press for episode 9,
10:43noting how clone troopers were using jetpacks in the Clone Wars.
10:47Either as a cringy attempt at humor, or just a generally puzzling statement in this universe.
10:52They fly now, they fly now, they fly now,
10:56is an undeniably dumb few seconds of sequel dialogue.
10:59At number 1, Somehow Palpatine Returned
11:02Cheating death wasn't anything new in the Star Wars universe before the events of The Rise of Skywalker.
11:07But even with Darth Sidious suffering a somewhat similar fate to the eventually returning Darth Maul
11:12during episode 6, Return of the Jedi,
11:15it was largely accepted that the Emperor wasn't going to pull a Maul and return from the grave.
11:20Even George Lucas let Palpatine actor Ian McDiarmid know that the powerful Sith
11:24was definitely dead after his Death Star fall.
11:27But somehow Palpatine did ultimately return, didn't he?
11:31And in doing so, J.J. Abrams and co. provided Star Wars with one of its dumbest ever developments,
11:36along with one of the most idiotic lines in movie history.
11:39Oscar Isaac deserved better, damn it.
11:41In a move that absolutely no one understandably saw coming,
11:44it was revealed that Palpatine's essence had survived the fall
11:47and been transferred into a clone body on Exegol.
11:50On top of feeling like the worst kind of nostalgia,
11:53Palpatine's return also completely undermined the sequel's other big bad Snoke,
11:58after it was revealed, as already noted,
12:00that he was just being used as the Emperor's stupid puppet this whole time.
12:04If that wasn't bad enough, this unwanted resurrection
12:06undid one of the greatest moments of the entire Skywalker saga too,
12:10with Vader stepping back towards the light and killing off Palpatine to save his son,
12:15ultimately meaning far less in the wake of this dumb return of the Sith.
12:18If only someone told Abrams and the gang not to do it!
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