Rise of Skywalker Ruins Last Jedi's Luke/Yoda Force Ghost Scene

The scene between Luke Skywalker and the Force ghost of Yoda was one of the best in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but The Rise of Skywalker misses (and undoes) much of what made it so great. Yoda's return to the Skywalker saga, over 30 years after his death in Return of the Jedi, wasn't just a surprise treat for fans in The Last Jedi, but also a pivotal moment in the sequel trilogy's middle chapter. With Luke at a low point, it's Yoda who once again provides the Jedi with some words of wisdom, explaining that "the greatest teacher, failure is" and that masters are what students "grow beyond". It's a poignant scene that reflects on both of their journeys, and the themes of the franchise as a whole.

There's no place for Yoda in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but after his death in the previous movie it's Luke Skywalker who fills the Force ghost role this time around. Once again set on Ahch-To, the Force ghost of Luke interacts with Rey. He catches the lightsaber she attempts to throw away, and ultimately gives her the encouragement (and X-wing) needed to go and destroy Palpatine for good. While the two scenes share Force ghosts and the setting, however, the second one takes away a lot of the first's power.

Related: The Rise of Skywalker Made Snoke's Last Jedi Death Worse

In The Last Jedi, Luke and Yoda's conversation speaks to the power of failure - that it is a great tool for the next generation, because they can learn from those mistakes. Thus, the growing beyond means their students do not repeat the mistakes of their masters; that they find a new way forward. It's an emotional, thematically rich moment that connects to the entire saga - both Yoda and Luke have experienced their own moments of great failure - but The Rise of Skywalker doesn't build on it. When Rey finds Luke on Ahch-To, he gives her a lightsaber and a ship, sending her off to destroy Palpatine. That doesn't suggest anyone learning from their failures, but simply doing something that has already been done.

There's little here to show that Rey is growing beyond Luke, or that either are learning from failures of the past. After all, Palpatine was defeated before, and there's no guarantee of Rey doing anything differently here. It's not so much that Luke wills Rey back into the fight - after all, The Last Jedi itself ended with him becoming the hero of the Rebellion once again - but that it seemingly throws away the deeper impact of the Luke/Yoda scene in favor of handing Rey a new lightsaber and having her be the latest Jedi to face down Palpatine. It shows Luke learning from his failure of hiding away, but it doesn't look at the wider context of that scene: of the failure of Yoda, or the failure of the Jedi Order as a whole.

In the end, Rey does succeed in defeating Palpatine, but it's nonetheless hard to know what has really changed - what's to stop Palpatine, or some new threat, emerging once again? And what will the Jedi to differently to prevent it? The Last Jedi's Luke/Yoda scene was a concentrated dose of one of its core messages - the misunderstood idea of letting the past die. Really, what The Last Jedi says is to not hold on so blindly to the past; to respect it, but also acknowledge the flaws and learn from the failures. Luke's arc in The Last Jedi suggests that Rey could find a new way forward, that rejects the dogma of the Jedi and the dichotomy of light and dark for something new and more balanced, but that's not borne out in The Rise of Skywalker. It's possible Rey may do that, but it's far from a guaranteed thing. "The greatest teacher, failure is," Yoda says. The Rise of Skywalker didn't learn that lesson, as while Rian Johnson went for the themes of Star Wars, J.J. Abrams was more focused on the iconography.

Next: Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker's Luke Is Very Different To Last Jedi's

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