May 25, 1977, is one of the most important days in cinema history, and that is because the Star Wars franchise debuted with Episode IV: A New Hope. The movie was a massive hit thanks to its epic space battles, it also introduced audiences to lightsabers, the Force, and a variety of characters who are still relevant more than three decades later. The original trilogy ended in 1983, and the prequel trilogy, which showed Anakin Skywalker's transformation into Darth Vader, began in 1999.
No one expected to see another Star Wars trilogy after 2005, but that all changed in 2012 when Disney bought the franchise and announced their plans for a sequel trilogy. The sequels made a lot of money, and there are a lot of fans who enjoyed them, but even those fans have to admit that certain aspects of the sequel trilogy make no sense.
10 If Luke Wanted To Be Left Alone, Why Did He Give R2-D2 Half The Map?
The Star Wars franchise has its fair share of controversial moments, and one of the biggest controversies came when the sequel trilogy introduced a version of Luke Skywalker that many fans despised. This version of Luke lost all hope when his nephew turned to the dark side and destroyed the new Jedi Order.
In The Last Jedi, Luke tells Rey that he fled to Ahch-To to die alone, which doesn't make sense since Luke gave half of the map that led to Ahch-To to R2-D2. If Luke no longer cared about the fate of the galaxy and had no interest in being found, why did he leave any part of a map behind, to begin with?
9 Using The Dagger To Point To Sidious' Wayfinder On The Death Star Is Absurd
The Death Star is responsible for at least one of the franchise's worst atrocities, and the second one played a significant role in The Rise of Skywalker despite having been destroyed in Return of the Jedi. The wreckage of the second Death Star contained Palpatine's Sith Wayfinder, but Rey and her friends didn't have enough time to search the entire structure.
Luckily, the Sith dagger that led Rey to the wreckage had an extendable portion that pointed to the Wayfinder's location. In order for this to work, Rey needed to inherently know the purpose of this extendable portion, and she also needed to be standing at the exact distance and angle for the blade to lineup properly. Either Rey was extremely lucky to be standing in the perfect spot from the beginning, or the plot was simply flimsy and rushed.
8 If Force Ghosts Can Still Use The Force In The Physical World, Why Aren't They Helping More?
For more than two decades, fans believed that Force Ghosts were simply apparitions who could speak with the living, but The Last Jedi changed all that. When Yoda appeared as a ghost, he used the Force to summon lighting that destroyed the tree that held the ancient Jedi texts.
In The Rise of Skywalker, Luke uses the Force to grab the lightsaber that Rey tosses into a fire, and he then uses the Force to lift his X-Wing out of the water. If Force Ghosts had the ability to do this all along, why did none of the Jedi spirits use the Force to kill Palpatine on Exegol when he was still in a weakened state?
7 The Holdo Maneuver Breaks Space Battles
The Star Wars saga is filled with moments where intelligence managed to beat power, and the Holdo maneuver is regarded as one of those moments. The maneuver certainly gave fans one of the franchise's best visuals, but it broke space battles in the process.
Instead of sending X-Wings to attack Starkiller Base in The Force Awakens, The Resistance could have easily destroyed it by having a few droid-piloted cruisers ram into it at lightspeed. The Rise of Skywalker tried to retcon the maneuver by stating that the odds of success were one in a million, which doesn't make sense since the actual maneuver is just running into something really quickly while moving in a straight line...
6 Chasing The Resistance Fleet Made No Tactical Sense
The majority of The Last Jedi's plot revolved around the First Order chasing after the remnants of the Resistance fleet. The Resistance ships were out of range of their cannons, so the First Order decided to simply follow them, and aside from one skirmish, they only attacked when a Resistance ship ran out of fuel.
From a military perspective, this makes absolutely zero sense, especially when these ships represented the last form of legitimate opposition in the galaxy. The First Order could have easily wiped out the fleet if they simply ordered a few Star Destroyers to lightspeed slightly ahead of the Resistance, and then have them turn around to attack the ships from the front.
5 The Knights Of Ren Simply Forgot They Could Use The Force
The new Star Wars comics helped flesh out large portions of the sequel trilogy, including the Knights of Ren, who were masked Force-sensitive individuals who attempted to fill the void left behind by the Sith. Unfortunately, the Knights became yet another group of sequel characters who were completely wasted after their introduction.
These Knights managed to destroy Luke's Jedi Order, which had several Padawans and at least two Jedi Knights. In The Rise of Skywalker, the Knights turn on Kylo, and they get decimated by him because their attacks are clumsy and poorly timed. This would be fine if it wasn't for the fact that these Force users conveniently forgot that they could use the Force while in combat.
4 Rey's Parents Shouldn't Have Been Able To Escape Exegol
The Rise of Skywalker revealed that Rey was Palpatine's granddaughter, and it also revealed that Palpatine sent a Sith assassin to find Rey after her parents fled Exegol to get away from the Sith. Exegol was surrounded by a red cloud of gas and stardust, which made getting there a navigational nightmare.
Only someone with a Sith Wayfinder can successfully get through this cloud, and the only known Wayfinders belonged to Palpatine and Vader. This means that Rey's parents, who would've been under constant surveillance anyway, shouldn't have been able to actually leave Exegol.
3 It Is Said That Shields Don't Work Within A Planet's Atmosphere Even Though They Do
While the Resistance is planning its assault on Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker, someone mentions that the Star Destroyers cannot activate their shields while inside the atmosphere of a planet, but that makes no sense. Ships can still be attacked while in the atmosphere, so not being able to use shields is a major design flaw.
The Battle of Hoth saw the Empire destroy a generator that powered the shield that protected Echo Base. In Episode IX, the movie which made the actual shield claim, Rey and her friends get chased by stormtroopers on Pasaana, and their speeders are in fact protected by shields. These instances prove that shields can in fact be used while inside a planet's atmosphere.
2 Palpatine Wants Rey To Kill Him So He Can Take Over Her Body, But Doesn't Do It When It Happens
Palpatine is by far the cruelest Star Wars villain, and he was also one of the smartest. In The Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine reveals that he wants to take over Rey's body by transferring his soul into it, but he can only accomplish this through a Sith ritual that requires Rey to kill him.
After draining life energy from Rey and Kylo, Palpatine regains his former strength and blasts Rey with powerful Force lightning. With the help of the past Jedi, Rey manages to kill her grandfather by throwing his own lighting back at him. Palpatine got what he wanted, but for some reason, he forgot to possess Rey's body.
1 Anakin Could Have Just Told Luke Where To Find His Sith Wayfinder
The Jedi Council may have caused Anakin's downfall, but he ended up redeeming himself when he killed the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. After Luke buries his father, he sees Anakin standing next to Obi-Wan and Yoda as a Force Ghost, which means that he has the ability to communicate with Luke.
In The Rise of Skywalker, fans learn that Luke spent years trying to find Exegol, and he eventually stops searching because he cannot find any of the Sith Wayfinders. Anakin could have literally appeared to his son at any time to tell him that his Wayfinder was on Mustafar, but he chooses not to.