A Ranking Of 'The Skywalker Saga' Finales
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Star Wars finales fall on a spectrum. It’s either the saddest finale you’ve ever seen or one of the happiest. Each trilogy has happy and sad endings, but I would argue that the prequel trilogy has more depressing finales. I would also argue that Rogue One deserves an honorable mention, though, because that is probably the saddest Star Wars finale. Let’s look at the Star Wars finale's list in the Skywalker Saga.
9. Attack Of The Clones
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I will be the first to admit that this movie is not one of my favorites. I find the politics and the final battle super interesting, but the rest of the movie is just dull for me. We see an older Anakin, who is now a Padawan to Obi-Wan Kenobi, and his relationship with Padme. There’s also the politics happening regarding the ongoing Clone Wars. This is the movie that introduces the Clones when Obi-Wan visits Kamino. The ending has one of the coolest battles. The Jedi and the Separatists meet on Geonosis and have an epic battle. We see the death of Jango Fett and the rise of Boba Fett. Anakin and Padme also marry in a private ceremony on Naboo. While it’s a good ending, it’s not one of the best.
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8. The Force Awakens
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A new era of Star Wars was born with the sequels. They are highly contested but are still a part of the franchise, no matter what. Rey is trying to figure out who she is. During her journey, she meets Finn and Poe, who become her family. She also joins the Resistance, led by General Leia Organa. She eventually has a goal to find Luke Skywalker. The movie ends with a shocking reveal, where Rey presents the lightsaber to an old Luke Skywalker.
7. The Last Jedi
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Unfortunately, this movie continues the trend of the original trio dying. Kylo Ren and the First Order have found the Resistance on Crait. Their chances seem slim until Luke Skywalker faces Kylo Ren head-on. However, he is not there and is force-projecting himself. He can push back the Resistance, but this causes him to become one with the Force.
6. The Rise Of Skywalker
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I love this movie, and I am not ashamed of it. Its ending is very similar to Return Of The Jedi. The First Order has been defeated once and for all. Rey channels all the Jedi who came before her to beat Palpatine, and Poe rallies people to his cause. They all reunite and celebrate their victory.
5. The Empire Strikes Back
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Where do I even start with this movie? Luke discovers that Darth Vader is his father, and he loses his hand. Leia and Han are separated, after Han is frozen in carbonite, to make up his debt to Jabba The Hutt. The two of them can proclaim their love before his freezing. Looking at it now, it’s not a sad ending, but that’s because we know what happens next.
4. A New Hope
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This is one of the happier endings in Star Wars. The first Death Star has been defeated, and the Rebellion has some time to breathe. Unfortunately, their fight is far from over, but it’s nice that they get a small moment of reprieve. Luke and Han were awarded medals for their victory. Chewie was robbed, however, and deserved a medal as well.
3. The Phantom Menace
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This was the movie that introduced us to Anakin Skywalker. When we meet him, he is a child slave on the planet of Tatooine. That soon changes when he meets Jedi Master Qui Gon Jin, his Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Queen Amidala/Padme of Naboo. Little did he know, they would change his life. They take him off the world to train him as a Jedi. Of course, we know what happens next. Even though we lost Qui Gon, the ending of the movie has a happy ending, with a celebration of Naboo. I love happy endings, so it’s nice that this film has one before everything goes bad.
2. Revenge Of The Sith
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This is probably one of the most important finales, as it’s where we finally see Anakin turn into Darth Vader. It also features one of the best fights in the entire series. Anakin has officially turned to the Dark Side. Unfortunately, Anakin won’t listen to reason, and so he and Obi-Wan have their final and iconic fight. The movie ends with a charred and missing limb Anakin being “saved” by Darth Sidious, who turns him into Darth Vader.
1. Return Of The Jedi
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I’m biased, but this is my favorite Star Wars movie. I love the vibes of the movie and the Ewoks, who were essential in defeating the Empire. The ending is one of the happiest in the series. The Empire has been defeated, including the second Death Star. Luke has defeated Palpatine with the help of his father. He is reunited with his family on Endor, and they and the Ewoks have a huge celebration that rings across the galaxy.
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The Parallels Between 'The Acolyte' And The Prequels
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It’s like poetry, it rhymes, which is something that has remained true when it comes to Star Wars. Recently, this quote can be used when it comes to The Acolyte and The Phantom Menace. Both are very different pieces of Star Wars media, but The Acolyte has a few parallels to the prequel film, that causes it to come full circle.
One of the Jedi rules pertains to training older children. The majority of the time, the child is taken as a baby or a very young child, and they are raised and trained within the Jedi temple. There however have been cases where this hasn’t happened, and the Jedi Council has not been happy about it. The first case of this was with Anakin Skywalker.
Everyone knows the story of how Qui Gon Jinn stumbled across the child, who was a slave at the time, on the planet of Tatooine. Anakin was able to win his freedom, after winning a podrace. We find out he has a very high midichlorian count. When Qui Gon takes him back to Coruscant, the Council is not a fan of having him trained, due to his age. This wasn’t the last time this happened though, as we most recently saw this same thing happen in The Acolyte. Jedi Master Sol stumbled across two girls in the forest in their home of Brendok. The Jedi eventually confront the sister's coven, and chaos ensues. Osha, one of the girls, wants to train and be a Jedi. Master Indarra confronts the council about it, and they of, course, say no. Sol is not happy with this outcome but decides to do it anyway. Sol and Qui Gon were very alike in this way. They did not listen to the order, but sometimes they let their emotions take over.
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Image Source: IGN Nordic
Osha trained for as long as she could, but she couldn’t control her emotions like she was supposed to, eventually leaving the Jedi order. She’s like Anakin in a lot of ways, and this is one of them. Both of them struggled to suppress their emotions, and eventually, their emotions got the better of them, and they were lured to the Dark Side. Anakin’s love and obsession with protecting Padme drove him mad, that he was convinced to join the side opposite of the Jedi. Osha’s love for her sister caused her to never fully suppress her emotions, and when she found out what Master Sol did, that was the end of it for her, and where she fully gave herself over to the Dark Side.
Another similarity between both Star Wars content is the creation of children from the force. Anakin doesn’t know who his father is. Fans have speculated for years, but nothing has ever been confirmed. In The Phantom Menace, Shmi, Anakin’s mother, explains to Qui Gon that it “just happened”. She woke up one day, and was pregnant with him, and doesn’t have an explanation as to why. This is a bit different from The Acolyte, but the same concept at the core. The twins, Osha and Mae, were created by their mother using Force. Mother Anasieya was able to manipulate the force and use it to her advantage to create her daughters. The twin's creation was different from Anakin’s, but the use of the Force remains the core of both of them.
Image Source: IGN
Parallels have always existed in Star Wars. We also saw this in the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy. Luke and Rey’s stories are very similar and mirror each other. So it makes sense that other content would mirror each other as well. Hopefully, we get a season 2 of The Acolyte and see even more parallels between the show and previous content.
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Source: Screen Rant
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