More than a decade after Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit the big screen, the Star Wars sequel trilogy continues to get hate. In fact, even after all this time, and the addition of The Mandalorian and Grogu to the franchise, which was also generally considered a flop, the sequels are still seen by many as some of Star Wars’ worst movies. While that does pertain to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in particular, there were considerable complaints about all three movies.
The Force Awakens may actually have been the least controversial of all three, as The Rise of Skywalker’s “Somehow, Palpatine returned” line and, at times, nonsensical plot proved incredibly unpopular, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi received heavy backlash for myriad choices, including its depiction of Luke Skywalker. For The Force Awakens, the complaints largely consisted of issues with the plot feeling very unoriginal; specifically, The Force Awakens frequently felt like a loosely concealed remake of A New Hope. However, the issue wasn’t actually that The Force Awakens built upon the Star Wars legacy but rather that it didn’t do so inventively enough—and one new Star Wars story just proved it.
In a brand-new Star Wars novel, Star Wars: Legacy, written by Madeleine Roux, Rey comes face to face with none other than the Force Ghost of Anakin Skywalker. Specifically, Anakin appears to her in a dire moment, just after she’s had an intense brush with the dark side that has terrified her. In addition to a very precious moment in which Anakin refers to Leia as a “brave, bold woman,” saying that Rey is one too, Anakin imparts various words of wisdom. He first tells her, “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…That was weakness, Rey. Evil looks for the weak.”
Building upon that insightful take on Anakin’s very complicated Star Wars story, Anakin adds, “The Force moves differently through all of us. I fought to tame it all my life, and in death I found the serenity I couldn’t in life.” It’s curious and unexpected that this level of reflection would come from Anakin in a book focused on Rey and Leia and set between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, but it isn’t only because there are so many other projects in which this introspection would make more sense. Rather, it’s because this type of commentary and presence should have come from Anakin on screen in the sequels—and that’s actually incredibly frustrating.
It was already confirmed in Return of the Jedi that Anakin returned as a Force Ghost, and the re-released version of the movie even showed Hayden Christensen in the role. This left the door wide open for the sequels to bring Anakin back as a Force Ghost—something that Ahsoka ultimately went on to do several years later—but instead, the closest we got was seeing Vader’s helmet at various points. One could argue that the sequels wanted to avoid the fan service of bringing back Christensen/Anakin, but that doesn’t really hold up, considering that so many choices in these movies were entirely centered on fan service.
What’s more, at times, the plot directly called for the involvement of Anakin’s Force Ghost. As just one example, throughout all three movies, Kylo Ren is effectively praying to Darth Vader’s helmet, promising to finish what his grandfather started. The irony is that his grandfather wouldn’t have wanted that, as Anakin was redeemed in the end. Surely, it would have saved everyone a lot of grief if Anakin’s Force Ghost had appeared to Kylo Ren and told him the story (just as Anakin did in this new story with Rey). Star Wars still hasn’t explained why that didn’t happen.
Although the horizon for Star Wars is admittedly looking sparse, with only Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord season 2 and Ahsoka season 2 on the way in terms of confirmed shows and only Star Wars: Starfighter having a confirmed release date among the upcoming movies, there is still a possibility that the galaxy far, far away will actually address this weird gap in Anakin’s story. Specifically, Christensen is confirmed to be returning in Ahsoka season 2, and given that the show is set before The Force Awakens, perhaps this new season will reveal why Anakin never became involved in the sequels.
This may even have something to do with how Ahsoka season 1 ended, which showed Anakin’s Force Ghost on Peridea with Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren. Theoretically, this could offer an explanation of where he was and why he was unable to visit Ben Solo/Kylo Ren. However, this new story with Rey, while interesting, has just complicated that even more, as clearly, Anakin was at the very least around between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
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