10 Dumbest Things In Star Wars Sequel Trilogy

J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson's Star Wars movies certainly had their moments along the way

However, this was also a trilogy crammed full of absolutely ridiculous developments

idiotic pieces of writing, and the unforgivable wasting of many a compelling hero and villain

So I am Gareth, this is WhatCultureStarWars, and here are the 10 dumbest things in the Star Wars sequel trilogy

10. Undoing Rey's Nobody Origins Coming into The Last Jedi, the Force-sensitive scavenger from Jakku known as Rey

had spent years waiting for the return of her parents, with many assuming this was all leading to the sensational reveal of the central figure

being related to another famous family in the galaxy. But Rian Johnson had no interest in giving fans what he saw as the easiest thing she could hear, though

brilliantly making Rey a nobody instead as a way of forcing her to find out who she was for herself

Then J.J. Abrams took one look at that unexpected and rather bold development

and said that's great and all, but what if she was actually a Palpatine

In the director's mind, coming from the worst possible place was the more shocking thing to discover

Now sure, Abrams felt this Rise of Skywalker retcon would ultimately show how some things are more powerful than blood

but Johnson's twist surely did the same thing, right? So choosing to undo such a strong narrative shift

and instead getting Rey wrapped up in silly Palpatine Skywalker last name nonsense

just undermined what was already a powerful message one film prior. Number 9. Wasting Numerous Antagonists

For every terrifying Darth Vader or despicable Emperor Palpatine, pre-return that is

there's also been a number of once intriguing villains who ultimately ended up being stupidly wasted in the Skywalker saga

That was sadly very much the case throughout the sequel trilogy too, Though Kylo Ren certainly made for a compelling and layered villain turned hero

the rest of the enemies on show range from needlessly dumb to ridiculously underutilized

Captain Phasma once seemed destined to become an icon in her own right, after catching the eye during trailers for Episode 7, The Force Awakens

But she just ended up being a slightly shinier stormtrooper to be swatted away a few times

General Hux could have been the sequel's slightly more unhinged answer to Grand Moff Tarkin

but just wound up turning into a silly pantomime distraction. Then you have Supreme Leader Snoke

a properly sinister top villain brought to life by a fully motion-captured-up Andy Serkis

Only instead of backing Wren's master as an even bigger and more horrifying threat

than the last wrinkly menace of the series, Rian Johnson opted to chop him in half before J.J. Abrams came along

and made him a silly Strangcast Palpatine puppet. Why create more engaging and frightening new adversaries for our heroes to overcome

when you can just idiotically turn them all into un-intimidating jokes instead, eh

Now I've got a quick question for you, who is your favourite Star Wars villain of all time

Probably not a sequels one, but you let me know in the comments section down below

Number 8 Deciding to Ignore Some of the Most Compelling Central Figures Along with unforgivably wasting a bunch of interesting new villains during episodes 7 a number of central heroes were also ridiculously ignored in the sequel saga

After being introduced as another brave Resistance member in The Last Jedi

the fearless Rose Tico went from being near the center of our heroes' fight against the First Order

to almost disappearing entirely in The Rise of Skywalker. Rather than doubling down on Finn's new love interest in the face of racist online bullies

targeting Kelly Marie Tran for her work in the middle flick, the folks behind Episode 9 ended up giving her a grand total of just over one minute of screen time

Nice one, Disney. Then you have the magnetic John Boyega, who helped introduce the world to the defecting First Order Stormtrooper Finn in The Force Awakens

Despite being marketed as one of the major players in the new films, Finn just ended up being little more than a side character

being sent out on side quests before becoming a completely wasted bit part player in the final

episode boyega himself put it best telling gq back in 2020 do not bring out a black character

market them to be much more important in the franchise than they are and then have them

pushed to the side it's not good not good indeed number seven not having leia hug chewbacca

in the wake of the tragic demise of everyone's favorite rebellious smuggler han solo ray chewbacca

and Finn reunite with the rest of the Resistance towards the end of The Force Awakens. It's here

when an understandably heartbroken General Leia Organa meets Rey for the very first time

offering the young scavenger a hug as the two grieve the loss of Solo. Only what could have

been a rather touching moment instantly had many puzzled. Why on earth would Leia choose to squeeze

a woman she's never met over the long-time pal of Han and her own old friend Chewbacca? The iconic

Wookiee was right there and she just wandered right on past the no doubt devastated Chewie

JJ Abrams has even gone on record to note how he regrets not having Chewie hug Leia here

The director explained that the four sensitive Rey and Leia would have likely still learned about

each other off screen before ever meeting and he also admitted to Slash Film that his intentions

were to show that an in-pain Chewie was just focused on looking after an injured Finn in the

scene but with the Wookiee still being in Leia's vicinity so soon after the death of a person they

both held dear, he'd unintentionally felt almost like a slight, and Abram's foolish oversight

ultimately undermined a potentially quite moving embrace. 6. Not Killing Off Chewbacca Two films after being shockingly ignored by

Leia on Dakar, Chewie was suddenly captured by the villainous First Order during The Rise of

Skywalker. Then, as Rey attempted to bring down that Chewie-carrying transport, whilst Kylo Ren

pulled the spacecraft in the opposite direction, the granddaughter of Palpatine inadvertently

pulverized that ship via unexpected force lightning. Just like that, one of the OG icons was tragically killed by his mate, a daring move that highlighted

the level of raw power Rey possessed, and supported the idea that she may even be moving

that little bit closer towards the dark side. But rather than let that heartbreaking and deeply surprising moment be Abrams Co just opted for the coward way out soon revealing that Chewie was actually on another transport the whole time Instead of leaving folks watching on relieved

the lazy twist just irritated many a Star Wars fan, and made them feel stupid for ever believing Disney would have the guts

to commit to such a bold idea in the first place. Cheers for watching this WhatCultureStarWars video today

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5. The Sith Dagger Matching Up With The Destroyed Death Star As you likely expected coming into this list, The Rise of Skywalker unfortunately contains more unbelievably stupid moments than any other sequel entry

Yes, it was also the Star Wars flick that finally brought back the incredible Lando Calrissian

and chucked one of the finest duels of the series into the Skywalker saga on Keth Beer

But that latter part of the story also involved one of the dumbest moments of the whole trilogy

As Rey and Co. search for the Sith Wayfinder that will take them to the Sith world of Exegol

the granddaughter of Palpatine uses the Sith dagger they've picked up to locate the all-important item

You 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

with its tape-measure thingy then showing the gang where they needed to go

That'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

Rey 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

What are the chances, eh? As far as plot contrivances go, they just don't come much sillier than this dumb dagger nonsense

Number 4, Finn has something to tell Rey, but decides to keep it to himself

As already noted, John Boyega's charismatic one-time Stormtrooper Finn was massively underutilized in The Rise of Skywalker in particular

When our heroes find themselves being dragged into a sinking field on Persona

Finn lets Rey know that he has something to tell her. But when nudged on the subject after they survive

he simply says he'll let her know later on. Later, bafflingly, never actually comes in that flick, though

with the dumb call being made for him to just keep that interesting information to himself

Boyega was quick to confirm on Twitter slash X that Finn wasn't going to tell Rey he was in love with her

Then, after choosing not to deliver the answers to this mystery in the film itself

Abrams eventually revealed at a Q&A screening afterwards that Finn wanted to tell Rey he was actually Force-sensitive

Admittedly, there are a few hints to be found in the flick that point to Finn being a Force user

like the fact he had a feeling where the nav signal was coming from

during the Battle of Exegol but 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

3. A Good Question for Another Time The Force Awakens not only introduced viewers to Rey, Finn and other new faces like the

pirate queen Maz Kanata, it also saw the return of an item just as iconic as any member of

the original and prequel trilogies Anakin and Luke Skywalker lightsaber But how did the little old alien Kanata come to possess such a legendary laser sword Well that exactly what Han Solo wanted to know in the feature Only instead of

just chucking out a simple but intriguing response, Maz shrugged off that massive question and told

the group she'd share another time. Just like Boyega's thing he needed to tell Rey, that

revelation never actually ended up on screen, though, because 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. The director did actually intend on originally revealing this secret in a montage

during episode 7, but noted during the movie's director's commentary that it was a story they

could just tell another time, before then proceeding to infuriatingly do anything but that

Cheers, JJ! 2. They Fly Now Closing out with two more totally unwise things that went down during that modern-day masterpiece

known as The Rise of Skywalker, poor John Boyega was once again caught up in a rather dumb scenario

in that final sequel. Remember when the gang are trying to keep from being blown to bits

by the First Order on Pasana? Well, as they speed across the desert

Finn spots how these particular stormtroopers are equipped with jetpacks, meaning that they can very much fly now

But what may have initially just felt like a poor throwaway joke in the flick

was actually a somewhat dumb statement when you take a second to think about it

Troopers soaring through the air with rockets on their backs isn't exactly anything new in this galaxy far, far away, is it

Boyega himself even rolled his eyes at the stupid line whilst doing press for episode 9

noting how clone troopers were using jetpacks in the Clone Wars. Either as a cringy attempt at humour, or just a generally puzzling statement in this universe

They fly now, they fly now, they fly now! Is an undeniably dumb few seconds of sequel dialogue

At number 1, somehow Palpatine returned. Cheating death wasn't anything new in the Star Wars universe before the events of The Rise of Skywalker

But even with Darth Sidious suffering a somewhat similar fate to the eventually returning Darth Maul during Episode 6 Return of the Jedi

it was largely accepted that the Emperor wasn't going to pull a Maul and return from the grave

Even George Lucas let Palpatine actor Ian McDiarmid know that the powerful Sith was definitely dead after his Death Star fall

But somehow Palpatine did ultimately return, didn't he? And in doing so, J.J. Abrams and co. provided Star Wars with one of its dumbest ever developments

along with one of the most idiotic lines in movie history. Oscar Isaac deserved better, damn it

In a move that absolutely no one understandably saw coming, it was revealed that Palpatine's essence had survived the fall

and been transferred into a clone body on Exegol. On top of feeling like the worst kind of nostalgia

Palpatine's return also completely undermined the sequel's other big bad Snoke, after it was revealed, as already noted

that he was just being used as the Emperor's stupid puppet this whole time

If that wasn't bad enough, this unwanted resurrection undid one of the greatest moments of the entire Skywalker saga too

with Vader stepping back towards the light and killing off Palpatine to save his son

ultimately meaning far less in the wake of this dumb return of the Sith

If only someone told Abrams and the gang not to do it