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It turns outThe Rise of Skywalkerisnt just a movie.
In this way,Episode IXrepresents the totality ofthe franchise, critical warts and all.
Big spoilers ahead forThe Rise of Skywalker.
A punctuation mark we dont often see!
At the beginning of the film, the opening text crawl starts with the words The dead speak!
An exclamation point has only appeared in one other opening text crawl:Episode III Revenge of the Sith.War!
That film featured Palpatine teasing Anakin Skywalker with the possibility of immortality.
Which leads us to …
Palpatine quotes himself fromRevenge of the Sith.
Funnily enough, both Ben Solo and Rey seem to have learned this power on their own?
Moreover, he was shown to have a fleet of World Devastators capable of ravaging entire planets.
The Wayfinders look like holocrons from theStar Warsbooks, comics, and cartoons.
Sith holocrons also exist in more contemporaryStar Warscanon.
In the animated seriesStarWars Rebels,Sith holocrons tempt the young Jedi Ezra Bridger.
Chewbacca cheating at holochess.
This movie seems to imply that Chewiedoesntcheat at chess anymore, and is actually justgoodat chess now.
Maybe R2-D2 taught him?
The Forbidden Sith language references a pivotalStar Wars Rebelsepisode.
And the Sith gets deeper!
Well hear more from Ahsoka later, quite literally.
Lando gets the most famous line inStar Wars(no, not that one).
ButThe Rise of Skywalkermarks the first time Lando gets the line.
(There was even a joke about doing spice inThe Mandalorian.)
Rey uses Baby Yodas best power to heal a sandworm.
Rey and Kylo Rens Force transfers were hinted at inThe Last Jedi.
While this power might seem unique toThe Rise of Skywalker, its not.
Rey quotes … Kylo Ren.
This time, Rey throws that back.
Leia and Lukes flashback probably takes place in the Ewoks backyard.
Why Leia didnt become a Jedi.
Leias Force vision of the future echoes two other similar self-fulfilling prophecy paradoxes in otherStar Warsmovies.
So, she quit being a Jedi, and in classicStar Warsfashion, the Sith came back anyway.
Appropriately, the music that plays as Luke glides the X-Wing to safety inThe Rise of Skywalkeris Yodas Theme.
And when the Resistance picks up Reys signal later, the ship is referred to as Red 5.
This was Lukes squadron number in the originalStar Warsmovie, when he blew up a the first Death Star.
This is why all the snow speeders call each other Rogue 3 and Rogue 2 inThe Empire Strikes Back.
The bestStar Warsfighter pilot ever has a blink-and-youll-miss-it cameo.
Wedge has the unique distinction of being one one of the fewStar Warspilots to have survivedtwoDeath Stars.
InA New Hope, Lawsons voice was dubbed over by a voice actor named David Ankrum.
(This is why Wedge bizarrely has an American accent inA New Hope.)
Wedge also might have uttered the actual best line in all ofStar Wars.
InThe Empire Strikes Back, after blowing up an Imperial Walker, he says, Whoo-ha!
Chewebaccas medal was originally given to him by Carrie Fisher … in 1997.
Anakin and Obi-Wan lead the voices of Jedi past.
Anakins encouragement is telling, urging her to bring back the balance as I did.
Wait, more Jedi voices … from the cartoons?
Actually, Anakins voice cameo wasnt the biggest deal.
Instead, the voices of Ashley Eckstein and Freddie Prinze Jr. are the voice cameosnobodysaw coming.
Prinze Jr., meanwhile, played the voice of surviving Jedi Kanan Jarrus in the seriesRebels.
Ahsoka is set to make her return toStar Warsin a new season ofThe Clone Warson Disney+ in 2020.
The Emperor melting referencesRaiders of the Lost Ark.
Apparently, the end of the Skywalker saga is also the end of theIndiana Jonessaga?
Luke and Leias theme music plays over most of the ending.
But theres also a very real chance that you were crying throughout the whole thing.
The theme is called Luke and Leia, and Williams wrote it forReturn of the Jedi.
Reys lightsaber means shes completed her Jedi training.
Part of the deal of being a real Jedi is that you have to build your own lightsaber.
To date, Rey has not done this; shes gonethreemovies borrowing a lightsaber.
But now, with her yellow-bladed saber, shes done the thing.
