Skywalker has risen and the nine-part Skywalker saga has ended. We’ve misplaced our Jedi Holocrons and our Sith Wayfinder accidentally got flushed down the space-toilet, so all we can do is make some educated guesses about what the ending of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker all meant. Spoilers incoming. For a movie franchise that’s generally regarded as science fiction, there sure are a lot of supernatural and probably ectoplasmic beings hanging around the galaxy in Star Wars. Of course, we’re used to seeing Force Ghosts by now. Ever since Obi Wan told Luke to turn off his dang iPhone so he could shoot his torpedoes into the Death Star’s exhaust port, fans have accepted the fact that when you’re strong with the Force, you get to play extra innings as a glowing blue person. And when Yoda himself showed up in The Last Jedi to mess with Luke and set an old tree on fire, it became clear that the Force Ghosts in Star Wars were going to do a bit more than dispense wisdom and exposition. So that’s our best guess as to who – or what – that crowd of creeps might’ve been hanging around with Emperor Palpatine on Exegol at the movie’s end: Force Ghosts. Palpatine made a big deal about how all of the Sith were fueling him, and it seemed as though the hooded figures who faded in and out of view during the scenes with the Emperor were some kinds of spectral Sith lords. Meanwhile, Rey’s cosmic pep talk at the end of the film came courtesy of Jedi Force Ghosts — and even featured the voice talents of Jedi actors past and present, including Hayden Christensen and Ewan MacGregor reprising their roles as Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi from the prequel trilogy, among many others. One of the most dramatic plot developments in the film came in the form of Kylo Ren’s reversal and transformation back into his previous identity of Ben Solo. His redemption was one that was preordained from the first moment we learned he was Han and Leia’s son in The Force Awakens. Not only that, but he’s this trilogy’s version of Darth Vader, who himself had a rather famous redemption of his own at the end of Return of the Jedi. As such, the chance that he would close out the series as a full villain seemed pretty remote. Even still, Kylo Ren’s turnaround might’ve seemed kind of abrupt, so why and how did he turn to the light? Keep watching the video to see the Rise of Skywalker ending explained!
