For generations, millions of Star Wars fans have thought they were watching a good ol’ fashioned space opera. In fact, they’ve received a decades-long primer in geopolitics, warfare, and the tenets of leadership. This is on display again in the latest and final movie of the nine-film franchise, The Rise of Skywalker.

At the outset of the film, things are so bleak for the Resistance that the only thing that can save them is realistic leadership, good force protection, and—let’s be honest—some kind of a miracle. Based on past abysmal performances, one could say that exercising realistic leadership and force protection would be miracles in and of themselves. The final struggle will answer whether the Resistance—and the Rebel Alliance before it—reliance on human ingenuity, flexibility, and adaptive chaotic leadership will triumph over the rigid order and discipline of the Empire and the First Order.

Spoilers to follow, of course.

Leadership Skills

By the beginning of The Rise of Skywalker, the Resistance basically comprises the Millennium Falcon, a few pilots, maintenance personnel, and staff officers.

At this point, no amount of good generalship or strategy is going to outweigh the First Order advantage in technology and mass of combat power. To her credit, general Leia Organa of the Resistance does the only thing she can after the flight from the First Order that concludes The Last Jedi: fight the information war and preserve her force. At the beginning of The Rise of Skywalker, all Resistance assets are focused on intelligence gathering. Much like Continental general George Washington after the loss of New York City in the American Revolution, Leia’s only hope is to find one enemy weakness to exploit while keeping her tiny force safe from First Order onslaughts.

Fortunately for the Resistance, dictatorships tend to breed petty leaders who don't take kindly to marginalization. Where Leia prioritizes cohesiveness, First Order leadership sews division.

After assuming the role of Supreme Leader of the First Order following the death of Snoke, Kylo Ren immediately consolidates power. We learn early in The Rise of Skywalker that one of his first acts is to push aside general Hux, who had been the military leader of the First Order and was responsible for the movement gaining much of its technological prowess. Not only does Ren demote Hux, he raises general Pryde—an Imperial holdover—to prominence. Mismanaging his directly reporting leadership, Kylo Ren fosters a grudge in Hux that runs deeper than the general’s hatred of the Resistance.

Meanwhile, Ren’s obsession with getting Rey to unite with him against both the First Order and the Resistance keeps him from fulfilling his military role as Supreme Leader, a position increasingly taken over by general Pryde, with Hux fuming in the background. With a divided, unfocused, and undermined command structure, the First Order begins the final chapter of the series at a potential disadvantage.

To add to the frustrations of First Order military leaders, Kylo Ren commits them to an uneasy alliance with the religious maniac Palpatine, the Sith Lord who emerges from decades of hiding with an enormous fleet of star destroyers. Each one of this new class of warships has planet-killing capabilities. Although not excited to be further enmeshed with religious warlords—Snoke and Kylo Ren being troublesome enough—the officers of the First Order reluctantly accept the alliance with Palpatine, if only for the massive power that he provides. This new coalition takes the name of the Final Order, and begins a campaign of terror to intimidate and coerce the systems of the galaxy to submit. However, the alliance pushes general Hux over the edge from recalcitrant subordinate to downright traitor. In hatred of the Sith—and especially Kylo Ren—Hux begins feeding information to the Resistance.