This post contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

When Disney debuted the first full trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens in 2015, this long-awaited tease for the next entry in the Skywalker Saga downplayed the role Daisy Ridley's character Rey would play in the story. Based on trailers alone, anyone going into the theater to see the first new Star Wars story in a decade would have had no indication that the hero of this new trilogy—the next powerful Jedi to defeat evil—would be a young woman.

And this was intentional on Disney's part. The highly secretive new series put John Boyega's Finn and Adam Driver's Kylo Ren front and center—and omitted Rey from merchandising—because they wanted to protect the surprise that Rey was the main character. But, critics thought this reveal of the first lead female Star Wars character reeked of sexism, and was another instance of Disney and toy company's long history of incorrectly believing that female action figures don't sell and girls don't buy toys. This misinterpretation and the clunky reveal of Rey as the lead character speaks to a franchise and an industry that has always struggled with representing women, and who holds power in a galaxy far, far away.

Although the new Disney trilogy has made strides in terms of on-screen representation, the new Star Wars movies have continued to struggle in this department—particularly in its telling of Rey's story. Unfortunately, the final film in the Skywalker Saga fails its lead female character in a disappointing ending that knocks Rey down from a powerful hero with agency over her own story to an unwilling pawn in the schemes and squabbles of men.

Lucasfilm

"The dead speak! The galaxy has heard a mysterious broadcast, a threat of Revenge in the sinister voice of the late Emperor Palpatine." It's with this ominous statement that the final opening crawl in the Skywalker Saga begins. It's also where fans might have started to realize that Rey's powerful origin as the child of nobodies probably wasn't going to last the runtime of the newest film. Since it was revealed that J.J. Abrams would be bringing back Ian McDiarmid's iconic villain, fans have been wondering just how much of a role he would play in the final part of the Skywalker story. It turns out, Palpatine's presence in the film is massive, with huge implications for Rey—effectively nullifying the journey of independence that the character had been on in the first two movies.

When audiences first met Rey in The Force Awakens, she was alone, scavenging for scraps on a desolate desert planet. But, she kept fighting to better her own circumstances. She was an impressive pilot, athletically gifted, and kind despite the hand she'd been dealt. Her life changes when by chance she meets a little droid named BB-8, and rather than continue down the path of comfort and safety that she'd known her whole life, Rey chooses to risk it all to protect the little ball machine and help Finn. Rey's agency over her own story—to choose to do the right thing rather than be compelled by a prophecy or duty to lineage made her an inspiring character. Her journey reflected that of Finn's, a Stormtrooper who made the choice to leave the genocidal forces who kidnapped and brainwashed him to help the pilot Poe Dameron escape. Though it could be argued that the Force brought them together, both the heroes made choices and personal sacrifices to ensure the safety of others and the pursuit of the right thing.

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The Last Jedi expanded on Rey's story by striking down the notion that you had to be from a legacy family and bloodline to have a connection to the Force. Anyone could be a hero, The Last Jedi told us. Rey was nobody, but her actions made her important. Her talent, her heart—that is what defined her. Not a name. She came to terms with this past, as Kylo Ren told her that her parents were nobodies who sold her off for drinking money. Even in her darkest moment, Rey made the choice to reject Kylo Ren's hand. Though she was connected to the angsty young man, she had the agency to say no, choosing the family she had found in the Resistance.

From the outset, though, The Rise of Skywalker almost instantaneously takes away Rey's agency. Suddenly, all of her choices were predestined, maybe even controlled by Palpatine himself. Her powers are exponentially more impressive in this film and defined solely by her lineage as it is revealed that the young woman is actually the granddaughter of Palpatine. As Kylo Ren states, "You don't have power, you have his power." It's a devastating blow to the inspiring journey that Rey has been on and it's one that becomes more and more obvious as the film goes on and commits to the idea that Rey's power was never truly her own.

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On the surface it's easy to see The Rise of Skywalker as the film in which Rey is at her most powerful. We see her flying through the air, jumping vast distances, and at one point we even see her leap over Kylo Ren's TIE Silencer. During another vital moment she pulls down a First Order ship from the sky using the Force. She even shoots lightning from her fingers, destroying the ship she was trying to pull from the sky. It's the last moment that should hint at why Rey's powers have suddenly heightened so exponentially. A generous reading could be that Leia is an incredible teacher—we see them training together during the first act—but the film explicitly shows us that Rey is unable to finish even a simple training course under Leia's tutelage. The real reason that she's suddenly able to do these incredible things is because she has the blood of a powerful and overwhelmingly evil man running through her veins.

It's not only Palpatine who defines Rey's journey in this film, though. Audiences discover alongside the young woman herself that both Luke and Leia knew she was a descendant of Palpatine and chose never to tell her. Her discovery of the truth is sparked by Kylo, who insists on revealing "the truth" to Rey as they duel. Even her decision to head into the galaxy and hunt down the Sith Wayfinder is forced by Poe and Finn to include them rather than her going alone. The Rise of Skywalker also seems to ignore the lessons of the first two movies. Finn and Rey's early relationship is defined by the latter insisting that she doesn't need to be saved—but in The Rise of Skywalker Finn spends most of his time worrying about Rey rather than actually assisting or trusting her.

Lucasfilm Ltd.

These moments could have been presented as a powerful message of friendship except Rey ends up facing Palpatine by herself, supported only by Kylo who it is revealed she shares her massive powers with via a new Episode IX invention known as a Force Dyad. It's never really explained other than the fact that it seems to be connected to their famous and powerful parents and means that the pair are stronger together. Even Rey's ultimate resurrection is defined by another person. It's not Rey's already established Force powers or even the spirits of the Jedi past that she invoked utilizing her own strength. Instead it's another man, Kylo Ren, who uses the Force to bring her back to life. There's a tragic beauty to the sacrifice, but once again, it highlights the absolute turnaround from a woman who didn't need to be saved and who wasn't defined by those who came before, to a girl who needs men to give her power and even life.

Jonathan Olley

Just four years ago in 2015 it seemed like—however flawed the attempts—Disney was trying to course correct decades of homogenized storytelling with little representation for anyone outside of straight white men. Aside from their massive box office success the films challenged and expanded the idea of who a Star Wars fan—and hero—could be. Every comic convention was filled with tiny girls dressed as Rey and later Rose Tico suddenly finding themselves in the stories that they'd long been left out of. Rey's power as a young woman who stood up to maniacal men, abusive love interests, and stood for the greater good became a cultural movement. With The Rise of Skywalker, Disney seems to be playing to an audience of trolls who were unsatisfied with the centering of a young woman, whilst also misunderstanding Rey's appeal. She didn't touch audiences and inspire young kids by being athletic and good with a staff, but by being a female character with agency and power which is still surprisingly rare in the Hollywood landscape.

It's not hard to understand why J.J. Abrams wanted to reintroduce Palpatine and attempt to tie together the often disparate trilogies. The question is, though, why was it done at the expense of the characters who were meant to be at the heart of the story? As we leave The Rise of Skywalker it's easy to feel that rather than Rey being a hero driven by her own strengths and the power of the Force she is instead Palpatine's plan that's gone wrong. A hero of chance rather than choice, it feels like a disappointing way to end 42 years of hope and inspiration.

Rosie Knight Rosie Knight is an entertainment journalist who also makes comics.

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