How J.J. and Rian Yanked a Few Hundred Things Back and Forth on the Sequel Trilogy

Monday, November 24, 2025

I’d like to underscore that I did not write almost anything of what follows. It’s part of the “accursed” output of ChatGPT, which everyone seems to like to make out as awful, but which can turn out truly magic gems. I feel this is one of those gems. It is actually a four-part series, with the first two below – the factual plot points tug-of-war between J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson, followed by the tonal/thematic points tug-of-war between the two. It’s why we really felt the Sequel Trilogy was an enjoyable mess, but a true fucking mess nonetheless.

Factual Tug-of-War

1. Rey’s parents

In FORCE AWAKENS, Rey’s parents are treated as a big mystery. The way the story hides her past pushes you to expect a special origin.
In LAST JEDI, Kylo tells her her parents were nobodies who sold her for drinking money. The film leans on this as true and builds a “you don’t need a big name” theme around it.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, she is revealed as Palpatine’s granddaughter. The “nobody” reveal is reframed as a lie or half-truth, and the story swings back to a secret bloodline.

2. Who the Force is “for”

In FORCE AWAKENS, the Force “awakening” is mainly framed through Rey (and Kylo), still keeping power in a small set of special people.
In LAST JEDI, Rey-as-nobody and the broom boy using the Force say: this power can show up in anyone, not just legacy families.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the climax is “all the Sith” versus “all the Jedi” channeled through Rey (Palpatine line) and Ben (Skywalker line). The “anyone can be a Force hero” angle fades.

3. Map to Luke

In FORCE AWAKENS, the whole story is driven by a map to Luke, implying he left or allowed a trail so he could be found.
In LAST JEDI, Luke says he went to Ahch-To “to die” and clearly wanted to vanish and end the Jedi. The existence of a map is never really reconciled with that.

4. Luke’s attitude toward the Jedi and his own legend

In FORCE AWAKENS, Luke is a missing legend. Everyone treats finding him as the key, like the return of a mythic hero.
In LAST JEDI, Luke is bitter and ashamed. He wants the Jedi to end and the legend of Luke Skywalker to die with him, and he tosses the saber away.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, as a Force ghost, he admits he was wrong to run, supports Rey continuing the Jedi, and acts again as a classic encouraging mentor.

5. Relics and “let the past die” vs. restoration

In FORCE AWAKENS, relics like Luke’s lightsaber and the Falcon are treated with reverence. The past is something to recover and reclaim.
In LAST JEDI, Kylo’s “let the past die” line is backed up by actions: Luke discards the saber, the tree burns, the helmet is smashed, Snoke is cut down. The film aggressively breaks icons.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, icons are rebuilt and honored: Kylo’s helmet is reforged, Rey’s saber is repaired and respected, the Jedi texts are preserved and used, and Palpatine returns as the ultimate legacy villain.

6. Snoke and who the top villain is

In FORCE AWAKENS, Snoke is presented as the supreme leader above Kylo, mysterious and clearly the main villain.
In LAST JEDI, he is still the big bad until Kylo kills him in the throne room, positioning Kylo as the new top antagonist.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, Snoke is revealed as a manufactured puppet of Palpatine, and Palpatine retakes the main villain slot.

7. Who is responsible for Ben Solo’s fall

In FORCE AWAKENS, Han and Leia describe Ben as having “too much Vader in him,” and his fall feels mostly like his own dark choice and nature.
In LAST JEDI, Luke’s moment of weakness over Ben’s bed and the temple incident are framed as the trauma that pushed Ben away.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, Palpatine claims he has been “every voice” in Ben’s head, shifting a lot of responsibility to long-term Sith manipulation.

8. Rey–Kylo bond and the “dyad”

In FORCE AWAKENS, Rey and Kylo have intense Force encounters, but nothing is labeled as a special bond.
In LAST JEDI, Snoke claims he bridged their minds, presenting the cross-galaxy connection as something he engineered.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, their link is reframed as a natural “dyad in the Force,” a rare phenomenon that even Palpatine didn’t fully control. Snoke’s “I did it” line is retrofitted as him exploiting a bond that already existed.

9. Kylo’s relationship with Vader’s helmet

In FORCE AWAKENS, Kylo talks to Vader’s burned helmet like a shrine and asks it for guidance, anchoring himself in Vader worship.
In LAST JEDI, Snoke mocks the mask, and Kylo smashes the helmet, which looks like a symbolic rejection of that imitation.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the helmet is reforged and made visually important again, walking back the earlier rejection.

10. Kylo / Ben’s role in the story

In FORCE AWAKENS, Kylo is the main villain but conflicted. He feels the pull of the light but chooses darkness and kills Han.
In LAST JEDI, he kills Snoke, becomes Supreme Leader, and offers Rey a new order built on burning everything down. He refuses to return to the light at the end.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, he starts as Supreme Leader but is pulled toward redemption, returns to being Ben Solo, and sacrifices himself to save Rey.

11. Finn’s role and possible Force sensitivity

In FORCE AWAKENS, Finn defects from the First Order, picks up a lightsaber more than once, and has strong instincts. Many viewers read this as hinting at possible Force sensitivity, though the movie never confirms it.
In LAST JEDI, he is treated as a regular (if brave) soldier. His arc is about courage and commitment, with no Force angle.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, Finn keeps talking about “feelings” that guide him and clearly senses Rey. The film strongly suggests he is Force-sensitive but never has him state it outright.

12. Finn and romance

In FORCE AWAKENS, Finn and Rey have clear emotional closeness and some light romantic teasing, with Finn focused on protecting her.
In LAST JEDI, Finn’s strongest new connection is with Rose, who kisses him, while Rey’s strongest emotional link is with Kylo.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, Rose is pushed to the side, Finn keeps trying to tell Rey something important that never gets said, Rey and Ben kiss, and Finn also bonds with Jannah. The films never settle on a clear romantic direction for him.

13. Poe Dameron’s background and role

In FORCE AWAKENS, Poe is a straight-ahead Resistance ace: clean hero, no dark past on screen.
In LAST JEDI, he becomes the reckless hothead who disobeys orders, loses ships, leads a mutiny, and has to learn about real leadership.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, we suddenly learn Poe used to be a spice runner with underworld contacts like Zorii. His mutiny arc is barely mentioned, and he ends as co-General.

14. Rose Tico’s importance

In LAST JEDI, Rose is introduced, drives Finn’s main plot, delivers key themes about war and exploitation, and kisses him with the “saving what we love” line.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, she mostly stays at the base with a few lines and little interaction with Finn. Her central role from LAST JEDI is heavily reduced.

15. General Hux’s arc

In FORCE AWAKENS, Hux is a fanatical First Order general who gives the Starkiller speech and seems fully committed to the cause.
In LAST JEDI, he is still a fanatic but is increasingly used as a comic punching bag, mocked and abused by Snoke and Kylo.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, he turns out to be the Resistance spy purely because he wants Kylo to lose, and then Pryde kills him almost immediately.

16. Maz Kanata and Luke’s lightsaber

In FORCE AWAKENS, Maz has Luke’s old lightsaber and calls the explanation “a story for another time,” clearly setting up a mystery.
In LAST JEDI, she appears briefly via holo, and nothing is explained about how she got the saber.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the saber is simply repaired and used. Maz is around, but the “how did she get it” story never gets told.

17. How the lightsaber is treated as a symbol

In FORCE AWAKENS, the saber is treated as sacred. Rey offering it to Luke on the cliff is filmed as a huge, serious moment.
In LAST JEDI, Luke tosses it over his shoulder, deliberately undercutting the weight FORCE AWAKENS gave it.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, Luke’s ghost catches the saber Rey throws toward the fire and says a Jedi’s weapon deserves respect, directly reversing the earlier gag.

18. Jedi texts and “the Jedi must end”

In LAST JEDI, Luke declares the Jedi must end and tries to burn the tree holding the ancient books. Yoda calls them “page-turners” and brings down lightning, but Rey has already taken the texts onto the Falcon.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the texts are quietly in use as reference for Exegol and Jedi lore. The idea that the Jedi should end has vanished; the goal is clearly to continue the Jedi through Rey.

19. Leia as a Jedi and her training

In FORCE AWAKENS, Leia is a general who senses the Force and her son’s struggles, but is presented as someone who did not become a Jedi.
In LAST JEDI, she uses a dramatic Force ability to survive the bridge explosion and pull herself back to the ship, showing strong power but with no training history spelled out.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, a flashback shows Leia training with Luke, wielding a lightsaber of her own, and then quitting after a dark vision about her son. Her past is retrofitted from “never Jedi” to “trained and then stepped away.”

20. Political state: Republic, Resistance, First/Final Order

In FORCE AWAKENS, the New Republic is the main government, the Resistance is an allied militant group, and the First Order is a rising fascist power. Starkiller’s attack is a huge blow but not yet shown as total conquest.
In LAST JEDI, the Republic is effectively gone and the First Order dominates the situation. The Resistance is reduced to a small group on a single ship and then in the Falcon.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, Palpatine’s “Final Order” fleet on Exegol is positioned to become a full new empire above the First Order, shifting the political structure again.

21. The galaxy’s willingness to fight

In LAST JEDI, Leia’s distress call goes out and no one comes. The explicit message is that the galaxy is too scared, beaten, or unconvinced to join the Resistance.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, Lando’s call brings a massive civilian armada to Exegol. The same galaxy suddenly shows up in force, with only quick dialogue to explain the change.

22. Broom boy, Resistance ring, and “the next generation”

In LAST JEDI, Rose’s Resistance ring and the final shot of the stable boy using the Force and holding the broom like a lightsaber suggest that the spirit of the Resistance and the Force is alive in unknown children across the galaxy.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, that thread is not followed up; the movie focuses back on Rey, Ben, and the main war, and those specific “next generation” images disappear.

23. The superweapon threat

In FORCE AWAKENS, Starkiller Base is a single, giant planet-killing weapon. Destroying it removes that specific mega-threat.
In LAST JEDI, there is no new Death Star–type weapon. The threat is conventional fleets and ground weapons.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the Exegol fleet gives each Star Destroyer a planet-killing cannon, escalating from “one big gun” to “hundreds of smaller Death Stars.”

24. Hyperspace tracking

In LAST JEDI, hyperspace tracking is introduced as a new, rare technology on the First Order flagship that lets it chase the Resistance after a jump. The whole slow-chase plot hangs on this device.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the focus shifts to navigation data on “lead ships” that guide the rest of the fleet to Exegol. Destroy those ships and the fleet is stranded, which is a different flavor of “who can follow whom” than LAST JEDI’s single flagship tracker.

25. The Holdo maneuver

In LAST JEDI, Holdo rams the Raddus into Snoke’s flagship at lightspeed, creating a devastating, visually huge “new tactic” that no one has used before.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, a character says trying that again would be a “one in a million” shot, basically closing the door on using lightspeed ramming as a standard strategy.

26. Knights of Ren

In FORCE AWAKENS, the Knights of Ren appear only in Rey’s Force vision as ominous figures standing with Kylo, with no detail.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, they finally show up in the present as Kylo’s silent enforcers, stalking around and then getting cut down quickly once Ben has a lightsaber. Their “mysterious” setup never really pays off.

27. Captain Phasma

In FORCE AWAKENS, Phasma is visually striking and heavily advertised, but in the film she has a small role and gets dumped into a trash compactor.
In LAST JEDI, she returns for a short sequence, fights Finn, and falls into fire in what is framed as her death, after which she is gone from the story.

28. Rey’s flirtation with the dark side

In FORCE AWAKENS, Rey almost kills Kylo in anger in the forest, hinting she could be dangerous if she leans into rage.
In LAST JEDI, she enters the dark cave on Ahch-To seeking answers and is drawn into intense, risky contact with Kylo. Her path feels genuinely up for grabs.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, she has a brief “Dark Rey” vision and accidentally destroys a transport, but the movie never commits to a long, serious fall. She finishes firmly as the hero.

29. What “Skywalker” means

In FORCE AWAKENS, “Skywalker” is a bloodline with a heavy legacy: Luke is missing and Ben, a Skywalker/Solo descendant, has fallen.
In LAST JEDI, that legacy is further stained by Luke’s failure and Ben’s choices. The film leans into the idea of breaking the old Skywalker-centered pattern and looking beyond dynasties.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, Rey, a Palpatine by blood, takes “Skywalker” as her chosen name. The title of the trilogy is tied to her adoption of the mantle and Ben’s brief return, shifting “Skywalker” from pure bloodline to something you can choose to step into.

30. Luke’s X-wing: stranded vs usable

In LAST JEDI, Luke’s X-wing is shown sunk and mossy under the water off Ahch-To. Along with his “I came here to die” stance, it strongly implies he has made himself effectively stranded and is not leaving that island again.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, ghost-Luke raises the same X-wing out of the water for Rey, and she flies it to Exegol. The visual is a direct echo of Empire Yoda, but it also undercuts the idea that Luke had permanently removed his way off Ahch-To. The ship turns out to be flight-worthy after all.

31. Fuel and ship range as a constraint

In FORCE AWAKENS, hyperspace travel follows classic Star Wars logic: ships jump around as needed, and fuel is never mentioned as a major limiting factor.
In LAST JEDI, fuel suddenly becomes central. The Resistance can’t keep making hyperspace jumps; they are running out of fuel, and that’s why the First Order can just sit behind them and wait. The entire slow-chase plot depends on fuel limits as a hard rule.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, hyperspace is again treated as basically freeform. Both the Resistance and the bad guys jump all over the place with no mention of fuel or range problems. The trilogy goes from “fuel is not a thing” → “fuel is a crucial limiting mechanic” → “fuel is not a thing again.”

Tonal / Thematic

32. War as grey (profiteers) vs war as simple good vs evil

In LAST JEDI, Canto Bight and DJ push a very “grey” view of the war. The arms dealers sell to both sides, and DJ explicitly does the “today they blow you up, tomorrow you blow them up” speech. The film undercuts the idea that the Resistance are pure and the First Order are the only bad actors in the system.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, that grey theme disappears. There’s no follow-up on “both-sides” profiteering; the framing goes back to classic good guys vs fascist empire (now the Final Order) with no real systemic ambiguity. It feels like a retreat from LAST JEDI’s “it’s more complicated than that” vibe.

33. Prophecy, visions, and whether the future is fixed

In LAST JEDI, the movie goes out of its way to say Force visions are unreliable and easily misread. Rey sees Ben turning, Kylo sees Rey joining him; both think they know the future, both are wrong in important ways. Luke’s own snap judgment about Ben’s darkness is shown as a catastrophic misreading. The theme is: your belief about destiny can be the thing that wrecks everything.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, destiny language is much more straightforward again. Leia’s vision that her Jedi path will lead to her son’s death is treated as basically right. Rey is told she is destined to inherit “all the Sith,” and the story leans into her role as a kind of focal point of prophecy. There is less emphasis on “visions are traps” and more on “visions are real things to work around or fulfill.”

34. “Saving what we love” vs big, glorious last stands

In LAST JEDI, Rose literally crashes into Finn to stop his suicide run on the cannon and tells him they win by saving what they love, not fighting what they hate. Combined with the fuel-burning chase and constant failures, the film is suspicious of glorious charge-in heroics. Reckless sacrifice is critiqued, even when it comes from a good place.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the final battle leans back into big, all-or-nothing heroic stands. Poe’s “I’m sorry, guys” moment accepts that they may all die in a frontal assault. Lando’s armada showing up is framed as the galaxy finally embracing that kind of last stand. The “don’t throw yourself into the grinder” lesson is not really present anymore; the tone shifts back toward classic noble sacrifice imagery.

35. Deconstructing legends vs leaning back into myth

In LAST JEDI, the film keeps poking at the idea of legends. Luke explicitly hates the “legend of Luke Skywalker,” calls out his own failures, and says the Jedi should end. His final act on Crait is interestingly double-edged: personally humble (he’s just a projection, not actually fighting) but publicly mythic (kids re-enact it with toys). The movie is fascinated by how stories warp reality, and it wants you to see the cracks under the myth.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the focus swings back to myth as mostly straightforwardly good. Luke is now the wise, supportive legend again. Rey’s journey to “Rey Skywalker” is framed as stepping into that legend. The armada arriving for the final battle is more about “they heard the call and came” than about how stories can mislead. The critical edge around legends is much softer.

36. Cynicism vs idealism about systems

In LAST JEDI, DJ embodies a very specific cynicism: don’t trust either side, they’re both just customers to arms dealers. The Canto Bight plot, plus the unreturned distress call, suggest that a lot of ordinary people don’t see much difference or don’t believe in big causes enough to risk themselves. The film makes space for the idea that “the system” itself is broken, not just one bad faction.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, that flavor of cynicism is gone. When Lando goes out to rally help, the answer is basically, “People were afraid before; now they’re ready,” and that’s it. The movie shows masses of civilians turning decisively toward the Resistance cause and doesn’t question their motives or the system much at all. It’s a tonal swing back to “if the heroes are inspiring enough, people show up.”

37. Attitude toward failure as a teacher

In LAST JEDI, failure is practically the main thesis. Luke failed Ben. Poe’s mutiny nearly ruins everything. Finn and Rose’s mission crashes and burns, leading directly to the First Order tracking the escaping transports. Yoda explicitly tells Luke that the greatest teacher is failure. The movie rubs the heroes’ noses in consequences and treats those failures as necessary lessons.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, most “failures” are short-term setbacks rather than hard lessons the story dwells on. The MacGuffin chase has obstacles, but there is less time spent on “we messed up badly and need to re-think who we are and how we fight.” The plot is more about keeping pace and decoding things than absorbing character-level failure in the same way. The strong “failure is how you grow” theme isn’t really followed up.

38. Tone of humor: meta and undercutting vs earnest

In FORCE AWAKENS, the humor is quippy but mostly stays inside the scene’s reality: “so who talks first?” with Kylo, Finn’s awkwardness, Han’s usual dry lines. It’s light, but it doesn’t usually undercut big emotional beats.
In LAST JEDI, the humor leans more meta and undercutting. Hux’s “can he hear me?” phone-prank opening, Luke tossing the saber, and some of the caretakers/Porg gags all poke at expectations the audience has built up. Some viewers felt key moments were deflated on purpose.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the humor shifts back toward safer, in-universe banter: Poe and Finn bickering, C-3PO’s lines, small creature gags like Babu Frik. There is much less “we’re going to turn this big serious image into a joke right now” energy. That looks like a tonal correction away from LAST JEDI’s sharper undercutting.

39. Cost of war: intimate, ugly, personal vs epic, mostly-heroic

In FORCE AWAKENS, war is dangerous but still has a pulpy tone. Starkiller wipes out whole systems, but it is mostly a distant spectacle. Individual losses are big emotional beats (Han), not long meditations on the grind of war.
In LAST JEDI, the cost of war is shoved in your face. Paige’s death in the bombers, the slow bleeding-out of the Resistance fleet, the transports getting picked off, the child slaves in Canto Bight, the failed mission that makes things worse – all of it says war is attrition, exploitation, and failure as much as heroics.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the tone moves back toward large-scale epic heroism. The final battle is about the giant armada and the huge stakes, but the camera doesn’t linger on the grim, grinding cost in the same way. Losses are there, but the texture is more “big adventure climax” than “this is ugly and exhausting.”

40. Leadership style: challenged and mistrusted vs largely unified and heroic

In FORCE AWAKENS, Resistance leadership (Leia, Ackbar, etc.) is basically trusted. The main tension is against the First Order, not inside the Resistance itself.
In LAST JEDI, leadership is openly questioned. Poe distrusts Holdo, Holdo withholds information, Poe’s mutiny nearly ruins everything. Leia and Yoda both say hard things to their “chosen” heroes. Authority in the “good” side is flawed, opaque, and capable of serious mistakes.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, leadership is more unified and idealized again. Poe, Finn, and Leia’s legacy sit comfortably in the “we’re all on the same page” space. There’s no equivalent of the Holdo/Poe clash or a serious challenge to command decisions. The tone shifts away from “good leaders can be wrong and mistrusted” toward “we’re aligned, now let’s fight.”

41. The Force as mysterious and wild vs systematized and label-heavy

In FORCE AWAKENS, the Force is back to being a bit mysterious. We see Rey’s vision, Kylo’s powers, and a general sense that something is “awakening,” but there aren’t many new hard labels or structures put on it.
In LAST JEDI, the Force is treated like a strange, natural phenomenon. Luke’s “it’s not a power you have” speech, the island’s light/dark imagery, the mirror cave, the broom boy – it’s all about the Force as something that runs through everything, defying simple codification and undercutting the idea that it “belongs” to a sect.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the Force gets more gamified and systematized again. We get the “dyad” as a defined special state, “all the Jedi live in you now” vs “all the Sith,” healing as a known technique, and a lot of power-level talk. The vibe leans toward a cosmology with named modes and states, less toward wild mystery.

42. Individual destiny vs collective action

In FORCE AWAKENS, there’s a mix of both, but the spotlight is clearly on individual destinies: Rey discovering her power, Kylo choosing darkness, Finn breaking away from the First Order. The Resistance as a whole is there, but the story attention is on a few “special” people.
In LAST JEDI, the film pushes hard on the idea that anyone might matter. The broom boy, Rose, Paige, anonymous Resistance members, even background kids all get weight. The “spark that will light the fire” line is about a collective, not just a chosen one. The movie keeps re-centering ordinary people.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the final resolution moves back toward extremely concentrated destiny: Rey vs Palpatine, “all the Jedi” channeled through one person, and a duel of magical beams deciding the fate of the fleet. The armada is a big crowd shot, but the true win condition is what happens between two individuals at the center.

43. Subverting expectations vs fulfilling them

In FORCE AWAKENS, the movie leans on familiar Star Wars beats but with new faces. It’s comfortable playing things straight: a big planet-killer, a desert scavenger with a destiny, a masked dark-side enforcer. It tees up mysteries rather than resolving or subverting them.
In LAST JEDI, the explicit project is to wrong-foot you. The lightsaber handoff is turned into a gag, Snoke dies out of nowhere, Rey’s parents are “nobodies,” Luke isn’t the wise hero you expected, the big “final stand” on Crait is mostly a delay tactic with a projection. The movie keeps asking, “What if the story doesn’t go the way you think?”
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the dial swings back toward delivering familiar payoffs: Palpatine returns as ultimate villain, Rey has a secret important lineage, the Jedi vs Sith showdown is visually classic, the galaxy rallies like at Endor, Rey takes the Skywalker name. The film is much more in “we are going to give you traditional answers” mode than “we are going to blow up your expectations.”

44. Attitude toward “nobodies” as heroes outside the core cast

In FORCE AWAKENS, the hero focus is tight on Rey, Finn, Poe, and Han. Stormtroopers beyond Finn are faceless; the people on the planets Starkiller destroys are anonymous. The story of “ordinary” people is mostly off-screen.
In LAST JEDI, the camera deliberately shifts to non-core characters: Paige’s sacrifice, the abused kids on Canto Bight, the broom boy, anonymous Resistance fighters whose choices matter. The film keeps reminding you that history isn’t only made by the trademarked main characters.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, there are new faces (Jannah and her fellow defectors, Zorii, Babu, etc.), but the narrative gravity pulls tight back to Rey, Ben, and the legacy plot. The broom boy type of framing is gone; the “nobodies” are there to help, but the story does not rest on them the way LAST JEDI’s final shot does.

45. How much the story trusts institutions to reform vs needing a reset

In FORCE AWAKENS, the New Republic is basically treated as something that existed off-screen and then got nuked. There isn’t much commentary on whether it was good, bad, or flawed; the movie doesn’t linger on institutional critique.
In LAST JEDI, there is strong energy around structures being broken: the Jedi as a failed institution that should end, the Resistance leadership being secretive and fallible, the galaxy’s power structures feeding war profiteers. It feels like a “we need a reset” mood, for both Jedi and politics.
In RISE OF SKYWALKER, the end suggests that the solution is not to tear everything down, but to win the war and let something better presumably grow in its place. Rey’s Jedi role is framed as a continuation, not a replacement. The film doesn’t spend time on systemic critique; it focuses on defeating the clearly evil structure (Final Order) and restoring a sort of moral status quo.

Which Matches the OT Best? (ChatGPT’s Answer)

Short version: Abrams matches the surface feel and structure of the originals better; Johnson is closer to the deeper Empire/ROTJ themes about failure, compassion, and “a nobody can be the hero.” If I have to pick which approach is closer to the core of ESB/ROTJ, I’d lean slightly toward Johnson, with a big asterisk that Abrams’ FORCE AWAKENS is the most “OT-feeling” movie moment to moment.

I’ll unpack that.

First, what the original trilogy is actually doing thematically.

ANH is basically a fairy tale in space: super-clear good vs evil, a farm kid with a destiny, pulpy adventure, simple hope. ESB adds a lot of darkness: the heroes fail, the big plan doesn’t work, the mentor was hiding things, the villain is family, and you end on a loss. ROTJ pulls it together by saying the real victory isn’t blowing up hardware, it’s Luke refusing to become his father and saving Anakin through compassion. Across all three, the Force is mystical, not fully explained, and starts in the hands of a literal nobody farm boy. The Rebellion is righteous but made of a lot of small people, not just a priestly order.

Now, Abrams.

FORCE AWAKENS is almost perfectly tuned to mimic ANH. It has clear heroes, a masked villain, a desert nobody called to adventure, a giant superweapon, a found family vibe. Its tone and rhythm feel very OT: quippy but earnest, adventurous, fast. On that level, Abrams is dead-on; you can feel the same pulp serial DNA and mythic structure.

RISE OF SKYWALKER, though, pulls away from some OT themes even as it copies OT imagery. Bringing Palpatine back undercuts how final Vader’s sacrifice in ROTJ was. Making Rey a Palpatine swings back toward “special bloodline” when the OT started with Luke as a nobody and then stressed that his victory was moral and spiritual, not genetic superiority. The climax is huge and fun to look at, but the resolution is “blow up the bad wizard with reflected lightning” more than “refuse to play the dark side’s game.” So Abrams nails the feel and the shape of OT Star Wars, especially ANH and ROTJ’s surface, but sometimes steps away from the OT’s deeper moves about “anyone can start as a nobody” and “winning by refusing hatred.”

Now, Johnson.

LAST JEDI is very in love with what made ESB special: the heroes fail, their plans backfire, their idols turn out to be flawed, and the big lesson is how you respond to that failure. Luke’s crisis, Yoda telling him that failure is the greatest teacher, the transports getting slaughtered because of the Canto Bight mess and Poe’s mutiny—that’s very ESB in spirit. It says, “This is what growing up in this world actually looks like.”

On the Force side, Luke’s speech to Rey about the Force not belonging to the Jedi, the imagery of light and dark on Ahch-To, and the broom boy ending all line up surprisingly well with the idea of Luke in ANH and ESB: some kid from nowhere, sensitive to something bigger than himself, becoming part of the story. Rey-from-nowhere plus broom boy is basically the Luke model repeated: the Force doesn’t care about your last name. That tracks the OT’s underlying point better than “you’re special because of your blood.”

On compassion and nonviolence, LAST JEDI is very close to ROTJ’s core. Luke’s stand on Crait is a deliberate echo of “I’m not going to kill my father.” He faces Kylo without striking him, buys the Resistance time, and dies on his own terms. It’s a stunt, but it’s a stunt built around not killing anyone. Rose’s “saving what we love, not fighting what we hate” is on-the-nose, but it’s the ROTJ thesis in one sentence.

Where Johnson diverges from the OT is tone: more meta humor, more open cynicism about institutions, explicit war profiteer stuff, and more interest in “the story of stories” (how legends are made and misused). The original trilogy hinted at some of this but stayed simpler and more earnest. So LAST JEDI feels more like ESB filtered through 2010s storytelling tastes: more self-aware, more deconstructive.

Putting it together.

If you care most about Star Wars as a mythic, fairy-tale adventure with clear moral lines, Abrams’ approach is closer. FORCE AWAKENS in particular is almost a love letter to the feeling of watching ANH for the first time.

If you care most about what ESB and ROTJ were doing under the hood—heroes failing and learning, compassion trumping violence, the Force reaching out to “nobodies”—then Johnson’s approach lines up more cleanly, especially with Rey-as-nobody and Luke’s nonviolent last stand. The big clash is that Abrams’ RISE OF SKYWALKER actively walks back some of those beats.

So my honest read is:

FORCE AWAKENS feels the most like the OT in the room-by-room experience.

LAST JEDI feels the most like ESB and ROTJ in terms of underlying thematic spine.

RISE OF SKYWALKER feels visually like ROTJ but thematically farther away.

Given that, if you force me to choose which approach (Abrams vs Johnson) best matches the original trilogy’s thematic intent overall, I’d say Johnson edges it on the deeper themes, and Abrams wins on surface tone and structure. The sequel trilogy’s whiplash comes from those two things not being allowed to coexist in one coherent plan.

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