The Chewbacca/medal moment is the perfect example of this, as well as being the moment I find most loathsome in the film. After Leia dies, she bequeaths various things to the main characters; for Chewbacca, it’s the medal that he never received in A New Hope’s final ceremony scene, which has been a topic among fans for over 40 years. If you read the novelization of The Rise of Skywalker, you’d know this is the medal Han received, and Leia is just passing it along. But since you almost certainly didn’t read the book, like most of the tens of millions of people who only saw the film, you’d be forgiven for thinking Leia was finally presenting Chewbacca his own medal.
But what this means in the world of the movie is that Leia refused to give Chewbacca his medal until after she died. Like, she know the Wookiee deserved it, but she couldn’t bear the idea of giving it to him herself, so she carried it around with begrudging instructions that Chewbacca could only be given his medal over her cold, dead body. It’s a useless scene that makes no logical sense even if you have the context for it—and if you’re a kid who grew up with the sequel trilogy, it doesn’t make any sense at all. Again, it’s just craven fanservice.
But how do you feel about The Rise of Skywalker? Has your opinion changed? Does anybody actually enjoy it more now than they did on December 20, 2019? Let us know in the comments.
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