Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – 5 most shocking moments

3. Force Lightning

Throughout Star Wars properties, there’s been a clear divide between the Force abilities of the Jedi and the Sith. In the Abrams trilogy, as well as on The Mandalorian, the lines have begun to blur. We saw that in The Last Jedi, where Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) feared Rey’s inclination towards the Dark Side, and that fear is heightened in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker when Rey begins demonstrating powers that no one – let alone a Jedi – should have.

Throughout the film, Rey is obsessed with taking down Kylo Ren to the point of distraction. The two still share the Force bond from the previous film and an immense hatred for each other. They end up making very poor decisions because of them, including a Force fight on the planet Pasaana. Rey attempts to show off her prowess by destroying Kylo’s ship and then tries to stop a First Order transport from escaping with a captive Chewbacca. Since Kylo can’t leave well enough alone, he tries to capture the transport as well. Their power is completely unrestrained, and then Rey does the unthinkable – she lets her anger flow through her and unleashes Force lightning on the ship, thereby blowing the ship up and killing everyone on board. There were so many gasps of despair during that moment. Not only had we lost Han in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, now Chewie as well? For a good ten minutes, viewers were distraught at losing another member of the old guard and began to wonder if Rey was the one in need of redemption and not Kylo.

That issue was rectified when it was revealed that Chewie was somehow on a separate transport. Despite that major plot hole, the entire scene had the exact effect the creators wanted – to shock viewers into expecting the unexpected.