At Gamescom Opening Night Live last month, the circulating rumor of a delayed addition to the LEGO Star Wars franchise was confirmed. However, while some fans were bothered by this news, others took it as a sign that the developers were spending more time perfecting and fine-tuning the game. Though it's likely the delay to Spring of 2021 is due to COVID-19 restrictions, this could be a great opportunity to make improvements on plot points shown in the most recent movies. While the wait will be a bit longer, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is a chance for the writers to clean up the messy plot left behind by the divisive Star Wars sequel trilogy.
Some fans loved that Palpatine had somehow made a comeback, while others couldn't grasp it. Some fans loved that Rey was born from two "nobodies," while other fans felt it was a disappointing and contradicting conclusion. But these are major plot points for the trilogy, meaning The Skywalker Saga is unlikely to make any big changes to them. But the overarching piece of criticism many took away from the sequel trilogy was the lack of cohesion implemented.
Though some of it was out of the production team's control, such as Carrie Fischer's unfortunate passing, other issues could have been solved with a roadmap of the plot. But now that Episodes 7 through 9 have been finished, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga can take notes from past mistakes and fan criticisms of the series to create a more successful narrative.
Leia's Secret Jedi Training
The Last Jedi shocked fans in many ways, with a big moment being Leia's use of the Force to float herself through space and back to the ship. This was surprising to fans not only because the Force hadn't been used in this way before, but also because it was never revealed for Leia to have tapped into this much knowledge of it. It read simply like a cool moment for Carrie Fischer, rather than it being useful to the lore in some way. But it also convolutes some previous history of Leia.
The original explanation said Leia refused proper Jedi training to focus on building the New Republic and eventually the Resistance. It was concluded that she chose not to be a full Jedi like her brother Luke. However, in Rise of Skywalker, the sudden explanation of Leia undergoing secret Jedi training was offered, which fans also found very confusing. Additionally, this poses the question of why Rey would go to such lengths to find Luke, aka the last Jedi (the film's namesake) if Leia already has this much knowledge of the Force herself. A simple solution LEGO Star Wars could implement is to stick to one of the two explanations and ignore the other.
Palpatine's Return
According to Palpatine actor Ian McDiarmid, it was never George Lucas' intention to reprise the villain. On set, Lucas confirmed the death of one of the franchise's biggest villains after he was thrown down a chute by Vader, though some other executives of Lucasfilm say that the idea to resurrect him in the sequel trilogy was brought to the table at some point. Still, Palpatine's mysterious return could have been better threaded into the overarching narrative as an ominous villain of the universe.
While some fans felt that reusing Palpatine as a tempter of the Dark Side once again was unoriginal and made little sense, through lore digging it's known that Palpatine had always been out to conquer death by probing the secrets of the Force. His unexpected return suggests he must have found the secret to escaping death. Since Abrams undid some history that Lucas wrote in by killing off Palpatine for good, it would be wise for LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga to expand on Emperor Palpatine's motivations to extend his powers as a Force user to accomplish this, and foreshadow his return in The Rise of Skywalker.
Finn and Rose
Finn and Rose's storyline in The Last Jedi was met with severe backlash from fans, the main point being that they ultimately don't do anything conducive for the Resistance throughout the one-third chunk of the film they occupy. Specifically, the casino scene was lost on fans because the duo had gone in with a specific mission and came out the other end not having completed it, but it makes no difference to the Resistance's plan. This is disappointing because the separate introductions of both Finn and Rose show their individual potential, which is never seen through fully.
And although Rose is a devoted member of the Resistance, adamant to see her late sister's missions through, she stops Finn from destroying a Superlaser siege cannon by crashing her speeder into his. Instead of giving Rose Tico a redemption in Rise of Skywalker, she's only offered a small role in Episode 9, though this could be due to the production team wanting to protect her from more internet hate. In general, Disney dropped the ball on the trilogy's side characters, but LEGO Star Wars is an opportunity to offer them more meaningful roles.
Kylo Ren's Motivation
This plot point might be a bit deep for a LEGO video game, but nevertheless, could be streamlined in the upcoming game. The main criticism that Kylo Ren's character faces in the trilogy is his muddied sense of motivation. The audience is presented with a few different possibilities as to why Ben Solo joined the Dark Side and became Kylo Ren, most notably because Luke tried to kill him. But why did this drive him to hate his parents and rebel against them so much? One lackluster explanation is that Han and Leia were bad parents, but this seemingly isn't enough reason to want to kill his own father. Between temptations of Snoke, a bloodline relating to Anakin, and temptations from Snoke, there's a lot of material to work with, but should be clarified.
Alternatively, this could be a great chance for the franchise to use comedic relief to poke fun at Kylo Ren's angsty attitude. Looking to Saturday Night Live's "Undercover Boss" skits, this parody happened because his character was misdirectedly angry without cause. Either way, because the game will cover the entire main movie series, it's a chance for the writers to tweak some of the more poorly written elements surrounding the main villain, Kylo Ren.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is set to release Spring 2021 for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.