Here’s How Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Balances the Force

The Star Wars saga has finally come to a conclusion, and after a lengthy battle between the Light and Dark sides, there has finally been a restoration of balance to the Force in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. But the entire saga bounced back and forth between both sides taking control before Reyfinally eliminated the threat of Emperor Palpatine once and for all. And while evil will always exist in the galaxy, Rey was able to achieve a feat that Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Luke Skywalker all struggled to make a reality — though it wound’t have happened without all of their efforts.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker writer Chris Terrio explained during an interview with IndieWire just how Rey was able to bring balance to the Force.

“The balance of the Force always, as George [Lucas] has said, means that the Dark and the Light exist,” Terrio said. “There are corners everywhere in the galaxy where the Dark still exists, except that with the rise of Palpatine and the original trilogy, I think the way George would describe it is that the Dark had become too powerful to the point where the Light had almost disappeared. So in winning this victory against the First Order and the remnants of the Empire and the Sith loyalists, I think that the balance is restored, because the Dark had been growing much, much more powerful than the Light. By Rey striking this blow, it doesn’t mean that everything is happily ever after forever, but it means that at least for this moment in time, the Dark has been held off as the Light has pushed back.“

As Terrio explains, Lucas never meant that one side would vanquish the other, but just that order was restored in the galaxy.

“The balance is constantly being fought, I think George would be the first to say that a fairy tale ending would be a naïve way to think about the galaxy forever,” Terrio added. “I mean, we do have these moments of victory which have to be savored, like the end of Return of the Jedi. And, in this film, there is a victory, but history tells us that there are no final victories. The other thing that J.J. and I would say often is whether the story has a happy ending depends on where you stop telling it, that if you stop telling the story at the end of the Ewok celebration [in Return of the Jedi], that’s a happy ending. But if you look a little further ahead, you might see that Palpatine has had a contingency plan, and he had tried through his Dark arts to find a way to cling to something resembling life and that he would nurse his wounds and build in the darkness and be ready to come back and try to get his revenge on the galaxy.”

Fans can see how the Force gets balanced in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, now playing in theaters.