Credit: LucasfilmThe Walt Disney Company’s official Star Wars U.K. Twitter account recently made a seemingly innocuous post encouraging Star Wars fans to rewatch the Skywalker Saga conclusion, Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019), on the Disney+ streaming platform.
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The post featured a short video that appears to compare Shmi Skywalker saying goodbye to her son, young Anakin Skywalker, as he goes to begin his Jedi Order training, to little Rey’s mother handing her daughter to Unkar Plutt. The caption reads:
Sometimes a journey starts with a goodbye.
Watch The Skywalker Saga on @DisneyPlusUK.
Sometimes a journey starts with a goodbye.
Watch The Skywalker Saga on @DisneyPlusUK. pic.twitter.com/kQXlhqvwzW
— Star Wars UK (@StarWarsUK) February 21, 2022
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Star Wars fans, unsurprisingly, have strong opinions about the post and immediately began shredding the official account for the comparison.
JustTej wrote:
Did you just compare Shmi who freed her son from slavery to No Name Rey’s mom who sold her daughter into slavery???
The only comparison is you missing the point of the prequels, for aesthetics in the sequels.
#HowEmbarrassing
Did you just compare Shmi who freed her son from slavery to No Name Rey’s mom who sold her daughter into slavery???
The only comparison is you missing the point of the prequels, for aesthetics in the sequels.#HowEmbarrassing
— 🎆✨Just Tej✨🎆She/Her (@MarvellousTej) February 21, 2022
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Diminished Comet was also unhappy with the video, and with sequel trilogy decisions at large:
Rey Nobody’s mum sold her for drinking money and was buried in a paupers grave on Jakku – I hate the retcon in TROS
Rey Nobody's mum sold her for drinking money and was buried in a paupers grave on Jakku – I hate the retcon in TROS
— Diminished Comet 🦋 (@DiminishedComet) February 21, 2022
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A user going by Relentless for Ben Solo also doesn’t agree with the retcon, noting:
Rey’s parents should’ve found a way to hid Rey away without literally selling her into slavery.
Why wouldn’t one of her parents hide with Rey while the other served as a distraction and led Ochi away?
The actions of Rey’s parents made sense when they were drunks who didn’t care.
Rey's parents should've found a way to hid Rey away without literally selling her into slavery.
Why wouldn't one of her parents hide with Rey while the other served as a distraction and led Ochi away?
The actions of Rey's parents made sense when they were drunks who didn't care.— Relentless for Ben Solo 💛❤🦋🖤 (@RecklassRecluse) February 21, 2022
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Briar agreed with other fans’ assessment that the comparison was unnecessary and wrong:
Ah yes, that touching moment when *checks note* unnamed female character leaves her daughter with a slaver. Definitely comparable to Shmi letting Anakin leave with the Jedi to escape slavery.
Ah yes, that touching moment when *checks note* unnamed female character leaves her daughter with a slaver. Definitely comparable to Shmi letting Anakin leave with the Jedi to escape slavery.
— briar 🦋🌗🗡🦈 hot villain advocate (@briartrash) February 21, 2022
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Grecia wrote:
This parallel is gross. Anakin went to live with the jedi order and Rey was literally sold into slavery where she would spend more than a decade starving and enslaved.
This parallel is gross. Anakin went to live with the jedi order and Rey was literally sold into slavery where she would spend more than a decade starving and enslaved.
— Grecia🪴 (@reyofgreenplces) February 21, 2022
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A fan going by We Let the Weirdness In seemed to sum up almost everyone’s feelings about the video, writing:
Shmi – now be brave, and don’t look back
Rey’s Mom – work hard and don’t ask for too much food or Unkar Plutt will beat you
Shmi – now be brave, and don't look back
Rey's Mom – work hard and don't ask for too much food or Unkar Plutt will beat you— we let the weirdness in🦋 (@watermia) February 21, 2022
This is from the first time Star Wars fans have taken issue with something related to Disney’s sequel trilogy. In fact, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens (2015), Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker divided the Star Wars fandom from the start.
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Some found the story to be stale, the main characters — Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) — to be too similar to the original trilogy’s core trio of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), and Han Solo (Harrison Ford).
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Others were displeased with the inconsistencies and lack of clarity in regard to Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) and Kylo Ren/Ben Solo (Adam Driver), and their relationship to both Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) and the Knights of Ren.
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Now, with McDiarmid himself hinting at Palpatine’s return in Obi-Wan Kenobi and reports that some sequel trilogy characters will return to the Star Wars story as well, it is clear that the Skywalker Saga still hasn’t really ended and there are still more tales to tell about some of the galaxy’s most iconic characters.
What do you think about this official Star Wars post that is garnering backlash?