Part 5/10:
Furthermore, the fact that Ben Solo died in The Rise of Skywalker—a death that many fans felt was abrupt and unearned—has fueled criticism about the franchise’s tendency to recycle characters, bring back long-dead figures like Darth Maul and Palpatine, and diminish the stakes. The phenomenon of characters returning from the dead underscores a broader problem: devaluing the definition of true sacrifice and mortality within the Star Wars universe.