Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker featured the death of Leia as she sacrifices her life to free Ben Solo from Kylo Ren. Carrie Fisher, the actress who embodied the princess turned general, sadly passed away in 2016, and fans have wondered how the character would be written out. Leia’s role in Star Wars 9 was always going to be key to the sequel trilogy, but Fisher’s death limited how much screen time she could have. To have as much of Leia as possible in the final Skywalker saga film. J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio wrote scenes around Fisher’s unused footage from The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.
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The end result was quite strong, with powerful sequences featuring Leia that greatly influenced the story and character arcs of the Rey and Kylo Ren. Most of all, Leia was crucial to the redemption of her son, Ben, and it took an incredibly emotional scene to make that happen. As Rey and Kylo Ren battled on the remains of Death Star II, Leia used the Force to keep an eye on the battle between her apprentice and her son. Throughout the trilogy, Leia has consistently believed in her son’s ability to come back to the light, just as her father once did. In The Force Awakens, she convinces Han Solo to continue believing in Ben, ultimately leading to his own death. In The Last Jedi, she almost believes that her son is lost forever, until Luke leaves one final message to her that no one is ever really gone, inspiring hope in her once again.
While Kylo and Rey mostly battled to a standstill, Kylo’s experience and training eventually start to give him the upper hand. As Rey continues to lose herself in the anger that is her lineage, Kylo fights with a sense of calm, ultimately leading towards his own victory. Leia sensed the battle was about to be lost and knows that to reach out to her son one last time, she needs to sacrifice her life in the process. Leia used every ounce of force energy she had left to simply get to her son with one final word, his name. A scene that is very Chris Terrio in nature, hearing his mother say his true name as her life expires was enough to completely stun Kylo Ren. Not too unlike the Martha moment of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice snapping Batman out of his darkened state, Leia snapped Kylo Ren back to Ben Solo as her final act before death.
Eventually, it leads to a surprise cameo from Harrison Ford’s Han Solo, greatly influenced by Leia’s actions. The scene was powerful and emotional. Knowing Carrie Fisher has passed and every scene of hers in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was archive footage from previous movies, a tip of the hat must be given to J.J. Abrams for figuring out a way to make Fisher’s final word in The Rise of Skywalker be the most important one to the film.
Kylo Ren was almost immediately turned back into Ben Solo with the final words of his mother. Rey, still in pure anger, stabs him, signifying the death of Kylo Ren as we knew him. It was only then Rey feels Leia’s force energy leave and realizes that she has died. Rey uses Force Heal on Kylo Ren, who is still completely speechless following the death of his mother. Earlier in the film, he made it clear he felt he was too far gone to the dark side to ever face his mother again, but here he realizes he truly never will. Leia’s final act brings Ben Solo back, which in turn was needed to save the galaxy from the Emperor. Safe to say that Leia’s legacy as a princess, general and Jedi is stronger than ever as the Skywalker saga comes to a close with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
