Star Wars Rebels Did A Sith Temple Story Better Than Rise of Skywalker
Star Wars Rebels’ journey to the Sith temple on Malachor was much more dynamic than what The Rise of Skywalker did with the Sith planet Exegol.
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Star Wars Rebels has a better Sith temple story than Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Featuring an iconic world familiar to fans, developed heroes and villains who have a lot of fan investment, and multiple incredibly significant lightsaber duels, Star Wars Rebels takes the cake with its journey to the planet Malachor. This is in contrast to the planet of Exegol seen in Rise of Skywalker, a new and remote Sith world hidden in the Unknown Regions of space where the resurrected Emperor was biding his time and preparing a new fleet to rule the galaxy once more. However, the depiction and narrative execution of Exegol has been met with heavy criticism, whereas Star Wars Rebels’ Sith temple story is largely seen as one of the best arcs in the series (if not one of the best chapters of the entire Star Wars franchise).
In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Kylo Ren obtains a Sith Wayfinder, which leads him to the new planet of Exegol, the hidden Sith world where the Emperor is still alive, who offers the Supreme Leader of the First Order his power and fleet so long as Kylo Ren kills Rey (Palpatine’s granddaughter). However, Kylo Ren would eventually be redeemed back to Ben Solo, and he would join Rey in her mission to defeat the Emperor while the Resistance fought the Sith Eternal Fleet above. However, the entire final battle was met with frustrations from many fans, such as the sudden nature of the Emperor’s survival, the lack of context and investment with the Knights of Ren, the ridiculous amount of Star Destroyers the Emperor had seemingly built in secret, and several more issues that essentially came from a weak narrative featuring an inability for fans to solidly connect with the characters and events taking place on the Sith world.
In contrast, Star Wars Rebels went big with their second season two-part finale, venturing to the forbidden planet of Malachor. Titled, “Twilight of the Apprentice”, this Sith temple story saw Kanan Jarrus and his apprentice Ezra Bridger joined by the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano, and the three went to Malachor searching for answers and a means to fight back against the Empire and the Inquisitors who had been hunting them. Not only did they engage in battle with the Eighth Brother, Fifth Brother, and Seventh Sister, but the finale was also the series debut of Maul, who was seeking to destroy the Sith (and also tried to corrupt young Ezra into becoming his own apprentice). Furthermore, the finale ended with the Rebels barely escaping the Sith temple set to explode though Ahsoka stayed to face Darth Vader himself, her former master.
The key difference between these Sith temple stories lies in the context and investment fans were allowed to have from what the respective narratives provided (or didn’t). Malachor was a known planet from the beloved Old Republic games, and the arc had characters fans loved, cared about, and were invested in (the classic ones being Ahsoka, Vader, and Maul). Not only that, but the lightsaber battles were incredibly significant. Maul blinded Kanan Jarrus, which created a whole new dynamic going forward which forced him to rely more on the Force. Ahsoka had to fight her former master, refusing to leave Darth Vader as she had Anakin Skywalker during the days of the Clone Wars. Ezra was being torn by the light and the dark side of the Force, which began a continual struggle he would deal with as the series continued.
In this way, Malachor provided much more for fans as well as for the old and new characters themselves, as opposed to what Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker did on Exegol, where the lore and setup of Palpatine’s return was either crammed into the final movie of the saga or brushed away entirely. While there were certainly dynamic elements that were present with potential, the events during the Battle of Exegol ultimately did not provide as much as it could or should have, and certainly not as much as Star Wars Rebels’ own Sith temple story.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/star-wars-rebels-rise-skywalker-exegol-malachor-better/