While I've been trying to avoid even thinking about #TheRiseOfSkywalker, I keep having moments where I start to really realize why one little thing or another bothered me about the movie.

Let's talk about the dagger of the Sith. (1 of 8)

#StarWars

For starters, even people that I know who either liked or are okay with the film think this thing is ridiculous. It sounds ridiculous to even say that, after all, what could really be ridiculous in a space-opera fantasy movie? (2/8)

The reason it’s ridiculous isn’t that it had text on it in a language C-3PO was coded not to be able to speak, but could read and store. It’s also not that they happened to find it buried in the desert or that it also “needed” to be the weapon used to kill Rey’s parents. (3/8)

It’s also not because Rey randomly walked to the one spot where the knife could actually directly point to where the way-finder (I won’t even go into those) was on the Death Star. (4/8)

It also isn’t because there’s no logical reason someone would make a knife as a guide to something aboard the Death Star without just getting the item OR the insanity of making a tool like that as a map to anything aboard anything else in the ocean. (5/8)

These are all the kind of ‘suspensions of belief’ I’m willing to go for in a space-opera fantasy. The reason it’s ridiculous is the same reason so much of the rest of the film is also ridiculous and that makes the entire trilogy collapse in on itself. (6/8)

They spent two movies building a character, Rey, who most notably does two things: 1) Uses the Force and 2) scavengers and makes use of broken things (the thematic reality of making use of Ben, even though he’s broken, honestly has unbelievable potential in this movie). (7/8)

The reason this Knife is obnoxious is that it, like much of the movie, is totally unnecessary. Once Rey gets to this ledge, we need no other explanation. She’s perfectly suited to get to the Death Star, scavenge it, and use the Force to find what she’s after. (8/8)