People don't die in Star Wars more often than not. The Rise of Skywalker is based on the return of the Emperor with little explanation as to how he got out of a one-way trip down a reactor shaft. Two people survived mortal lightsaber wounds thanks to Obi-Wan Kenobi.
People are having a hard time not being in the galaxy at the moment. It is not a new thing for Darth Maul to return in The Clone Wars with some sickspider legs. After fighting Obi-Wan on Mustafar, Anakin was burned alive and had to be evacuated by Palpatine. There is a dark humor in the commentary that Star Wars just can't let some things die. Unless they are random mooks or HanSolo.
The characters we have seen cheat death this way are all practitioners of the dark side of the force. They draw their power from being too mad to die, a force of will that allows them to defy impossible odds.
The Light Side of this dichotomy is getting in on it too, as we see and hear more from spirits. The voices of Jedi across generations talking to Rey in Rise's climax, alongside the spirits ofLuke and Leia watching over her, is seen with Liam Neeson's last-minute incarnation asQui-Gon Jinn. If Star Wars is to be so fascinated with this idea of rendering death toothless, then it is at least aiming for it at an interesting angle beyond lowered stakes or a necessity to never let things go.
We have seen a lot of people bite the bullet in Star Wars recently, they just happen to be regular people, soldiers and bounty hunters far away from the spiritual conflict of the Skywalker Saga. The ability to manifest as a Force Ghost is only open to those who practice the Light. It is said that Palpatine spent a lot of his life as Emperor trying to find ways to preserve his soul beyond his body. The Dark Siders arerail against dying so much that they endure what should be mortal wounds, because they lack the resources to just pop off to a far- flung planet and set up a cult of cloners.
Death is a way of view for the Jedi. He can eventually physically interact with the corporeal world, he can see through time itself, thanks to his mastery of this new form. The Last Jedi has gained some semblance of this idea. Obi-Wan said in A New Hope that death is not the end but the beginning of something new. All that is required is for a Jedi to let go of their physical body in order to gain a new perspective on life.
There is an interesting parallel between this and the Dark Siders. The Dark Side is embraced by the act of not letting go at all, holding on to every little thing, including the fact that your legs are no longer attached to your torso. In Star Wars, the idea of pain as sustenance for the Dark Side evokes the passion that grants the Sith and their acoyltes the strength they crave. The idea that these people are too furious to give up presents a contrast to the Jedi and the Light Side that is far more intriguing than the tale of good and evil that they are usually framed as. Star Wars loves to play with different viewpoints on the same thing.
The death of Darth Maul in Star Wars Rebels and the survival of Reva in Obi-Wan Kenobi made it even more intriguing. The characters are confronted with the decision of whether or not to let go of their long-held grievances against their masters. Even though he hides his hatred of Obi-Wan, he still wants to see Palpatine destroyed for abandoning him. Reva wants to avenge Vader for his massacre at the Jedi Temple. Both, at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi, are given the chance to let go of that hatred, and we get to see the alternative paths laid out for them: no longer believing he needs to persist, his mission againstPalpatine destined to be picked up by another. Reva is given the rare chance of redemption through simply living, instead of the death so many redemption arcs conclude with in Star Wars. One choice is to find another way to live in this current world, the other is to let go of it.
In this Force-driven conflict of Light and Dark, Reva's act is a radical one, a potential defiance of the idea of spiritual perspective where the Dark is located in a physical world. If Star Wars embraces the idea that some people just can't stay dead, physically or otherwise, reframing it around these ideas of self is more interesting than waving lightsaber wounds. No one has ever really left the Star Wars universe. Why don't you play with that more frequently?
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