Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker wasn’t the exciting ending to the Skywalker saga that fans were expecting, and there are many elements that had a lot of potential but weren’t used appropriately, among those the Blade of Ochi, also known as the Sith dagger. Following the acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney in 2012, the Mouse House began working on a new trilogy with the purpose of bringing closure to the Skywalker saga and introducing a new generation of heroes and villains.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens arrived in 2015 and introduced fans to Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), while also bringing back the main characters from the original trilogy. Star Wars: The Last Jedi picked up where the previous film left, but it was different from other Star Wars films, which made it one of the most divisive films in the last years. Little did fans know that the final chapter in the sequel trilogy, The Rise of Skywalker, was going to be even more divisive. The film succeeded in closing the Skywalker saga, but left more questions than the ones it answered, and wasted too many opportunities not only with characters but also objects, such as the Sith dagger.
The Blade of Ochi was owned by Sith cultist and assassin Ochi of Bestoon, who used it to kill Rey’s parents among many, many others. As a result, the dagger resonated in the Force with the evil in it, which Rey could sense as soon as they found it. The dagger had an inscription in the Sith language, which led to the location of the wayfinder on the ruins of the second Death Star, and that was pretty much the role of the dagger in The Rise of Skywalker. The dagger was given a lot of importance from the moment it was found, and its only purpose was leading Rey to the throne room, but it could have been given a bigger role had it been made into the Dagger of Mortis, thus connecting the film to The Clone Wars.
The Dagger of Mortis (or Mortis Dagger) was a weapon hidden on Mortis and used by the Father, a Force wielder whose children, the Daughter and the Son, represented the light and dark side of the Force. The dagger was capable of controlling their power and could kill them if one of them became too dominant – and if used on the Father, it could rob his children of their immortality. The dagger’s arc in Clone Wars was all about balance, and after the Son killed the Daughter (who intervened as he attempted to kill Father), the Father used it on himself, thus making the Son mortal and allowing Anakin Skywalker to mortally wound him. The Dagger of Mortis being included in The Rise of Skywalker would have made more sense than Ochi’s blade, as it does play a role in keeping the balance in the Force and could have been used to kill Palpatine (for real this time). And, of course, it would have been a good link to Clone Wars.
Ultimately, the Sith dagger was only a way to bring Rey to the Death Star ruins and the wayfinder, and was quickly forgotten after that, so there was no point in presenting it as an important object to the story if it wasn’t going to be around for long. Making it the Dagger of Mortis instead would have given it a bigger presence and importance in the Star Wars universe in general while also bringing together the TV and film sides of it.