The Skywalker Saga is over, but the questions remain. Here are 17 loose threads we would love some answers for.
The end of the Skywalker saga is upon us with the release of Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker--but that doesn't mean that every single story begun in the most recent trilogy has been wrapped up into a neat little bow. Far from it, in fact. While Rise Of Skywalker may have given each character an ending, it left us with some major questions about everything from some of the newly introduced Force powers to the logistics of planetary destruction.
Though that may not come as a huge surprise. In our review, we noted that Rise Of Skywalker feels "less like the conclusion to a Star Wars trilogy, and more like the casualty of a behind-the-scenes battle between the visions of two diametrically opposed directors. Rise of Skywalker bends over backward to undo what The Last Jedi did, just as that movie subverted all the mysteries set up in The Force Awakens."
Needless to say, we're getting into major spoiler territory here so if you have yet to see Rise Of Skywalker, come back later. But if you have, let's break down every major unanswered question for we can't help but scratch our heads over as we say goodbye to this generation's Star Wars trilogy.
1. Why wasn't Leia a Jedi?
Leia apparently had her very own lightsaber and was actively training with Luke in the aftermath of Return Of The Jedi. We also know that she was, at the very least, Force-sensitive, if not a full-on Force-user, which makes us wonder: Why was Leia never considered a Jedi? Luke mentioned that she abandoned her training because she saw a vision suggesting that following that path would cost Ben his life--but that happened anyway, as we now know. So what gives?
2. Why was this the way Leia died?
Rise of Skywalker seemed to borrow the theory of Luke's death from The Last Jedi. Leia used the very last bit of her life force to reach out across the Force to whisper Ben's name in his ear at a critical moment, prompting him to have an instantaneous change of heart--we just can't figure out why that killed her, especially since we've seen people reach out to each other through the Force before, without dying from it.
3. Why wasn't the Death Star's wreckage the first place people searched?
Luke and Lando apparently went on some sort of epic, ultimately futile journey to find a top secret artifact that would lead them to another top secret artifact that would lead them to Exegol, but it turned out that the second top secret artifact was actually just sitting in the remains of the Death Star in what would have been the Emperor's throne room. If you were trying to find a Sith wayfinder, why wouldn't the Sith leader's personal quarters be the very first place you looked?
4. Why was Maz Kanata there?
In The Force Awakens, Maz is something of an underworld figure, an old ally of Han Solo's thanks to his shadier dealings. By The Rise of Skywalker, though, she's hanging out with the Resistance for some reason. So why's she there and what's her role? Sure, the First Order wrecked her castle/pub in The Force Awakens, but she was busy putting down union disputes during The Last Jedi when the Resistance was on the brink of destruction.
5. Why did people answer the call of the rebellion this time when they couldn't during TLJ?
The final moments of The Last Jedi firmly (and tragically) established that people in the galaxy needed a little bit more than just blind faith and optimism to hurl themselves into a war they would very likely die in. You'd think that such a critical moment would have been well remembered by the Resistance--and yet, when Lando is sent out to do the exact same thing prior to the final fight on Exegol, it seems to work without a hitch. Moreover, no one in the Resistance's leadership seems even slightly concerned that they're going for a rerun of a plan that nearly cost them everything the last time they tried it. What prevented everyone from joining the cause in The Last Jedi and what changed now? Where did all of these people come from?
6. What's Wedge been up to?
In the original Star Wars trilogy, Wedge Antilles becomes a legendary pilot. The leader of Rogue squadron took part in the Battle of Yavin that destroyed the Death Star, fought on Hoth, and helped bring down the Death Star II at the Battle of Endor. Wedge hasn't shown up on film in quite a while, and his story is continued in the Aftermath novels that take place after Return of the Jedi. But where's Wedge been all this time, with a war on and the Resistance desperate for pilots? At the very least, it seems like Wedge would have turned up to train folks to help out Poe.
7. Why can Force ghosts manipulate the physical world?
Force ghost Luke not only catches Rey's lightsaber before it's destroyed, he raises his old X-Wing out of the ocean for her to leave the temple. If Force ghosts can interact with the physical world the same way that any other Jedi could, what's preventing Luke from simply joining the fight at the end of the movie?
8. How does force-Skype work now that Snoke is gone?
Rey and Kylo Ren have a strange connection in The Last Jedi, through which they can speak and even occasionally touch each other. That connection is reprised in The Rise of Skywalker, and is even more powerful. What's weird is that, in TLJ, the connection between Rey and Ren isn't spontaneous--it's something created by Supreme Leader Snoke. He uses that Force connection to manipulate both Rey and Ren in hopes of turning Rey to the dark side or killing her once and for all. So how come Rey and Ren are still connected without Snoke's influence?
9. Why did Palpatine have Snoke clones?
Palpatine shows off a confusing tub of Snoke clones as he takes Kylo on a brief tour of his secret fortress, and we're not quite sure why. Why did he create multiple Snokes to begin with, and what was the plan for manufacturing more? Did anyone know Snoke wasn't real? Or was the Snoke who died in TLJ real and the ones in the tank here are simply some sort of backup? Palpatine suggests the Snoke clones were part of the gambit the whole time, but if that's the case, why would he bother with The First Order and Starkiller Base if he had his own tremendous fleet all along?
10. Where did those Sith cultists come from?
Palpatine's fortress on Exegol is packed to the brim with black-robed Sith worshipers, and we have no idea who they are or where they came from. Are they an illusion created by Palpatine for ambiance? Are they the Sith version of Force ghosts? Something else entirely?
11. Why was Lando hanging out on that alien planet?
Lando explains that he wound up on Pasaana after he and Luke stopped by to try and find the Sith wayfinder, to no avail. We know that Luke later went on to exile himself, but apparently Lando just stayed. Has he really been there all these years? And if so, why? If not, why was he there now?
12. Who was Rey's grandmother?
Palpatine was Rey's grandfather, which means she must have had a grandmother too. Unless he cloned himself, which we guess is possible, given the Snoke situation. What happened there and who was Palpatine's mystery partner, if he even had one?
13. Why did Ben die?
We're not entirely sure what actually killed Kylo Ren. We can assume that he sacrificed too much of his life force in his literal resurrection of Rey, but the other two times during ROS we saw Rey pull similar (albeit much less dire) moves, she seemed to suffer absolutely no adverse effects. She healed both Kylo and the worm monster without so much as breaking a sweat, and she shrugged it off when Palpatine sucked out her life force to revitalize himself. Why was this moment so much different for Kylo and why did he have enough time to kiss Rey before keeling over?
14. Why didn't Rey fade out when she died?
Rey was dead for a pretty long time, all things considered. The camera lingered on her glassy, lifeless eyes for a while before Kylo managed to drag himself out of the pit he'd been thrown in and save her. But for whatever reason, Rey's body never started to fade. What was keeping her around?
15. Why was Kijimi blown up and how did Zorii survive?
Zorii Bliss didn't get to do all that much during ROS, but her one pivotal scene establishes something critical: She only has one ticket off of the planet Kijimi and she may be annoyed at Poe for abandoning his life as a spice runner, but she's willing to give it to him for the sake of the Resistance. However, later we see the planet being blown up by one of the Final Order's Death Star-powered star destroyers, which, considering the facts Zorii established in her introduction, would mean that she also died, right? Except that later, during the final fight, we see she's joined with Lando to come to the Resistance's aid, and brought the baby-talking droid mechanic Babu Frik with her. How did she make it off-world and, perhaps more importantly, why was Kijimi destroyed in the first place?
16. When did they repair Kylo's ship?
Rey has a badass moment on Pasaana where she manages to crash Kylo's personal TIE fighter using just her wits and her lightsaber. She slices the wing off and sends it crashing into a fiery heap in the desert. However, later on (but not much later, as not a whole lot of time passes in this entire movie) the ship seems to have made a miraculous recovery and is in good enough shape for Rey to steal it and drive it to Luke's secret Jedi temple, where it's destroyed yet again. We know it's the same tie fighter, because Rey is able to pull the Sith wayfinder out of the dash after ghost Luke gives her a pep-talk. When was it repaired?
17. Why did the coordinates on the Sith dagger point to the wreckage of the Death Star?
Who made a special, top-secret dagger inscribed with the exact coordinates of the wreckage of the Death Star and why? It was clearly forged after the Death Star was destroyed, or else it couldn't have pointed to that spot. But it seems very precarious to make your secret Tomb Raider-like Sith dagger point at a big pile of garbage that anybody could sift through, especially since The Force Awakens established that salvaging all that stuff is a viable living in the galaxy.
18. What is a Force dyad?
Rise of Skywalker adds a weird thing to the possibilities of the Force: Something Palpatine calls the "Force dyad," a bond between two people that "hasn't been seen in generations." We don't get many more details about this Force dyad thing, what makes Rey and Ren special, or what the parameters of its capabilities are. Palpatine uses the dyad to draw out their life force and restore himself, and Rey and Ren can talk to each other through the connection and even pass objects. So what exactly is the deal with the Force dyad?
19. What's the deal with the Knights of Ren?
We've been waiting a long time to finally meet the Knights of Ren on the big screen, but now that it's finally happened, we're just feeling even more confused. The nameless, masked fighters that work with Kylo Ren don't seem to have any real connection to him, or notable abilities outside of your run-of-the-mill Star Wars combat prowess. Where did they come from, why are they working with Kylo, and what made them so important?
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