With the release of The Rise of Skywalker on Friday, the Star Wars story that began 42 years and three trilogies ago is at last coming to a close (well, temporarily anyway). While director J.J. Abrams did his best to tie up most of the series' loose ends with the final installment, there are still some big, glaring questions that we need answers to. Here's what we're still wondering after watching The Rise of Skywalker.
1. What happened to all the Porgs on the Millennium Falcon?
Last time we saw the Millennium Falcon, it had a bit of a Porg infestation. In The Rise of Skywalker, the problem seems to have, er, resolved itself. Did Poe hire Porg exterminators? Did Chewie eat them all as tasty intergalactic snaks? Maybe it's best not to know.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
2. What's the deal about the distribution of the Force anyway?
At the end of The Last Jedi, we see one of the slave children on Canto Bight use the Force to retrieve his broom. Kylo Ren had previously told Rey that her parents were "nobodies," making it seem like Jedis didn't have to follow privileged bloodlines and the Force could manifest in anyone. Other than Finn feeling the twinge of the Force at a few key moments, The Rise of Skywalker seemed to do away with democratizing the Jedi powers entirely by making Rey a Palpatine after all. What gives?
3. Palpatine just happened to have a random son that no one knew about?
Did he have ... a wife too?
4. How did Moz get the lightsaber Luke loses after Darth Vader cuts off his hand in The Empire Strikes Back?
She'd told us it's a question for another time, but what's wrong with now?
5. How does lightspeed skipping work?
In the rollicking opening moments of The Rise of Skywalker, Poe and the gang utilize the iPod shuffle of the Star Wars universe by "lightspeed skipping" to a variety of different moons and planets while being pursued by First Order fighters. Which is a bit of a head-scratcher, since the entire plot of The Last Jedi revolved around how the First Order's destroyers were able to do what had been thought to be impossible and track the Resistance through hyperspace using some complex new fandangled technology. Now that tech's just been installed on normal TIE fighters?
6. How does Force healing work?
Force healing has seemingly been around since Obi-Wan Kenobi revived Luke in the canyon in Tatooine. Still, the power was used in a big way in The Rise of Skywalker, even bringing Kylo Ren back from the brink of death. While I can think of a dozen times it'd have been nice for Force healing to have been a thing back in the day (couldn't we have avoided the whole "Darth Vader" fiasco if Anakin could have saved Padmé?), it seems like this is a skill that we're going to be seeing more and more of in the Star Wars universe — even Baby Yoda, in The Mandalorian, manages to use the Force to heal.
7. What's General Hux's baggage?
He becomes a spy for the Resistance and totally betrays the First Order just to get back at Kylo Ren? Seriously, someone make a spin-off about that guy.
8. Where did Emperor Palpatine get his boundless resources from?
I don't feel great about accepting that Palpatine somehow managed to quietly regroup millions of supporters without raising any suspicions, but sure, I guess I'll buy it. I'm also a bit iffy on how he went about constructing "the largest fleet the galaxy has ever known" without anyone noticing, even if it was in the Unknown Regions, but again, sure, fine. But where all this really loses me is: Where is Palpatine getting his boundless resources from to build all those destroyers and feed all his crew members? This all just seems like too much of a stretch.
9. Is Jannah ... Lando's daughter?
Seriously, what was that scene at the end of the movie all about?
10. Why does a knife with directions to a wayfinder that leads to Exegol even exist?
"Honey, we're lost, why don't you ask that bulk freighter for directions?" "Oh don't worry, dear, I have this handy KNIFE to get us where we're going."
11. What's up with the names of the Dark Side's regimes?
Getting your super armada destroyed is what happens when you try to skip from "the First Order" to "the Final Order" without there ever being a "Second Order."
12. What happened to all the leftover Snoke clones we saw in the tank in Palpatine's lair?
Is ... is someone going to recycle those?
13. Does Palpatine's return leave the door open for any old villains to come back in the future?
Emperor Palpatine is pretty dead by the end of The Return of the Jedi: He was thrown down a Death Star shaft and then, for good measure, the Death Star exploded. Just in case there was any confusion about him successfully achieving immortality through Sith magic, though, he confirms in The Rise of Skywalker that he's "died before," Polygon notes in this helpful explainer. That leaves open the possibility that he was either cloned, or cobbled back together through cloning techniques — which means basically any character we've seen die before could be back for round two when Star Wars returns in 2022.
Want more of the web's best cultural criticism and analysis delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up for The Week's "Today's best articles" newsletter here.
