Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will probably continue to divide fans for years to come, but one scene we can probably all agree was pretty cool was the moment Rey heard those Jedi voices from the past. Everyone from Yoda to Obi-Wan Kenobie and Ahsoka Tano reached out to her through the Force, and this new promo for the Digital release puts the spotlight on them.
Many fans were disappointed that we didn’t get to see actual Force Ghosts in the movie, but there were a number of reasons that might not have worked (even if seeing Emperor Palpatine destroyed by an army of Jedi from the past rather than his own lightning would have been much cooler).
It was always the plan for The Rise of Skywalker to be released this week, but it actually showed up on many services over the weekend as Disney’s response to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Both TROS and an early release of Frozen 2 on Disney+ were meant to serve as a way of cheering people up in these difficult times, and it was definitely an appreciated move on their part.
Check out this promo for The Rise of Skywalker below:
The Force surrounds you… let it lift you. Get Star Wars: #TheRiseofSkywalker only on Digital now: https://t.co/m6TQdmziiM pic.twitter.com/Jui4yDKr2I
— Star Wars (@starwars) March 17, 2020
Hit the “Next” button below to check out the biggest unanswered
questions we had after watching Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker!
How Did The Emperor Survive?
While The Emperor tells Kylo Ren that he’s experienced death, we never learn how he made his return, why now was the right time for him to do so, or what came next after he was thrown into that abyss by Darth Vader. Was he left in a weakened state (which is why Luke and Leia seemingly never senses his presence) or did his followers not resurrect him until many years later?
These are just some of the questions The Rise of Skywalker fails to answer and while we never knew his backstory during the original trilogy, this was all crucial information which should have been shared with moviegoers. With any luck, answers will come somewhere down the line whether it’s in a TV show, another movie, or, more likely, an upcoming comic book or novel.
Who – Or What? – Was Snoke?
The Rise of Skywalker makes it clear that The Emperor has been impersonating both Darth Vader and Supreme Leader Snoke in order to influence Ben Solo’s turn to the Dark Side. However, while we see clones of the latter on Exogol, we never find out whether Snoke was someone Palpatine killed and cloned or if he was just a shell he could use as a puppet through the Force.
Chances are that he was a failed clone and that the reason he was so deformed was because the shell simply couldn’t contain The Emperor’s spirit for particularly long. Then again, the new Kylo Ren comic book claims that Luke Skywalker scarred Snoke, so perhaps the scars were deliberate to sell the lie?
Is Palpatine A Clone?
Until he uses Rey and Kylo Ren’s bond to rejuvenate himself, The Emperor appears corpse-like and we see that his fingers have burned away. The question is, is this the original Palpatine whose hands were destroyed when Darth Vader absorbed his lightning blasts or another failed clone?
As we mentioned at the start of this post, we don’t know, but a particularly creepy explanation is that The Emperor used the Force to somehow inhabit his own dead body in this movie.
Where Did The Ship Carrying Chewbacca Come From?
The movie fools us into believing that Chewbacca dies thanks to Rey unwittingly unleashing lightning from her fingertips (just like her grandfather). However, it’s later revealed that the Wookie was put on an entirely different ship…which neither we nor the movie’s characters never get to see!
Honestly, it feels like Chewie really may have died in an earlier version of the movie but in order to avoid a similar level of backlash to what The Last Jedi received, reshoots changed that.
How And When Did Zorri Bliss Escape Kijimi?
The enigmatic Zorri Bliss has only a few minutes of screentime in The Rise of Slywalker and just as we’re beginning to enjoy spending time with her, she’s gone. Later, the planet she remains trapped on after helping Poe Dameron and his friends escape is destroyed by Palpatine’s “Final Order.”
As a result, we have absolutely no idea how she managed to escape the planet (just in time) or why she hadn’t just left when Poe got there! Perhaps she had a change of heart and wanted to follow him and join the Resistance? That seems doubtful based on her initial attitude, though!
Why Would General Hux Betray The First Order?
It’s no secret that General Hux despises Kylo Ren but what did he think that betraying The First Order would achieve beyond weakening them and giving the Resistance the advantage? He says himself that he doesn’t care if they win so it’s not as if he’s had a change of heart in this movie!
Throw in the fact that Ren is far too powerful to overthrow and it’s fair to say that his decision to betray The First Order makes almost no sense, especially when he justifies his actions as being a way of ensuring his Supreme Leader loses. Gunning him down makes this even more pointless.
Did Leia Have To Sacrifice Herself?
Due to the tragic death of Carrie Fisher, Leia’s story was always going to have to end with her death in The Rise of Skywalker. However, her reaching out to Kylo Ren one final time in an effort to bring him back to the side of the Light really doesn’t make sense as communicating with her son surely wouldn’t cause her body to fail her at such an important time for the Resistance?
There are definitely ways this could be explained and J.J. Abrams and company did their best with what they had to work with but it’s still a moment that it’s impossible not to question.
What Was The Deal With Empress Rey?
Emperor Palpatine’s plan is honestly laughable. First, he offers his grandaughter the chance to sit atop his throne as Empress Palpatine. Later, we learn that “all the Sith” live within him and that if she strikes him down, he will be able to inhabit her body and once again rule over the Galaxy.
If that’s the case, why not just kill himself and possess her? Palpatine’s claim that killing him will turn his murderer to the Dark Side has never really passed the sniff test and his motivations and plan just seem incredibly weak. As for the evil version of Rey we see, she’s just a pointless hallucination!
How Did Ben Solo Survive That Fall?
This is admittedly a little nitpicky but when The Emperor blasts Ben Solo down that ravine in order to get revenge for what Darth Vader did to him decades earlier, how does he survive the fall?
Yes, we see that he’s badly injured but considering the fact Ben is incredibly powerful (we’ve never seen a Jedi or Sith who can keep blaster bolts literally suspended in midair), you’d think he could have deflected Palpatine’s Force push. Either way, what follows after Ben does climb out is considerably more satisfying than had that been the way he died in The Rise of Skywalker.
Who Were The Emperor’s Followers?
This was very weird. While it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine Palpatine being able to secretly rebuild his Empire over the years, who were the thousands of cloaked figures worshipping him? If there were that many devotees to the Dark Side, you’d think that taking Rey out would be easy and given how easily they died, it’s hard to say what the point of including them here was.
Our theory is that The Emperor was so out of his mind at this point that he was probably being worshipped by failed clones of himself but this question is one Lucasfilm will hopefully answer one day.
What Did Finn Want To Tell Rey?
There’s a very minor subplot that runs through The Rise of Skywalker which deals with there being something Finn wants to tell Rey. We never get to learn what that is (despite it being mentioned on numerous occasions) but this is one unanswered question we can likely address with common sense!
Despite that kiss with Rose in The Last Jedi, Finn’s priority throughout that entire film was getting to Rey and chances are he’s in love with her. It seems he’s developed Force powers of his own in this movie – another odd decision that leaves us wondering when that happened – so that’s another possibility but perhaps Kylo Ren sacrificing himself for Rey just proved to be the ultimate c*ck block?
What Was The Point Of The Sith Troopers?
This is an easy one: they were there to sell toys! Much like the Knights of Ren (it’s hard to believe Ben Solo thought it was worth naming himself after that bunch of easily beaten losers), the Sith Troopers bring very little to the table here and are no more formidable than regular Troopers.
Heading into The Rise of Skywalker, there was a lot of speculation about this lot having Force powers or something similar but they’re just grunts and bring little to nothing to the movie.
Why Would First Order Star Destroyers Just Blow Up?
Perhaps we missed something but after The Final Order’s armada is decimated by the Resistance, First Order ships throughout the Galaxy just explode…how the heck did that end up happening?
This really isn’t all that different to The Avengers when Earth’s Mightiest Heroes magically stopped an entire army by just closing a portal and it comes across as an easy and lazy way to bring The First Order to an end once and for all. Again, we may have missed something but it’s still disappointing.
Is This Really The End Of The Skywalkers?
It certainly seems that way. However, it seems appropriate in some ways, especially as The Emperor was the one who created Anakin Skywalker in the first place! With Ben Solo, Leia Organa, and Luke Skywalker all dead by the time The Rise of Skywalker concludes, this bloodline is no more.
However, Rey declares herself “Rey Skywalker” so they may live on in some form even if it is one that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. “Skywalker” certainly isn’t going to be the new name for the Jedi that many fans predicted when the movie’s title was revealed, so that settles that one.
What Comes Next?
That’s the big question! While the Skywalker Saga is now over, there are a lot of unanswered questions (obviously) and plot points which are never fully wrapped up. The future of the Jedi is in Rey’s hands now and that could either set the stage for stories set hundreds or years in the future or another sequel trilogy which continues the stories of these newly introduced characters.
Do you guys have any answers to these questions? What did The Rise of Skywalker leave you thinking about? Let us know your thoughts down in the comments section!
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