Questions I Have Before The Rise of Skywalker 

With the final episode premiering tomorrow and most of the fans biting their nails in trepidation, me included, I thought I’d lay out some issues and questions that I feel The Rise of Skywalker should address. 

The main three’s camaraderie. Since we met Rey, Finn and Poe in The Force Awakens they have barely cooperated all together and therefore have hardly bonded together as a unit or even as friends. I don’t even think Poe has said a word to Rey at all yet. Finn and Poe have a mutual respect for each other I suppose but The Last Jedi separated this team completely thus limiting their opportunity to bond. So in this new movie, their friendship will probably seem more forced than that of the Original Trilogy’s main three. You may say that Empire Strikes Back separated the core team but that’s when Han and Leia bonded so much that they fell in love. Finn and Rose accomplished this in TLJ. Empire didn’t split all three core characters up and it’s going to be a stretch for the audience to feel like Rey, Finn and Poe (Which trailers show are working together finally) are great friends and really bonded in these films.

Which brings me to the line from C-3PO when he says: “Taking one last look at my friends.” Again, 3PO barely even spoke to these people (aside from Chewbacca) in the past 2 flicks and hardly even knows them. I can’t even tell you what 3PO said or did in TLJ.

I read (somewhere) that JJ Abrams said that Finn’s backstory will be better fleshed out and revealed in this episode. One, who cares? I seriously don’t like him enough to give a hot shit about his past. And two, I thought his past was all about being bred to be a storm trooper and was taken from his family. Please don’t tell men they are thinking of wasting valuable screen time explaining this in flashback or a lengthy monologue. 

And speaking of backstory, we never got any history about Poe Cameron. He’s the best pilot of the resistance. That’s all. Don’t know where he came from, how he became a great pilot, or even a small insight into how this new war shaped his personality. Han Solo didn’t have much of a fleshed out backstory compared to Luke but we knew enough about him to care. The past 2 movies barely made me care about Poe. 

I see there’s a new droid D-O and he’s deliberately cute. Like Porgs and Ewoks and now Baby Yoda, it’s to sell cute merchandise and warm the cockles of the audiences’ hearts. Wasn’t BB-8 and R2 enough?

Sith Troopers. Seemingly new form of stormtroopers that I can only assume protect and do the bidding of Emperor Palpatine. Will they actually do anything or will they just stand around like the red guards in Return of the Jedi. But seriously, who are they and where were they this whole time of this new trilogy? Snoke had his red guard in TLJ and Kylo Ren has his Knights of Ren (which finally after being teased for 2 flicks are supposedly in ROS) so these are all new stormtroopers, again, I’m assuming since they have Sith in their name belong to Palpatine. Everything revolving around Palpatine is a big mystery that needs to be resolved—in one 2 & 1/2 movie.

So yeah Palpy’s back and the why and how is a big mystery. I just want too bring up that the OT characters new of the Emperor, even though the audience didn’t really until ROTJ, because well, they were fighting the evil galactic empire and you can’t have an empire without an emperor. So he being the this new main adversary to Rey, Finn and Co. is very out of the blue—not for just us—but mainly for them. Do they even know this dude? There was zero build-up to him being the shadowy figure puppet master for the last 2 flicks. But because Rian Johnson decided to kill off Snoke, JJ and Co. had to reverse gears and go back to the ol’ well. How this plays out is still uncertain as is the fans’ reactions to him being back.

I almost forgot about Lando and how he will fit in all this, other than he was the last of the major core OT characters to yet make an appearance for the fan service. I’m very curious how and why he’s in this and what his role will be. Again, will they explain where he was fr the past 2 flicks?

A big mystery going into ROS is how they will handle the death of general Leia (If she even dies). Of course, sadly, Carrie Fisher has left us but JJ thinks he has enough decent deleted and unused footage of her from the past 2 films to use in this new episode. Again, how this will play out is the big mystery. I’m just hoping they didn’t shoehorn her scenes in and tried to fit the round peg into the square hole to make her scenes work.

There was some talk and chatter that this episode may involve time travel as a story plot point. I know Disney made time travel work with Avengers: Endgame but I’m not sure how time travel will sit in the minds of your average Star Wars fan. Making time travel work effectively in any story science-fiction or not so already the stakes will be high to make it work in Star Wars. I have not watched all the Rebels TV series episodes but as far as I know, one episode involved time travel and that’s what people are theorizing will happen in ROS. Again, we shall see, but JJ already used time travel in his Star Trek reboot, so I can see the possibility of him using it again.

With a 2 1/2 hour run time and a rough start to this new episode since TLJ basically closed a chapter instead of leaving a cliffhanger good enough to continue, JJ and Co. have a lot of loose ends to tie up. But with Palpatine and Lando returning as well as adding new droids, Troopers and the Knights of Ren as well as Keri Russell’s new character, Naomi Ackie’s new character and Richard E. Grant’s new character, how are they going to wrap up not only this new trilogy but all NINE episode’s of this saga?! I’m only skimming the surface of questions that I have going into the theatre tomorrow. I’m hoping I’m entertained enough that I won’t hate it but there’s such a slim chance that I will really like it from where I’m standing.

May the Force be with us.