Even if the expanded universe has taken the time to answer some burning questions, the
Star Wars films are absolutely packed with fascinating mysteries, some of which may never
be addressed again.
Here are just some of the biggest questions Star Wars has yet to answer.
The prequel trilogy is all about charting the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker from
boy with tons of potential to hotshot Jedi to Dark Lord of the Sith.
That all begins with Qui-Gon Jinn's realization that Anakin, whose midichlorian ratings and
natural talents seem off the charts, must be the Chosen One.
When he relays his suspicions to the Jedi Council, Mace Windu brings up, quote, "the
prophecy of the one who will bring balance to the Force."
Yoda, Mace, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan Kenobi are all very aware of this prophecy, and Anakin's
Chosen One narrative continues right up to the moment he loses his lightsaber duel with
Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith.
So, the prequels are very clear that a prophecy exists and that it's well-known among Jedi
Masters, but what the films don't make clear is exactly where the prophecy comes from.
Who first articulated it?
How long has it been around?
Does every Jedi take it seriously or do a lot of them believe it's made-up hogwash that
has no practical application when it comes to protecting the galaxy?
And what does "bring balance to the Force" even mean when the Jedi believe that they've
long-since defeated the Sith?
The original trilogy makes it a bit of a point to never explain much about Yoda, the enigmatic
Jedi Master who lives on the swamp planet of Dagobah and even pretends he's not who
he really is when he first meets Luke Skywalker, just to teach the young apprentice a lesson
in expectation versus reality.
"I'm looking for a great warrior."
"Oh!
Great warrior!
Wars not make one great."
All we really know about the little green guy in those original movies is that he's
a Jedi Master, he taught Obi-Wan, and he can teach Luke.
The mystery surrounding Yoda, combined with his unique appearance, led many fans to wonder
what the master's backstory really was, and in particular if the alien species he belonged
to would ever be revealed.
Then the prequels came along, and while we certainly learned more about Yoda's day job
as the head of the Jedi Council, we still didn't learn much about his background.
The mystery only deepened when The Phantom Menace introduced a second Jedi Master, Yaddle,
who seemed to be of the exact same species, teasing some kind of connection that might
pay off in a future film.
It didn't, of course, and while there are certain supplemental stories you can dig up
out there, for many fans Yoda remains a mysterious figure, and that's just the way they like
it.
The Star Wars films are full of famous death scenes that might not always be as final as
they seem.
The second film in the saga reveals that even after Obi-Wan Kenobi dies, he's able to come
back as a Force ghost, something Yoda is also later able to do.
The prequels have taken this a step further, with Solo: A Star Wars Story carrying on the
story told in The Clone Wars TV series which revealed that the Sith Lord Darth Maul did
not die when he was cut in half and thrown down a shaft by Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom
Menace.
He somehow survived that fall and managed to get himself a sweet new pair of legs.
But surely that can't be true for other Force-using warriors who fell in the prequels…right?
As it turns out, maybe it can.
In 2016, while answering fan questions via Twitter, Samuel L. Jackson declared:
"In my mind, [Mace Windu is] not dead."
He justified his theory by citing the Jedi ability to fall from great distances and land
safely.
After all, we don't really see him dying in Revenge of the Sith, which does raise some
questions when compared to all the other scenes in which we clearly watch Jedi getting cut
down.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly later, Jackson even said that he'd gotten his theory co-signed
by George Lucas.
He told EW:
"George is like 'I'm OK with that.
You can be alive.'"
So, if you believe Jackson, Mace Windu is still out there having one-handed Jedi adventures
somewhere.
What other Jedi might have made it out alive?
The first time we see a Jedi Master die in A New Hope, Obi-Wan Kenobi simply vanishes
when Darth Vader swings a lightsaber through his body.
The second time we see a Jedi Master die in Return of the Jedi, Yoda quietly disappears
from his sickbed.
Both Jedi leave a pile of clothes in their wake but nothing else, something Luke Skywalker
also did when he perished in The Last Jedi.
For a significant amount of time in Star Wars lore, you could have been forgiven for simply
thinking that Jedi Masters vanish when they die, but that changed with The Phantom Menace,
when Qui-Gon Jinn's body remained in place after his death, as did the bodies of numerous
other Jedi during the Purge in Revenge of the Sith.
So, why do some Jedi vanish and others don't?
Is it based on their Force level?
Do they train themselves to do that?
Or is it simply that some choose to remove their own body from the mortal plane while
others don't care?
The movies never explore this apparent inconsistency, but they almost did.
Revenge of the Sith was set to reveal that the vanishing act had something to do with
a discovery that Qui-Gon had made in the afterlife, but the scene was cut.
The longer you sit with the deeds and words of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars
trilogy, the more frustrating some of his various decisions become.
Yes, Obi-Wan saved Luke in a moment of crisis, gave him his heirloom lightsaber, and started
to teach him the ways of the Force.
But he also seems to have been determined to obscure the truth as much as possible,
particularly when it came to who Luke's father was.
Obi-Wan obviously could have chosen to spill the beans right up front that Luke's father
was Darth Vader, but held off on that and instead said that Vader had betrayed and killed
ol' papadukes.
Things get more complex when you start to factor in what Obi-Wan knew thanks to the
events of the prequels, which reveal that he was not only there when Anakin Skywalker
turned into Darth Vader, but was also there when Luke and Leia were born, and there when
the plan to separate and hide them was hatched.
He also hung out a lot with R2-D2.
That Obi-Wan doesn't seem to acknowledge that Leia is Luke's sister or ever acknowledge
R2-D2 as an old friend just adds another layer of confusion to his thinking.
There are reasons for some of it now, but there's a lot of head-scratching going on
here.
Perhaps no other character in all of the main Star Wars saga has been present for as many
historic moments as R2-D2.
Well, maybe C-3PO can compete with him, but unlike Artoo, Threepio had his mind wiped
at the end of Revenge of the Sith, so he can't very well look at Darth Vader and realize,
"Oh dear, that's my maker."
Artoo, on the other hand, has a memory packed with fascinating moments and galaxy-altering
events, from the birth of the Skywalker twins to the turn of Anakin to the whole of the
Clone Wars.
He was there for all of it, and as far as we know from the films, he hasn't forgotten
any of it.
So why doesn't he speak up?
Seriously, the prequels retroactively add a ton of moments to the original trilogy where
Artoo could have simply said, "Hey, she's your sister," or, "Hey, remember me?
We hung out together during the Clone Wars."
Even "Hey, that guy built you, Threepio" would have been relevant.
Instead, he remains silent for reasons that are unknown to us.
All we have are theories and a hope that perhaps one day Artoo will break down and explain
himself.
At the end of Revenge of the Sith, Bail Organa, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Yoda have a conversation
about the future of the Skywalker twins now that their mother, has passed away.
Obi-Wan says that the children should be hidden where the Sith cannot sense them, and Yoda
declares that it's better to split them up and hide their relation to one another.
Obi-Wan takes Luke to Tatooine to live with his aunt and uncle, while Leia goes with Bail
Organa to Alderaan.
Roughly two decades later, during The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader begins to understand
that he is in the presence of his long-lost son, and eventually tells Luke that he's his
father.
It makes sense that he might not have known it until then, particularly if he never made
time in his busy Empire-building schedule to head back to Tatooine.
But what about Leia?
When she and Vader first cross paths in A New Hope, it's clear that they've known each
other for some time, and he's aware of her skills as a leader.
Why doesn't he ever seem to sense that she's his daughter?
Is she somehow holding him off with her own limited use of the Force?
Is he just dismissive of the very idea of it because she grew up so close to him?
The films never make it clear, but Vader definitely had a closer connection with one twin than
the other.
The sequel trilogy decided to keep up the Star Wars tradition of a shadowy figure pulling
the strings of darkness by introducing Supreme Leader Snoke, a humanoid alien who, in The
Force Awakens, only appears in the form of a giant hologram.
That film gave us very little to go on about Snoke.
All we really knew was the he led the First Order, he trained Kylo Ren, and he wanted
to destroy Luke Skywalker and, by extension, the Jedi.
Though certain supplemental materials have since shed a little more light on Snoke, even
The Last Jedi didn't give us much more information before unceremoniously slicing the Supreme
Leader in half and ending his reign over the First Order.
It seems possible that the upcoming Rise of Skywalker will offer more details about him,
but it's equally possible that the film will be so concerned with moving forward that it
won't spend enough time looking back to tell us anything new about Snoke.
So, who was he?
Why was he a Dark Side Force user but not a Sith?
Why was he obsessed with the Skywalkers?
How did he carve out the First Order from the remnants of the Empire in such a relatively
brief period of time?
The answers to these questions, like so many others, might very well be lost to the void.
In Star Wars: The Force Awakens we finally learn what happened to Luke Skywalker's first
lightsaber, the one passed down to him by Obi-Wan Kenobi from his father, which he lost
while dueling Darth Vader in Cloud City.
Or at least, we learn part of what happened to it.
The lightsaber was "locked away" in the possession of Maz Kanata at her castle on Takodana, but
when Han Solo asks where she got it, Maz only answers that she's had it, quote, "for ages.”
The matter of how it came to be in her possession is left equally mysterious.
In the context of The Force Awakens, Maz shrugs this question off because the First Order
is attacking and the movie can't slow down to hear a big information dump about the lineage
of a laser sword.
But that hasn't stopped fans from wondering exactly how Maz ended up with the lightsaber.
Luke dropped it, along with his hand, on Bespin more than 30 years before, so how long are
the "ages" in which it's been in Maz's possession?
Why didn't she tell Han about it before?
Did she have it even before Luke vanished, and if so, why didn't she try to give it back
to him?
Perhaps The Rise of Skywalker will give us answers, but it seems quite possible that
the film will be too busy with other plot points to touch on it.
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