At long last, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” is here, and fans have walked away with a lot to ponder after seeing it.
Social media had a lot to say about it (99 percent of it being positive on Twitter, according to Fizziology) since its Thursday night premiere and here are five of the biggest questions that have been raised.
(Last chance: The following contains spoilers!)
1. How is Rey so good at everything?
The lead character Rey (Daisy Ridley) turns out to be a pretty good pilot and seems to be better at repairing Han Solo’s old hunk of junk, the Millennium Falcon, than he is.
Not only that, she is strong in the Force (using it on stormtrooper Daniel Craig) and is able to face off with Kylo Ren and win.
Some perceived her as almost too perfect, leading screenwriter Max Landis to call her a “Mary Sue” (a term for a wish fulfillment character who stands in for the audience — or the writer — and can do no wrong).
Response was swift with many defending Rey as a character, saying the movie strongly implied that Rey’s background having to fend for herself explained many of her skills. Others said that previous male characters like Skywalker also had those traits.
It’s clear we’ll be following Rey for the rest of this trilogy, and we’ll see how it develops.
2. Does the movie make sense scientifically?
Scientist (and Trekker) Neil deGrasse Tyson once again took to Twitter to give his take on the science of a blockbuster movie.
He wasn’t the first to take issue with the evil First Order’s Death Star-like Starkiller Base (they have this much technology and no security cameras?) but pointed out how it wouldn’t have only wiped out the Republic as it did in the film, but much more.
He also pointed out that TIE fighters sound the same in space as they do on land, but all of the “Star Wars” movies drop science the moment you hear any sound in space. Perhaps we should just relax: after all it’s a space opera, not science fiction.
3. We know about Kylo Ren’s parentage, but what about Rey?
There are several clues (which could be red herrings, to be sure) that Rey and Kylo Ren (aka Ben Solo) are related, and perhaps siblings: Among others, she keeps talking about waiting for her family, and he seems interested in her, saying she sees Han Solo as the father she never had.
And then there’s the possibility that she isn’t Luke Skywalker’s niece, but his daughter (Jedi rules about relationships be damned).
Of course, that leaves the obvious question as to why neither Han nor Leia recognized Rey (both of which took an almost immediate liking to her) as their daughter for even a moment. Time will tell.
4. What was all that in Rey’s vision?
Sensing a pattern here? We learned a lot about Kylo Ren and a fair amount about Finn, but there are still many mysteries around Rey.
When she touches Luke’s lightsaber, Rey sees several scenes, one after the other, including the location of Luke and Vader’s fight in “The Empire Strikes Back,” the scene of Kylo Ren’s betrayal of Luke and a flashback of Rey being taken away from her family as a child (apparently by junk merchant Unkar Plutt), as well as a premonition of the climactic lightsaber battle at the end of the movie.
This scene will likely be studied like the Zapruder film by fans in the coming months, and we do know that among the Easter eggs in the sequence are the voices of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda.
5. Who is Supreme Leader Snoke?
If he reminded you a little of a giant Gollum from “Lord of the Rings,” that’s partially because he was portrayed by the same actor, Andy Serkis.
But seriously, who is this mysterious Sith Lord (not really a giant, by the way) leading the First Order?
We probably have the least clues of all about this one, and theories are all over the place, from Snoke being the resurrected Emperor, or even the Emperor’s supposedly-dead mentor, Darth Plagueius (as mentioned in “Revenge of the Sith”).
And yes, some fans even think he’s a resurrected Boba Fett (likely wishful thinking).
For every person sure of one theory on social media, there’s another swearing they’re dead wrong. Ah, such is the Internet.
And while I’m at it, who was that old man at the beginning, Lor San Tekka?
But I digress. We’ll just have to wait until May 26, 2017 for the as-yet-untitled “Star Wars Episode VIII” to find out some answers.