Fun Speculation: Tying Up Loose Ends...

The map in TFA
Reason: I’d like it addressed where this thing came from and why it was missing that crucial piece.

Head canon: The First Jedi Temple was a privileged sanctuary that few Jedi were allowed to know the precise location. The main map would be in the Jedi archives on Coruscant, that the Empire controlled, but that missing piece would have only been in the possession of a select few. That would explain why R2 and the FO would have the main map, but only Luke and Lor San Tekka had the missing piece.

Maz has Luke’s saber
Reason: Last we saw, this thing went flying off along with Luke’s high school girlfriend (). How did Maz get hold of it?

Head canon: Maz and Lando are pretty tight (of course they are, right?). After the old smoothie gets Cloud City back, Maz comes in to help settle his labor disputes (or whatever). Like Rey, she’s called by the Force to the saber and has her own vision which leads her to believe she needs to stash it until it’s needed again.

Kylo completing his training
Reason: In TFA, Snoke tells Hux to bring Kylo to him because it was time complete his training. Maybe he forgot, maybe they didn’t have time with all that was going down. But no mention of that was made. Was dissing his stupid mask part of the “training”? Killing Rey?

Head canon: Snoke wasn’t fooled by Kylo’s misdirection. He knew exactly what he was about to do with the saber and wanted it. THAT was the completion of his training: overcoming the master. Snoke needed Kylo to assume his role. In a way, to become him. Everything that has transpired has done so according to his design . . . . . . . or not.

 

Yup. Showing that he's fully commited to the Dark Side by being able to cut a bond and killing the only person in the Galaxy that sort of understood him (and wasn't a direct relative.) Also, during the scene in the throne room Snoke says that killing Kylo's true enemy (in this case Rey) would complete his training. He uses the exact words "... complete your training."

 

Snoke's Backstory-
Like a lot of big events in TLJ, Snoke's fate was left ambiguous enough to be more than we expect in the next episode. I'm not sure if he's really dead or not, but after watching his scene several times I can say confidently that I think he wanted Kylo Ren to ignite the lightsaber on the throne. Whether this was to finally solidify Kylo's sith-like nature or if it was a test of loyalty (with Snoke once again simply being a hologram) I cannot say- but I think we're not as done with him as some people seem convinced we are.

Knights of Ren Backstory-
I still really like the idea that the Knights of Ren were the Rogue One crew, it just lines up pretty neatly. It would be interesting if they were somehow resurrected by Snoke and were in some undead servitude state, not totally unlike Tolkein's ringwraiths- though the current state of fans seems to really hate any expanding on force abilities like that.

If we get any other info on them, I'd at least want them to be related to the Acolytes of the Beyond somehow.

Luke's Exile on Ach-to-
I don't think we really need more info on Luke's exile, but I suspect the Jedi knowledge kept there could hold an important secret. More than likely, this is found in the texts Rey took.

Explanation for Starkiller Base-
I guess a stronger confirmation that it was actually Ilum would be interesting, but I don't think we really need to know much about this.
Maybe stronger indication of the state of the Republic/rest of the galaxy after the attack from SKB, but nothing on the station itself is needed.

More About the First Order-
Yes, this is the context we need. We can assume with little risk of error that Rae Sloane was somehow involved with starting the First Order. I'm curious how a group started by someone as collected and organized as her became one more mustache-twirlingly evil than even the Galactic Empire itself.

Finn's Backstory-
He was a stormtrooper. Then he defected.
Honestly, we don't need more than that, and any sort of "reuniting with parents" sideplot would just slow the movie down.

How Force Ghosts Work-
I really don't think this is necessary, unless it's somehow relevant to the plot.

Ben's Fall to the Dark Side-
We may need more of this, if it outlines Snoke's plan. I think we saw pretty good reason for Ben to leave the Jedi in TLJ, but I guess we could expand on what made Luke suspicious in the beginning.

Rey's Backstory-
Like Snoke, Rey's story was pretty ambiguous. How she came to her conclusion about her parents is questionable at best, and Kylo could've easily been lying to her. I'm not saying TLJ is wrong about her parents, just that this could easily have been misleading.

 

I don't see how the rogue one people could be brought back, even undead...they were literally incinerated..

 

Probably, but if they went by the rule of "you gotta see the body" then I guess somebody could make a case for it.

 

Definitely can’t say I’m on board with this idea. Having them be Ben’s former classmates at ‘Luke U’ is good enough for me. No need for more zombies in Star Wars.

We had confirmation on this?

The Super Star Destroyer waiting in the Unknown Regions had been there for a while by time she showed up though. Someone must have been in charge and it wasn’t Rax. It’s pretty impossible to say what role Sloan had in forming the FO at this point. Maybe everything, maybe nothing. I’m not sure how much of Aftermath will wind up being telling of anything moving forward.

Some more general background of these Stormtroopers would be beneficial I think. Finn would be the obvious entry point for this. Not mommy and daddy, but what was so special about him that he’s apparently the only one who ever grew a conscience in this kill club.

Sure, but not to then go on a killing spree and join up with space Nazis. Did he not get enough hugs? Did he find out who his grandpa was and thought “hey, me too”? I’d certainly like a little more insight there.

 

Fair enough. It's definitely a controversial idea.

Apparently it's heavily alluded to in one a couple of the books. No outright confirmation, though.

Yeah, that's kind of what I always figured, too. I'm definitely not convinced Sloane was the first Supreme Leader, but I'm sure that she was somehow instrumental in the forming of the First Order, and I can't see her bowing to another goon like Snoke, not after the whole business with Rax.

A lot of people expected Finn to lead a stormtrooper rebellion on Snoke's ship. In hindsight, that might have been better than the Slicer plot.

That's an interesting thought- maybe Luke's worry was that Ren had found out who his grandfather was (Bloodline took place possibly as close to a year of Ren's turn) and was getting obsessed with Vader stuff, like we see in TFA. Then, what really made Ben turn was when he acted in what he perceived as self defense.

I mean, if he had just made mortal enemies with an incredibly powerful Jedi, I could see how he'd want to ally himself with a powerful dark side user.

 

I’m not sure how I’d feel about that if it turned out to be canon. If Kyber was involved somehow, then weaponizing the planet makes sense to me. That didn’t seem to be the case though. Why Ilum then? Just a big ‘up yours’ to the Jedi?

Yeah, she made her peace with the Empire that existed in her mind not being the Empire that truly was. She believed in the benevolence of an overseeing hand that could bring law to the lawless - by force if necessary. She had no interest in any mystical or totalitarian shenanigans, just secular governance, and saw the Contingency as a way to actually get it right. That’s definitely not what the First Order is though. It’s a militant group of conquerors led by a bloody warlock. I’m of the mind things didn’t quite go her way and pretty early. I’m interested to see where that plot thread goes.

Wasn’t that a story element that was in early drafts? Or did I imagine it? Finn wouldn’t lead a rebellion exactly, but he’d convince a small group of troopers to betray Phasma on the pretext that she’d betrayed the FO at Starkiller. Not exactly the same thing when I think about it though

I was hoping for a little more info on his chat with his grandpappy’s sloppy helmet personally. “Show me again”? Wait, what now? Did he have some kind of vision like Rey? Something that convinced him the darkside was the way to go? I’m needing just a touch more here. Rejecting the Jedi and their principles is one thing. Fully embracing the darkside is something else. We know Snoke was pushing him, but was it really Luke that sealed the deal?

 

Yeah, that would've made more sense with literally any of the super weapons that actually used Kyber.

Yeah, that's definitely a story I wouldn't mind seeing. Seems like a long shot, but I wouldn't mind RJ tackling that in his trilogy.

Not sure where it originated, to be honest. I just know a lot of people here were expecting it.
And I agree, an actually conscious stormtrooper rebellion carries far more weight than tricking them into betraying the FO.

Agreed. Vader (or at least the symbol of Vader) had a menacing presence in TFA that was almost completely absent in TLJ.

 

I am pretty sure it will be explained or resolved, as it is key to the Resistance going forward....but is the Resistance really down to the Millenium Falcon and like 20-30 troops? Will Leia's call to the Outer Rim be answered?

As a tech geek I really want to see Poe back in his black X-Wing....maybe a T-85? Are there any other X-Wings or A-wings left?

 

*Time jump: 3 years*

it would be cool if Leia calls for the rest of the FO beyond the outer rim. The NR and Resistance are done and gone for the most part and the first order is weakened. She personally goes, instead of sending a proxy as in TFA, to talk to them. Her ship is blown up and she actually dies this time. This causes Poe to take charge and develop a temporary truce with them since they are not happy with Ben from TLJ. Poe takes over the new leader as the original faction of the FO with Finn, and Rose.

Meanwhile Ben fells Leia die and realizes he needs to go to them for a final showdown. By this point, he is completely unhinged. Hux, meanwhile, has been relegated to pretty much the lowest level employee but still next to Ben at all times. This enrages him further each time Ben makes a stupid decision. Hux goes back to Canto Bight to investigate what happened in TLJ. He gets all the information he needs about these weird force rebel cells popping up there as well as the galaxy. Hux himself goes to Coruscant to do some research in Ben's place but realizes that all hope is lost if peace is not negotiated after realizing everything about Anakin, the chosen one, Plageuis, etc.

Hux fakes his death and heads towards the outer rim. He is nearly shot on site. At this point Thrawn reveals that he is the one who has been pulling the strings the entire time because he has been studying the galaxy for his people since the galaxy is dying. He reveals this to Hux once the main resistance players have headed towards Ben's fleet. Hux begs to join Thrawn because he is a scared coward and Thrawn agrees to Hux's help. However, Thrawn is only using Hux for insider information about the galaxy and the rest of the first order operations.

Meanwhile, Rey is back on Jakku training a few young adults who are a little bit younger than her. Since TLJ, the calling has reached a few individuals who are as powerful as Rey. She is teaching them how to fight. Something from underneath the ground is calling to her...could be palpatine's research facility. she goes down to investigate and sees Palpatine's holo records begin to play as well as recordings of darth vader and research being done on patients. She comes across one recording that happened during the battle of jakku, which was similar to a security recording. She sees an interaction with a very young Luke Skywalker and two prisoners. One of them wears broken storm trooper armour and the woman is a jedi in her early 30's with a broken lightsaber. Luke agrees to take the woman with him to his new jedi order he plans to create as the facility is being bombed. This ties up the loose end of Rey's parents, who were very powerful people, leading her to believe that Ben killed her mom when he detroyed the temple...maybe her mom and Luke later fell in love..

Fast forward, Poe, Finn, and Rose try again to sneak onto Ben's new star destroyer. Similar to the rebels, the FO is down to a couple of large ships. They sneak onto the ship with Rose volunterring for a suicide mission because she thinks that it's her fault they lost in TLJ. They get captured almost immediately and BB-8 sends a secret coded message from Poe to Rey. Rey receives it on Jakku...this message is similar to "youre my only hope" from ANH. She corals her other jedi fighters to leave Jakku ebcause she wont make the same mistakes as Luke. Luke shows up at this point. He is not dead. He learned that, with his newfound power, he can manifest as pure energy but it takes time to have his full physical form back. They go to the ship. Luke immediately confronts an angry Ben. At this point, there is a huge clash. Luke strikes Ben down, telling him he should have killed him when he and a chance but he loved Han and Leia too much. He says theres no turning back from this for Ben. Ben shoots Luke with lightning and Rey joins the fight

Meanwhile, the other jedi free Finn, rose, poe, and BB-8. Finn is given a saber and Poe gets mad because he doesnt have saber experience. They are being tracked without knowing it with them being captured outside the bridge where the command is using ray shields. Rose was lucky so she says bye to Finn and runs into the command bridge and sets off the bomb, blowing it up with her inside of it. They all escape to go back to the rest of the rebels at thrawn's ship.

Hux is sitting on the bridge with thrawn, watching the incoming jedi. At this point, thrawn's people start attacking everyone and everything and thrawn reveals his true colors. they are destroying both rebels and FO. at this point, Hux has realized his mistakes and tries to right them and have his father be proud of him in the afterlife by surpising thrawn and killing him with a vibro blade. this disconnnects all of the ships for thrawn because he isnt commanding them anymore and they are all destroyed.

The movie would end with celebration on Coruscant with the jedi temple being resorted to its full glory...statues are put up at the entrance to Anakin, obi-wan, yoda, luke, and even Leia...Luke asks rey if she is ready and rey reluctantly nods, knowing that they have to spread the pure knowledge, with no opinon, throughout the galaxy. they agree to be neutral in all politics. We get another flash forward by a few years and see a more grown up "broom boy" training. We cut to Luke's funeral on Naboo where Wui-Gon was burned and where luke's mom was born, since he died of old age. Rey and Poe are together, with Poe being head of the entire galactic republic and Finn in charge of training cadets. All is well in the galaxy.

 

Why would the majority of episode 9 be about the knights of ren? Obviously we need more backstory and explanation for Rey, who is the main character. Yes the knights of ren could for sure play a part but a stand alone film would be better for them anyway.

 

There are no loose ends. TLJ is a flawless masterpiece. If you still feel like there are some important questions which TLJ didn't answer then you should just follow this simple solutions provided by fanboy™

a) X is a plotdevice and not important
b) you can look up the answer to your question in this book, these games, this comicseries,... (don't demand a self contained story in a movie, sheesh)
c) you just don't get it

 

Having rewatched TLJ, I noticed a blatant shot of Luke holding the Battlefront 2 compass.

Could just be an easter egg, but I like to think that this is all going somewhere. Perhaps that compass is instrumental in tying a lot of the threads together- where Snoke came from, how the First Order rose, how Kylo and Rey seem so tied by destiny, etc.

 

Speaking of speculation, here's a blast from the past:

 

I'm still confused why people were discussing Count Dooku as Sidious when it was clear even in Ep. I that palpatine was the sith.

 

agree to disagree, but i'm open to having a debate about it

 

That guy wondering if the Republic had a standing army was probably pretty proud of himself when the film came out.