***This article contains major spoilers for The Force Awakens***

You may have now caught the new episode in the Star Wars saga – The Force Awakens, but there may be even more questions lingering in your mind, just as I have.

And if you are reading this, I presume that you have already watched the Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens movie. If you haven’t, stop reading now – unless you want the story to be completely spoiled for you.

Click here for a spoiler-free review.

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While the movie certainly answered the question about who Kylo Ren actually is – that he is Han Solo and Leia’s son – there are other questions that may still leave readers guessing for answers. For example, who are Rey’s parents?

Rey’s identity

After watching The Force Awakens, we know for sure that Rey is the main protagonist in the Star Wars series and that the Force runs very strongly within her. She will be the one to see the Galaxy in this series. She is also very skilled with the lightsaber to the point that she was even able to seriously injure Kylo Ren, who has been trained on using this. With a history of the importance of parentage and lineage in the Star Wars movies, I am 99.9 per cent certain that she has Skywalker blood in her.

But then again, exactly who are her parents? Based on what we have already seen, Han and Leia showed her no recognition when they met her face to face for the first time, in the Millennium Falcon. Surely they would have recognised her, if she was indeed their child, right?

On the other hand though, remember the very sentimental hug that Rey had shared with Leia, towards the end of the movie? Was this a sign that they are mother and daughter? It is a possibility that I will not discount.

However, I am taking a stab in the dark now – I am guessing that she is Luke Skywalker’s daughter. Why? At the very end of the film, when she handed the lightsaber to Luke, he seemed to have looked at her in a way that a father may have – when he sees a long-lost daughter for the first time.

After all, she is certainly stronger in the Force than Kylo Ren could possibly ever be, based on what we have been lead to believe after watching The Force Awakens. For example, from not even knowing what The Force is, Rey is able to even master Jedi mind control within a  very short space of time. So there is only one person whom she could have inherited these powers from – Luke.

It’s not possible for her to purely be a random Force-Sensitive individual who found herself in this mess for no apparent reason… Right?

I think that another key piece of evidence pointing to the fact that Rey is Luke’s daughter, is the way that the lightsaber called to her when she first set her eyes on it. As well, she was the one who appeared to have a stronger connection to the lightsaber – it claimed her, rather than Kylo Ren, after he tried to retrieve it in that snowy forest.

But if Rey is Luke’s daughter, who is the wife?

In contrast, we do know that sticking by the true Jedi code, the Jedis are not supposed to embrace their emotions and neither are they supposed to marry or have kids.

So then, this leaves us with even more questions regarding Rey’s parentage – that we shall have to wait at least two more years, for the answers that we are seeking.

Kylo Ren and the dark side

Besides Rey’s identity, we know that Kylo Ren was born as Ben Solo, and that he had been undergoing training by Luke to be a Jedi – but he had been apparently seduced by the Supreme Leader Snoke and the dark side. Who exactly is Snoke? What exactly made Ben turn and thus take on the identity of Kylo Ren?

We do not actually see Snoke in the flesh – I don’t think the gigantic figure that resembles Smeagol/Gollum from The Lord of the Rings, is actually the real form of the Supreme Leader Snoke. This is an illusion somehow. So he could be anybody. Rumours are floating around the Internet that Snoke is actually Darth Plagueis, whom we understand had learned the secret of immortality in Revenge of the Sith. This is an educated guess, though. And Darth Plagueis was supposed to have been murdered by his apprentice’s hand, but is it possible that he is still alive, probably through the dark powers of the Force?

Or on the other hand, is there a chance that Snoke could even be somebody whom Kylo Ren knows and trusts, in order to have been somehow seduced by this person – in embracing the ways of the Dark Side of the Force?

Talking about Kylo Ren, can he actually be redeemed too, in the way that his grandfather Darth Vader had been, at the end of the original Star Wars saga? We know how Kylo Ren had been so completely heartless in impaling his father, Han Solo, with his lightsaber. But we then see Han Solo caressing his son Kylo’s face so tenderly before losing his balance and collapsing before taking his last breath. Could this moment be the turning point in the redemption of Kylo Ren?

And as well, who on earth are the Knights of Ren, the sinister sounding group that Kylo Ren is a part of? We have seen glimpses of them, through a vision that Rey has in The Force Awakens, when she touches the lightsaber. Are they an evil group of people similar to Kylo Ren, or are they something else entirely?

Finn’s parentage

We also don’t know who Finn is. We may know why he does not have a last name – his name is based on his rank number during his Stormtrooper days. And who are his parents? Chances are that they are names whom we may know already.

What we know though is that Finn is almost certainly Force-Sensitive though not quite as powerful as Rey. He could hold his own – for a while at least – with a lightsaber against a skilled lightsaber warrior, Kylo Ren. His apparently being Force-Sensitive could also explain why Finn was able to break free of the brainwashing that the Stormtroopers underwent and how he had developed a conscience.

Would Finn eventually train as a Jedi in addition to Rey? We should find out soon, I think.

Luke Skywalker in hiding

We know now that Luke Skywalker is almost certainly not Kylo Ren, though. Instead, Luke had gone into hiding. And that he has run away from it all, after his former apprentice Ben Solo (Kylo Ren) had turned to the dark side.

But after what we had seen of Luke in the original trilogy, running away from it all does not seem to be in character with Luke at all. In fact, the former Luke we know, would have gone to fight instead. Sure, we can possibly argue that Luke could have felt the guilt after what had happened to his nephew and did not want to play any more part in anything – so he ran away. But still…I can’t help thinking that there is somehow something more to Luke’s story than we already know.

I think though, Luke will definitely play a more prominent role in Star Wars Episode 8. I reckon that he will train Rey but then again, he may not – because he is still feeling terrible after his failure in training Ben Solo.

The mysterious map

And where on earth did that mysterious map which had led to the location of Luke Skywalker, originate from? Had it all been Luke’s own doing – to help the Chosen One find him when the time was right? Did Luke actually want to be found eventually, in the first place?

Or if not, had it been somebody else entirely? But then, did this mean that there was someone out there in the Galaxy, who knew Luke’s exact whereabouts? If so, who could it have been?

I had thought Luke had displayed some element of surprise in that final scene when he came face-to-face with Rey. She was probably the first person whom he had seen in years. Was he expecting someone to find him? We should find out in Episode 8, I hope.

We also know that BB8 was carrying the missing piece of the map. The remainder of the map was being carried by R2R2, who had been on “Low power mode” throughout almost the whole movie – but amazingly became conscious at the right moment.

Did Luke himself have anything to do with R2D2’s return to consciousness, too – when the time was right? Surely it could not have been a mere coincidence, right? No, I think that the events appear to be too uncanny to be coincidental. Hope we will get some answers in Episode 8.

Maz Kanata and Anakin’s blue lightsaber

A new character to the Star Wars saga, Maz is a powerful creature that has lived for hundreds of years, much like Yoda.

But what I don’t understand is how come Anakin’s blue lightsaber magically ended up stored in her castle? From what we last saw, the lightsaber was lost in Cloud City. So what happened between the events of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens to put the lightsaber in Maz’s possession? And why was it so convenient that the lightsaber had simply happened to be there when Finn and Rey had needed it as a weapon?

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