Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker is a confusing movie, partly because it moves at the pace of an auctioneer trying MDMA for the first time, and partly because it's jam-packed with new characters, magical doohickeys, and other magical doohickeys those first doohickeys lead to. Thankfully, since the movie premiered, we've gotten some interviews with the filmmakers and pieces of merchandise that have cleared up some of these oddities in totally satisfying and not at all confounding ways. Spoilers ahead ...

Chewie Got Whose Medal, Exactly?

After defeating the evil First Order, the Resistance fighters return to their base and celebrate, just like in Return Of The Jedi (minus the corpse-eating). In a moment seemingly inspired by many an internet message board rant, Maz Kanata finally gives Chewbacca the medal Princess Leia so cruelly denied him way back in A New Hope. Yes, it's the exact same medal Luke and Han were given after the Battle of Yavin. Whose is it? Insanely, no one even told Joonas Suotamo, the dude playing Chewbacca. He guessed it "was Han's," and it turns out he was totally right.

Walt Disney Pictures

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

According to The Rise Of Skywalker Visual Dictionary, Leia kept Han's medal because it's a memento of what "brought them together 35 years ago." You can barely see her clutching it during her death scene (a close-up of her holding it was in a trailer). Oddly, Maz's tone seems to suggest it's a long-overdue token of appreciation for Chewie, as opposed to some junk she found after his friend's corpse vanished. It's additionally unnecessary because the Star Wars comic series went out of their way multiple times to explain that Chewie did get a medal. For some reason, J.J. Abrams still thought this was a loose end that needed tying up. Perhaps we should just be thankful the movie didn't end with Maz looking straight into the camera and explaining the meaning of "Maclunkey."

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

What's The Deal With The Skywalker Lightsaber? Didn't It Break in Half?

During a pivotal scene in The Last Jedi, Rey and Kylo Ren split Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber in half, to the horror of every Star Wars memorabilia collector in the audience.

But in The Rise Of Skywalker, the lightsaber is intact again with literally zero explanation.

Walt Disney Pictures

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

Thanks again to the Visual Dictionary, we know that there are "weld marks" on the hilt, because apparently Rey repaired the damn thing offscreen. As for the Kyber crystal inside, that was "healed using techniques gleaned from Jedi scripture." So basically, the Force equivalent of superglue and duct tape.

What Exactly Is Han Solo In This Movie?