Commentary: After 42 years of 'Star Wars,' I am left with 42 questions, including some from 'The Rise of Skywalker' about Palpatine

(Warning: Spoilers ahead. Stop reading now if you don't want "Rise of Skywalker" plot points revealed.)

I just left a screening of "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," the ninth and concluding chapter of the 42-year saga of the Skywalker family, a story I have carried with me longer than any other story (42 years), a farewell I am told to feel deep sadness about. Despite being crammed with several films worth of exposition and characters and tears (yes, it's touching), I am left now with many questions, never to be answered.

1. How did Emperor Palpatine survive the fall down that shaft in "Return of the Jedi"?

2. When I was 8 I left my beloved Kenner X-Wing fighter at the house of a friend from grade school,