WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Plot holes aren't new. Even in the early days of fandom, people have been bringing up how certain elements of a narrative don't really add up or have unfortunate implications. While most stories run on what feels right rather than what makes sense, there is a faction of Star Wars fandom that enjoys bringing, say, that the destruction of the second Death Star in Return of the Jedi would have rained fiery doom on the Ewoks living on the Forest Moon of Endor.

However, for all the fans pointing out that those Ewoks should be little more than ash and fur in a smoking crater, we have Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Much like how Rogue One gave an answer to the recurring complaint that the first Death Star's exhaust pipe is an obvious weakness to its structural integrity, so does The Rise of Skywalker try to explain why the Endor holocaust never occurred. No, wait, the holocaust did occur, only not on the Forest Moon.

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Star Wars: What is the Endor Holocaust?

The Endor Holocaust theory originated in 1997,  and was first promoted by TheForce.net. The theory questions what would happen if the moon-sized Death Star were to explode just outside the atmosphere of Endor's Forest Moon. The theorists propose the event, as depicted in Return of the Jedi, would have been a catastrophe for the moon and its inhabitants. The fallout from radiation would have a Chernobyl-esque impact on the moon's ecosystem, and the debris from the battle station would trigger a fiery apocalypse.

It would result in collisions on-par with asteroid impacts that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. The Forest Moon would enter a nuclear winter, coupled with chunks of the moon blown into the atmosphere by the debris impacts, creating a greenhouse effect. Whatever organic matter that didn't die would become mutated and cancerous due to radioactive bombardment. In short, no more Ewoks, or anything else, for that matter. However, at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, we see the Ewoks alive and well, staring up at a nice, clean sky through their healthy forest. So what happened?

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Return of the Jedi: Star Wars' Second Death Star Destroyed Another Ewok Moon

Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker

Ultimately, a moon did suffer the consequences of the second Death Star's destruction. However, it wasn't the Forest Moon, but instead Endor's Ocean Moon. Kef Bir, as it's called by the Ewoks, intercepted the falling debris of the Death Star -- or, at least, the part of the battle station that contained the throne room and Imperial Data Vault.

Kef Bir appears to have very little variety of organic life. We see grass, and the orbaks, native horse-like creatures that feed upon it. According to The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary, there was no sentient life on Kef Bir at the time of the Battle of Endor. Therefore, there was no one to monitor the immediate effects the explosion of Death Star II had on the Ocean Moon.

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The Death Star's Radiation Fallout on Endor in Episode VI

The impact is one thing. The more dangerous aspect of the Death Star's detonation is the radioactive fallout that would've bombarded the entire Endor system. The Death Star's destruction could have obliterated the entire system, so... why didn't it? The Rise of Skywalker: The Visual Dictionary addresses that -- well, sort of:

"The eruption of the Death Star's reactor core upturned local physics as titanic explosive energies were shunted into hyperspace. The result was that the populated moons of Endor were spared the worst of the debris fallout. No sentient beings on Kef Bir's surface witnessed the Death Star's wreckage crash into the oceans, for the moon had no intelligent life-forms. No scientists recorded the resulting impact, or could explain what variables prevented such a catastrophic event from simply obliterating all life on the moon. It would be just one of many mysteries the Death Star would take to its grave."

While the book offers some pseudo-scientific answers, the ultimate solution is we don't really know. Maybe the Force helped spare them... or something.

However, while radioactive fallout wasn't a factor, the toxic waste is. The Visual Dictionary goes onto explain the leakage from the wreckage poisoned the oceans, leaving the area around the debris for dozens of kilometers cold and lifeless. As the Death Star's metal deteriorates, the remains have a drastic impact on the life that does develop there: "A whole new ecosystem has been formed by the creatures that it has displaced. As it rots, eaten away by the saltwater, each year millions of tons of industrial toxins seep into the oceans."

Ultimately, the Ework Holocaust was averted. From a thematic standpoint, it clearly was done to prevent the ending of Return of the Jedi from being anything short of a happy occasion. Much like the rest of the sequel trilogy, bad things would still come to be in the years to come, but for those first couple decades following the end of the Empire, the world became a better place. Ewoks living through Chernobyl times a million would probably kill that good vibe.

Directed and co-written by J.J. Abrams, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker stars Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, Lupita Nyong’o, Domhnall Gleeson, Kelly Marie Tran, Joonas Suotamo, Billie Lourd, Keri Russell, Anthony Daniels, Mark Hamill, Billy Dee Williams, and Carrie Fisher, with Naomi Ackie and Richard E. Grant. The film is in theaters now.

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