In honor of the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we are going to remind you of 11 glaring plot holes in Star Wars to curb the manufactured hype.
Now don’t get me wrong: I love Star Wars. The Original Trilogy (A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi) did some really masterful storytelling, even if some of the writing and acting was a little stilted. The story of Luke’s journey to become a jedi and save the galaxy is absorbing, and most of these plot holes aren’t all that obvious while you’re watching the film.
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The same cannot be said about the Prequel Trilogy (Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith). The Prequel created more noticeable errors by forging extraneous ties to the Original Trilogy, like the decision to include C-3PO and R2D2. As a result of the Prequel Trilogy, the statements and actions of the earlier movies become contradictory or silly. Not even Star Wars is perfect, and this list will show some of the questionable writing choices.
For the purposes of this list, we are going to be looking exclusively at the 6 live-action Star Wars movies. While the animated TV series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels and the now non-canon material that makes up the Expanded Universe have addressed some plot choices, a moviegoer shouldn’t have to spend additional time looking up answers to obvious issues in the movie.
If you like what we have done here, take a look at some more sci-fi errors in 12 huge plot holes in Interstellar.
11. Leia remembers her mother
Prequel based error. In Return of the Jedi, Luke takes a moment before confronting Vader to ask if Leia remembers her mother. She says she does a little bit, “just images, feelings”. But in Revenge of the Sith, Padme dies in childbirth seconds after Leia’s birth. Luke, as the firstborn, had more experience with their mother than Leia did. Some fans hypothesize that Leia could use the Force to feel her mother, but as a trained jedi Luke should be able to do the same. As it is, Leia’s more likely telling her brother about the Queen of Alderaan, a woman who is unrelated to him.
10. No one recognizes C-3PO or R2-D2
These two droids have been everywhere in the galaxy with some of the most famous Jedi. Obi-Wan doesn’t acknowledge the droids when they appear on Tatooine. Owen Lars doesn’t recognize C-3PO, a droid he owned for years before the clone wars, when he buys him in A New Hope.Perhaps this makes more sense as C-3PO has his memory wiped off, at the end of Revenge of the Sith, but R2 doesn’t. R2 knows all about Anakin and Padme and the twins and never shares this information throughout the movies despite that he can clearly communicate with other humans.
9. The Emperor’s plot in Attack of The Clones
We know now that the Emperor, then Chancellor, Palpatine wanted to create a massive war that would both severely weaken the Jedi and give him control of the Republic. He has a clone army ready to be used, but nobody knows about it.
Fortunately: one of Padme’s assassins works for Jango Fett, who happens to be the base for the clones on Kamino and just happens to use a Kamino dart, which is unidentifiable. Fortunately, Obi-Wan just happens to know this diner chef who can identify not only who made the dart, but also the planet’s location which is great because it was erased from the Jedi archives. Then Obi-Wan discovers the Separatist Army by following Jango Fett, who doesn’t realize there’s a homing beacon on his ship until AFTER he reaches the plant of manufacturing. The only reason the Jedi become involved is because of Obi Wan’s message, which could only be transmitted to the council because Anakin HAPPENED to be within range while protecting Padme which only occurred because the initial assassination attempt was thwarted and people thought her HOMEWORLD WAS A GREAT PLACE TO HIDE FROM PEOPLE WHO WANT TO KILL HER. And she put the easily manipulated Jar Jar Binks in charge of her position, where he’s easily manipulated into giving the Emperor emergency power.
8. The Empire doesn’t shoot the escape pod with the droids in it
In A New Hope, Leia sends the plans for the Death Star with R2D2 and has him escape to Tatooine on an escape pod. Despite the fact that droids are one load of ships and that recovering those plans is crucial, the commanding officer tells the troops not to destroy the pod with no life signs because it “probably jettisoned on accident”. This guy probably got force-choked after the fact.
7. The Death Star chooses to go around
The climax of A New Hope is trying to destroy the Death Star before it destroys the home base of the rebellion Yavin IV. The Death Star, rather than destroying the moon that block Yavin, decides to take its time while under attack to go around the moon. You figure after you blow a planet with millions of people on it, you wouldn’t get stingy about using the giant death weapon.
6. Expedited Jedi Training
After the rebels escape planet Hoth in Empire Strikes Back, Luke goes off to train with Yoda on Dagobah while Han and the others escape to Cloud City. The movie cuts back between the two groups; so while Han and Leia are just getting captured by Vader, Luke is finishing his training and running off to save them. Bar the short pit stop on the asteroid, the trip to Cloud City takes maybe a day or two. This seems to imply that Luke masters in a couple of days what took Jedi years of education and training.
5. The first Death Star was built in 20 years, the second built in 3
We see the early construction phases of the Death Star at the end of Revenge of the Sith, and it’s not completed or even tested until the destruction of Alderaan in A New Hope. And yet some over the 3 year time period after a New Hope, the second Death Star (even larger than the first) is in its late building phase and fully operational. The Empire must have gotten better contractors.
4. The only reason the escape from Jabba’s Palace works is a series of fortunate coincidences
There are too many things that can go wrong with Luke’s infiltration plan. What if Jabba had decided to scrap the C-3PO and R2 for giggles? What if Lando had been put on a different guard detail rather than dumping prisoners into the Sarlacc pit? What if R2 wasn’t stationed on the Pleasure Barge? The only reason things work out is dumb luck. Just get Lando to steal carbonite Solo, get him on the Falcon and thaw him out later—its much simpler.
3. Yoda’s not your master Obi-Wan
On Hoth, Obi Wan’s ghost tells Luke to go to Dagobah and train under Yoda, “the Jedi Master who instructed me”. The only teacher Obi-Wan has had in the movies was Qui-Gon Jinn.
2. Becoming a force ghost requires training
The original trilogy, all you had to do to be a force ghost was just to die serving the Light Side of the Force, which is why Vader can come after performing a single act of good despite 20 years of serving the dark side. At the Revenge of the Sith, Yoda implies that this isn’t the case:
Yoda – “An old friend has learned the path to immortality. One who has returned from the netherworld of the force, your old master.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi-“Qui-gon?”
Yoda-“How to commune with him, I will teach you.”
Both Yoda and Obi-Wan have to study and train with the ghost of Qui-Gon to become immortal. Yoda even has to teach Obi-Wan how to communicate with the ghost of his master. And given how Vader wasn’t in the good books, it’s unlikely he would have picked up on the secret in passing.
1. Death Star Design Flaws
The first Death Star had an exhaust port that lead to the core and blow up the station instantly. Bad design, but, at least, the trench leading to the port was fortified and protected, and also hard to reach.
The second Death Star had the same issue but enlarged the hole so a ship as big as the Millenium Falcon could fly directly in and destroy that key target. You would think they would’ve thrown some shields or insulation up, but no.
