Considering that Star Wars is nearly 44 years old now, it’s not just one of the most-watched franchises ever, it’s also probably one of the most re-watched ones as well.
With re-watches comes intense scrutiny from one of the most dedicated fan bases in the world, Over time, pointing out the several inconsistencies in the scenes from Star Wars has become something of a fun pastime, with a few memes and in-universe jokes thrown into the mix.
Fans on Ranker have racked up over 50,000 votes on the website, giving us a definitive list of the silliest, often-overlooked, and humorous plotholes from the nine main series Star Wars films.
(We’ll skip the ‘Palpatine’s back… somehow’ scene. That would be too easy).
10. The Empire Relies On Life Scans, Despite Knowing That Droids Are All Over The Place
Film: A New Hope
Funnily enough, one of the most crucial plotholes comes up right within the franchise’s first six minutes. After Leia passes on her message to R2-D2, the droid pairs up with C-3PO and they both flee onto Tatooine using an escape pod.
The only reason they safely land is because of the commands of one incredibly dense Empire officer, who simply chooses to watch the pod fly by and ignores his underlings’ warning. The justification is that their scans indicate no lifeforms onboard – a pointless thing to note in a galaxy with billions of synthetic droids walking around.
9. The Death Star Is Only Destroyed When It Has To Travel Around A Planet To Fire On The Rebels
Film: A New Hope
During the original Star Wars’ climax, we come to understand that the Rebel Alliance manages to steal vital time before getting obliterated by the Death Star, as the planet Yavin stands between their base on moon Yavin IV and the superweapon.
This makes sense… until you realise that the purpose of the Death Star is literally destroying planets. Yavin is depicted in the series as a gas giant, making it relatively unimportant to the Empire, which destroyed inhabited, Earth-like Alderaan simply as a show of strength. The Empire could have won, simply by firing two shots: one at the planet, and one at the moon.
8. Padme Somehow Knows Exactly Where Anakin, Obi-Wan, And Count Dooku Are On Geonosis
Film: Attack of the Clones
The last act of the second prequel film tracks Padme, Anakin, and Obi-Wan as they fight hordes of enemies and pursue Count Dooku on the surface of Geonosis.
Despite being knocked unconscious right off their ship, Padme immediately tells a Clone Trooper that they need a hangar to catch up. How could she know where Dooku was heading on an unfamiliar, barren planet, while unconscious after falling out of the air? We’ll never know.
7. The Millennium Falcon Is Not Scanned For Life, Despite The Empire Possessing This Technology
Film: A New Hope
The second ‘scanner’ related mistake in A New Hope, this one takes place right as the Millennium Falcon boards the Death Star. The Imperial soldiers find that the ship’s log indicates no crew on board which allows the heroes to sneak out undetected.
Given that the first scene in the movie tells us that the Empire is perfectly capable of scanning ships for lifeforms, it makes no sense that the Imperials have to search through by hand at Vader’s command.
6. Leia Was Never Taught How To Use The Force, But Is Incredibly Powerful In The Last Jedi
Film: The Last Jedi
One of the most emotional moments in the second sequel film arrives when Poe Dameron fails to protect Leia, resulting in the Rebel General getting blasted out into open space. Well, it was emotional – until Leia magically used the force to fly back to safety.
As one of the most controversial scenes in the film, it drew up loads of anger and debate from fans. While we eventually learn in a throwaway line of dialogue that Luke had trained her off screen, it simply doesn’t explain a force-user feat that even Luke or Vader would find near-impossible to pull off.
5. Luke Is ‘Hidden’ On His Father’s Home Planet, But Keeps His Original Surname
Film: A New Hope
At the climactic finale of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan, Bail Organa, and Yoda all agree that Padme’s newborn children should be hidden from Darth Vader, their father – who could either turn them to the dark side or simply kill the younglings (again).
The oddity here is that while Bail adopts Leia and gives her his family name, no such concealment occurs with Luke — who retains the Skywalker name, and is literally sent back to the one place where Anakin spent his own childhood — possibly one of the most obvious places to look. Thankfully, we may see this explored a bit with Obi-Wan Kenobi, releasing later this month.
4. Using A Hyperspace Jump To Destroy Enemy Ships Makes No Sense
Film: The Last Jedi
If there’s one motto the sequel pictures went by, it’s style over substance. During the last moments of her life, Vice-Admiral Holdo kamikazes a whle rebel cruiser into the First Order’s fleet, causing one of the most badass-looking explosions we’ve seen in a long time.
That said, it makes absolutely no sense. If such a maneuver could be pulled off, why aren’t both sides of the conflict using it all the time? With hyperdrives existing for thousands of years in the series, would it not be more effective to launch unmanned, hyperdrive-powered missiles? Whatever. At least the scene we got looked awesome in cinemas.
3. Leia Remembers Her Mother, Despite The Fact Padme Died In Childbirth
Film: Return of the Jedi
The final original trilogy film has its ups and downs, but one moment had geeks scratching their heads in confusion for decades. In a conversation between Luke and Leia, the former asks the latter about her ‘real’ mother—Padme Amidala.
Leia replies that she remembers her mother, although she died when she was ‘very young’. The ‘very young’ age here is canonically just under 45 seconds according to Revenge of the Sith. Unless Leia literally remembers the experience of being born, this doesn’t quite stand up.
2. Darth Vader Doesn’t Recognise C-3PO And R2-D2
Film: Original Trilogy
Sure, time changes things, and no one knows this better than Anakin Skywalker. However, forgetting the faces of R2-D2 and C-3PO—the latter was literally built by the young Jedi—sounds a bit bizarre, especially considering that he’s spent most of his early life in their company, and he comes across both droids every now and then in the original trilogy.
Maybe all droids look the same underneath that iconic black mask – who knows.
1. Rey Seemingly Became A Powerful Jedi Without Any Formal Training
Film: Sequel Trilogy
Unsurprisingly, Rey’s character writing is some of the worst in the series, with several fans simply choosing to ignore her existence after the new renaissance of Disney+ shows. There’s several problems here, but the main one is that Rey is simply way too powerful… after receiving barely any training at all.
Atleast Luke spent a significant amount of of time training under Obi-Wan and Yoda (two of the greatest Jedis ever) before taking on Darth Vader (and falling easily under Palpatine). Rey, on the other hand, learns several iconic abilities seemingly on whim, seemingly because J.J. Abrams’ plot requires her to do so.
May the Fourth be with you!
(Featured Image Credits: Disney Inc.)
