Star Wars: 10 Major Flaws Of The Original Trilogy That Fans Chose To Ignore

The “Skywalker Saga” has its flaws, and, when the audience connects them all together to look at the whole story, there will always be missing pieces or things that could have been done differently. Yet, overall, the movies send a positive message, and it is a timeless series.

Every Star Wars trilogy has the major high points that have made it the franchise it is. As the producers, writers, and actors continued on in the galaxy far, far away, some things still didn’t seem to quite connect or were just major flaws that, fortunately, didn’t really affect the story or the characters in a negative way.

10 The First Lightsaber Duel

While the practically stand-still lightsaber battle between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi was the first of many, it was lackluster.

A major flaw of the battle itself is when Obi-Wan does a random spin to dodge a saber strike, and Vader has plenty of time to strike again, but doesn’t. Movie choreography wasn’t quite up to snuff at the time compared to what we’d later be treated to in the series, but, given the climactic battle the two engage in in the third episode of the series, this just seems laughable.

9 Leia Staying Back With Luke

The Empire Strikes Back is often touted as the saga’s best movie, but it is not flawless. The second installation of the original trilogy left things in a weird place with Luke and Leia, and yet Leia stayed back with Luke at the end, even though it was obvious at that point that she and Han would be the love interests.

Princess Leia wasn’t typically one to let people go on a mission without her, so why would Lando and Chewie go rescue Han without her? This moment wouldn’t be considered a flaw if Luke and Leia had realized they were siblings before this, but, without that factor, it just seems odd that Leia stays behind.

8 When Leia Told Han To Stop

Han Solo was never traditional in his courtship of Leia Organa, as neither of them wanted to admit to their feelings, but he went too far when he acted without consent.

Princess Leia was trying to fix the Millennium Falcon, and Han sauntered in and massaged her hand. She told him to stop, and he didn’t. She backed away, and he still pursued her by leaning in. While their relationship later develops well, Han came onto her in a way that would make anyone uncomfortable. That said, it was a move very characteristic of the cocky space pirate.

7 A Second Death Star

After the first Death Star scientist built in an accessible exhaust port that was relatively easily foiled by the Rebellion, Emperor Palpatine still thought it would be a good idea to create a second Death Star in hopes that having a less accessible central nerve would prevent the same issue.

The fact that this evil mastermind assumed that with a Rebellion lingering in the galaxy that he would be able to build a second planet-killing machine and not get caught or foiled is a major flaw in his judgment and the films, though it’s a testament to the arrogance of the Emperor.

6 Luke Landing On Dagobah

By the time Luke was in search of Jedi Master Yoda, he had some semblance of what The Force was and some coordinates to get him to the swamp planet of Dagobah.

What didn’t make sense here is how he landed so near to where Yoda would be. Maybe it can be chalked up to Yoda knowing through The Force that Luke has landed but it was just another moment unexplained.

5 Boba Fett’s Luck

In Star Wars Episode IV: The Empire Strikes Back, Boba Fett is employed by Darth Vader to pursue the Millennium Falcon. Meanwhile, Han and the crew found a way to blend in with the trash and wait to detach when the star destroyer dumped before taking off into hyperspace.

Not long after fans see the Falcon take off with the trash, Boba Fett’s ship, the Slave I, follows after it. Boba Fett and Han have some history with Jabba the Hutt, but fans were given no reason to believe Boba knew Han well enough to know how he would escape the Empire.

4 Chewbacca Finding C3PO In Pieces

Chewbacca and friends were getting a tour of Lando Calrissian’s city in the clouds when Chewie heard a noise, but he didn’t immediately investigate. That noise happened to be C3-PO getting blasted into pieces. Chewie later happened upon the furnace room and recovered C3-PO’s body, and it was an altogether relatively weird series of events.

3 Yoda’s Death & Luke’s Training

Luke’s training timeline was always ambiguous after his first visit to Dagobah, but it got even further muddled when Luke was suddenly calling himself a Jedi Knight in Return of the Jedi.

When Luke goes back to Dagobah in ROTJ, it was what the audience assumed was the second visit because Luke said, “I have a promise to keep, to an old friend.” But, based on the abilities Luke showcased on Jabba’s barge in the Dune Sea, he should have gone back to train at least one more time before rescuing Han and the others. Yoda also seems to die when it was most convenient rather than as a catalyst for Luke’s training.

2 Treatment of Women

Leia Organa is one of the most iconic and powerful female roles in fiction to this day, but the Original Trilogy lacked the ability to properly highlight women in the Star Wars universe and had trouble communicating sexy versus sexualization. The greatest example of this flaw is when Leia is forced to wear the metal bikini as a slave to Jabba The Hutt. Not only was Jabba’s attraction to human women questionable, but Leia’s outfit was just way too much.

1 Lack of Diversity In the Rebellion

While the racial uniformity of the Empire makes sense as a parallel for Nazi Germany, the Rebellion is formed to fight for all planets, and, as such, is supposed to show how rich the galaxy is in alien species.

The Rebellion is still made of white pilots, generals, leaders, and more, not really representing the diversity of the galaxy they fight for. Chewbacca is really one of the few aliens we see in the Rebellion and Lando is the only person of color. There are plenty of alien species seen in the background as showcased in the iconic Mos Eisley Cantina scene, but their appearances are so fleeting that they could hardly even be counted as extras.

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