Star Wars Original Trilogy: 10 Most Bizarre Scenes, According To Reddit

Beginning in 1977 with Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope, the original Star Wars trilogy then continued with Irvin Kershner’s masterful The Empire Strikes Back (1980) before concluding with Return of the Jedi (1983).

All three films are held in high regard by fans and general audience members alike, especially in comparison to the prequel and sequel trilogies. But that doesn’t mean they don’t have their problems. As Redditors are quick to point out, each film had some baffling moments that don’t quite make sense.

The Sibling Twist Comes Out Of Left Field

In Return of the Jedi, it’s revealed that Luke and Leia are actually brother and sister. This comes after Empire‘s paternity twist, which had a Luke and Darth Vader reveal that was subtly alluded to.

Redditor ThePostItNoteMan thinks it’s inorganic, saying “The sibling twist comes WAY outta left field.” Neverhoodian agreed by saying “Not only did it feel like a somewhat ham-fisted resolution to the love triangle of the previous films…but it also perpetuated the ‘everything and everyone is related/connected somehow.’

Looking Into The Lightsaber

Towards the beginning of Star Wars, Luke Skywalker comes across a peculiar man named Ben Kenobi. The old man informs Luke of his father and the Clone Wars, bestowing him with a metallic pole. That’s all Luke would be able to see it as, considering he’s never come across a lightsaber before. The question is why didn’t Kenobi stop Skywalker from looking right in the section where the beam comes out.

User Joliet_jane_blues thinks this is illogical: “The way that Kenobi gives Luke a deadly lightsaber and Luke looks straight down the barrel before activating it and then waving it around. The old man’s pretty darned confident that Luke knows not to cut his own hand off with that thing!”

Some Lines In A New Hope

George Lucas created an astounding world(s) in Star Wars, but well-written characters were never his strong suit. There’s an argument to be made that this actually works in the franchise, considering there’s nothing else that’s truly grounded in realism.

Redditor GhostBearBestClan doesn’t think it works, saying, “A few lines in ANH are poorly written. Lucas can tell a great story but his chops at writing dialogue were never good. ‘You know of the Rebellion against the Empire?’ has never rung true as something a person would actually say. It’s the most immediate that springs to mind.”

Stormtroopers’ Accuracy In All Three Films

Even considering all of the bad things that happened to Anakin Skywalker, Darth Vader can be a bit much to his employees. Yet he’s never really punishing them for the right things. The Stormtroopers, for instance, have a rate of accuracy in the single digits, yet they never get Force choked.

User Captwyo brought up a moment early in A New Hope: “When the Stormtroopers shoot up the Jawas’ sand crawler and Ben tells Luke only storm troopers are so accurate, then they proceed to miss every other shot in the trilogy.”

The Super Jump

While taking on Vader wasn’t Luke’s best decision, he does seemingly have the powers to do so. With that being said, they’re excessive and arguably unearned.

That’s why Mistra_Madridista brought up this point with an example, “Anyone else ever feel like the shot of Luke leaping out of the carbon freezing chamber looked a bit ridiculous? I get he’s got some training under his belt at this point, but he looks like he’s been shot out of a canon.”

Lapse Of Time

So much happens in The Empire Strikes Back that it can be easy to lose track of time. Major characters spread to different parts of the galaxy, but it’s not always clear exactly how long they’re on their respective planets.

Redditor Vanquisher1000 put it this way: “An issue with The Empire Strikes Back is that it doesn’t show or tell how much time has elapsed after the evacuation from Hoth. We get the impression that Luke has been on Dagobah – and Han, Leia, and Chewie on the run – for a few days, but supposedly it’s been a few weeks, possibly even a month or two.” Neverhoodian came in with an equally compelling example, “Not only that but how did the Falcon make it to Bespin so quickly with a broken hyperdrive?”

AT-ST Stuff In ROTJ

Return of the Jedi was the film where Star Wars really started making attempts to appeal to children. It was awkwardly placed in the third installment of the original trilogy because the first half of the film is so excessively dark.

Redditor Skysamfreeman brings up one of these silly scenes, “The AT-ST comically slipping on logs in ROTJ. I never see it talked about and it’s on par with some of the worst stuff in the prequels.” As far as reaching prequel-level silliness, there’s also an argument for Chewie operating the massive mechanical weapon of death.

The Cloud City Shaft

After Luke Skywalker loses his hand in a duel with his father, he chooses to let himself literally fall backward instead of grabbing Vader’s hand. It’s a poignant moment, but it leads to some internal questions.

User BroDameron_ brought it up, “Hey folks, remember when Luke fell hundreds of feet down the internal shaft of Cloud City and survived completely unscathed?” Jakerod_The_Wolf agreed with the Redditor: “That’s always bugged me so much. Head canon is him giving himself a force push to slow himself down.”

Ewoks

Although it was responsible for one of the funniest quotes from Return of the Jedi, the forest moon of Endor is also the reason for some of ROTJ‘s pacing and tonal issues.

While discussing what makes the OT the best, STi_84 came back with somewhat of a counterpoint. In terms of what’s wrong with the OT, they said “Ewoks come to the forefront of my mind. Then, a now-deleted user wrote, “Yeah, after the speeder bike I zone out until Luke meets Vader.”

The Anti-Climactic End Of Boba

Boba Fett only makes brief appearances in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi but he’s gone on to easily be one of the Star Wars franchise’s most iconic characters. In fact, he’s a character being used by Disney right now in the form of The Book of Boba Fett.

But he was certainly shortchanged in the OT, particularly ROTJ. As Japh2007 put it, “The Galaxy’s greatest bounty hunter got killed by a blind smuggler! RIP Boba.”

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Ben Hathaway
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Ben Hathaway is a Senior Writer (Lists) for Screen Rant. A former Therapeutic Day Treatment counselor, Ben is now a career writer. When not working, he is writing and self-publishing (on Amazon) novels under the name Scott Gray. In his spare time, he’s reading on the porch or watching every film under the sun. Ben can be contacted at [email protected].

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