Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi/Other Corrections

## TV Tropes

### Jabba's Palace

1. 3PO, R2, and Luke have to knock on the huge door, get past the guards and the Majordomo to talk to Jabba. But Leia (as the bounty hunter) and Chewie on a Chain come in the side door, with a freakin' THERMAL DETONATOR?! And Jabba doesn't wonder how they got in there? **Bounty hunters and the like are Jabba's major clientele, so it's not surprising at all that a bounty hunter could get in. She might have been impersonating a regular at the place. Jabba doesn't wonder "how they got in there" because bounty hunters go in and out.
Also, Leia was bringing in Chewie- in other words, someone Jabba had placed a major bounty on. Of course Jabba's going to want to see her, so that probably smoothed things over considerably.
And apparently Jabba doesn't really mind that people come into his presence armed... he's expecting that, partly because he works with bounty hunters so much (who not only would take forever to disarm, but most likely wouldn't want to... do you want to be the guard that tells Boba Fett to leave his armor in a locker?), but partly because he thinks he's thoroughly protected. No one scanned "Boushh" for explosives because they just assumed he had explosives on him... the surprise was in the audacity of using them to threaten the mighty Jabba in the middle of his own palace.
That was also what impressed Jabba. The bounty hunter (Leia) was threatening to blow up the entire room, judging by everyone else's panicked reactions.**
2. A few things about the mission to rescue Han from Jabba. Firstly, what was the point of keeping Lando in disguise? He didn't do anything useful and he even led Leia to Jabba after she was captured! And then in the Sail Barge battle, he wrestles with ONE goon a little before they're both knocked off the skiff. Also, speaking of Leia, why didn't Luke or Lando or R2 or anyone try and help her out? She was basically a sex slave to a slug and, yet, none of them so much as mention the fact she's enslaved, nor do they make any attempt to rescue her. And, yes, it was awesome to see her kill Jabba all by herself but seriously, some help would have been nice. **Lando was insurance—he's there so that Leia has someone on her side to help if Jabba says "Execute her" instead of "put her in a bikini." Leia is perfectly capable on her own and, you know, escapes on her own and kills Jabba with her own hands. They didn't go out of their way to help and rescue her because they knew she didn't need it.
I can buy that Lando was insurance but I doubt that they didn't rescue her because they thought she didn't need the help. Most likely, Lando was feeding information about how things were going in Jabba's palace back to Luke, to alert him if something went wrong. Leia getting caught was probably not part of the plan, and her being chained to Jabba certainly wasn't. Leia is perfectly capable of handling herself but when you're chained to a giant slug with armed guards near him and with no weapons on you, anyone in that position would be vulnerable. So, again, why would they not, at least, try and rescue her?
Part of the plan? Maybe not Plan A, but certainly a known possibility. As for them trying to rescue her...Perhaps you mean something like, say, Luke jumping over to the Barge, engaging the guards, on it, and helping her swing away afterward?**
3. Leia basically tells Han she's going to take him and go... it implies her getting caught wasn't part of the plan. So basically the plan was "screw Chewie & the droids... let's go get Han!" **This was indeed a Xanatos Gambit on Luke & Co.'s part, and it works out like this. Plan A- The droids convey Luke's offer to Jabba. If he accepts and frees Solo, then Lando, the inside man, steals the droids and they all escape (probably with assistance from the rest on the outside, as in all the other plans below). Plan B- Leia and Chewie infiltrate the palace. Leia frees Han. Lando waits until the uproar over Solo's escape, then makes his move and frees Chewie, who helps him steal both droids. Plan C- Luke walks right in and uses his Jedi Mind Trick on Jabba, who returns Han, Leia, and Chewie to him. They escape. Lando carries out Plan A as outlined above. The fact that Jabba is resistant to the Mind Trick brings up a Plan D- pull a gun on Jabba, and use the uproar as a means to improvise an escape on the fly. At this point it becomes Xanatos Speed Chess. Nobody counted on the trap door right under the platform. However, Luke and Artoo are Crazy-Prepared and Luke can count on his trusty sidekick to get into position to launch him his lightsaber at the right moment.**
4. Why couldn't Leia just roll a couple of thermal detonators into Jabba's throne room while he and his flunkies were asleep? **The same throne room where the guy they're trying to rescue is being held? And also full of slaves and innocent (kind of) bystanders. And Lando and C-3PO.
Not to mention, as our own history shows quite clearly, that rebellion and resistance groups are heavily reliant on gangsters and black marketeers for supplies, support, and intelligence. Blowing up Jabba in his own throne room, or planting a warship in orbit (if the latter was even possible without the Empire cottoning on or wasting resources in such a way), would not only burn their access to Jabba's resources but would make the Rebel Alliance persona non grata with a huge swathe of the Imperial underworld and non-aligned warlords. The long term effects of such an action would be far more deleterious than simply not getting Han. It makes sense to try and inveigle him out or negotiate his release somehow. Even staging a rebellion and prisoner escape on Jabba's barge at the site of a public execution is less of an affront to the black market men than strong arm tactics would be.**
5. Why did Luke walk into Jabba's lair unarmed, instead entrusting his light saber to R2-D2 in a convoluted Gambit Roulette? It's not like they were gonna frisk him on the way in, and if they tried there was always the mind trick. Not only could he have made short work of the rancor, but in fact the poor beast would have been spared entirely as Luke would have had Jabba looking down the wrong end of a most lethal weapon immediately. **He didn't want to have to use lethal force, or even the threat thereof, unless it became absolutely necessary. There's a huge difference between the vague (paraphrased) "You're screwed if you don't free us" and "If you don't free us, I will stick this burny death-beam into your eye", morally speaking. He probably wasn't planning on the rancor or anything like it — and in any case, he managed just fine.**
6. So what would have happened if, against all odds, Jabba felt generous on the day Threepio and Artoo showed up and actually accepted Luke's plea for Han? He could've accepted the droids that Luke sent him in good faith, tossed a blind and crippled man out into the desert to fend for himself, and gone on with his business. But then Luke is out of two loyal, priceless droids and his brand new lightsaber. Of course Luke knew Jabba would never accept it (and thus planted Chewie and R2 inside the court so they'd help him break Han out,) but what if he had? **Don't forget that Lando was there before R2 and Threepio showed up. Odds are, he was inserted in case of that eventuality. If Jabba had felt generous, then Lando would have probably snuck away and helped Han get away, at which point Luke would have probably have snuck in at night and spirited the droids away.
The droids probably could have left on their own, without needing Luke to come get them. Artoo would have gotten Threepio and convinced him to leave.**
7. How would Luke pony up the money to buy Han back from Jabba? Neither he nor Chewbacca are rich; Leia is a Princess, but probably lost all her inheritance when the Death Star blew up her planet; Lando doesn't earn money since the Empire took over Bespin and the Rebellion would probably not pay for a mere captain who doesn't even have aristocratic blood. Had Jabba taken up Luke's offer, was Luke planning to short-change him? **Leia was still able to give Han his promised reward after he rescued her from the Death Star in ANH, which was also after Alderaan was gone, so she either had money in accounts off Alderaan that the Empire couldn't freeze, or she has enough pull with the rebellion to be able to dip into their funds occasionally, at least when it comes to saving a man who, wile technically a captain, was vital to their most important victory yet and had saved Leia's life numerous times.**

### Sail Barge

1. Why is Luke's new lightsaber green instead of blue? Does he just like green better? **Doylist: they wanted a different color than blue so it would stand out better against the blue sky during the Sarlaac battle. Watsonian, Kyber crystals bond with the force-sensitive who initially takes them, and this gets reflected in their color, but the force-user can't choose which color they get (with canonical exception of red and white blades, which come from Sith injecting their hate into Jedi blades, and Jedi purifying Sith blades, respectively.) And once it's bonded with it's initial user, it's set, so another user who would get a different color with a crystal they bond with initially won't change the color of the blade. We still don't know the full story in canon of how Luke got the kyber crystal for his new lightsaber, so it's possible he found one of the few crystals left after Order 66 that just happened to be green (a popular theory was that it was Qui-Gon's, that Obi-Wan kept with him on his hutt on Tatooine), or it could be that green is the color Luke naturally creates when bonding with a crystal (his blue was was originally bonded with Anakin, who had a very different personality).
Word of God is also that they wanted audiences to be able to tell, at glance, that it wasn't the same one he lost in the previous film and thus be confused, and it's symbolic of Luke becoming a Jedi in his own right and emerging from his father's shadow.**
2. All right. You're a feared, experienced bounty hunter, with a variety of long-range weapons including a huge Hand Cannon carbine that you're very good at using. You're in a very advantageous position (the shaded deck of Jabba's barge) and your target is on lower ground (the deck of a sand skiff,) out in the open, distracted by scores of other guardsmen, and doesn't even know you're there. His weapon, while powerful, is limited to a range of maybe two meters. And while he may claim to be a Jedi, he's only using basic melee attacks to defend himself and his friends, so staying away from him is still the better option. You have every possible advantage you could ever want to blast him to smithereens. Why would you ever fly from your position to land almost on top of your enemy, immediately alerting him to your presence and intentions, and then draw your carbine at point-blank range to his face where he can chop it in half before you can blink? **Factoring in the Prequel movies, Boba saw his 'father' take down at least one Jedi via Five Rounds Rapid and the element of surprise during the Battle of Geonosis. Probably figured dropping right in front of one who was already distracted by the Mooks would give him a decent chance. As for the point-blank range: if Boba had missed, then Luke would know where he was attacking from. Point blank means less chances of missing and less time for Luke to react.
That answer is contradictory. If he misses a distant shot, and alerts Luke to his presence, the latter still can't react against him (e.g. use the Force, or take his time to leap and climb onto the barge to engage in melee) because of all the Mooks distracting him. OTOH, Luke saw Fett coming in even before the hunter touched down on the skiff, so taking care of him when he pulled his gun took only a split second.**
3. Ok, most of the people on the sail barge were Jabba's minions, but we also know Jabba had some slaves with him. Why is Luke, The Hero, ok with blowing up innocent people? **There's nothing to indicate that everyone from the palace came on the sail barge trip; presumably somebody has to stay behind and sweep the floor or whatever. So I like to imagine that Lando secretly arranged for all the slaves to be left behind when they went out on the sail barge, because he expected it would come to a fight and he didn't want any innocents to get hurt. I also like to imagine that he mentioned this to Luke during the fight, so Luke knew that blowing up the barge wouldn't hurt any innocent people.**

### Dagobah

1. Why does the ghost of Obi-Wan sit on a log when talking to Luke? For one thing, why would he get tired and need to sit if he's a ghost? For another, how can a ghost sit on something if he's intangible? **Maybe he isn't actually sitting, but floating on a sitting position? Maybe he has some sort of reflex to sit since he was alive even if he doesn't need it?**
2. Why would a ghost need to sit on a log? **The same reason why ghosts appear to breathe, talk, or walk around like people: force of habit, a consequence of taking visible form, or A Form You Are Comfortable With. Obi-wan has had a lot more experience as being alive than being dead at this point, so doing things like sitting down don't seem that unusual. It also has the effect of making Luke sit down and pay attention, and that's valuable in itself.**

### Endor

1. Why can't very large vessels like the Death Star and the Executor project their own impenetrable deflector shields? Seriously, when you look at the size of the power plants projecting the shields used by the Rebellion at Hoth and the Empire at Endor, both should easily fit on a battle station the size of a small moon or a starship larger than Manhattan Island! They wouldn't even need independent power sources. The Imperials could have just stopped firing the Death Star's super-laser to divert the power to an onboard shield generator. Executor needs to generate huge amounts of energy to jump to light-speed. It's not using anywhere near that amount of power while cruising in orbit. It should be easily capable of at least temporarily maintaining one of those shields that can handle "any bombardment" **What you see in the movies are the shield generators, not the power plants that supply energy to them. It's possible that the power plants that supply enough power for impenetrable shields are impractical to install on capital ships for whatever reason (too much space, too much mass, etc). The Death Star should have had one (the expanded universe mentions that even Alderaan had a planetary shield), but didn't (or didn't use it), probably because all power was focused on the destructive capabilities of the super-weapon (and moving a moon-sized weapon through hyperspace, which would take a non-negligible amount of energy on its own). The engineers probably assumed that the station was armored enough to withstand bombardment when the shields were down to charge the super-laser. The second probably didn't fix this issue and was still in development; the focus of the development was to get the new super-laser operational as planned, because Emperor Palpatine wanted to wipe the floor with the Rebels. In short, yes, maybe they could have used the shields for protection, but they didn't, opting an offensive instead of a defensive measure.**
2. The elite rebel commando unit headed by Han is making their way across the forest moon of Endor. They're going quietly in their camouflage gear. With an uncamouflaged bright, shiny gold robot with No Indoor Voice. Smart. **They probably weren't actually expecting to meet much resistance until they got closer to the shield bunker. They were probably planning to have Threepio wait for them somewhere at some point, it's just that things came to a head earlier than that.**
3. Why did the Ewoks refuse to obey their "god" when he told them to free his friends, it wasn't until he started flying around above them that they did what he ordered, why would they disobey the one they worship and then not take his warning seriously? **There are different kinds of gods. Threepio's translation is partly guesswork, remember, he doesn't know the exact language they're using, he's just putting it together from everything he knows about languages. The actual word they use might be more comparable to, say, "house spirit", or "oracle", or something like that. They might be intending to honor him, ask him for advice, have him bless babies and whatnot but not actually let him run the joint. When he apparently starts displaying actual powers they're all "Oh holy crap he's that kind of god, do what he says before he smites us!"
Also, the Ewoks may have believed Threepio was testing them to see how loyal they were. They may have believed this god prefers sacrifice over mercy, especially the sacrifice of one who tried to attack the god (Solo). We really know nothing of Ewok culture and beliefs at this point in the series.**
4. Why were there any speeders on Endor? Endor is the last place you want fast moving, lightly armored vehicles. It's so heavily covered in forest that it's known as the forest moon. We even see why it's a stupid idea in the movie, several Scout troopers die because they crashed into trees. Speeders make sense on moons and planets with large open areas to drive (or hover) on, large tough vehicles that can smash through obstacles make sense on Endor. **Speeders are actually quite viable for that terrain. The two times we see them being used are during desperate, full-speed chases through the forest. During normal use, their operators would move at a slower and less dangerous pace.**

### The Emperor's Final Plan

1. The Emperor says that the plans to the second Death Star were leaked intentionally, to lure the rebels in a Batman Gambit and crush them. But in the end, Lando manages to destroy it without problems. If the plans were leaked intentionally, why didn't he leak forged plans ? What kind of an idiot would show their opponent their true weakness when they can just as well lure them into attacking the strong points? **The Emperor was clearly overconfident, and thought that the Rebels would never actually get a shot at the Death Star. The plan entailed never letting the shield go down after all.
The "plans" that were leaked weren't the schematics for the Death Star, it was the location and the fact the Emperor himself would be there.
The plan required the rebellion falling for it. That requires a degree of authenticity, he's already got some discrepancies which are inherent in any deception, too many discrepancies and he risks tipping his hand. Even Palpatine cannot be completely certain he has the monopoly on the rebellion's information acquisitions systems, so he needs to make the bait attractive enough that the rebellion will have to take it, but it cannot contain too many lies and risk them pulling the thread and having the whole thing unravel. A lie is best clothed in truth after all, and he doesn't believe the shield can be penetrated or the great imperial fleet evaded.
There's also that the Rebels have a full set of plans for a Mark I Death Star. While design variations can reasonably be expected for the Mark II Death Star, making the leaked plans too obviously bullshit would have tipped the Rebels off... and since they have the original Death Star plans available for comparative analysis, they're set up fairly well to spot any bullshit.**
2. Shouldn't the presence of the Executor have tipped the Tydirium crew off that the Empire was waiting for them? It was only the biggest, most powerful thing in the Imperial fleet that could still get away with being called a ship, and it's being there doesn't put any crimp in their plans? **Pay attention to the briefing. One of the reasons they give for why this is the perfect time to strike is because they know the Emperor himself is going to be there. And the Executor is the Emperor's flagship. Of course it's going to be there.
Eh, the Executor's nothing special. (And it's Vader's flagship, not the Emperor's.) "There're a lot of command ships." Yes, General Solo, there are.
Wouldn't it follow that the Emperor would bring substantial backup to protect a supposedly incomplete battle station? I mean, he did, but it never occurred to the Rebels that he'd secretly be rollin' deep?
The LOCATION is secret, and the new Death Star is almost complete; also you have Vader in the introductory scene making Jerjarrod shit his pants by casually mentioning they are behind schedule AND that the Emperor is coming to oversee the final stages personally.
Plus, Palpatine is springing a trap; when the actual battle starts it is safe to assume the vast majority of the Imperial Starfleet is joining; but only with instructions to contain the rebel fleet and making sure they stay in the kill box; the Death Star is possibly already operational at full capacity even from the start of the movie, it's just not mobile yet. The Emperor does state that the battle station is FULLY operational when he taunts Luke. This means, all of its defense mechanisms are in place and working, their only "weak" point is the incomplete surface that would allow to navigate the super structure. Spreading the rumor that the Death Star is not yet completed IS the actual trap, and the bait is having the Emperor being there in person.
Perhaps the Rebels believed that, for even a secret project, the Executor and its escorts would be considered sufficient protection by Imperial Command. After all, Imperial doctrine says that even a single Star Destroyer is enough to subject an entire star system. Also, at this time, there were four other Super Star Destroyers in active service.
It's not like the Rebels only sent a couple of squadrons on this one like they did at Yavin. They mustered together what was, until the Emperor sprung his trap, the largest fleet of ships we had seen in the entire series. The plan was to jump in, send in Lando's team to dive into the Death Star's core before the Imperials could react to the shield being down, and then wail on the Executor and her escorts. The plan was for the whole op to be done and them on the way out before reinforcements could arrive, assuming that the Imperials based their strategy around the assumption that any attacking force would be delayed by the shield.
Not to mention that the best-laid traps are ones that your enemy can't ignore. If the Rebels don't attack the Death Star, Palpatine gets a new invulnerable Death Star and the Rebels are screwed. If they do attack, they fall into the trap and the Rebels are screwed. Really, it's a bit of a Xanatos Gambit, where the Empire wins either way.**
3. The entire movie would have been a lot shorter if the Emperor had remembered that if you are deliberately leaking the access code to the enemy, you can just write down which code you gave them and make sure nobody else is using it, so that the enemy will be automatically identified when they show up. As for the logistics of doing this without risking the Rebels figuring it out? We saw in the movie that the Rebels had no idea whether or not their code was still good until they actually tried it out, so, one bunch of alphanumeric squiggles looks much like another. Also, the bridge crew of the Executor would not need to be told anything about the plot; merely leave a notation in their logbook that "If this particular ID code shows up, call Lord Vader at once. Yes, even if it's the middle of the night. Trust me, however afraid you are he'll kill you if you wake him up is nowhere near as slowly and horribly you'll die if you don't. Signed, The Emperor. PS: Don't lower the shield until and unless you are personally told to by either Lord Vader or me." **The trap was to lure the entirety of the Rebel fleet over there, and he succeeded. Go watch the code checking scene again and the Flight Operator does consult with an officer stating that the code is old but that it checks out; it's not on screen but how do you know they allowed them to go through since such an old code would be reported as leaked? Vader sensed Luke anyways and it was in his best interest to let him through to capture him and sway him to the dark side. The objective of the trap was to lure the rebel fleet; if they had destroyed the shuttle or captured it the shuttle passengers could have warned Rebel command about it and the whole point of the trap would be moot.**
4. So the reason that the rebel fleet's desperate frontal assault on the Executor worked because no one had ever thought to actually fight a Star Destroyer head-on? I mean, sure, the rebels don't exactly have the resources to toss around to go on balls-to-the-wall assaults, but what, did everyone else just give up when they saw a Star Destroyer? "Welp, Star Destroyer's here. Everyone pack up, we're surrendering." **Possibly so, since hardly anybody has the firepower to go toe-to-toe with one, and those that do (basically just the main Rebel fleet) are more bent on fleet preservation. When you're badly outnumbered in a war, you can't afford to fight an even battle of attrition, so the Rebellion was all about Fabian strategies or raiding efforts. When they were finally forced to go head-on, the rebel ships turned out to be much more effective than expected - remember that Star Destroyers, powerful as they were, possibly hadn't ever had to face a significant threat from other capitol ships in the past 2+ decades of the Empire. There's even some Real Life parallels in the way that from the building of HMS Dreadnought up through the end of World War II, there was actually very little fighting between opposing battleships, and on many occasions they performed poorly against lesser ships when put to the test (Denmark Strait, Cape Matapan, 1st Guadalcanal, Surigao Strait, and especially Samar).
It's not that they hadn't tried before; go look at the scene in question. Once they discover the Death Star is operational Lando proposes Ackbar to go engage the Executor at point blank range. Ackbar retorts that "At that close range, we won't last long against those Star Destroyers", meaning the entire Imperial Fleet that was there, not that they CANT win the engagement. Akbar also doesn't state that their ships are weak, as the spectator can infer from the visuals that they CAN take on normal Star Destroyers at point blank.
Ackbar first calls for a retreat since they can't repel the Death Star laser with their shields; Lando then proposes to engage at point blank presumably to keep the DS from firing on their own ships and buy some time "We might take some of them with us". And they DID last longer with this strategy and were even able to disable the Executor's shield generator; they downed it on a lucky shot since they had a ship accidentally crash INSIDE the command deck.**

### Battle of Endor

1. Why did the Rebel Fleet bring the medical frigate with them to the Battle of Endor? As meat shield? As cannon fodder? It's a (relatively) tiny ship with few weapons and no fighter complement, so its offensive value is virtually nil against an Imperial vessel. Its ability to function as a hospital ship would also be hindered by the running battle: any casualties or injuries incurred in the midst of combat (on the Endor surface or aboard Rebel starships) that required immediate medical attention would have to be treated on site, as ferrying them to and from the frigate would put even more personnel at risk. And injured Rebels that didn't require immediate care could wait until the end of the battle, when the moon's orbit was secure, and then have the Fleet summon as many hospital ships as it wanted. But the ship's presence there only forced the Rebel fighters to waste time protecting it, and in the end, the related materials say that it was eventually sunk by the Death Star anyway. So was there a point of having it there beyond giving the Imperials something else to shoot at? Because even that's debatable: surely the Empire would realize the frigate's minimal tactical value and would focus instead on juicier targets like Home-One. **The original plan for the battle hadn't called for prolonged fighting. The Rebel ships would swoop in, and the fighters would attack the Death Star while the capital ships, with some fighters who stayed back, ran interference to keep the ships inside from being attacked. The medical frigate would be an asset in that case since a pilot who has ejected from his fighter would be able to be recovered by a shuttle from the medical frigate quickly, since this was going to be the equivalent of a 'smash-and-grab' run. However, since the shield was still up, that's when the frigate became a liability, as the lack of defenses meant that it wouldn't be capable of surviving the pitched battle that they got stuck in.
I don't know if the medical frigate lost anything by being a hospital ship, but in the game Tie Fighter those frigates are far from defenseless. Besides carrying at least a squadron of fighters, frigates of the type shown in the film have some scary point defenses. The ships aren't good against Star Destroyers, but I wouldn't volunteer to strafe one in a TIE fighter, that's for sure. The frigate, in the original plan, was probably supposed to provide some anti-fighter support, not trade turbo-laser volleys with a Star Destroyer.**

### Death Star

1. Why did Vader pick up Palpatine instead of breaking his neck with his one good hand? If he had enough time to pick him up then he had enough time to get a good grip around his neck and snap it. The Emperor dies and Vader gets to live. **Not enough time, maybe? Plus, the prophecy stated "Balance to the Force" which to the Jedi meant no Sith. Vader was a Sith, ergo he had to kill himself as well. It's Redemption Equals Death.
Word of God and other materials confirm that Vader was trying to throw himself down the shaft and grabbed Palatine in a Taking You with Me ploy but didn't quite have the strength to make it over than railing.
Considering that the emperor explodes causing huge amounts of energy waves to run up and down the shaft, merely snapping his neck might not be enough.
Vader's first priority was not to kill Palpatine but to save his son. If Vader had placed his hand on Palpatine's neck to break it, or called the saber to his hand with the Force as other tropers have suggested, it would have given Palpatine a moment to stop torturing Luke for his own sadistic pleasure and kill him right there. So, Vader immediately stopped the threat to Luke by turning Palpatine away and redirecting the Force lightning into himself, forcing Palpatine to concentrate all his efforts on taking Vader down instead.**