CT Plot Holes in the CT

Sith Lord 2015

Or Chewie was hiding these inside his fur...

It's quite some continuity mess, especially when you consider they wore the black stormtrooper jumpsuit (below the white armor) over their clothes...



I think one could be calling the scene where they got rid of their stormtrooper camouflage a plot hole. The stormtrooper armor had given them a previous tactical advantage, so it would have made sense to use the stormtrooper armor to get back to the Falcon, too (and perhaps because of the odor other stormtroopers would haven given them a wide berth...)

 

Yes, I had considered that as well. My head canon explanation is that seeing and fighting with the armor on must be a big handicap. Luke even said he couldn't see a thing through his helmet. An explanation why stormtroopers hardly ever hit? The armor must also impede their movement a lot. So I guess they chose better fighting conditions and freedom of movement over disguise. It was probably Han's idea. Stealth and hiding was never really his thing, he always preferred a "straight fight" to "sneaking around".

 

Sith Lord 2015 wrote

An explanation why stormtroopers hardly ever hit?

???? They were ordered to shoot but to miss to facilitate the rescue of the princess, so she would lead the Death Star to the hidden Rebel base. Vader "knew" that somebody was still aboard the Falcon, but rather than to have the ship torn apart, he withdrew the troops from Bay 327...

Besides,
they let us go. It's the only
explanation for the ease of our
escape.

However, one could argue that George Lucas screwed up a little, when he had Luke and Han get rid of the stormtrooper armor. While he knew that the protagonists were no lonker in real danger, I'm pretty certain that Luke, Han, Chewie and the princess were not - because of the Fourth Wall.

 

The answer is simple.

Galoshes.

 

This is true of course. It must have really sucked for those stormtroopers to have orders to miss on purpose while getting shot down yourself all the time.

He did screw up a little, I agree. Tarkin had already ordered Leia's execution. We don't know when that would have happened, but the schedule got interrupted by the Falcon's arrival. Vader could not have talked Tarkin into leaving her alive, not before the point where a chance to track down the Rebel base presented itself by magic. But much of what happens after the Falcon arrives makes no sense at all. So, Vader and Tarkin agree to let Leia live, using Luke and Han to "help" her escape, right? OK, you can order stormtroopers not to hit, no problem. But then why activate the trash compactor? All would have been dead seconds later had R2 not interfered. Why the TIE attack? They hit the Falcon several times. If the shields had not held it might have been destroyed as well.

 

Can't enemy ships detect whether your shields are still intact in some way, and back off if they realise they are about to blow you to pieces?

It still wouldn't explain why the Ties flew around waiting to be used as target practice for Han and Luke though.

 

Sith Lord 2015 wrote

Tarkin had already ordered Leia's execution. We don't know when that would have happened, but the schedule got interrupted by the Falcon's arrival. Vader could not have talked Tarkin into leaving her alive, not before the point where a chance to track down the Rebel base presented itself by magic. But much of what happens after the Falcon arrives makes no sense at all. So, Vader and Tarkin agree to let Leia live, using Luke and Han to "help" her escape, right? OK, you can order stormtroopers not to hit, no problem. But then why activate the trash compactor? All would have been dead seconds later had R2 not interfered. Why the TIE attack? They hit the Falcon several times. If the shields had not held it might have been destroyed as well.

TARKIN Yes.

VOICE (over intercom)
We've captured a freighter entering
the remains of the Alderaan system.
It's markings match those of a ship
that blasted its way out of Mos
Eisley.

VADER They must be trying to return the
stolen plans to the princess. She
may yet be of some use to us.

...

TARKIN
Yes.

INTERCOM VOICE Governor Tarkin, we have an emergency
alert in detention block A A-twenty-
three.

TARKIN The princess! Put all sections on
alert!

VADER Obi-Wan is here. The Force is with
him.

TARKIN If you're right, he must not be
allowed to escape.

VADER Escape is not his plan. I must face
him alone.

I believe George Lucas was between a rock and a hard place when he wrote the screenplay. Of course, he couldn't let the audience learn that Vader had a plan to help them escape, there would have been no drama in our heroes efforts to escape had the audiences learned that after the trash compactor our heroes were never really in serious danger.

Hence he had Vader only make an ambiguous remark when the Falcon arrived (which only few acknowledged in hindsight that this was THE hint for things to come). In the ANH novelization Vader suggests that someone was trying to return the stolen plans to her - "We may be able to facilitate their meeting with the Senator" to which Tarkin replies "How convenient. I leave this matter in your hands, Vader". I read somewhere that supposedly the idea was to break her resistance by revealing that the Death Star plans were back in the hands of the Empire.

Tarkin's "put all sections on alert" is somewhat (deliberately) misleading.

The way I see it Vader did nevertheless not make it any easier for our heroes to arrive in detention block AA23 (they needed to do that part of their own). The trash compactor is probably something Vader didn't expect them hiding in (it was probably just doing its automatic routine). But I'm certain that after they had liberated the princess, his order was "shoot but do not kill them".

The Falcon was merely coming up against these four sentry ships. Either Tarkin and Vader knew the Falcon had the better chances or perhaps they even disabled some functions on their TIE fighters to make their pilots work more difficult?

But regardless, I can't help but imagine Lucas chuckling each time he heard about the myth of the imprecise stormtrooper, probably thinking "you fans go over every redundant detail, but just don't get it that Vader and Tarkin helped orchestrate their escape - and Leia even says so..."

 

Well, when anybody does see them, they just walk right on by whistling loudly and pretending that absolutely nothing is wrong.

(that's in the Lost Cut, for real)

 

Can we be really sure that this wasn't just merely a light moment behind-the-scenes? I don't recall a corresponding scene from the screenplays.

(or they were mistaken for people that had arrived at Alderaan - after its destruction - taken into custody, questioned and ultimately released )

 

I remember reading the Insider article about the Lost Cut. That was in there.

 

The biggest one is probably Han not paying off his debt to Jabba, how could he think he could get away with that (Jabba was already sending people after him).

 

^ I don't think that's a plot hole. Han just got stuck with the Alliance, fought alongside them and provided valuable inside knowledge. And the issue was addressed right from the start of ESB.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by stuck, yeah he joined them but he could have found the time to at least send the money by reliable messenger; he should have known he was more valuable to the Alliance without a price on his head even than giving them the money.

 

Where do you find a reliable messenger who can be trusted to deliver a butt-ton of cash from a fugitive militant rebel band to an underworld crime kingpin and do the job without skimming off something for himself? No way would Han trust anyone but himself or Chewie to make that delivery, except maybe Luke, who couldn't be spared from the Rebellion any more than Han could.

 

I guess Boba Fett was out of the question as he would have delivered BOTH the money Han owed (to get finder's fee) and Han himself (to collect the bounty on his head).

 

Yet, Luke left the Alliance to go train with Yoda. He was granted leave to do this. Then he, Leia, Chewie and the droids go with Lando spend months to rescue Han. Hell, Han could have gone and been back in plenty of time. He even had the fastest ship in the galaxy. In the end, it is a plot hole.

 

Han and/or Chewie should have found the time to take it himself within 3 years (Tatooine can't be that far away).

 

If the boilerplate solution to all the plot holes in the prequels is anything to go by, we can just say War = No choice but to do everything we see Han doing.

 

Do the new comics provide any insight into the matter?

 

I'm sure these were adequately answered already but I'll take a stab.

> How they managed to find the right control room and prisoner cell on a moon sized space station

R2-D2 was plugged into the Death Stars computer and knew where everything was. R2 was the one that said "she's here"

> How a giant worm lives in outer space

Some life forms can survive in space --> https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14690-water-bears-are-first-animal-to-survive-space-vacuum/

> The Empire's strategy at Hoth

They explain this in the movie. They came out of hyperspace too early and the rebels put up an energy shield to stop any bombardment from space. So the empire used ground assault instead.

> Previously mentioned details about Luke's training length

It's not really answered in the movies but it seems very implied that Luke did a lot of jedi homework between ESB and ROTJ.

> Repairing C3PO on Cloud City

Chewbacca is a master mechanic and obviously has experience fixing droids.

> Ewoks defeating the Empire's finest

OK you got me here. Ya that was dumb as heck.

 

I read up to page 8 and it's mostly prequel whining.
Why couldn't you all have stayed on topic?
Is it because ANH at least has just as contrived writing as the PT and detailing the thread was the best way to keep up the narrative that the PT is more poorly written than the OT, specifically ANH?

 

I will say that one of the biggest issues is Yoda just sitting in his swamp even though he's shown to be much more powerful than Luke.

 

How little Luke felt for his adoptive parents. It's almost as he didn't care at all, but felt strongly about his friends along the way.

 

I really don't see that in his reactions. He rushed home with complete disregard for his own safety when the idea of them being in danger came to his mind. He was shocked when he found their corpses, and their deaths directly caused his decision to take up the fight against the empire. Not to mention that they were the only reason why he had stayed in the first place.

The movie may not have gone out of its way to portray every detail of his sadness about their deaths, but that's hardly surprising. Movies have to keep their pace, and Luke's aunt and uncle weren't supposed to be a huge plot-point that you would spend a lot of time on.

Compared to that, the loss of Ben was more important to the story. And not only that, but Luke also gained a close connection to him very quickly. He was a mentor to him at a time where everyone tried to keep him away from danger, he was a friend of his father and only connection to this part of his life that he knew nothing about, and to top things off, Ben was all that Luke had left after already losing his aunt and uncle. From his point of view, the death of Ben also meant the end of becoming a Jedi and following in his fathers footsteps, a path he took only after losing his adoptive parents.The sadness over this death doesn't work entirely on its own, but basically comes on top of losing Owen and Beru. It's not a "he cared more about losing Ben than about losing aunt and uncle", but a "he cared more about losing aunt, uncle and mentor than just losing aunt and uncle".