CT Star Wars Misconceptions You Had as a Kid. (RE-MADE)

As a kid, I figured Yoda had always lived on Dagobah, and any time a Force-sensitive needed Jedi training they were sent there.
(Except Anakin, because Obi-Wan trained him w/out taking him to Yoda for some reason. I thought Anakin never even knew Yoda).

A good friend of mine and his older brother cleared up a lot of my misconceptions growing up, as they had read the novelizations.

 

Best misconception people have had: Thinking Death Star II is what was left of Death Star I.
I suppose the general misconception I had was the ending of ANH. I thought that the Empire was totally defeated with the Death Star's explosion. I knew Vader escaped. But I was shocked when I saw a Star Destroyer at the beginning of TESB. I was like, "What?" I was five years old.

 

1, I think I might have believed that Darth Vader was 'Dark' Vader for some time but my memory is somewhat conflicted on that.

2, I thought the destruction of the first Death Star meant the end of the Empire but again, the memory is vague. I'm also not sure what I thought of Darth Vader's fate after the first film.

3, I thought that the character of Wedge was played by the same actor and was never dubbed, I also thought that the character in briefing scene, before the attack on the Death Star, was meant to be a different character (I wasn't aware of all this until quite recently).

4, I thought Luke's outfit in ROTJ was the Jedi one.

5, I also thought the Empire had been going for centuries. The last two are not so much a misconceptions but rather a lack of fortuity.

 

Gotta admit. I thought this until I was 16 or 17. But I was under the impression that Luke was using the Force to physically move the torpedo into the DS's port rather than simply using his Force sense to fire accurately

 

Sort of a cross-reference with this thread: for years, I thought the symbol on Red Leader's helmet shown there was a maple leaf, as in the Canadian flag, and even after I figured out it wasn't I always sort of thought of him as the "Canadian pilot". Lt. Hija's suggestion that it's a crushed Imperial symbol is the first time I've ever heard a good in-universe explanation for what it actually is.

 

Aside from the obvious life saver...

For years I thought Luke and Leia were much older than their established ages (and reverse for Anakin and Padme). I thought they were into their 30s by the time of Return of the Jedi (probably due to how much older the actors looked in between each movie) but nope. Looks like I was quite off by half a decade.

Also, for years when I was quite little I used to think the Emperor from Empire Strikes Back was a different emperor than Palpatine.

 

Well, depending on the edition you watched, he sort of was.

 

I don't know how old I was, but when I first saw the Emperor in ROTJ, I thought he was initially the hag version of the Queen from Disney's Snow White.

 

I agree that's one thing that drives me nuts. They wouldn't have a male character as a prisoner as the film's premise.

 

When I was five and I first saw A New Hope (or just Star Wars), I didn't get the whole Jedi mind trick concept and thought the storm trooper was repeating what Obi Wan said to make fun of him.

 

To address number 4, you may have been correct or it at least may have been what the jedi were supposed To wear in the field as opposed to the robes, there was a comic from the 1980's marvel Run of star wars where leia tells luke a story she had heard of Obi-wan saving a Hijacked ship or something and Obi-wans uniform is depicted similar to what luke wears in rotj but with a white belt, white gloves, and white boots.

Personally I like the darker colored jedi attire that some of the prequel jedi wear like Anakin as it makes more Sense For Them to wear darker browns and blacks than creams and greys.

 

Number 4 was just included for completeness sake but I've always enjoyed the inversion of the 'white hat' cliche for the heroes, not because of racial reasons (it's only clothing) but because I've always identified with sombreness rather than brightness. The white highlights against stark black, from the comics, also agrees with my worldview.

Colours associated with evil seem to be black, red and, to a lesser extent, purple and gold (the last because it's associated with vanity and decadent wealth). Colours associated with virtue are white, blue (I've always associated blue with arrogance, myself), earthy colours and, occasionally, silver. I like the first list better aside from substituting gold for silver. I'm still waiting to see a Vader like villain (visually speaking) dressed in all white, but I think I'll be waiting a long time.

 

I thought that Obi Wan's saber got shorter as Vader fought him and that he lost the duel because of it. And that Vader intentionally made him disappear.

That holo-Vader on Hoth was a ghost, like Ben, and that it was his ghost that appeared on Dagobah. When Luke beheaded it, the ghost returned to his body (?!) on the star destroyer.

Nevertheless I still thought Vader was a robot and was genuinely surprised at the end of ROTJ that he saved Luke.

I thought R2 had caused the trash compactor to start and threepio was yelling at him to stop.

I was convinced episode VII would be out by the end of the eighties.

 

I thought that Luke called Ben Kenobi a "strange, old Kermit," instead of a "hermit." Granted, this was when I was nine. I thought Oola was transformed into that little being that Jabba ate.

 

THIS IS FANTASTIC! LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!

 

When I was little and saw A New Hope for the first time, after being introduced to Star Wars with The Phantom Menace, I thought Alderaan was Naboo and I was sad when the Death Star destroyed it because I thought Jar Jar Binks died. I also, for some idiotic reason, thought that the Death Star II in Return of the Jedi was the remains of the droid control ship from The Phantom Menace as well.

 

I was one of the folks who thought Death Star II was just a damaged Death Star from ANH. Even after reading the comic annual.

 

I thought he had a twin brother...

 

In my early years, I always thought Obi-Wan and Threepio were just burning the robes of the jawas in ANH. Perhaps I once believed the were sort of like mini Jedi.

Also, I thought the Death Star II (ROTJ) was just a damaged form of the original Death Star (ANH).

 

I didn't recognize it was Luke until I revisited the movie as a preteen or teenager. Before that I thought it was some unlucky Imperial officer. Maybe cuz Imp. officers were so unlucky in the film.

 

I thought that the Death Star was the size of a star.

 

I thought the Stormtroopers were robots.

Now I can stand to hear someone say that....

I also thought Luke's ANH outfit was the Jedi attire.

 

For awhile as a kid, I did not realize the space hangers had shields holding the air in. I thought it was like in Saturday cartoons where they pretend space had air, as a kid I knew there wasn't air in space and thought shows doing that was stupid.

 

I also initially thought the stormtroopers were robots. Their voices did not help.

 

Yeah, that's right, their voices too. I just remember seeing that they all looked alike.

I was babysitting this little boy once, and he kept saying that they were robots. I think I corrected him, like, three times but he kept saying robots. I think he was too young to even know what clones are.....but still, he wasn't listening. Here I was, trying to correct his erroneous ways, and there he sat....oblivious!!!

EDIT: He was a brat, too, and that didn't help...