Yahoo News 9 Star Wars plot holes... solved
The more you love something, the more you want to learn all you can about it. But the problem with knowing too much is that you start to notice all the cracks.
Thanks to an ever-increasing canon (and some sloppy sequel storytelling), Star Wars definitely has its share of plot holes. Fortunately, with a bit of creativity and research, we've been able to explain away some of the most annoying apparent contradictions.
1. Luke's hiding place was terrible
Plot hole: Obi-Wan's decision to give Luke his father's surname and hide him on Anakin Skywalker's home planet Tatooine (in his stepbrother's care, no less) was a really dumb idea. There's no way that he could have grown up without Darth Vader managing to hunt him down.
Explanation: While it is a bit odd that they didn't bother to change his name, if it works like surnames on Earth, there are likely to be a good number of Skywalker family members knocking around Tatooine. Shmi's cousins on her father's side, maybe.
But that's besides the point really, because Vader was tricked into thinking that his children were dead. At Padmé's funeral, you can see they gave her a fake pregnancy bump to make it appear that she never gave birth. The Emperor's right-hand man would have been too busy hunting down escaped Jedi and ruling with an iron fist to pop back to his remote, dusty homeworld to look for the son he didn't even know existed.
2. Darth Vader forgot C-3PO
Plot hole: The prequel trilogy reveals that Vader is actually C-3PO's creator – so why did he not recognise him in the original films?
Explanation: Vader and Threepio's paths only intersect once in the original trilogy – when the Sith Lord captures Leia and Han on Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back. And this is Darth bloody Vader we're talking about – do we expect him to wave or cry out in happy recognition? Besides, there are lots of droids about that look like C-3PO.
A story in the comic Star Wars Tales #6 actually does show a brief moment where Vader recognises Threepio's then-decapitated head. While technically not canon anymore, it paints a believable interaction between the two.
As for C-3PO himself, Senator Bail Organa arranges for his memory to be wiped at the end of Revenge of the Sith. He's not recognising anyone from that time.
3. Obi-Wan didn't recognise the droids either
Plot hole: Okay, so Vader and the droids don't really cross paths properly in the films, but Obi-Wan definitely meets them, and gives no indication that he knows R2-D2 or C-3PO.
Explanation: Obi-Wan Kenobi is a notorious liar.
This is the man who told Luke that Darth Vader killed his father, hand-waving it away later as true "from a certain point of view".
As for the droids, all he says is that he doesn't "seem to remember ever owning a droid". Well, he certainly never owned Artoo or Threepio, so that's essentially true. And admitting that he did know them could easily have exposed his lie about Luke's father. So he says nothing.
The only alternative explanation is that George Lucas messed up. Inconceivable!
4. Rey can speak droid and Wookiee
Plot hole: Rey grew up as an orphan scavenger on a remote planet, with a malicious alien as her only father figure. So how is she educated enough to understand BB-8's droidspeak and Chewbacca's Shyriiwook (yes, Shyriiwook)?
Explanation: There's no denying that Rey is presented in The Force Awakens as something of a prodigy, who can fly and fix the Millennium Falcon. In the book Rey's Survival Guide, she reveals that she spends her time at home learning languages: "I practise alien languages and droidspeak so I can talk to people in Niima." (Niima being the settlement in Jakku that Rey lives nearest to.)
She also specifically mentions encountering Wookiee traders, who even tell her stories about Chewbacca and his "reckless human first mate" – which means Shyriiwook was probably one of the languages she taught herself.
5. Rey can fly the Millennium Falcon?
Plot hole: Speaking of Rey's flying abilities, how did a poor girl who never left Jakku learn to fly so well?
Explanation: Rey's Survival Guide also reveals that she owns an old Y-wing computer display that allows her to "run flight sims".
This is expanded on in the young adult novel, Star Wars: Before The Awakening, which says that she spent years practising.
And she had a speeder, which is apparently all Luke Skywalker needed to help him become a crack pilot. Well, that and the Force.
6. Luke's Jedi training with Yoda lasts about a day
Plot hole: Luke arrives on Dagobah to begin his training after the Battle of Hoth. In the short time it takes the Millennium Falcon to get to Cloud City on Bespin and for Leia, Han and co to be captured by Darth Vader, he has already learned enough to be considered a proper Jedi in Return of the Jedi. The prequels tell us that it really isn't that easy.
Explanation: Firstly, although it feels like maybe a day or two has passed for the trip to Bespin, it was actually much longer, with the backup hyperdrive powering the Falcon estimated to take at least a few weeks to get the ship to Cloud City (director Irvin Kershner is reported to have expressed regret for not establishing the passage of time as clearly as he could have done).
This interesting fan theory also suggests that Yoda himself had learned a lot about the Force since his failure led to the destruction of the Jedi. There's no denying his old Jedi practices had turned out to be flawed, and Luke was the beneficiary of Yoda's improved understanding of the Force.
7. Galen Erso wasn't nearly as helpful as he could have been
Plot hole: In Rogue One, Jyn's father Galen (Mads Mikkelsen) sends a message to Saw Gerrera about the weakness he designed into the Death Star. But why didn't he send the plans as well rather than forcing the Rebels to go on a huge quest which leaves most of them (including his daughter) dead? Not helpful, Galen.
Explanation: Some fans suggested that in attempted to solve the 40-year-old 'why was the Death Star designed so badly' plot hole, director Gareth Edwards had created another.
Edwards himself explained why Galen's message was so cryptic to Radio Times. "[Galen] was worried his message would be intercepted and somebody would hear where the flaw was and fix it," he said. "His goal was simply to let them know it was possible. He couldn't just tell them it was the exhaust ports!"
He added that we didn't even see the whole message, as the Death Star attack on Jedha cut it short. "What happens in the rest of that message is obviously cut off, but what I feel it is probably saying is that they had to organise to meet so Galen could tell them how to do it. I think that ideally he wanted to just give the idea that they needed a conversation about it securely."
8. R2-D2 wakes up just in time... for no reason
Plot hole: The end of The Force Awakens all happens a bit too quickly. R2 emerges from his years of hibernation like a beeping deus ex machina, and oh look, he just happens to have the other half of the map they need to find Luke. It's all too easy.
Explanation: BB-8 to the rescue! Writer Michael Arndt explained that he basically went up to the sleeping R2-D2 and told him that they had the other piece of the map. That causes him to start booting up again.
As for the map, R2 stole it from the Imperial computer on the Death Star all the way back in A New Hope, which we thought was a clever and satisfying way to tie up that loose end.
9. Leia couldn't have remembered her mother
Plot hole: Leia famously shares her memories of her mother Padmé Amidala with Luke in Return of the Jedi. "Just images really, feelings. She was very beautiful, kind, but sad." But we learn in Return of the Jedi that Padmé died immediately after her twins were born.
Explanation: The real reason for this is probably that George Lucas wasn't paying enough attention to the original films. But there is a canon explanation, too.
We haven't used the hand-wavy powers of The Force to explain too much yet, so you're going to have to let us get away with it here.
As Vader's daughter, Leia is strong in the Force, even if she never trained as a Jedi. And there is a rare Force power called psychometry, which allows Jedi to sense the past of an object. The theory is that Leia had this power or something similar that allowed her to "remember" what her mother was like even though she died so long ago.
This theory is supported in the canon Shattered Empire comics set after Return of the Jedi. On Naboo, Leia senses the battle in the palace with Darth Maul, and also experiences a vision of Padmé turning to her from a stained glass window.
*waves hand* The Force!
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