Minor Plot Hole: Androids are important. They can convey information, fight in battles, etc. Two of our main characters are androids, and (if you account for prequels just a teensy bit) androids formed the rank and file military forces before the clone stormtroopers were developed. Vader himself is mostly cybernetic at this point. So why on God’s green Alderaan did an Imperial idiot let an escape pod go because there were “no life signs” on it, and why did a second Imperial idiot find that order even the slightest bit reasonable? That pod’s escape leads to the Death Star’s destruction, and one laser blast would have prevented it.
Major Plot Hole: Leia is an emotionless shell of a person. She is given no reaction scene or developed character trauma for any of the following events:
(1) her home planet (not house, not family, not city; PLANET) is destroyed in an unprecedented display of power;
(2) at some point she must realize the man who tortured her and destroyed her planet is her father (Return of the Jedi: she knows she is Luke’s brother and that Luke is Vader’s son);
(3) she is made into a scantily clad slave-girl by a lascivious, obese alien pervert (insert here: speculations of off-screen violations fit only for Japanese animated porn);
(4) lastly, don’t forget the iconic, “wait-what?” revelation of the series: she has kissed her own brother romantically.
The only time she is ever given emotion is upon witnessing Han get frozen in carbonite. Han: the guy who led her on and then didn’t even return her “I love you” properly.
Major Plot Hole: Darth Vader is clueless about the existence of his own children, while less powerful members of the family just sense their relationships. When given a clue from the Emperor, all of a sudden Vader can telepathically communicate with Luke, sense Luke’s presence even through the vacuum of space, and pry the existence of his own daughter from Luke’s thoughts. He could not, however, previously sense that Leia was his daughter despite several scenes of interaction, including implied torture (New Hope). Luke and Leia, on the other hand, eventually figure out their relationship on their own, and even engage in some telepathy (Empire). Unlike the powerful Vader, Luke had incomplete Jedi training at the time and Leia had none at all. Maybe Vader’s helmet was just too thick….
Super Plot Hole: On the topic of the Skywalker family tree, wasn’t the existence and identity of Vader’s children supposed to be a secret? Why, then, was Luke allowed to retain the surname Skywalker, and why did everyone know that Leia was a Princess (a title she must have inherited from her mother, or else it is the most conspicuous cover identity imaginable)? You don’t need Force-powers to put two and two together here….
Unaddressed Issue: At the end of the film, the Empire sends the Death Star to the Yavin system to destroy the no-longer-secret Rebel base. The Rebellion has 10 minutes to scramble their fighters and exploit the station’s only weakness.But here’s the catch: the only reason the Rebellion had those 10 precious minutes was because the Death Star had to orbit Yavin to get into position. Think about that one for a minute. The Death Star had to delay destroying the moon because there was a planet in the way. The whole purpose of the Death Star-indeed the only purpose that gets drilled into our heads from the start of the movie-is to destroy planets. But the giant planet destroyer had to wait 10 minutes because there was a planet in the way. WTF George ? It’s not even the prequels yet! (By S. Ware)
UPD.
Yavin is not a planet. It’s a star (gas giant). / Hoffmann
