Often remembered as the best of all of the Star Wars films, The Empire Strikes Back is what showed the world how Star Wars could be expanded into a legitimate franchise. Admittedly, they introduced the same need to take down a weapon of mass destruction as they did in the previous film, but it’s still a masterpiece full of amazing characters and brilliant writing.
As with every other Star Wars film, there are plenty of mistakes to find. These range from errors in filming all the way to problems caused in retrospect by those pesky prequels. Though we do not hold these issues against this wonderful classic film, they are hard to forget/ignore once pointed out.
Officer Belwil’s Accent Changes
When Han is about to be frozen in carbonite, Officer Belwil enters the room to explain to Darth Vader that the ship approaching is an X-Wing. He delivers this in a British accent. A couple of moments later, he tells Vader that Skywalker has landed. This time, he has an American accent and the line is clearly an overdub.
Though having to dub over a line is a common practice in film, we still question why they did not do their best to match the voice already used for the character.
Schrodinger’s Lightsaber
Sound effects are some of the most important parts of filmmaking. They can influence the way that the audience feels about the film and can make a scene come across as far more intense and dramatic than it would have otherwise.
When Luke is inside the cave (after his altercation with the Wampus) a sound effect can be heard that is the tell-tale sound of a lightsaber being turned off. However, when he emerges, his lightsaber is still engaged and active.
C-3PO’s More Human Qualities
Considering C-3PO is a droid who has absolutely no requirement for oxygen acquisition or Co2 emission, he really breathes a lot. When he’s talking or moving, it can be overlooked a little bit. After all, Vader has that loud breath machine switched on all the time, and General Grievous has a terrible cough.
However, when Leia switches C-3PO off, he continues to breathe. This takes things a little too far, as by this point, all C-3PO is, is a machine who has been turned off. One would expect him to cease movement entirely after being shut off.
Blaster Inconsistency
Throughout the Star Wars films, it becomes a well-known issue that the Stormtroopers’s are truly challenged in the art of making a good shot. Many fans have even joked that the heroes should credit their enemies inability to land a shot as their reason for being able to continually win. The number of times we’ve seen Luke dodging about a million blaster shots without a single one hitting him is truly astonishing.
On top of this, the actual impact of the blasters themselves seems to change throughout the film. When Han is using his pistol, for example, it’ll occasionally blast a Stormtrooper across the room to certain death, but sometimes they seem to be able to just brush it off.
Han And Lando Switch Places
While walking through Lando’s Cloud City, Leia is walking between the two men having a good old chat. When they turn a corner, the two men have switched sides. This suggests that the scenes weren’t directly next to each other, which makes a lot of sense.
However, it does beg the question of just how far apart the scenes were shot. It must have been long enough for the two to forget where they were just standing, and the director did not consider checking their marks before filming the latter half of the scene.
Darth Vader’s Equipment Changes
Often, the idea of Vader’s equipment changing is played off as him getting an upgrade between episodes. However, this is never explained or even hinted at, so it makes it seem like the directors have just forgotten what he looked like between films.
The details are subtle, so aren’t really necessary, so it doesn’t make a lot of sense that they’d sacrifice continuity for a couple of extra buttons. When issues are so easily fixed by simply viewing previous (the) iteration(s) of the character, it does not make sense for them to be missed.
And He Actually Misses Luke’s Hand
Towards the end of the film, we see Darth Vader take a swipe at Luke, cutting his hand off. If one looks closely during this scene, one can see that Vader doesn’t even hit Luke’s hand, and just swoops past it.
It is also important to note that Luke’s absent hand can be seen just a few short scenes later, still attached to his body. While some of the inconsistencies that the fandom fixates on can be a touch pedantic, this issue seems so obvious that we wonder how it made it to the final cut of the film.
Obi-Wan Forgets About Qui Gon Jinn
This is one of the mistakes the original trilogy only suffers with because of the retcons made by the prequels. Of course, when the original series was made, the character of Qui Gon Jinn didn’t exist and so when Obi-Wan explains to Luke that it was Yoda who trained him, he wasn’t exactly wrong.
While Yoda had a part in Obi Wan’s training, The Phantom Menace shows that Qui Gon was his master. One might think that Obi-Wan would have told Luke about Qui Gon out of respect for his powerful deceased friend.
Can Yoda Teleport?
Though we are not to keen to question the powers of our favourite mentor, we do wonder if teleportation is one of his gifts. While in the Swamp and talking to Luke, Yoda’s position changes in the middle of a scene between frames.
When Luke delivers the line, “You want the impossible” Yoda (who was previously positioned on the ground) can be seen on the top of a rocky boulder.
Han’s Frozen State Doesn’t Match Up
The image of Han’s carbonate frozen state is another of those classic Star Wars moments that are capable of living on through generations. The harrowing image of the hero stuck completely is one of the more dramatic moments from the original films.
When he is being lowered into the carbonite, he is still wearing his handcuffs. As such, his hands should be cuffed together when he comes back out, but as well all know, he seems to be reaching out with his uncuffed hands positioned at either side of his body.
