Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983) - 44 questions

Question: Does anyone know why Han's line was changed to, "It's alright. I can see a lot better now." from, "It's alright trust me." In the scene right before he shots the sarlacc to save Lando?

Answer: Probably because the director, George Lucas, liked that line better. It's not unusual for dialog and action to change slightly with multiple takes of a particular scene, seeing what works best.

Question: Why are there transports in the Battle Of Endor? It doesn't seem sense that transports were to go into to battle without any armament at all. Also, the Death Star II is seen firing on one of these transports. Wouldn't it be more reasonable to fire on Home One?

Answer: According to the novelisation of Return of the Jedi, the transports were loaded with large quantities of explosives, with the intent of using them in a kamikaze role. Given that role, it makes sense to target them as a priority, before they could be used to destroy a major Imperial ship, plus the premature detonation of the explosives could damage or potentially even destroy surrounding Rebel ships, weakening their fleet.

Question: In Star Wars Battlefront II, if you're playing Galactic Conquest and move up on Endor, there is a big blue planet beside the moon. Which planet is that and how does the environment look there?

Answer: That is actually the planet Endor. It is a gas giant so the environment is probably just swirling masses of clouds and vapor. Check out http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Endor_(planet) for more information.

Question: What causes the change in the condition of Vader's helmet in the final battle? When he's taunting Luke it's at its normal mirror clean finish yet right after his hand is cut off it's all dusty and scuffed.

Answer: The fight is quite protracted, and several times during the fight, lightsabres are cutting through materials, which logically would cause the dust you describe on Vader.

Question: When Vader realizes that Luke has a twin sister, does he know that Leia is the sister or just that someone is Luke's sister? Or does he know when he/Anakin sees Luke and Leia during the Ewok celebration later?

Answer: Vader knows it is Leia when he first hears Luke's thoughts about his twin sibling.

Question: What's the deal with R2-D2's 'short circuit' after he's shot while trying to override the shield generator's doors? Did the blast cause him to go haywire or is he having a panic attack?

Answer: The impact of the energy shot on Artoo's data-access arm has caused a short in his systems, so he's just going through an overload.

Question: I'm sort of curious about why the Vader, the Emperor, and other Sith (in the other movies/books) refer to the dark side as the "dark" side. It sounds like a negative term. In Episodes II and III, both Dooku and Anakin seem to think that the dark side is the truth and the right thing to follow, so why would they call it "dark"? Even though the Emperor creates a lot of schemes and wants power, he probably doesn't think of himself as evil, so him calling his powers "dark" (in Episode VI) seems a little odd.

Answer: The Emperor/Palpatine misleads Anakin, had the Jedi exterminated, orders Vader to kill his own son, and created TWO planet-destroying machines. I think he's quite comfortable calling himself "evil."

Question: Why did Vader stop Luke when he tried to strike at the Emperor with his lightsaber? I know he said earlier that he has to obey his master, but he keeps encouraging Luke to give in to the dark side. If he hadn't stopped Luke, Luke could have given in to his anger and killed the Emperor, and also rid Vader of the Emperor at the same time.

Answer: Because the Emperor probably wouldn't leave himself so open to attack without a trick up his sleeve (a personal shield, perhaps), and if Luke failed in this direct assault, as Vader is expecting him to do, he would have had to explain why he didn't do anything to defend the Emperor and would have been executed himself.

Question: In an answer for one of the other questions here, it says that Leia doesn't know she is adopted until Luke tells her that they are siblings. If she doesn't know, why would he use the term "real mother" when asking her about her mother? It seems that if she didn't know she was adopted, she would think it was strange for him to ask about a "real" mother.

Answer: It's never stated anywhere in the films whether Leia knows that she's adopted or not. Given her apparent lack of surprise at Luke's reference to her "real mother", it seems more than likely that her adoptive parents have told her at some point.

Question: After Luke and Vader's duel aboard the second Death Star, Why does Luke deactivate his lightsaber and throw it aside?

Answer: Palpatine's trying to turn Luke to the dark side, to make him his new apprentice in Vader's place - he wants Luke to strike the now defenceless Vader down in anger and hate and thus open himself to the Sith way. By throwing his lightsabre aside, Luke's telling the Emperor that, no matter how much the Emperor goads him, he will not raise his weapon against Vader again and that he utterly rejects the Sith way.

Question: When Luke asked Leia if she remembers her real mother she said she does but she died when she was very young. Her mother died during child birth. How can Leia remember what her mother looked like?

Answer: The mother Leia refers to would be Queen Breha Organa of Alderaan. At this point, Leia has no idea that she was adopted.

Question: Why does Vader go and stand near the Emperor for a moment before deciding to kill him and save Luke? Earlier, the Emperor told Luke to kill Vader and take his place. It seems strange that Vader would remain loyal after his master just encouraged someone to kill him.

Answer: Vader's alone; for twenty years, he's had only the Emperor, a man who he hates for what he's become, but also the only person truly remaining in his life, having killed or otherwise burned his bridges with everybody else. He has nowhere else to go but to the side of the Emperor. He may well be angry at the Emperor for telling Luke to kill him, but it's exactly the same deal that he tried to make - it's the way of the Sith that the strong replace the weak. The Emperor needs an apprentice; with Luke dead, the Emperor may well punish Vader, but won't kill him, because he doesn't have a replacement. So he initially returns to his master's side, resigning himself to going on as he is, a bitter twisted half-machine in the thrall of a more powerful master. It's only when Luke reaches out to him through the pain that he decides that his son's life is worth more than his own and finally acts directly against the Emperor.

Question: I would like to re-submit my question about the two men that the Emperor talks to on the Death Star, after he tells Vader to send the fleet near the far side of Endor and Vader leaves. I know that who they are is not said in the movie; that is obvious. I was wondering if anyone knew the characters' names.

Answer: According to the Star Wars Databank, the pair are Sim Aloo and Janus Greejatus, two members of the Imperial Ruling Council, a large group numbering several hundred who act as advisors to Emperor Palpatine and are also sent on missions across the galaxy as his personal representatives. Both are Force-sensitive with some training in the Dark Side directly from Palpatine himself and, as their presence during the Emperor's discussion with Vader shows, are among his more trusted acolytes.

Question: Can Jedi and Sith actually read thoughts? In this movie, Vader was able to realize that Luke was thinking about Leia during their fight on the Death Star. If he could read Luke's thoughts, even though Luke is also a powerful Force-user (not a weak-minded person), how come Jedi in the past couldn't detect the thoughts of other strong Force-users? For example, why didn't Mace, Yoda, or other powerful Jedi find out that Anakin was keeping a secret about his marriage to Padme, the way that Luke was keeping a secret about having a twin sister?

Answer: Jedi Knights and Sith can read thoughts using the Force, and they can communicate with each other that way if they wish, but they can also block others from reading their minds. The Jedi are well trained in mind control. Darth Vader was able to read Luke's thoughts because Luke was not yet a fully trained Jedi Knight; he was unable to block Vader's mental intrusion. Anakin was an exceptionally strong Jedi, and even as an apprentice, he possessed very advanced abilities.

Question: What reason did the bounty hunter (Leia in disguise) have for staying in Jabba's palace overnight? Wouldn't Jabba expect the person to leave after getting the payment for Chewbacca?

Answer: Not necessarily. Jabba's palace is sort of an entertainment hub for the likes of Boushh (the bounty hunter Leia is disguised as). Jabba runs the place like a business, sort of a hotel/club.

Question: Lando mentions that he is made a general due to what he did at the battle of Tanaab. Does anyone know anything more about this battle, or more specifically, what Lando did that was so outstanding?

Answer: The Battle of Taanab occured about five months after the destruction of the first Death Star when a group of pirates attacked the relatively undefended agricultural world of Taanab. With the planet's small defence fleet massively outnumbered, Calrissian, who was on-planet visiting a casino, bet his fellow patrons that he could defeat the pirates and took his freighter into the fight. Hiding his ship in an ice ring surrounding Taanab's moon, he waited until the pirate fleet was in range, then ejected his cargo, a large number of Conner nets, large electrified nets designed by the military to immobilise ships. With much of the pirate fleet incapacitated, Lando rallied the Taanab defence fleet and eliminated the remaining pirate ships with very few losses. The impressed Taanab government offered him a commission in their armed forces, which he turned down, but he became a hero to the population, a reputation which apparently led to his commission as a General by the Rebel Alliance.

Question: How come this movie barely showed anything about Luke and Leia's mother? Luke doesn't even ask anyone what her name was (maybe that was hidden from Leia, but he can probably guess that Yoda or Obi-wan would know). I know we can assume that she was discussed off-screen, but they could have revealed a little more about her.

Answer: Why can we assume that she was discussed off-screen? Luke's got more important things to talk about than who his mother was. Yoda dies shortly afterwards and Luke's understandably more interested in how Darth Vader, given that he's got to go up against him, can be his father when talking to Obi-wan's ghost shortly after. Not a lot of time for general chit-chat. Behind the scenes, at that point, very little would have been decided about their mother, as it would be irrelevant to the plot of the trilogy and to discuss her on-screen would have wasted time and slowed everything down.

Question: Does anyone know what Luke's Sith name would have been had he turned to the Dark Side?

Answer: No. As, being the hero of the piece, there was no chance of it actually happening, it's highly unlikely that the subject was ever considered. Even when Luke temporarily joined the Dark Side in the EU comics, no Sith name was ever given.

Question: How did Luke get off the Death Star before it exploded? We never actually see it happen in the movie, or do we?

Answer: He piloted a shuttle out of the hanger. There is a quick shot of him in the cockpit and the shuttle leaving the hangar, which is followed immediately by an explosion.

Question: How did Luke learn to construct a new light saber (after losing his old one in the fight with Darth Vader)? Yoda seems like the only person who could have taught him, but Luke hasn't been back to see him since he lost his old one (Luke's line to Artoo about "keeping a promise to an old friend" makes it clear that this is the case). Was it part of their earlier training on Dagobah?

Answer: According to Expanded Universe materials, Luke constructed his new lightsabre using instructions and materials that he found hidden in Obi-Wan Kenobi's abandoned dwelling on Tatooine.