Revealing mistake: When Luke is in the Rancor pit, there is a Rodian in the crowd - some of his fingers are hanging from his hands. Cheap costume. He makes hand gestures like Mr. Burns - helps to find him.
Continuity mistake: When Green Leader's starship crashes into the Star Destroyer, Admiral Piett begins to run away. As the shot ends, he is about one meter away from the window. In the next shot, he is several meters away from it. He couldn't have moved that quickly between shots. (01:54:20)
Other mistake: After the catwalk that Luke is standing on collapses, Vader walks down the stairs to find him. In the first shot, there's a shadow of a lightsaber blade on the right side of the steps, but Vader's sabre is extinguished at this point. It can't be the shadow of Luke's sabre. Widescreen version only. (01:46:00)
Deliberate mistake: When Luke is to be executed, Jabba says, "Put him in", and there's a shot of the prisoner's skiff. The shot has been flipped, seen from the positions of Lando and the guards, as well as the railing of the skiff.
Continuity mistake: In one scene of the battle of Endor, Chewbacca is accompanied by 2 Ewoks while pursuing one of the ATSTs. However soon after their first appearance, one of the Ewoks' costume looks completely different from the original one.
Continuity mistake: When Luke is to be executed, he walks to the edge of the plank, and his feet are side by side as he stops walking. But in the beginning of the next shot, one of his feet is behind the other and we see him take another step. (00:30:55)
Audio problem: In the beginning of the space battle, a Mon Calamari says, "Admiral, we have enemy ships in Sector 47.", but his lips don't move. (01:31:15)
Continuity mistake: After the Death Star explodes, Wicket the Ewok comes over to Han and Leia, and Leia puts her hand on his arm, and Han puts his hand on his shoulder. In the next close-up of Wicket, their hands are no longer there. This is best seen in the widescreen version.
Continuity mistake: When Leia frees Han from the carbonite, he falls on the ground and has dirt on his face. Some shots later, the dirt is gone.
Continuity mistake: On the forest moon of Endor, when Chewbacca finds the dead animal, it's attached on a little tree but when they are trapped in the net, the animal is still there, but the tree has disappeared.
Continuity mistake: As we follow Fett's flight after being hit by Han, we cut to a scene showing the front half of a skiff. Luke then kicks one of Jabba's henchman. He very clearly misses the man by a few inches, yet the man still tumbles to his doom nonetheless.
Revealing mistake: After the rebels have destroyed the radar on Endor, there's a shot of Lando and a Sullustean laughing, and after that, a shot of spaceships. One Y-Wing passes in front of an X-Wing, but the light of its engines disappears a little bit before.
Continuity mistake: When Han, Luke and Chewbacca are sentenced to death, there's a strange alien with a long tongue hanging from the ceiling, in the upper, left hand corner. In some shots, the creature is moving, in other shots, it is completely still and appears to be asleep or something.
Continuity mistake: After Luke kills the Rancour, Jabba says, "Bring me Solo and the Wookiee", and Lando is nowhere to be seen. In the next shot, he is suddenly standing in front of Jabba's platform, and some of the other people have changed position. (00:27:00)
Other mistake: Look at the shots of the windows in the Emperor's chamber on the Death Star. When they are seen from a distance, the window frames are out of focus, but the stars remain in clear focus.
Continuity mistake: In the scene on Endor where Luke and the Stormtrooper are duelling on the speeder bikes. The glove on Luke's damaged hand changes sides between the front and side on shots.
Revealing mistake: In one quick scene when Luke's hologram is talking to Jabba, the film has been reversed. The camera shows Jabba sucking on his 'bong' and then pans down to Salacious Crumb. However, during the Jabba shot, the air bubbles in the 'bong' are going down, as opposed to surfacing. Behind Jabba, you can see the smoke created is also going downward.
Continuity mistake: This is a 'Special Edition' error only. After the scene in Jabba's palace when R2D2 and C3P0 are assigned their 'duties' we see the audience chamber in their party, and Jabba holding his dancing girl's leash. When the first song ends, Jabba says 'Do that again' and his hands are empty. When next he's shown, the leash is back in his hands.
Continuity mistake: At the very end of Palpatine and Vader's conversation, we are tight on the Emperor. He is walking past a series of grey suited officers. But when we instantly cut to a wide angle shot, they are now in front of rows of stormtroopers.
Continuity mistake: Widescreen version: When the captured rebels are led out of the bunker, C-3PO walks out from behind a tree. In the next shot, the tree is much bigger, and C-3PO is further away from it. (01:33:10)
Answer: The Jedi are shown to have something of a blind spot in regards to matters of the heart. Note that when Luke confronts Obi-Wan over lying to him about his father's fate, Obi-Wan's response is haughty and defensive, and gives Luke nothing in terms of regret or apology. They're focused on their mission, not on how Luke feels. Why waste time, in their eyes, telling Luke about his mother? If they had their way, he wouldn't even know about his father. The prequels would make this more explicit, showing that the Jedi are conditioned from the beginning to let go of all "passions" because they could so easily be corrupted, and their inability to understand Anakin's emotions just contributes to his downfall.
TonyPH