Question: I've read that in the expanded/extended universe books, Palpatine has a son named Triclops, who he was disappointed in. Why didn't he like him? Why wouldn't he want to try to train his own son instead of spending time trying to get Vader's son to join him?
Question: Are there any scenes or references to black holes in any of the "Star Wars" episodes?
Answer: The only reference is a rather obscure one - Han explains in "A new Hope" that the Millennium Falcon did the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs. The Kessel Run is a smuggling route through a cluster of black holes - the faster your ship, the more direct route can be made. The results is measured not in time, but by how close you could cut the black holes, hence the use of "parsecs" as a measure.
Question: How come we didn't get to see Qui-Gon Jinn's spirit in the end when it was he, himself, who taught Yoda and Obi-Wan (who taught Anakin) this force ability? I think it would have looked good.
Answer: Because, when the film was originally made, the character of Qui-Gon Jinn hadn't been created. It was a relatively easy task to remove Sebastian Shaw in favour of Hayden Christensen - to add a new figure in would have required them to change the framing of the shot, shuffle the figures about, plus get Liam Neeson in to film it and so forth. It just wasn't worth doing. From the story point of view, it's established in the books that those who do merge with the Force in that manner do have to "move on" eventually - a series set some years after Jedi features Luke's final conversation with Kenobi before the latter goes on to whatever awaits him. Jinn would undoubtedly have moved on long before the events of Jedi.
Answer: Luke and Qui-Gon have never met and Luke has never even been made aware of Qui-Gon's existence in his entire life. I mean, I'm sure Luke would've been gracious about it and just been like, "Well hello Mr. Random Ghost Jedi, thanks for the well wishes!" but seeing as the spirits' appearance looks to be a private gesture from loved ones it doesn't make a whole lot of sense for Qui-Gon to be there.
Question: If Vader wants to kill the current Emperor, and become emperor himself, why does he not let Luke kill him? I am thinking he needs the Emperor to convert Luke to the dark side.
Answer: You are correct. Vader wanted to kill the Emperor but as a Sith he would need an apprentice. He wanted his son Luke to be his new apprentice, but he knew he needed Luke to kill the Emperor in order to completely turn to the Dark Side.
Question: How did the Emperor know that the rebels were going to destroy the new and improved Death Star and that other rebels were going to Endor?
Answer: He has a galaxy-wide intelligence network, plus the insights gained through the Force. He's aware that the Rebels have obtained information about the new Death Star - he claimed to have leaked it himself as part of a trap, but it's possible that he was lying. Either way, he knows that the Rebellion can hardly pass up a chance to destroy the Death Star before it's completed, particularly as they believe that it's not yet operational. As for Endor, it's stated quite clearly that the Death Star is protected by a powerful force field projected from a shield generator on Endor. As no ships can get through the field, that generator has to be the initial target for the Rebels - unless it's taken out, the attack on the Death Star itself cannot proceed.
Question: This is something that covers the whole of the Star Wars films, but is most noticeable on this film. There is life on Endor, which means there is an atmosphere. Why then, do none of the spaceships entering this atmosphere show any signs of heating as they pass through it?
Answer: It's most likely to do with the fact that the ships in the films enter the atmosphere in a highly controlled manner, unlike our ships, which, to all intents and purposes, simply fall through the atmosphere, using atmospheric friction to slow themselves down, causing the intense heat buildup - Star Wars ships don't need to do that. The other factor is that the majority of ships in the Star Wars universe have shields of one sort or another - these may have some effect in dispersing any possible heat buildup.
Answer: I don't think we ever see a ship in the actual moment it penetrates a planet's atmosphere, it's always shortly before or after.
Question: I heard some people saying that Harrison Ford's performance in ROTJ was 'phoned-in'. What does this mean exactly?
Answer: "Phoned in" is a term that means the actor's heart wasn't in the role. They were physically there, but there was a distance between them and their character. If an actor is in a movie merely because of a contractual agreement and not because they truly connect with the movie or the character, they put less effort into the part and some people can pick that up when they watch the show.
Question: Why did Palpatine ever want an apprentice? If I am correct, he always intended to dispose of Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and Darth Vader when they were no longer useful to him. And probably Luke, if Luke had accepted his offer. Why not work alone?
Answer: Because an Apprentice does the emperor's bidding, dispatches orders, acts as an emissary, intimidates enemies, is a spy, and so on. Having minions at one's disposal is a show of power, and supreme leaders would not do those things themselves. It dilutes their authority, and they would look weak and ineffective. As you pointed out, when the current apprentice is no longer as useful or obedient or becomes too powerful and poses a threat, they are replaced.
That's the rule of two for the Sith, there's always a Master and an Apprentice. No more, no less. In order to remain a Sith Master, Sidious must have an apprentice.
Answer: Succumbing to the dark side comes with it a megalomania that has you wanting to display proof of your omnipotence by training a skilled and powerful apprentice who starts out THINKING he's going to kill you and take your place someday but in the end is forever your obedient slave (or so you think.) Likewise, Sith apprentices all have an unspoken desire to eventually pull the ultimate power move by killing their master and taking their place as head honcho when they least expect it (or so they think). This of course results in Sith relationships always becoming weird and twisted, vaguely BDSM-like mind games.
Question: Why does Jabba get so..."intimate" with Leia? He has her pressed against his belly when she was first captured, and licked his lips (and, in numerous other sources - all official adaptations or even the script itself - say that he "kissed" her). The next time we see her, she's nearly naked, and chained by her neck to his throne. In this time, he keeps pulling her chain, forcing her body to be close to his. Finally, he pulls her to himself on the Sail Barge, and purrs into her face that she'll learn to appreciate him. Any ideas, suggestions, or thoughts - but no criticism - are welcome. I'm trying to collect thoughts.
Answer: Jabba was a mob boss, who wanted to replace the slave girl he killed when she refused his advances. He knew that Leia was a strong and independent woman and wanted to break her spirit.
Chosen answer: I've always thought it was just a plot device they used to show what a bad guy Jabba is. If you didn't see those things you might actually like him. He's powerful, rich, intelligent, and certainly has a sense of style. All in all I think it just shows that he has a sickness about him that warrants him being killed.
Question: Why couldn't the Emperor sense the presence of Luke Skywalker on Endor (per his conversation with Vader)?
Chosen answer: The Emperor did sense Luke. He just didn't tell Vader that, because he was planning on replacing Vader with Luke (kind of like replacing an old sedan with a new sportscar) and double crossing Vader.
Same thing what happened in Episode III, Palpatine deceived and betrayed Dooku by not knowing he was just a pawn to his plans.
Answer: You never know whether The Emperor is telling the truth or not, but either way what he's trying to convey to Vader here is that he's starting to get the tiniest bit of doubt over whether Vader has truly purged all compassion towards his son, and if not he'd better nip that in the bud, pronto.
Question: 'Darth Vader uses his lightsaber to cut an elevated catwalk causing it to collapse, and Luke slides down, runs and hides. How did Luke manage to stay hidden from Vader before Vader makes him come out of hiding?
Answer: You can tell Vader isn't being particularly thorough in his search for Luke, and he doesn't have to be: the goal is to turn Luke to the dark side, not kill him, and Vader's taunting, demoralizing words cut deeper in that regard than any lightsaber strike could.
Answer: I don't think Luke was ever completely hidden. There are only so many places in the room where he could be. Vader is delaying the moment when he and Luke fight again. He is still Anakin Skywalker, deep down - he later admits that Luke was right about this. He doesn't truly want to kill his son, nor does he want his son to kill him and become the Emperor's new servant.
Question: Is it true that in the original version of this that Yoda says the reason Obi-Wan didn't tell Luke the truth about Anakin turning to the dark side is because Yoda wouldn't let him?
Chosen answer: Technically no. While this was never in the original version, there is however a deleted scene where this happens.
There are script drafts where Yoda tells Luke not to judge Obi-Wan too harshly because it was his suggestion to keep Luke in the dark about his father. However, Obi-Wan himself still seems to own his decision, citing the same belief in the film that he was right "from a certain point of view."
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: 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?
Chosen 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: 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: This question assumes the Sith would perceive the work "dark" to have evil connotations. If they do not see their own actions as being evil, they would also likely not associate darkness with evil. Darkness, shadow, and other metaphors for deception, concealment, and stealth would simply be useful tools for achieving their goals. These things would not be associated in the Sith's mind with either good or evil.
Question: Does anyone know why Han's line was changed in the Special Edition to "It's all right, I can see a lot better now" from "it's all right, trust me" right before he shoots the sarlacc to save Lando?
Answer: We can only speculate, but George Lucas has shown a penchant for making updates that super-clarify certain narrative logistics for viewers even if it's not strictly necessary. The new line explicitly establishes that Han Solo has regained his eyesight, whereas with the prior line the audience must infer this from his behavior here and in subsequent scenes (how much this was ever an issue for viewers in the first place is certainly debatable).
Answer: Harrison Ford improvised some lines so he could have improvised this one.
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.
I've always presumed so, but strictly speaking there's nothing evident in the scene that he specifically knows the identity of Luke's sister, all we know for certain is that he's discovered Luke has one.
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: Leia most likely knew she was adopted as she had no reaction to Luke asking about her "real mother." I believe the correct answer here is George Lucas hadn't planned on Leia's mother dying during childbirth when this scene was written and at that time Leia genuinely had faint memories of her real mother. This was later shown to be impossible when the prequels were made.
Answer: She is referring to Padme. I believe she actually replies 'not really' when asked what her mother looked like. Also, Leia was a senator at some point, like Padme. It is likely she would have seen a painting or senator entry.
She most likely didn't know Padme the senator was her mother, because that would mean Anakin/Darth Vader would therefore have the same knowledge. She most definitely knew she was adopted. The "not really, just feelings" (paraphrased) line was "ret-conned" to fit when the newborn twins were shown in Episode III. Luke's eyes were shut, while Leia's eyes were open-she "saw" her mother. Perhaps the Force gave her a more mature feeling/insight into her mother from the brief time between pregnancy and when she was spirited away to Alderaan and her adoptive family.
Chosen answer: The mother Leia refers to would be Queen Breha Organa of Alderaan. At this point, Leia has no idea that she was adopted.
Negative. Luke specifically says "your real mother." Nowhere is it said Leia didn't know she was adopted. It's also highly unlikely she didn't know, since her adoptive father was a high-profile governmental figure and no way would the press keep a tight lip on the Bail and his wife suddenly having a baby without any signs of pregnancy.
Bail Organa says "We've always wanted a daughter." It wouldn't make sense to tell the daughter they've adopted in order to hide her from Vader "Oh yeah, you're adopted but don't tell anybody because the Emperor would send Vader to hunt you down." Better to just let her think you're her real parents.
Just because Leia knows she's adopted doesn't mean she has any idea who exactly her birth mother was, aside from her apparent memories. The Organas may well have concocted a whole cover story about her birth parents for another layer of protection over her identity. In fact, the way both Luke and Leia casually use/accept the "real mother" term suggests that not only does Leia know she's adopted, it's actually fairly common knowledge.
Answer: The short answer is that we don't know and it's left a mystery for the viewer. But on the flip side the lack of concrete information does leave room for numerous possibilities: One is that Leia might simply be mistaken: she had dreams of an idealized mother figure that she mistook for memories. Another is that the Organas could've lied to Leia about who her birth mother was for her own protection, and she is recalling this decoy mother (I quite like the theory that they told Leia her birth mother was one of Padme's loyal bodyguards chosen for their resemblance to her). And of course there's always the possibility there's something supernatural going on: Leia is strong with the Force and doesn't know it, and Padme's fate was so inexplicable you could theorize she didn't even really "die" so much as her spirit simply left her body.
Question: Luke tells Darth Vader that he won't turn sides, so Vader will be forced to kill him. Later, though, he tells the Emperor, "Soon I'll be dead, and you with me." Is he predicting that his father kills him, then retaliates against the Emperor for making him do it?
Answer: No, he means that they'll all be dead once the Rebels destroy the Death Star. Luke had resigned himself to his fate once Vader refused to turn back to the light side and leave with him. Luke is unaware that Palpatine knows about the Rebel attack. This is the reason Luke attacks the Emperor; he believes there's a chance the Rebels could fail now that he knows they walked into a trap and that he must take this opportunity to kill the Emperor.
Question: Why didn't Leia keep the bomb she'd had earlier when she turned Chewbacca over to Jabba, when she unfroze Han?
Answer: She likely wasn't allowed to keep it, as it would be considered a continued threat to Jabba and his minions. To claim the reward, she probably had to relinquish it. Voluntarily surrendering it would be a show of "good faith" once Leia (posing as a bounty hunter) got the payment for Chewbacca. Wanting to keep it would be suspicious.
Answer: For one very simple reason - Triclops was a pacifist.
Tailkinker ★