Question: During the trash compacter scene, Luke gets sucked under by the one-eyed monster thing, which leads to Han and Leia trying to find him. But if the water's only about knee deep, why is it so hard for him to be found?
Answer: Presumably because the monster has pulled him through the lair of whatever they are standing on into whatever space the rest of the body of the monster lives in. Obviously, the monster doesn't live in the part of the part of the compactor that does the compacting or it would be already compacted.
Question: Is there any information, either from the the films or EU, about the specifications of the various weapons in the saga, such as Solo's blaster, or the Stormtrooper's rifles? How do they work? What do they fire etc?
Answer: Being fictional weaponry, precise details can be hard to come by and may potentially be contradictory as different authors provide different interpretations. Much information on the different types of weaponry used across the Star Wars universe and what's known about how they operate (often very little) can be found here.
Question: I haven't read all of the Star Wars books, but one mentions Prince Xizor being involved in Owen and Beru's death. Was he?
Answer: No, he wasn't. Xizor didn't learn about Luke until the events of The Empire Strikes Back, when he listened in on the holocomm conversation between Vader and the Emperor, a couple of years after Owen and Beru were killed by the stormtroopers. He had no reason to be interested in a couple of moisture farmers.
Question: Does anyone know how or if Obi-Wan was going to pay Han for taking him and Luke to Alderaan, if they had gotten there? If he had 17,000, why didn't he just pay the 10,000 that Han originally wanted?
Answer: In the next scene, after leaving the bar, Obi-Wan says, "You'll have to sell your speeder" to Luke. He replies, "Good, I'm never coming back here again." He also agrees to the price for passage, the extra is to insure that Han delivers them. No double crosses or selling them out to the Empire.
Answer: He didn't have it - he was presumably expecting that Bail Organa would provide the money on their arrival. That's why he upped the fee, to get Han to take him and Luke despite not receiving much money up front.
Answer: Obi Wan does not know or trust Han Solo. He had no money other than the 2,000 for Luke's speeder, but even if he had the full amount, he would not have paid Han the additional 15,000 until he had safely delivered him, Luke, and the droids to Alderan. He offers the higher amount knowing it is less likely that Han will just take the 2,000 and run out or turn them over to the Empire for a reward. Obi Wan had no doubts that the Alderan government would pay the remainder of the fee, considering he was there at Princess Leia's request and how important the information was inside R2D2.
Question: According to the mistakes page, there's a shot of the Death Star hangar in the original theatrical version and a crew member walks in then realises he's in shot and walks back out. I have got the original on DVD and have searched each hangar shot and can't find it. Anyone help?
Question: What's with Obi-Wan disappearing when he dies? I mean, I've never seen anyone else in the Star Wars 6-logy do it.
Answer: Yoda does it as well. This is linked to the bit at the end of Episode 3 when Yoda tells Obi-wan that his old mentor Qui-gon has managed to 'return' through the Force and instructs him to learn how this can be done. As such, when they die, both Yoda and Obi-wan are, in some unexplained manner, absorbed into the Force - this is what allowed Obi-wan to continue to communicate with Luke during the subsequent films.
Question: How long is it between the three films, "A New Hope" and "Empire Strikes Back" and then "Return of the Jedi"? Did it take years or merely months? I'm sure they wouldn't wait for a year to save Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt.
Answer: There's about three years between ANH and ESB, with the best part of a year elapsing before the events of ROTJ - it was indeed that long before they were able to break Han out of captivity.
Question: How was it possible for Vader to survive when his ship was dashed out into space from the Death Star before it was destroyed? When the TIE fighter crosses Millennium Falcon Obi-Van says "A fighter that size couldn't get this deep into space on its own" and "It would be as well to let it go, it's too far out of range" and Vader's ship is about the same size. Could we assume his ship was some sort of special long-range fighter, or that he was lucky enough to reach an imperial base or catch up with a convoy?
Chosen answer: Vader's ship was a prototype of the TIE-Advanced, an enhanced model that ultimately proved too expensive to be mass-produced. Part of the reason for that expense was that the fighter was equipped with a hyperdrive, allowing Vader to reach safety with little trouble.
Question: After the sand-people knock Luke to the ground and later scatter. Obi Wan reaches Luke's arm for a pulse and then touches Luke's forehead. Could this be taken that Luke was dead and Obi Wan returned him to the living?
Answer: I doubt it. It's a common thing to do when facing someone with an injury; check for a pulse, and place a hand on the forehead. I don't know why, it just seems to be a common thing to do (at least, for people who aren't fully trained that is). I personally think that he's either sensing his force power, or he's just overcome with compassion, either for Luke (remember, Luke is the whole reason he's been on that planet for 20-odd years), or perhaps remembering happier times with Anakin (maybe he sees or "feels" a resemblance between them). It can be interpreted as a sign of compassion, anyway.
I always assumed he was just using The Force to heal whatever injury Luke might have had (concussion, et.al).
Answer: Most likely he was using the Force to heal his injuries; we see him also do this to Padme after Anakin nearly kills her. The ability to Force Heal is heavily utilized and explained in Episode IX, after seeing it used multiple times by Rey and Ben Solo.
Question: There's a HUGE rumor that's been going around since Return of the Jedi came out: There's actually three more scripts (besides the prequels). Is there, in fact, a Star Wars: Episode VII, Episode VIII, and Episode IX? If so, what are they about?
Answer: While planning Star Wars, Lucas had a vague notion of doing a long series of movies inspired by old serials, then dropped that idea in favor of just one. When Star Wars became a phenomenon and sequels became feasible, Lucas revisited the idea. He thought of three trilogies along with some stand-alone "in-between" stories for a total of 12 films. By the time of The Empire Strikes Back's release, this was pared down to the 9 mainline films, going by interviews with Lucas and the cast at the time. By Return of the Jedi, Lucas had decided to end the saga there, with the option that he could revisit the first three at some later point. It's unclear if Lucas ever had any specific story ideas for the proposed sequel trilogy, and they never had any scripts. Producer Gary Kurtz suggested in an interview they would've been about Luke's twin sister (not Leia), though many fans are skeptical about just how much he would know about them. Of course since this question was asked a sequel trilogy was written and released.
Answer: This was long a long-standing rumour, but George Lucas always denied it. He allowed various authors to cover the history of that time period in book form - if he'd had any serious intention of doing films set in that timeframe, he wouldn't have done that. Since that time of course Disney took over the franchise and has announced new films, but entirely separate from the previous "expanded universe" of the novels, and not involving any ideas George Lucas may have had in the past.
Answer: I'm not sure how old this question is but it is a sequel trilogy. Episode VII : The Force Awakens is about a scavenger and former stormtrooper teaming up the Resistance to attempt to defeat the new First Order and Kylo Ren (Ben Solo). Episode VIII : The Last Jedi is about Rey finding Luke Skywalker who is in exile hoping that he would be left alone, and he tells the story of how he tried to murder his nephew who in retaliation, turned to the dark side. Episode IX : Rise of Skywalker is about the return of Emperor Palpatine and recovering Sith Wayfinders that will lead them to Exegol and kill him, with Billy Dee Williams returning as Lando Calrissian.
Question: What exactly is or was the "Shadows of the Empire?
Answer: "Shadows of the Empire" is essentially Episode 5.5: the story of what happened between "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi". It was a multimedia project created by Lucasfilm in 1996, with a novel, comic series, computer game, RPG sourcebooks, toys and even its own soundtrack - everything except an actual movie.
Question: How is it that Princess Leia, in the hologram, knows who Obi-Wan is? And yet Luke doesn't. How could she possibly know who he is when, in Episode III, the only time she "sees" Obi-Wan is when she is an infant.
Answer: She's never met him, but has been told about him by her adoptive father, Bail Organa, who gave her the mission to go and collect Obi-Wan.
Question: Is there a difference in the opening scroll between the original release and later versions? I'm specifically wondering if "Episode IV: A New Hope" was included in the original theatrical release, or added later.
Answer: In 1977, the original release just said "Star Wars". Lucas didn't want to confuse everybody. However, one year later, when re-released because of its popularity, he had renamed it "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope".
Question: Near the end of the Battle of Yavin, one of the X-wing pilots (I think it is Wedge) screams "YEEEEEEESSSSSS." and Luke looks back, to see an explosion on the surface of the Death Star. Why is this explosion so important that it warrants a change of music and a character screaming in joy? It just looks like what Luke had done earlier, when he 'got a little cooked' after shooting at the surface.
Answer: That wasn't Wedge, it was someone else. And he wasn't screaming "Yes," he was screaming in pain. The explosion Luke sees is that pilot's X-wing. With him gone, Luke is the last one who has a decent shot at destroying the Death Star: hence the music change.
Answer: Krayt Dragons. They're what Obi-Wan mimicks to scare the Sand People away. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krayt_dragon.
Twotall
I want to add that Obi-Wan's scream had been replaced twice in special editions. The original audio sounds like it could've been from a dragon for sure, but not the updated ones.
Rassdyt