Hot Take: The Empire Strikes Back Ruined Star Wars

From the lazy clichés of Return of the Jedi, through the disappointment of the prequels and continuing into the awful sequel trilogy and Disney Plus era (minus Andor), the root of most Star Wars plot, script, dialogue and performance problems can be traced all the way back to 1980 and The Empire Strikes Back. Specifically, to three major events in the movie:

1. The reveal of Darth Vader's relationship to Luke Skywalker
2. Yoda's ability to lift a spaceship with the power of his mind
3. Luke and Leia's telepathic connection

 

"It is your destiny."

The retconned revelation that Darth Vader had not killed Luke's father, but instead (spoiler alert) was his father, precipitated a slew of farcical revelations in subsequent Star Wars media. In Return of the Jedi, we discover that Luke's hitherto secret love interest, Princess Leia, is his sister. The Rise of Skywalker doubles down on the family ties with super powered scavenger Rey from dusty Jakku turning out to be Emperor Palpatine's granddaughter. And according to Pablo Hildago's Visual Dictionary of the movie, Jannah is Lando's daughter apparently? Why does everyone need to be related to someone important? Rian Johnson asked a similar question with The Last Jedi, back when Rey was the abandoned child of nobodies and a random orphan with a broom could use the force. The takeaway was that anyone with drive and ambition can make something of their life, regardless of where or who they came from - just like a certain farm boy from Tatooine (until Empire ruined that).

 

Darth Vader's paternity not only sets the 'royal lineage' standard for Star Wars content to come, it also ruins the credibility of A New Hope. If Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's dad, and Obi-Wan Kenobi's job was to hide Luke from him, why would he foster him out to Vader's mother's step-family on Tatooine, the same planet where Vader grew up as Anakin Skywalker? And more importantly, why give him the surname Skywalker? Most people in hiding tend to use a less obvious name than the surname of the person they're hiding from.

 

"There is no try."

While sneaking around the Death Star in A New Hope, Obi-Wan uses the force to knock a small object over, creating a noise that distracts a couple of stormtroopers. Luke's proton torpedoes' trajectory alters unnaturally when firing at the Death Star's exhaust port, suggesting the use of the force to move them. Both are subtle examples of the telekinetic power of the force prior to Empire.

 

In The Empire Strikes Back, Luke makes his lightsaber fly to his hand and lifts small objects off the ground while meditating. Vader throws boxes at Luke and Yoda lifts a spaceship out of a swamp. All of these moment require concentration and effort. Yoda spoils it all when he tells Luke that "size matters not". Despite creating entertaining visuals, this proclamation opens the door to all ridiculous events in Star Wars media that follows, including (but not limited to):

• Mace Windu destroying a battalion of battle droids in Tartakovsky's Clone Wars cartoon
• Darth Vader grabbing a spaceship in mid air in Obi-Wan Kenobi
• Rey doing the same thing in The Rise of Skywalker

 

If size matters not, then anything is possible. They might as well move an entire planet off its axis. Use moons as projectile weapons. No need to build another Death Star, just drag the sun a few million kilometres closer to your enemy's home world. The unlimited power potential of the force creates the same problem that The Matrix's sequels faced - once you've shown your protagonist to be all powerful (like Neo at the end of the first movie), there are no longer any stakes and nowhere for your story to go.

 

"I've got a bad feeling."

In A New Hope, a blindfolded Luke is barely able to defend himself against a training droid with zen and the art of the force. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi feels a disturbance in the force when Alderaan is obliterated. Darth Vader senses a presence on the Death Star that he recognises as his old master. And finally, Obi-Wan's ghost tells Luke to turn off his targetting computer and trust in the force. Luke doesn't have a 'feeling' that this is something he should do, he's instructed to do it by someone who has become one with the force and "more powerful than you could possibly imagine". Compare these events to the following from The Empire Strikes Back, where the force is now responsible for all coincidence, insight and purpose:

• Luke crash lands his ship on Dagobah in walking distance from Yoda's house
• Luke is drawn to the one place on Dagobah where the dark side lives - also in walking distance from Yoda's hut
• Luke communicates telepathically with Leia, who then knows exactly where to look for him when he's hanging off the outside of Lando's gigantic gas refinery. 

 

As a direct result of these events, the force has become shorthand for plot contrivance - the deus ex machina of Star Wars. In The Rise of Skywalker, how did Finn know the navigation beacon had shifted from the ground tower to one on a single Star Destroyer amongst literally thousands? The force. In The Force Awakens, how did Rey find Luke's/Anakin's lightsaber in Maz Kanata's castle? And what about Ochi's One-Eyed Willy doubloon style wayfinder finding knife in The Rise of Skywalker, that Rey was able to find on two separate occasions - once in a hidden, underground tunnel that she accidentally fell into, and again in Kylo Ren's apartment in a massive spaceship? The force of course.

 

And one more thing...

 

"Don't get cocky." 

Luke has graduated, in the space of three years (or several months, depending on which source material you prefer), from a brand new pilot in the rebellion to Commander. In the navy (whose structure the military hierarchy of Star Wars appears to emulate), it takes approximately twelve years to be promoted to that rank. Return of the Jedi compounds this problem, with both Han and Lando promoted to General. This idea that protagonists in the Star Wars universe are instantly elevated to high ranking positions based on their proximity to important events carries over to the sequel trilogy, with ex-stormtrooper Finn becoming General by the end of The Rise of Skywalker. What's he ever done that's so special to deserve this promotion? Coordinated the dumbest attack of all time - riding horses on the outside hull of a spaceship that could tilt and flip them off at any moment? In times of war, when losses create positions that need to be filled, it's understandable that soldiers are promoted faster than usual. Finn's promotion to General, however, seems more like something a kid might do while playing with the action figures rather than something that could actually happen in a single year.

 

"Rebellions are built on hope."

There's no denying that Empire is a great movie, maybe even the best of all the Star Wars. It's because of this greatness, that those which have come since have attempted to emulate it. In doing so, they've missed the point entirely. Empire isn't great because of the Vader/Skywalker revelation, nor the super powers bestowed on force users. The Empire Strikes Back is great because it contains charismatic characters with realistic motivations, and it gives them room to breathe and grow. More importantly, it treats its audience like adults. The only contemporary Star Wars that understands this is Andor. Empire may have spawned a multitude of pale imitations. It may even have ruined Star Wars. Thankfully, Rogue One and two seasons of Andor saved it.