My friend/coworker Larry and I were talking in the office today and the Star Wars trilogies came up in the conversation. Eventually, I made a some comments about how there is broken continuity between the two trilogies. Here are a few I thought about.
1. R2 is the pivotal character bridging all the films. Why doesn’t R2-D2 say anything to any of the characters in the episodes 4-6 about anything that happened in episodes 1-3?
R2 basically was involved from day one as far as the whole Skywalker saga is concerned. He knew Anakin, Qui-Gon, Yoda, Padme, even Jar Jar. So when he ends up hooking up with Princess Leia at the beginning of A New Hope, why didn’t he say, “Hey, you’re Leia? Didn’t you know you were adopted, your original name is Skywalker, your real dad is actually Darth Vader, and your real mom was hot and was awesome on Saturday Night Live?”
When he meets up with Obi-Wan, why doesn’t Obi-Wan remember R2? He says that he “doesn’t recall ever owning a droid.” Sure, Obi-Wan didn’t own R2. But how can you forget the droid that saved your ass so many times prior?
When R2 meets up with Luke, why doesn’t he say, “You’re Luke Skywalker? Yeah, I knew your dad. He was a dick. I knew your mom, too. And she was hot.”
In The Empire Strikes Back when they get to Dagobah and meet up with Yoda, why didn’t R2 and Yoda see each other and reminisce on old times and start trading stories about how Anakin messed everything up?
You get the idea.
2. At the end of Revenge of the Sith, C3P0’s mind is ordered wiped (and R2’s is left intact). That explains why C3P0 doesn’t know anything about anything prior to A New Hope.
But in Empire, Darth Vader sees C3P0 in the carbonite freezing chamber on Cloud City. Vader (as Anakin) built C3P0 himself as a child. So why didn’t Vader get all weepy upon seeing C3P0? I don’t buy the argument that his memories as Anakin were lost when he became Darth Vader. A guy builds a droid on his own as a kid, you know damn well he’s going to remember it.
3. What about the relationship between R2 and C3P0 in the second trilogy? You figure R2 would have told C3P0 any number of times about how annoying he is and wasn’t as annoying back when they hung out before the Empire formed.
4. In Revenge of the Sith, it’s revealed that Yoda has a special relationship with the Wookies and actually knew Chewbacca, everyone’s favorite Wookie. It’s obvious Chewbacca knew of the Jedi and The Force.
So in A New Hope, when Obi-Wan is giving Luke a lesson on The Force aboard the Millennium Falcon as Chewbacca and R2 play Dejarik/Djarik (that ‘chess’ game) and Han Solo starts clowning The Force, why didn’t Chewbacca jump in and tell Han about how The Force is the real deal?
Chewie could have told Han about how dope Yoda was and could do crazy shit with his mind and could wield a Lightsaber like nobody’s business. Instead, Chewie just totally ignores Han’s patronizing of The Force. Assuming Chewie never met Obi-Wan, he could have at least asked him, “Hey, you’re a Jedi? You ever know a dude named Yoda?”
After Luke goes to train with Yoda on Dagobah in Empire, there’s no doubt he revealed to his friends about how he trained to be a Jedi with *The* Jedi Master of all time and Chewie would have caught wind of it. Chewie would have probably asked Luke to tell Yoda that Chewie says, “What up”.
These are just a few observations. I’m sure there are tons of other continuity plot holes, but these are the ones that weigh on my mind.
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