History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / StarWars

** For those familiar with the fast-paced, high-flying lightsaber duels of later films (especially the prequels), the fateful final showdown between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker is... pretty stiff and rigid. Both are holding their lightsabers with both hands. George Lucas originally intended for Jedi to wield their lightsabers with both hands and fight like traditional swordsmen, much like some of the heroes in old serials that inspired George. By ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', however, Luke and Vader's duel already involves a lot of jumping and often using one hand to fight with lightsabers, as shown in the Prequel Trilogy, though there were hints of it in their fight in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. According to George in the DVD commentary, the duel in ''A New Hope'' is retconned to be because Obi-Wan is old and out of practice and Vader is part-machine (and also wants to humor Obi-Wan and humiliate him).

* The Dark Side is mentioned exactly once, in passing, when Obi-Wan says Vader was "seduced by the dark side of the Force." In this context, there is no indication that the Dark Side is an actual thing unto itself, or that Obi-Wan's use of the term "dark side" is anything but a figure of speech, in the same way that one might refer to the dark side of drug use. Vader is also referred to as being "all that remains" of the Jedi's "ancient religion", rather than part of a separate order of Force-users (though Tarkin, at least, may be aware that Vader was once a Jedi).
* Despite the numerous [[ExpositionDump Exposition Dumps,]] the term "Sith" was never used (outside of an extended version of the Death Star conference, the footage of which was not released until 2022) and there was really no indication that these events were part of a millennia-long war between two factions, or that Darth Vader and the Emperor were anything more than a single evil wizard who convinced one Jedi to go rogue.

** Creator/KieronGillen's ''ComicBook/StarWarsDarthVader'' comics ended up turning this into a plot point--they suggest that Vader by the time of ''A New Hope'' actually ''wasn't'' the second-in-command of the entire Empire. Though he was highly-ranked and considered one of the Emperor's best agents, he didn't hold such importance that he could feasibly order around admirals with no consequence, with others jockeying for support with him and high-ranking officers freely speaking to him as an equal. For much of the series, Vader is forced to work with a small retinue and build a power base outside of the Imperial military to get his schemes going. By the end, Vader has successfully killed off most of his rivals, put down a major rebellion, and won several great victories, making him the greatest power in the Empire after the Emperor himself and leaving him largely in his familiar role as TheDragon.

** There's nothing in this film that even indicates Darth Vader, the separate character who is not Anakin Skywalker yet, is ''human'', let alone Luke's father. All of the other unusually tall characters are aliens, so why wouldn't Vader be one? Also, there is no mention or even hint that Vader is a {{Cyborg}} -- the first suggestion of him requiring the suit to live occurs in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', and Obi-Wan confirms that he is "more machine than man" in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''. Yes, the Respirator Sound helps define Vader's first appearance on-screen, but it's never addressed or dwelled on in the film itself and in just observational context, it could be one of ''multiple'' things.
** It's implied that Anakin and Owen grew up together on Tatooine before Anakin left to become a Jedi, as Obi-Wan notes Owen wished Anakin had "stayed here." In the prequel trilogy, Anakin left Tatooine long before he even became Owen's step-brother, and was already a Jedi during their brief interactions in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''. And while Owen saying he's afraid of Luke becoming like his father takes on a new meaning after ''Empire'', it doesn't really make sense that Owen would be aware that Anakin is Vader, unless Obi-Wan told him, nor that Beru would see "too much" of the angry, brooding Anakin she met in ''Clones'' in Luke (whereas with this script, the easy read-in is that Beru knew Anakin from back when she and Owen were young and grew up alongside side them before Anny ran off to be a clone-warring space wizard and she's supposed to be talking about Luke's wanderlust and sense of adventure).

** ''Production-wise'', of course, this is all backwards - what happened was that Obi-Wan was so distinct, impactful and memorable that his appearance in ''A New Hope'' more or less set "The Jedi Look" in stone, and they all follow on from that. In fact, going by the visual language of the film by itself, the intent appears to be that he's ''dressing locally'' (compare his outfit when he's relaxing in his home to Luke, or especially to Owen) and just throws on a hooded cloak when he's abroad (which is a fairly sensible idea in an environment as harsh as the named-in-film Jundland Wastes). Obi-Wan uses that outfit for the rest of the film (both logically, since it's what he left Tatooine in, and also just as a cost-saving and viewer silhouette-identification measure) and then shows up in that outfit as a Force ghost, since that's what he passed on in and is what Luke (and the viewer) would recognize from ''ANH''. So the intent appears to be that, if anything, perhaps a "Jedi Knight" would be expected to look a bit like ''Vader'', albeit maybe slightly less oppressively dark - the Jedi were conceived of as being very samurai-like, and the armor was often part of the badge of office for a warrior caste such as that, so nobody in the film as shot has a reason to take much note of "Ben" as anything other than just another tunic-wearing local on Tatooine. They don't expect him to use Jedi mind powers, and ''really'' don't expect him to bust out a lightsaber (and in fact, him doing so is what really puts the troopers on their trail).

* This is part EarlyInstallmentWeirdness and part PlotHole in the film itself, but it still applies: despite Jedi being a forbidden thing of the past, Obi-Wan doesn't seem to be very good at keeping a low profile in exile, as he wears a robe undistinct from what the prequel trilogy establishes to be Jedi robes, uses an alias that keeps his real last name, and whips out a lightsaber in a public setting -- and given that Owen even feels comfortable calling him a "wizard" in front of Luke, it's suggested he hasn't even bothered to hide the fact that he has supernatural abilities. In both continuities, especially in the Disney canon, this would be a dangerous mistake for any Jedi after [[ThePurge Order 66]] -- [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus]], and [[VideoGame/JediFallenOrder Cal Kestis]] can attest to that, almost immediately being accosted by Inquisitors the moment they reveal their Force abilities, and they were the ones lucky enough to survive those attacks. Some of this would be explained in other media by suggesting Kenobi is a fairly common last name (Luke does assume Obi-Wan is connected to Ben, but this could be considered the most reasonable conjecture to explain the droids' presence in Tatooine), and Obi-Wan believing Vader would never come to Tatooine due to the painful memories of his past, giving him relative leeway in his behavior.[[note]] There's also the fact that Leia knew right where to find him and approach him for help; some entries to the franchise, such as [[Radio/StarWarsRadioDramas the radio drama]], insinuated that he was something of a liaison between Alderaan and the Jedi (which also has it that she was explicitly sent to Tatooine to retrieve him at her father's request, all of them knowing that the civil war was coming to a major turning point), and ''Revenge of the Sith'' would fully address it by having her adoptive father be one of Obi-Wan's [[SecretKeeper Secret-Keepers]].[[/note]] ''Production-wise'', of course, this is all backwards - what happened was that Obi-Wan was so distinct, impactful and memorable that his appearance in ''A New Hope'' more or less set "The Jedi Look" in stone, and they all follow on from that.

* Grand Moff Tarkin seems perfectly comfortable with acting like he's Darth Vader's ''superior'' -- and Vader doesn't give any hint of having a problem with it. This sort of dynamic would ''never'' happen in the latter two movies (or even ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', ''{{WesternAnimation/Rebels}}'' and ''Film/RogueOne'', for that matter) -- where Vader is a tyrannical, dictatorial police chief answerable only to the Emperor (the galactic monarch), commanding Admirals and even disposing of them as he sees fit. It is possible to justify this fairly easily in-universe, however, as Tarkin and presumably a lot more of the Imperial leadership were killed in the explosion of the Death Star, causing Vader to be moved up to TheDragon fully. It's also possible that Vader sees Tarkin as a competent military leader despite the latter's arrogance, and basically gives Tarkin a wide berth and lots of liberties. Vader hates incompetence, as evidenced when he chokes Ozzel and Needa to death. Piett was also considered as a competent admiral as well and Vader appears to work well with him. Considering that Piett was given specific orders in the sixth movie from the Emperor regarding the Battle of Endor, it's likely that the Emperor too sees Tarkin as a worthy tactician and does his best to make sure Vader and Tarkin work well together — confirmed to be the case in one comic in which the Emperor gives Vader leave to Force-choke any subordinate ''except'' Tarkin as his way of keeping them in line. ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' would later establish that Vader knew Tarkin when he was still Anakin Skywalker, lending credence to the idea that he holds more respect for him than most other Imperial officers. As originally written, Tarkin is insinuated to outrank every Imperial in the movie--including Vader--and his easily ordering Vader to stop choking Motti is therefore a superior ordering a subordinate to not kill another subordinate, but the exact wording still works with the later context of Vader being Palpatine's immediate subordinate by coming across as telling him to stop because he'd made his point about his Force abilities.

* Grand Moff Tarkin seems perfectly comfortable with acting like he's Darth Vader's ''superior'' -- and Vader doesn't give any hint of having a problem with it. This sort of dynamic would ''never'' happen in the latter two movies (or even ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', ''{{WesternAnimation/Rebels}}'' and ''Film/RogueOne'', for that matter) -- where Vader is answerable only to the Emperor, commanding Admirals and even disposing of them as he sees fit. It is possible to justify this fairly easily in-universe, however, as Tarkin and presumably a lot more of the Imperial leadership were killed in the explosion of the Death Star, causing Vader to be moved up to TheDragon fully. It's also possible that Vader sees Tarkin as a competent military leader despite the latter's arrogance, and basically gives Tarkin a wide berth and lots of liberties. Vader hates incompetence, as evidenced when he chokes Ozzel and Needa to death. Piett was also considered as a competent admiral as well and Vader appears to work well with him. Considering that Piett was given specific orders in the sixth movie from the Emperor regarding the Battle of Endor, it's likely that the Emperor too sees Tarkin as a worthy tactician and does his best to make sure Vader and Tarkin work well together — confirmed to be the case in one comic in which the Emperor gives Vader leave to Force-choke any subordinate ''except'' Tarkin as his way of keeping them in line. ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' would later establish that Vader knew Tarkin when he was still Anakin Skywalker, lending credence to the idea that he holds more respect for him than most other Imperial officers. As originally written, Tarkin is insinuated to outrank every Imperial in the movie--including Vader--and his easily ordering Vader to stop choking Motti is therefore a superior ordering a subordinate to not kill another subordinate, but the exact wording still works with the later context of Vader being Palpatine's immediate subordinate by coming across as telling him to stop because he'd made his point about his Force abilities.

** There's nothing in this film that even indicates Darth Vader is ''human'', let alone Luke's father. All of the other unusually tall characters are aliens, so why wouldn't Vader be one? Also, there is no mention or even hint that Vader is a {{Cyborg}} -- the first suggestion of him requiring the suit to live occurs in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', and Obi-Wan confirms that he is "more machine than man" in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''.
** It's implied that Anakin and Owen grew up together on Tatooine before Anakin left to become a Jedi, as Obi-Wan notes Owen wished Anakin had "stayed here." In the prequel trilogy, Anakin left Tatooine long before he even became Owen's step-brother, and was already a Jedi during their brief interactions in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''. And while Owen saying he's afraid of Luke becoming like his father takes on a new meaning after ''Empire'', it doesn't really make sense that Owen would be aware that Anakin is Vader, unless Obi-Wan told him, nor that Beru would see "too much" of the angry, brooding Anakin she met in ''Clones'' in Luke.

* This is part EarlyInstallmentWeirdness and part PlotHole in the film itself, but it still applies: despite Jedi being a forbidden thing of the past, Obi-Wan doesn't seem to be very good at keeping a low profile in exile, as he wears a robe undistinct from what the prequel trilogy establishes to be Jedi robes, uses an alias that keeps his real last name, and whips out a lightsaber in a public setting -- and given that Owen even feels comfortable calling him a "wizard" in front of Luke, it's suggested he hasn't even bothered to hide the fact that he has supernatural abilities. In both continuities, especially in the Disney canon, this would be a dangerous mistake for any Jedi after [[ThePurge Order 66]] -- [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus]], and [[VideoGame/JediFallenOrder Cal Kestis]] can attest to that, almost immediately being accosted by Inquisitors the moment they reveal their Force abilities, and they were the ones lucky enough to survive those attacks. Some of this would be explained in other media by suggesting Kenobi is a fairly common last name (Luke does assume Obi-Wan is connected to Ben, but this could be considered the most reasonable conjecture to explain the droids' presence in Tatooine), and Obi-Wan believing Vader would never come to Tatooine due to the painful memories of his past, giving him relative leeway in his behavior.[[note]] There's also the fact that Leia knew right where to find him and approach him for help; some entries to the franchise, such as [[Radio/StarWarsRadioDramas the radio drama]], insinuated that he was something of a liaison between Alderaan and the Jedi (which also has it that she was explicitly sent to Tatooine to retrieve him at her father's request, all of them knowing that the civil war was coming to a major turning point), and ''Revenge of the Sith'' would fully address it by having her adoptive father be one of Obi-Wan's [[SecretKeeper Secret-Keepers]].[[/note]]

* Jar-Jar's dialect is far more extreme in ''The Phantom Menace'' than it is in later movies or ''The Clone Wars''.

* Jar-Jar's dialect is far more extreme in ''The Phantom Menace'' than it is in later movies or the Clone Wars.

* Despite the numerous [[ExpositionDump Exposition Dumps,]] the term "Sith" was never used (outside of an extended version of the Death Star conference, the footage of which was not released until 2022) and there was really no indication that these events were part of a millennia-long war between two factions, or that Darth Vader and the Emporer were anything more than a single evil wizard who convinced one Jedi to go rogue.

** Han refers to the Empire's ships as "Imperial cruisers" before the term "Star Destroyer" was coined. This becomes more notable later in the franchise when the ''Arquitens''-class light cruiser is introduced, and it's nowhere near as big or as powerful as a Star Destroyer.

** In the same vein, but and actually holding true throughout the whole original trilogy, despite the numerous [[ExpositionDump Exposition Dumps,]] the term "Sith" was never used (outside of an extended version of the Death Star conference, the footage of which was not released until 2022) and there was really no indication that these events were part of a millennia-long war between two factions, or that Darth Vader and the Emporer were anything more than a single evil wizard who convinced one Jedi to go rogue.

** On a related note, the fact that the main lightsaber duel takes place some time before the final battle. Starting with ''Empire Strikes Back'', the big lightsaber duel happens toward the end, and the final act of ''A New Hope'' is instead just the starfighter battle, which is also the only space battle in the series where the BigBad directly takes part in the dogfight (until ''Film/TheLastJedi'', anyway).

* The Imperial March {{leitmotif}} does not appear in the film, as it was not composed until ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. Oddly enough, it's the Rebel Fanfare that's more associated with the Empire in this film.

* The first film vaguely implies that droids have their own religion, and worship a creator god known as "The Maker" (hence C-3PO's exclamation ''"Thank the Maker!"''). This idea is quietly dropped after the first film, and never really comes up again after that.

* This is part EarlyInstallmentWeirdness and part PlotHole in the film itself, but it still applies: despite Jedi being a forbidden thing of the past, Obi-Wan doesn't seem to be very good at keeping a low profile in exile, as he wears a robe undistinct from what the prequel trilogy establishes to be Jedi robes, uses an alias that keeps his real last name, and whips out a lightsaber in a public setting - and given that Owen even feels comfortable calling him a "wizard" in front of Luke, it's suggested Ben's also made a reputation for himself as having some kind of supernatural feel. In both continuities, especially in the Disney canon, for any other Jedi after the events of ''Revenge of the Sith'', this would be a dangerous mistake -- [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus]], and [[VideoGame/JediFallenOrder Cal Kestis]] can attest to that, almost immediately being accosted by Inquisitors the moment they reveal their Force abilities, and they were the ones lucky enough to survive those attacks. Some of this would be explained in other media by suggesting Kenobi is a fairly common last name (Luke does assume Obi-Wan is connected to Ben, but this could be considered the most reasonable conjecture to explain the droids' presence in Tatooine), and Obi-Wan believing Vader would never come to Tatooine due to the painful memories of his past, giving him relative leeway in his behavior. There's also the fact that Leia knew right where to find him and approach him for help; some entries to the franchise, such as [[Radio/StarWarsRadioDramas the radio drama]], insinuated that he was something of a liaison between Alderaan and the Jedi, (which also has it that she was explicitly sent to Tatooine to retrieve him at her father's request, all of them knowing that the civil war was coming to a major turning point) and ''Revenge of the Sith'' would fully address it by having her adoptive father be one of Obi-Wan's [[SecretKeeper Secret-Keepers]].

** The Dark Side is mentioned exactly once, in passing, when Obi-Wan says Vader was "seduced by the dark side of the Force." In this context, there is no indication that the Dark Side is an actual thing unto itself, or that Obi-Wan's use of the term "dark side" is anything but a figure of speech, in the same way that one might refer to the dark side of drug use. Vader is also referred to as being "all that remains" of the Jedi's "ancient religion", rather than part of a separate order of Force-users (though Tarkin, at least, may be aware that Vader was once a Jedi).

* This is part EarlyInstallmentWeirdness and part PlotHole in the film itself, but it still applies: despite Jedi being a forbidden thing of the past, Obi-Wan doesn't seem to be very good at keeping a low profile in exile, as he wears a robe undistinct from what the prequel trilogy establishes to be Jedi robes, uses an alias that keeps his real last name, and whips out a lightsaber in a public setting - and given that Owen even feels comfortable calling him a "wizard" in front of Luke, it's suggested Ben's also made a reputation for himself as having some kind of supernatural feel. In both continuities, especially in the Disney canon, for any other Jedi after the events of ''Revenge of the Sith'', this would be a dangerous mistake -- [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus]], and [[VideoGame/JediFallenOrder Cal Kestis]] can attest to that, almost immediately being accosted by Inquisitors the moment they reveal their Force abilities, and they were the ones lucky enough to survive those attacks. Some of this would be explained in other media by suggesting Kenobi is a fairly common last name (Luke does assume Obi-Wan is connected to Ben, but this could be considered the most reasonable reasonable conjecture to explain the droids' presence in Tatooine), and Obi-Wan believing Vader would never come to Tatooine due to the painful memories of his past, giving him relative leeway in his behavior. There's also the fact that Leia knew right where to find him and approach him for help; some entries to the franchise, such as [[Radio/StarWarsRadioDramas the radio drama]], insinuated that he was something of a liaison between Alderaan and the Jedi, (which also has it that she was explicitly sent to Tatooine to retrieve him at her father's request, all of them knowing that the civil war was coming to a major turning point) and ''Revenge of the Sith'' would fully address it by having her adoptive father be one of Obi-Wan's [[SecretKeeper Secret-Keepers]].

* The portrayal of the Force is much subtler than in subsequent movies. For the most part the Force is not a visible superpower: Obi-Wan can make Stormtroopers see, hear and say what he wants them to, it guides Luke when he's training with the remote and when he destroys the Death Star, and Obi-Wan and Vader have a sixth sense that heightens their intuition. The only tangible appearance of the Force os when Obi-Wan's body disappears, as not even Vader Force-choking Motti can be visually counted out from being a form of mind trick rather than actually telekinetically strangling someone. It's not until ''Empire'' that more familiar Force abilities, such as telekinesis, appear. The Force in ''A New Hope'' can be written off by cynics as a combination of tricks and luck, but no-one could deny Luke summoning his lightsaber to his hand like in ''Empire.''

* Admiral Motti's description of the Force as a "sad devotion to that ancient religion" seems downright bizarre, given that its existence was treated as common knowledge in the Prequel Trilogy, a timeframe in which Motti would almost certainly have been alive (albeit very young). This is largely because when the film was written Lucas envisioned exact knowledge of the Force and Jedi powers to be something which only a select few had knowledge of, which was gradually contradicted by the Expanded Universe novels and comics, and then jettisoned altogether by ''The Phantom Menace''. Some later novels, such as the ''Republic Commando'' novels, took some steps to try and square the two perspectives, but with limited success.

* Right before Luke returns home to find Owen and Beru dead, he refers to the droids as "robots," something that would not be said in the rest of the series.

** For those familiar with the fast-paced, high-flying lightsaber duels of later films (especially the prequels), the fateful final showdown between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker is... pretty stiff and rigid. Both are holding their lightsabers with both hands. George Lucas originally intended for Jedi to wield their lightsabers with both hands and fight like traditional swordsmen, much like some of the heroes in old serials that inspired George. By ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', Luke and Vader's duel involves a lot of jumping and often using one hand to fight with lightsabers, as shown in the Prequel Trilogy, though there were hints of it in their fight in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. According to George in the DVD commentary, the duel in ''A New Hope'' is retconned to be because Obi-Wan is old and out of practice and Vader is part-machine (and also wants to humor Obi-Wan and humiliate him).

* The portrayal of the Force is much subtler than in subsequent movies. For the most part the Force is not a visible superpower. Instead it's mostly mental: Obi-Wan can make Stormtroopers see, hear and say what he wants them to, it guides Luke when he's training with the remote and when he destroys the Death Star, and Obi-Wan and Vader have a sixth sense that heightens their intuition. The most tangible appearance of the Force are when Obi-Wan's body disappears and when Vader chokes Motti -- and given the context of everything else in the movie, the Force-choke here seems more likely to be a form of mind trick rather than actually telekinetically strangling someone. It's not until ''Empire'' that more familiar Force abilities, such as telekinesis, appear. The Force in ''A New Hope'' can be written off by cynics as a combination of tricks and luck, but no-one could deny Luke summoning his lightsaber to his hand like in ''Empire.''
* In the scene with Jabba that was re-added to the 1997 Special Edition onwards, Han comes across as quite short-tempered and dismissive towards Jabba, something that flies in the face of the latter's reputation as one of the most feared crime lords in the galaxy. This was because in the script, Jabba was written as being a small-time gangster with an inflated ego, albeit one who could still make Han's life seriously inconvenient. The Special Edition tries to square the difference between this and Jabba's more established characterization by tweaking his dialogue to imply that Han had been reliably working for him long enough (something backed up years later by ''Film/{{Solo}}'') that Jabba gave him more leeway than he would most men in Han's position, but by the time of ''Empire Strikes Back'' he's clearly lost his patience with Han and put out a bounty on him.

* Obi-Wan doesn't seem to be very good at living in exile, with him wearing what the prequel trilogy establishes to be his Jedi robes, using an alias that includes his real last name and whipping out a lightsaber in a public setting. Owen even feels comfortable calling him a "wizard" in front of Luke, suggesting he's made a reputation for himself; for any other Jedi after the events of ''Revenge of the Sith'', this would be a dangerous mistake--[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus]], and [[VideoGame/JediFallenOrder Cal Kestis]] can attest to that, almost immediately being accosted by Inquisitors the moment they reveal their Force abilities, and they were the ones lucky enough to survive those attacks. Some of this would be explained in other media by suggesting Kenobi is a fairly common last name (though this conflicts with Luke instantly assuming Obi-Wan is connected to Ben, though this could be explained by Luke not knowing that many people), and Obi-Wan believing Vader would never come to Tatooine due to the painful memories of his past, giving him relative leeway in his behavior. There's also the fact that Leia knew right where to find him and approach him for help; some entries to the franchise, such as [[Radio/StarWarsRadioDramas the radio drama]], insinuated that he was something of a liaison between Alderaan and the Jedi, (which also has it that she was explicitly sent to Tatooine to retrieve him at her father's request, all of them knowing that the civil war was coming to a major turning point) and ''Revenge of the Sith'' would fully address it by having her adoptive father be one of Obi-Wan's [[SecretKeeper Secret-Keepers]].

* Obi-Wan doesn't seem to be very good at living in exile, with him wearing what the prequel trilogy establishes to be his Jedi robes, using an alias that includes his real last name and whipping out a lightsaber in a public setting. Owen even feels comfortable calling him a "wizard" in front of Luke, suggesting he's made a reputation for himself; for any other Jedi after the events of ''Revenge of the Sith'', this would be a fatal mistake. Some of this would be explained in other media by suggesting Kenobi is a fairly common last name (though this conflicts with Luke instantly assuming Obi-Wan is connected to Ben, though this could be explained by Luke not knowing that many people), and Obi-Wan believing Vader would never come to Tatooine due to the painful memories of his past, giving him relative leeway in his behavior. There's also the fact that Leia knew right where to find him and approach him for help; ''Revenge of the Sith'' addresses this by having her adoptive father be one of Obi-Wan's [[SecretKeeper Secret-Keepers]].

** Grand Moff Tarkin seems perfectly comfortable with acting like he's Darth Vader's ''superior'' -- and Vader doesn't give any hint of having a problem with it. This sort of dynamic would ''never'' happen in the latter two movies (or even ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', ''{{WesternAnimation/Rebels}}'' and ''Film/RogueOne'', for that matter) -- where Vader is answerable only to the Emperor, commanding Admirals and even disposing of them as he sees fit. It is possible to justify this fairly easily in-universe, however, as Tarkin and presumably a lot more of the Imperial leadership were killed in the explosion of the Death Star, causing Vader to be moved up to TheDragon fully. It's also possible that Vader sees Tarkin as a competent military leader despite the latter's arrogance, and basically gives Tarkin a wide berth and lots of liberties. Vader hates incompetence, as evidenced when he chokes Ozzel and Needa to death. Piett was also considered as a competent admiral as well and Vader appears to work well with him. Considering that Piett was given specific orders in the sixth movie from the Emperor regarding the Battle of Endor, it's likely that the Emperor too sees Tarkin as a worthy tactician and does his best to make sure Vader and Tarkin work well together — confirmed to be the case in one comic in which the Emperor gives Vader leave to Force-choke any subordinate ''except'' Tarkin as his way of keeping them in line. ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' would later establish that Vader knew Tarkin when he was still Anakin Skywalker, lending credence to the idea that he holds more respect for him than most other Imperial officers. As originally written, Tarkin is insinuated to outrank every Imperial in the movie--including Vader--and his easily ordering Vader to stop choking Motti is therefore a superior ordering a subordinate to not kill another subordinate, but the exact wording still works with the later context of Vader being Palpatine's immediate subordinate by coming across as telling him to stop because he'd made his point about his Force abilities.
** The Imperials' treatment of Vader in this film, in general, is vastly different from the films made later; despite Vader obviously having high status, he comes across more like a weird annoyance that they are required to keep around rather than anyone they have real respect for. Admiral Motti in particular sneers in Vader's face, decries his Force abilities, and has the nerve to talk back to him at all; while Motti pays for his outburst, he and the others seem to be surprised by Vader's reaction, whereas in ''Empire'' and ''Jedi'' Imperial officers tremble with fear at the mere sight of Vader, clearly aware of [[YouHaveFailedMe what fate awaits them]] if they somehow get on the Dark Lord of the Sith's bad side. It can be inferred that with the one Imperial subordinate Vader was not allowed to Force-choke gone, they realized that when it comes to Vader, ''anything'' goes.
** The opening scenes have Vader receiving (fairly sensible) critical feedback from an Imperial officer and actually taking it in stride, something that would never happen at any other point in the franchise. Expanded universe material would clarify that this particular officer is just really competent, and as such Vader has enough regard for him to accept critical feedback as long as he remained respectful.
** More generally, the relationships between the characters can seem a little bizarre in retrospect -- and this is caused by two relationships having not actually been ''established'' yet from the perspective of ANH's script: Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker and Luke & Leia.
*** Firstly, the movie seems to treat Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker as separate people... because, in this script as written and shot, they ''were''. The Skywalker family twists weren't laid out until the sequels, and there's some oddness as a result. For example, Kenobi calls Vader "Darth" as if Darth is his first name and not a Sith title, because it ''was'' intended as a first name when the movie was shot; in retrospect, it comes off as Obi-Wan [[ThatManIsDead consciously differentiating between his former pupil and the monster he became]], which ''is'' consistent with the view of the subject that Obi-Wan expresses in ''Jedi''. In addition, Sir Alec Guinness's acting manages to sell, likely through simple good luck, that Obi-Wan is hiding things from Luke (like when he first sees R2 with a sort of twinkle in his eye or how he briefly hesitates when Luke asks what happened to his father). The idea of Anakin and Vader being distinct individuals was later "canonized" as far as most people in-universe were concerned: the official story as to what happened to Anakin was that he died defending the Jedi Temple from Vader during the events of ''Revenge of the Sith'', and it wasn't until sometime between ''Return of the Jedi'' and ''The Force Awakens'' that it became public knowledge that Anakin and Vader were one and the same.
*** Also, some of the scenes with Luke and Leia (never mind some of those posters) seem a little weirdly incestuous now... and that's because, in the movie as shot, Luke and Leia ''aren't'' meant to be related. In ''A New Hope'', Leia was simply intended as a noble who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and then in the right place at the right time, one might say, and as a result the mild flirtatious elements were supposed to be completely innocent and expected of the movie's genre. It wasn't until a couple drafts into writing ''Return of the Jedi'' that Lucas decided that Leia was Luke's sister, which also explains why they were still teasing the possibility of a love triangle well into ''Empire''.
*** The two combined also lead to one other bit of weirdness: Leia's captivity ''right next to her dad''. In the movie as shot, by itself, there's nothing odd because Vader and Leia aren't related at all, so he has no reason to take note of her beyond a tool for information. In the context of the rest of the movies and ''any'' EU material, even post-reset material, not only is it very strange that he doesn't notice a strong similarity to both Padme and ''himself'' in Leia, but the Force should be all but screaming at Vader that he is related to Leia -- even through the veil of the dark side. Note that Vader ''does'' react to feeling Luke's presence, but never identifies Luke as his son, just as a particularly powerful Force-sensitive. ''Revenge of the Sith'' would establish that Anakin believed his and Padme's child (not knowing she was having twins) had died as well when he accidentally killed her, and he didn't learn that his son had survived until sometime before ''Empire Strikes Back'' and never learned that Leia was the other, only that Luke had a sister after reading his feelings during their final duel.
*** There's nothing in this film that even indicates Darth Vader is ''human'', let alone Luke's father. All of the other unusually tall characters are aliens, so why wouldn't Vader be one? Also, there is no mention or even hint that Vader is a {{Cyborg}} -- the first suggestion of him requiring the suit to live occurs in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', and Obi-Wan confirms that he is "more machine than man" in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi''.
*** It's implied that Anakin and Owen grew up together on Tatooine before Anakin left to become a Jedi, as Obi-Wan notes Owen wished Anakin had "stayed here." In the prequel trilogy, Anakin left Tatooine long before he even became Owen's step-brother, and was already a Jedi during their brief interactions in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones''. And while Owen saying he's afraid of Luke becoming like his father takes on a new meaning after ''Empire'', it doesn't really make sense that Owen would be aware that Anakin is Vader, unless Obi-Wan told him, nor that Beru would see "too much" of the angry, brooding Anakin she met in ''Clones'' in Luke.
** Luke refers to the red astromech droid that blows up as an "R2" unit. It became known years later that astromech droids are not limited to R2-series units, though Luke probably didn't know either.
** Admiral Motti's description of the Force as a "sad devotion to that ancient religion" seems downright bizarre, given that its existence was treated as common knowledge in the Prequel Trilogy, a timeframe in which Motti would almost certainly have been alive (albeit very young). This is largely because when the film was written Lucas envisioned exact knowledge of the Force and Jedi powers to be something which only a select few had knowledge of, which was gradually contradicted by the Expanded Universe novels and comics, and then jettisoned altogether by ''The Phantom Menace''. Some later novels, such as the ''Republic Commando'' novels, took some steps to try and square the two perspectives, but with limited success.
** Darth Vader has NoIndoorVoice for most of his scenes on the ''Tantive IV'', and yells at prisoners and officers alike with abandon. This is a stark contrast to all his subsequent scenes and the sequels, where he is TheStoic and expresses his anger solely through TranquilFury. His voice is also somewhat higher-pitched than in the later movies, where it was also further enhanced to sound more robotic. However, given the events of ''Film/RogueOne'', [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness we at least know why Vader is angry]] during the ''Tantive IV'' scenes....
** The Imperial March {{leitmotif}} does not appear in the film, as it was not composed until ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. Oddly enough, it's the Rebel Fanfare that's more associated with the Empire in this film.
** When Chewie first enters the cockpit of the ''Millennium Falcon'', he bumps his head against a pair of hanging dice. Besides the [[Film/TheStarWarsHolidaySpecial holiday special]], they were not seen again in the rest of the original trilogy, and were not seen again for a ''long'' time in general. They finally reappeared in ''Film/TheLastJedi''. Luke gives them to Leia on Crait, although they're revealed to be an illusion, just as Luke's presence on the planet is. They also appear in ''Film/{{Solo}}'' as the film covers Han's origins.
** Right before Luke returns home to find Owen and Beru dead, he refers to the droids as "robots," something that would not be said in the rest of the series.
** In the cantina, Obi-Wan uses his lightsaber to lop an arm off a barfly. Said arm is then covered in blood, even though it's later shown that lightsabers also cauterize wounds. It was later [[{{Handwave}} Handwaved]] as this particular species (Aqualish) having BizarreAlienBiology that makes them bleed even after lightsaber wounds.
** The film's novelisation -- credited to Lucas -- contains additional weirdness as it is based upon an earlier version of the script.
*** Among these is an eye-opening reference to ducks; considering that every other piece of wildlife seen in the franchise has a non-Earth name this was considered somewhat odd. (As was the context of the statement which seemed to hint that Obi-Wan knew of Earth, likely predating the decision to set the film in "a galaxy far, far away.") There was a half-hearted attempt at rationalizing this in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' by showing actual ducks on the planet Naboo, but even then the ExpandedUniverse works referred to them as pelikki. Luke also recalls owning a dog.
*** One of the biggest differences in the novelization is a passage describing Emperor Palpatine as an ambitious politician who has fallen under the control of various advisors and [[YesMan yes-men]] -- a far cry from the later EvilSorcerer who serves as the GreaterScopeVillain of the franchise. Some of the earlier tabletop RPG sourcebooks attempted to explain this as being the general perception of Palpatine among the public and lower ranks of the military, but the prequels made nonsense of that explanation.
*** An even bigger departure from the eventual canon is that, while Palpatine is credited with turning the Old Republic into the Empire, the novel makes it clear that this was long ago, and that there have been other emperors since then. In fact the Empire itself wasn't necessarily a bad thing at first, and the current situation is only the result of Vader's influence on the "later corrupt emperors".
** The lightsaber duel between Obi-Wan and Darth Vader.
*** For those familiar with the fast-paced, high-flying lightsaber duels of later films (especially the prequels), the fateful final showdown between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker is... pretty stiff and rigid. Both are holding their lightsabers with both hands. George Lucas originally intended for Jedi to wield their lightsabers with both hands and fight like traditional swordsmen, much like some of the heroes in old serials that inspired George. By ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', Luke and Vader's duel involves a lot of jumping and often using one hand to fight with lightsabers, as shown in the Prequel Trilogy, though there were hints of it in their fight in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack''. According to George in the DVD commentary, the duel in ''A New Hope'' is retconned to be because Obi-Wan is old and out of practice and Vader is part-machine (and also wants to humor Obi-Wan and humiliate him).
*** Similarly, in some shots Vader's lightsaber appears to be far longer than usual. It's most notable when we see him fighting Obi-Wan from a distance in the hangar, and it looks almost twice as long as Obi-Wan's. This was justified in ''Legends'' EU material as Vader's blade being a rare "dual phase lightsaber" that can extend and retract in length thanks to an extra Kyber crystal, though this nifty feature is never explicitly shown in any other media.
*** Older ''Legends'' EU material did attempt a somewhat more graceful explanation, in revealing that there are (as one might logically suspect for such a long-lived weapon and knightly order) multiple ''forms'' or stances of lightsaber combat, and the way that Vader and Kenobi fight is treated as both using a traditional, somewhat defensively-oriented dueling form. Precisely how much of this is still true post-Disney remains unclear.
*** On a related note, the fact that the main lightsaber duel takes place some time before the final battle. Starting with ''Empire Strikes Back'', the big lightsaber duel happens toward the end, and the final act of ''A New Hope'' is instead just the starfighter battle, which is also the only space battle in the series where the BigBad directly takes part in the dogfight (until ''Film/TheLastJedi'', anyway).
*** It's even more obvious after ''Film/RogueOne'' showed Vader inflicting a full-on MookHorrorShow immediately before the start of this movie and ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsRebels'' showed that Obi-Wan had defeated Maul in a SingleStrokeBattle just a few months before (and had also shown Vader utterly dominating that series' heroes in a fight they barely escaped).
** In this film, Han is very much a drawling cowboy type. In the next two films, he abruptly becomes much more of a James Bond-style hero. Justified as being with the Rebels has changed his outlook somewhat. Furthermore, in this movie Han says he doesn't believe in the Force and he's never found any evidence of it in his travels. Later films clearly establish that Jedi are well-known throughout the galaxy and very recently (less then 20 years before ''A New Hope'') used to play a major role in galaxy politics. As such, it is inconceivable that someone who has traveled all over the galaxy would be unfamiliar with it.
** The portrayal of the Force is much subtler than in subsequent movies. For the most part the Force is not a visible superpower. Instead it's mostly mental: Obi-Wan can make Stormtroopers see, hear and say what he wants them to, it guides Luke when he's training with the remote and when he destroys the Death Star, and Obi-Wan and Vader have a sixth sense that heightens their intuition. The most tangible appearance of the Force are when Obi-Wan's body disappears and when Vader chokes Motti -- and given the context of everything else in the movie, the Force-choke here seems more likely to be a form of mind trick rather than actually telekinetically strangling someone. It's not until ''Empire'' that more familiar Force abilities, such as telekinesis, appear. The Force in ''A New Hope'' can be written off by cynics as a combination of tricks and luck, but no-one could deny Luke summoning his lightsaber to his hand like in ''Empire.''
** In the scene with Jabba that was re-added to the 1997 Special Edition onwards, Han comes across as quite short-tempered and dismissive towards Jabba, something that flies in the face of the latter's reputation as one of the most feared crime lords in the galaxy. This was because in the script, Jabba was written as being a small-time gangster with an inflated ego, albeit one who could still make Han's life seriously inconvenient. The Special Edition tries to square the difference between this and Jabba's more established characterization by tweaking his dialogue to imply that Han had been reliably working for him long enough (something backed up years later by ''Film/{{Solo}}'') that Jabba gave him more leeway than he would most men in Han's position, but by the time of ''Empire Strikes Back'' he's clearly lost his patience with Han and put out a bounty on him.

** Stormtroopers here are much more talkative than in later entries, to the point where some come across as PunchClockVillains. The two troopers that Obi-Wan mind tricks on the Death Star are having a casual conversation (one whose dialogue implies other troopers do likewise, even) and troopers are frequently shown hollering commands, a far cry from the mostly silent enforcers seen later on.
** Obi-Wan doesn't seem to be very good at living in exile, with him wearing what the prequel trilogy establishes to be his Jedi robes, using an alias that includes his real last name and whipping out a lightsaber in a public setting. Owen even feels comfortable calling him a "wizard" in front of Luke, suggesting he's made a reputation for himself; for any other Jedi after the events of ''Revenge of the Sith'', this would be a fatal mistake. Some of this would be explained in other media by suggesting Kenobi is a fairly common last name (though this conflicts with Luke instantly assuming Obi-Wan is connected to Ben, though this could be explained by Luke not knowing that many people), and Obi-Wan believing Vader would never come to Tatooine due to the painful memories of his past, giving him relative leeway in his behavior. There's also the fact that Leia knew right where to find him and approach him for help; ''Revenge of the Sith'' addresses this by having her adoptive father be one of Obi-Wan's [[SecretKeeper Secret-Keepers]].

*** Among these is an eye-opening reference to ducks; considering that every other piece of wildlife seen in the franchise has a non-Earth name this was considered somewhat odd. (As was the context of the statement which seemed to hint that Obi-Wan knew of Earth, likely predating the decision to set the film in "a galaxy far, far away.") There was a half-hearted attempt at rationalizing this in ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' by showing actual ducks on the planet Naboo, but even then the ExpandedUniverse works referred to them as pelikki.

** Grand Moff Tarkin seems perfectly comfortable with acting like he's Darth Vader's ''superior'' -- and Vader doesn't give any hint of having a problem with it. This sort of dynamic would ''never'' happen in the latter two movies (or even ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', ''{{WesternAnimation/Rebels}}'' and ''Film/RogueOne'', for that matter) -- where Vader is answerable only to the Emperor, commanding Admirals and even disposing of them as he sees fit. It is possible to justify this fairly easily in-universe, however, as Tarkin and presumably a lot more of the Imperial leadership were killed in the explosion of the Death Star, causing Vader to be moved up to TheDragon fully. It's also possible that Vader sees Tarkin as a competent military leader despite the latter's arrogance, and basically gives Tarkin a wide berth and lots of liberties. Vader hates incompetence, as evidenced when he chokes Ozzel and Needa to death. Piett was also considered as a competent admiral as well and Vader appears to work well with him. Considering that Piett was given specific orders in the sixth movie from the Emperor regarding the Battle of Endor, it's likely that the Emperor too sees Tarkin as a worthy tactician and does his best to make sure Vader and Tarkin work well together — confirmed to be the case in one comic in which the Emperor gives Vader leave to Force-choke any subordinate ''except'' Tarkin as his way of keeping them in line. ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' would later establish that Vader knew Tarkin when he was still Anakin Skywalker, lending credence to the idea that he holds more respect for him than most other Imperial officers.