History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / StarWars

* ''Literature/TheAdventuresOfLandoCalrissian'' came out inbetween ''Empire'' and ''Return'', and, similar to ''Splinter'', has a fair amount of weirdness. There are several details which [[EarthDrift seem too Earthlike for the setting,]] such as Lando smoking a cigar at one point. The Galactic Empire is referred to as the ''Centrality'' a few times, something that never happens again. In ''Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of ThonBoka'', Lando has to help save the Oswaft, a race of ''huge'' (around 500-1000 meters across) manta ray-like creatures that live in outer space and have natural hyperspace travel, from the Empire. While he succedes in saving them, they [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse never show up again,]] even though you'd think they'd help him out with things like the Battle of Endor or the Yuuzhan Vong War. Finally There is a Dark-Side user named Rokar Gepta, who is ''not'' a Sith, but rather the [[LastOfHisKind last of]] the [[EvilSorcerer Sorcerers Of Tund]] who has a Force power named ''Torture By Chagrin'', which [[MindRape forces the victim to relive all the painful and humiliating moments of their life.]] This power doesn't show up again until ''ComicBook/StarWarsLegacy'' (which is chronologically over a hundred years later), with Darth Maladi using it, even though you would think Palpatine, being the supposed greatest Sith Lord and Dark Side user of all time would have access to it.

* There's nothing to suggest that red lightsabers are ''only'' used by Sith, either. Expanded Universe material that came out around this time tended to assume that lightsaber color was entirely a matter of personal choice, with no relation to the user's alignment or affiliation, and there were a fair number of Jedi who used red lightsabers--Luke himself made a secondary, shorter red lightsaber that he used in tandem with his main, green one to counter Lumiya's lightwhip in the [[ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977 Marvel comic]], and in ''[[Literature/TheCorellianTrilogy Ambush at Corellia]]'' he gifts Leia another lightsaber with a red blade--as well as unusual colors like purple or yellow being much more common. Even after ''The Phantom Menace'' showed Darth Maul's lightsaber to also be red, the comics continued to suggest that lightsabers came in a greater variety of colors among both Jedi and Sith. It wasn't until ''Attack of the Clones'', which features a small army of Jedi using only blue and green lightsabers, that the idea that other colors were very rare and only the Sith used red became cemented[[note]]The reason for this, in Canon at least, is because kyber crystals -- the lightsaber's main power source -- do not take on a red color naturally and are attuned to the Light Side of the Force, taking on their color based on the wielder's personality, with blue and green being the most prominent colors. A blue blade signifies a "Jedi Guardian", or a a Jedi who focuses primarily on lightsaber combat. A green blade signifies a "Jedi Consuler", a Jedi who focuses on negotiation and Force connection. In order for a Dark Sider to use a kyber crystal, they must "bleed" it by using the Dark Side of the Force to bend the crystal to their will, which results in the red blade. Former Jedi who become Sith will either bleed their own crystals or take one from a Jedi they've slain. A Light Side Force user can "heal" a crystal that has been bled, which will cause it to give the blade a white color. Ahsoka Tano's white lightsabers were the result of her healing crystals taken from Inquisitors[[/note]]. Ironically, that film also debuted Mace Windu's purple lightsaber - when in the comics, toys and video games released after ''Phantom Menace'' but before ''Clones'', his saber was always depicted as ''blue''. This was due to Creator/SamuelLJackson requesting a purple blade during filming of ''Clones'' because he wanted his character to stand out[[note]]The explanation for this one is that purple lightsabers belong to primarily Light Side users who can tap into the Dark Side as needed without falling to it, and Mace is shown in various media to be able to do just this[[/note]].

* There's nothing to suggest that red lightsabers are ''only'' used by Sith, either. Expanded Universe material that came out around this time tended to assume that lightsaber color was entirely a matter of personal choice, with no relation to the user's alignment or affiliation, and there were a fair number of Jedi who used red lightsabers--Luke himself made a secondary, shorter red lightsaber that he used in tandem with his main, green one to counter Lumiya's lightwhip in the [[ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977 Marvel comic]], and in ''[[Literature/TheCorellianTrilogy Ambush at Corellia]]'' he gifts Leia another lightsaber with a red blade--as well as unusual colors like purple or yellow being much more common. Even after ''The Phantom Menace'' showed Darth Maul's lightsaber to also be red, the comics continued to suggest that lightsabers came in a greater variety of colors among both Jedi and Sith. It wasn't until ''Attack of the Clones'', which features a small army of Jedi using only blue and green lightsabers, that the idea that other colors were very rare and only the Sith used red became cemented[[note]]The reason for this, in Canon at least, is because kyber crystals -- the lightsaber's main power source -- do not take on a red color naturally and are attuned to the Light Side of the Force. In order for a Dark Sider to use a kyber crystal, they must "bleed" it by using the Dark Side of the Force to bend the crystal to their will. Former Jedi who become Sith will either bleed their own crystals or take one from a Jedi they've slain. A Light Side Force user can "heal" a crystal that has been bled, which will cause it to give the blade a white color. Ahsoka Tano's white lightsabers were the result of her healing crystals taken from Inquisitors[[/note]]. Ironically, that film also debuted Mace Windu's purple lightsaber - when in the comics, toys and video games released after ''Phantom Menace'' but before ''Clones'', his saber was always depicted as ''blue''. This was due to Creator/SamuelLJackson requesting a purple blade during filming of ''Clones'' because he wanted his character to stand out[[note]]The explanation for this one is that purple lightsabers belong to primarily Light Side users who can tap into the Dark Side as needed without falling to it, and Mace is shown in various media to be able to do just this[[/note]].

* There's nothing to suggest that red lightsabers are ''only'' used by Sith, either. Expanded Universe material that came out around this time tended to assume that lightsaber color was entirely a matter of personal choice, with no relation to the user's alignment or affiliation, and there were a fair number of Jedi who used red lightsabers--Luke himself made a secondary, shorter red lightsaber that he used in tandem with his main, green one to counter Lumiya's lightwhip in the [[ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977 Marvel comic]], and in ''[[Literature/TheCorellianTrilogy Ambush at Corellia]]'' he gifts Leia another lightsaber with a red blade--as well as unusual colors like purple or yellow being much more common. Even after ''The Phantom Menace'' showed Darth Maul's lightsaber to also be red, the comics continued to suggest that lightsabers came in a greater variety of colors among both Jedi and Sith. It wasn't until ''Attack of the Clones'', which features a small army of Jedi using only blue and green lightsabers, that the idea that other colors were very rare and only the Sith used red became cemented[[note]]The reason for this, in Canon at least, is because kyber crystals -- the lightsaber's main power source -- do not take on a red color naturally and are attuned to the Light Side of the Force. In order for a Dark Sider to use a kyber crystal, they must "bleed" it by using the Dark Side of the Force to bend the crystal to their will. Former Jedi who become Sith will either bleed their own crystals or take one from a Jedi they've slain. A Light Side Force user can "heal" a crystal that has been bled, which will cause it to give the blade a white color. Ahsoka Tano's white lightsabers were the result of her healing crystals taken from Inquisitors[[/note]]. Ironically, that film also debuted Mace Windu's purple lightsaber - when in the comics, toys and video games released after ''Phantom Menace'' but before ''Clones'', his saber was always depicted as ''blue''. This was due to Creator/SamuelLJackson requesting a purple blade during filming of ''Clones'' because he wanted his character to stand out.

* Compare and contrast how later stories firmly portray Force Lightning as a move only used by Sith (to the point that Rey doing it ''accidentally'' is treated as worrying) to stuff like ''VideoGame/JediKnightJediAcademy'', where one of the first things you hear is Kyle Katarn, a member of the Jedi Council and one of the greatest Jedi of his generation, literally saying "powers aren't inherently good or evil, it's how you use them"; an idea later demonstrated when Katarn himself casually hurls around Force Lightning like it's no biggie, and game mechanics allow his new apprentice Jaden Korr to learn it right from the get-go, resulting in some inconsistency when later novels starring Korr establish that he's heavily worried about how easily he can call upon Force Lightning. The ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' video games make a sort of middle step by showing that yes, Force powers are not unforgivably restricted to an alignment or another, it's just that an affinity to the Dark Side makes it easier to use some of them (the most aggressive or conventionally "evil") while the Light Side eases the opposite kind (like those who heal).

** 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.

* 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.

* Grand Moff Tarkin seems perfectly comfortable with acting like he's Darth Vader's superior -- and even weirder, 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/StarWarsRebels'' and ''Film/RogueOne'', for that matter), where Vader is a tyrannical, dictatorial head honcho answerable only to the Emperor, commanding Admirals and even [[YouHaveFailedMe disposing of them as he sees fit]].[[note]]Creator/KieronGillen's ''ComicBook/StarWarsDarthVader'' comics ended up [[RevisitingTheRoots 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 or execute 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. Other comics have also had Palpatine trying to do everything possible to keep Vader too busy and distracted to overthrow him as per the usual "Rule of Two" among the Sith, including explicitly demoting Vader and forcing him to be a subordinate to certain figures in the military, creating rivals for Vader and pitting them against each other, giving Vader tasks and quests to keep him busy and running all over the galaxy, etc.[[/note]] Given that Lucas had [[WhatCouldHaveBeen originally planned]] for the Emperor to be a [[PuppetKing powerless figurehead at the mercy of his advisors]] (which is even how he's described in the official novelization), it's possible that Tarkin was originally intended to be one of the top-level advisors who really ran the Empire (the UsefulNotes/HidekiTojo to Palpatine's Hirohito, in other words), with Vader merely being his [[TheBrute brutish enforcer]]; since Lucas didn't settle on the Emperor being a malevolent EvilSorcerer until [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack the next film]], the idea of Vader being his apprentice likely wouldn't have occurred to him at the time. Partly to explain this, in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' Tarkin and Anakin meet and hit it off quite well. In that context, it comes across that Tarkin is able to order Vader around because he's one of the only people Vader actually respects.

** Read ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' and you'll quickly realize that while later developments and retcons made sense of the oddities, at the time Creator/TimothyZahn was clearly writing under the impression that the Clone Wars was something involving the Jedi fighting ''against'' an evil army of clones that invaded the Republic. Similarly, the writers of ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' thought the Clone Wars were fought over ''cloning ethics'' instead of being a civil war where a significant chunk of the Republic seceded. Some writers also seemed to think that the Clone Wars happened a lot longer ago than they did (around 40 years before the OT as opposed to the 20 or so that turned out the be the case)--much like how the destruction of the Jedi was implied to have taken place much longer ago than it was eventually established--and/or thought they were a separate conflict unrelated to the Jedi Purge and the rise of the Empire.

* The visual design of the lightsabers change from scene to scene. Originally it was intended to use on-set PracticalEffects with reflective tape on the blades to create a glowing effect, with a motor in the hilt to make it spin and look like it is pulsing with energy. The effect was unreliable and inconsistent in quality (the props were understandably delicate so the fight scenes couldn't be too intense) so in post-production was largely replaced with {{Rotoscoping}} effects, but individual shots remain where Luke's blade is ''very'' pale rather than the blue it is supposed to be as well as wobbling to match the spinning prop. Later films and the prequels used rotoscoping by default, though the sequels would have LED blades to illuminate the characters and environment before still rotoscoping for consistency (the TV shows would away with the LED blades with minimal post-production).

* The ''Executor'' Super Star Destroyer doesn't show up until the next movie, even though the latter two movies imply he's always commanding it. He instead is just in charge of a normal (Imperial-Class) Star Destroyer. As the ''Executor'' doesn't show up during the Battle Of Yavin it's likely the writers hadn't thought of it yet, as ''is'' at Endor the protect the Death Star II.

* The visual design of the lightsabers change from scene to scene. Originally it was intended to use on-set PracticalEffects with reflective tape on the blades to create a glowing effect, with a motor in the hilt to make it spin and look like it is pulsing with energy. The effect was unreliable and inconsistent in quality (the props were understandably delicate so the fight scenes couldn't be too intense) so in post-production was largely replaced with {{Rotoscope}}d effects, but individual shots remain where Luke's blade is ''very'' pale rather than the blue it is supposed to be as well as wobbling to match the spinning prop. Later films and the prequels used rotoscoping by default, though the sequels would have LED blades to illuminate the characters and environment before still rotoscoping for consistency ().

* Overlapping with TechnologyMarchesOn: the way the Death Star plans are depicted in this movie seems very dated and odd. They are treated almost like a physical, on-paper blueprint for a building, rather than a bunch of data (which is what they are), with no one thinking of or even suggesting making multiple copies in case the Empire manages to destroy the one they have, likely because the writers didn't realize this was possible. There's also Motti's now-infamous line where he refers to the plans as the "stolen data '''tapes'''", suggesting the Star Wars Galaxy uses something akin to cassette or [=VHS=] tapes despite being centuries or more ahead of Earth technologically. We even see the plans briefly, and they even look kind of like a [=VHS=] tape. This last detail was given something of a visual {{Retcon}} in ''Film/RogueOne'' (which shows how the rebels found and stole the plans), where they are now depicted as being stored on a futuristic [=USB=]-stick-like device.

* What a Hutt precisely ''is'' hadn't been nailed down at the time of Jabba's first-ever mention--it was only in ''Return of the Jedi'' half a decade later when he finally debuted and became codified as an alien slug monster. For all the audience knew, "Hutt" was a fictional title not unlike "Moff" rather than a race and Jabba could easily have been human, which really ''was'' the case when the restored Special Edition scene was originally shot. At that time, he was played by a similarly large but normal human actor, one Declan Mulholland, which is why Jabba is so much smaller (and more mobile, "walking" alongside Han while they talk) in the Special Edition of ''A New Hope'' than he is basically anywhere else, being a computer-generated effect superimposed over Mulholland. The official Marvel tie-in comics for the film went in a different direction and ''did'' make Jabba an alien, [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/JabbaHut.jpg though a yellow humanoid one with a resemblance to a cat or walrus]]. Both of these possibilities were of course overridden with Jabba's official film appearance and establishing that the Hutts are a whole species.

* During his chat with Luke Obi-Wan's ghost strongly implies that Vader's [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul cyborg parts are part of why turned to the Dark Side]], saying that Vader is "More machine now than man. Twisted and evil." Luke himself gains a prosthetic hand, whose symbolism doesn't get lost when he chops off Vader's and he realizes both of them have one. There's no evidence anywhere else in the franchise that having robotic parts turns you evil, and the prequels make clear that Anakin's FaceHeelTurn was previous and completely unrelated to him becoming a {{Cyborg}}. Anakin had already turned to the Dark Side before receiving most of his cybernetics (all he had was his mechanical right arm). His slaughtering of an entire Tusken Raider tribe in ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' (including the women and children) happened when he was still 100% flesh and blood.

** 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, because it ''was'' intended as a first name when the movie was shot. After the reveal that Vader was really Anakin Skywalker, the prequel trilogy established "Darth" as a title held by all Sith, with Palpatine being given the Sith pseudonym Darth Sidious and his first two apprentices being called Darth Maul and Darth Tyranus (who's more commonly referred to by his true identity of Count Dooku, due to him being the public face of the Confederacy of Independent Systems). 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''. ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'' would later reinforce this interpretation, with Obi-Wan calling Vader "Darth" after finally accepting ThatManIsDead. 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 noblewoman 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''. This also affected a few very early expanded universe works, most notoriously ''Literature/SplinterOfTheMindsEye'', which has ''a lot'' of very obvious Luke/Leia ShipTease that now feels incredibly uncomfortable, and the [[ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel1977 Marvel comic series]], which heavily pushed Luke and Leia together (even ignoring the Han/Leia teasing from ''Empire'') until ''Return of the Jedi'' forced them to very suddenly nix the idea entirely and start pushing Luke with [[GirlOfTheWeek someone new every issue or so]].

* While there's a lot of potential treachery floating around the idea of Luke turning to the Dark Side, it is also clear that, on some level, Palpatine would be perfectly okay with the idea of a ''triumvirate'', with Luke and Vader being co-equal under him and his main goal is just to subvert Luke (and assuming that the destruction of the Rebels will be guaranteed if he pulls it off, which it nearly is). Back in '83, the Rule of Two hadn't been introduced yet - the concept that a Sith only has ''one'' apprentice, and that said apprentice is watched for treachery and is ''expected'' to be treacherous and eventually usurp their master's position as proof of their superiority. There's no real hint of that in this script, with Vader being the sole apprentice-but-still-master-himself simply due to the paucity of force sensitives in the OT. The situation in this film inspired the very idea, however, and in the [=90s=] the Rule of Two became canon, with it being an explicit part of ''The Phantom Menace''. This does, however, make Palpatine's behavior here a little odd in retrospect; while it could be waved away as Palps simply not putting that much stock in Sith tradition (which remains something of a theme with him in the Prequel Trilogy), he does generally stick to the Rule if only to avoid challenges to his authority, so it comes off as odd here that he might be cool with a triumvirate. (There ''is'' plenty of material in ''[=RotJ=]'' itself suggesting he also ''expects'' it'll ultimately be Vader offing Luke and becoming Palpatine's forever, or Luke replacing Vader via patricide, but this is more just evil gloating and is written as a Palps-specific thing rather than some kind of Sith Rule.)

* While there's a lot of potential treachery floating around the idea of Luke turning to the Dark Side, it is also clear that, on some level, Palpatine would be perfectly okay with the idea of a ''triumvirate'', with Luke and Vader being co-equal under him and his main goal is just to subvert Luke (and assuming that the destruction of the Rebels will be guaranteed if he pulls it off, which it nearly is). Back in '83, the Rule of Two hadn't been introduced yet - the concept that a Sith only has ''one'' apprentice, and that said apprentice is watched for treachery and is ''expected'' to be treacherous and eventually usurp their master's position as proof of their superiority. There's no real hint of that in this script, with Vader being the sole apprentice-but-still-master-himself simply due to the paucity of force sensitives in the OT. The situation in this film inspired the very idea, however, and in the [=90s=] the Rule of Two became canon, with it being an explicit part of ''The Phantom Menace''. This does, however, make Palpatine's behavior here a little odd in retrospect; while it could be waved away as Palps simply not putting that much stock in Sith tradition (which remains something of a theme with him in the Prequel Trilogy), he does generally stick to the Rule if only to avoid challenges to his authority, so it comes off as odd here that he might be cool with a triumvirate (though there's just as much material suggesting he also ''expects'' it'll ultimately be Vader offing Luke and becoming Palpatine's forever, or Luke replacing Vader via patricide).

* Due to a combination of [[RealLifeWritesThePlot a lower special effects budget and CGI not being available then,]] almost all of the planets [[AllPlanetsAreEarthlike are rather Earth-like,]] with Bespin being the only one that couldn't actually pass for somewhere on Earth. They were also all shot on location except for Bespin and Dagobah (they apparently originally planned to film the Dagobah scenes in a real swamp, but realized that would be far too dangerous). We also don't see ''any'' shots of the surface of Alderaan before it's destroyed, despite it being of pivotal importance to the story, which also seems very odd in retrospect. The Prequels have a lot more CGI and a lot more alien-seeming planets, such as [[CityPlanet Coruscant]], Kamino (an ocean planet), and Felucia (a planet with a bunch of [[FungusHumongous giant mushrooms and tentacle-like plants everywhere.]]) Even most of the fairly Earth-like planets have some alien locations, such as the underwater city on Naboo. We also finally see Alderaan in ''Revenge of the Sith'', but only a brief glimpse near the end. We don't see it properly until "Part I" of ''Obi-Wan Kenobi''. Curiously, the Sequel Trilogy goes back to having mostly Earth-like planets. Crait is probably the most alien (being basically a desert with salt instead of sand), and even that's not ''that'' far-fetched, as salt flats exist on Earth. This could have been a deliberate decision on Disney's part to WinBackTheCrowd by avoiding the infamous digital backlots that resulted in the overuse of CGI in the Prequel Trilogy (at least until the [=StageCraft=] technology developed for ''Series/TheMandalorian'' demonstrated a more naturalistic application of digital sets).

* While his characterization and personality as a NobleDemon and ProudWarriorRaceGuy set in fairly quick after ''The Empire Strikes Back'', it took a '''long''' time for Boba Fett's backstory to get really set in stone, resulting in him having a big MultipleChoicePast going on. One story he would be described as a former stormtrooper who went rogue after murdering his commanding officer, the next he would be a deposed leader of the Mandalorian people, and the next he would be a cop named Jaster Mereel who got exiled from his homeworld for treason. These various contradictory origin stories would eventually be justified as the result of Fett being ShroudedInMyth in-universe, and once the Prequels introduced the skeleton of a more solid origin for him, the EU writers built off that by [[AdaptationDistillation fusing elements from all the prior backstories into one coherent whole]] (so he was now the clone son of a deposed Mandalorian leader and former cop who was exiled from his home for killing his commanding officer, as well as the grandson of Jaster Mereel).

** Owen and Beru do not seem to recognize R2 and 3PO in ''A New Hope'' even though ''Attack of the Clones'' reveals that 3PO lived with the Lars family for several years while Anakin's mother Shmi was married to Owen's father Cliegg, and R2 was with Anakin and Padmé when they visited looking for Shmi. While 3PO had a dull gray outer shell instead of his trademark gold-plated shell when he lived on the Lars' homestead, that still isn't quite enough to explain it away. However, similar to Alec Guinness during the scene where Obi-Wan hesitates to tell Luke that Vader "killed" Anakin, Owen implies that he's owned a protocol droid before while examining 3PO and Owen and Beru's actors give each other concerned looks when Luke is talking about Obi-Wan and the droids, which helps to (retroactively) suggest that they did figure out the droids' identities and are trying to hide the truth from Luke. The scene where Owen orders Luke to have R2's memory wiped takes on a new meaning after watching the prequels.

* This film first brings up the idea that [[WizardsLiveLonger force-sensitive people have longer lifespans]], with Yoda claiming he's 900 years old, although he dies of old age in the same scene. There's nothing in the previous two movies to suggest this, and indeed, ''A New Hope'' even seems to contradict it at one point. Specifically, when Darth Vader says he senses Obi-wan Kenobi on the Death Star Tarkin says that "surely he must be dead by now". Kenobi is canonically only 57 in ''A New Hope'', which isn't that old even for a [[{{Muggle}} normal person,]] let alone a Jedi.

** Read ''Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy'' and you'll quickly realize that while later developments and retcons made sense of the oddities, at the time Creator/TimothyZahn was clearly writing under the impression that the Clone Wars was something involving the Jedi fighting ''against'' an evil army of clones that invaded the Republic. Similarly, the writers of ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'' thought the Clone Wars were fought over ''cloning ethics'' instead of being a civil war where a significant chunk of the Republic seceded. Some writers also seemed to think that the Clone Wars happened a lot longer ago than they did (around 40 years before the OT as opposed to the 20 or so that turned out the be the case), and/or thought they were a separate conflict unrelated to the Jedi Purge and the rise of the Empire.

* Due to the movies being made in TheSeventies and TheEighties, there is nothing akin to the Internet in the Star Wars Galaxy. This seems very odd, as if the Galaxy has invented {{MileLongShip}}s and FasterThanLightTravel, it's a little hard to believe they [[AliensNeverInventedTheWheel wouldn't have invented the Internet.]] The Prequels try to fix this by saying there is something called the Holonet, which is basically the same thing as the Internet.However, this [[VoodooShark raises the obvious question]] of why no one uses or even mentions it in the Original Trilogy, as even if the Empire removed it from civilian use, you'd think the Imperial military would still use it all the time.