Follow TV Tropes

Following

YMMV / Return of the Jedi

Go To

  • Abandon Shipping: While the Luke/Leia ship already had a bit of Ship Sinking in The Empire Strikes Back, the revelation that the two are siblings killed it dead.
  • Alas, Poor Scrappy: Two Ewoks are sent flying by an explosion. One rolls to his feet and tries to pull his friend (family member?) to his feet, only to realize that the other Ewok won't ever be getting up.
  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Darth Vader:
      • His Heel–Face Turn was originally about Luke finally connecting with Vader, but after the Prequel Trilogy, it can be seen as Vader realizing that every step of the way, Luke had endured nominally similar hardships — without succumbing. It's no longer simply about Vader's love of his son, but the implication that all the excuses Vader had told himself — other people holding him back or betraying him or forcing him to do something — were self-delusions, and that he never had to fall. The subsequent attack on Palpatine is no longer merely a Berserk Button of hurting Anakin's family, it's now Anakin returning from the Despair Event Horizon he's languished in for decades.
      • Alternatively, he was less saving Anakin Skywalker's son, and more preserving the last thing left of Padmé.
      • Was Vader's heart truly not in it to help the Empire anymore to the point that he wanted to prep and prompt Luke to take his place with the Emperor in order to preserve his life? Vader initially wanted Luke to help him take out the Emperor and rule with him and yet, Vader knew that despite his power, he could only do all this so much longer—and that even before Luke is being attacked with the Force Lightning, Vader leaning against the railing after having Luke taken away by the Stormtroopers indicates a painful feeling of regret and anguish. It's very hard not to see Vader struggling every step of the way in trying to act like Luke's attempts to push him aren't getting to him and making him question everything to the point that Vader feels like ever since before Empire when he discovered Luke's existencenote , it shifted his focus significantly in continuing to go along with the Empire while his focus more so was on being able to track down and learn all he could about the son he never knew he had before.
    • Is it really against Threepio's programming to impersonate a deity, or is Threepio slyly acting like a passive-aggressive dick to Han on purpose when he refuses to tell the Ewoks to knock it off, as a way to get back at him for four years of abuse?
    • Lando's redemption in the film for his actions in The Empire Strikes Back is not just helping rescue Han from Jabba, but also his actions during the Battle of Endor. In The Empire Strikes Back, he had gone from his past as a professional gambler to a businessman, who tries to play it safe by collaborating with the Empire and is ultimately burned by it. At Endor, by insisting that Admiral Ackbar stick with the plan rather than retreat when the Death Star is revealed to be operational, Lando plays the odds like a born gambler, trusting his friends and knowing that they still have a chance to win everything.
    • Did Luke not know about force lightning and was unprepared for the Emperor's assault? Or did he know and willingly risk his life as part of his plan to redeem his father?
    • When Palpatine tells Vader that he didn't sense Luke's arrival, is that him telling the truth? Or is he lying as part of his questioning of his apprentice's motives?
  • Angst? What Angst?:
    • Vader informs Moff Jerjerrod that the Emperor is quite displeased with his slow construction of the Death Star. When Palpatine himself arrives, he is in a happy mood and convinced things are running exactly as he had hoped.
    • Han Solo has been frozen in carbonite and (according to the novelization) fully conscious for a year by the time he is thawed out. Yet other than having impaired vision for a few days he is no worse for wear.
  • Awesome Music
    • "A Jedi's Fury" is a haunting and mournful elegy that underscores the climax of Luke's battle with Vader, as he comes within a hair's breadth of murdering his own father in a fit of rage and losing his soul forever—and it perfectly encapsulates the moment. "If you will not turn to the Dark Side, then perhaps she will!" Cue Luke going berserk, and the music going right along with him.
    • Victory Celebration, the very last song that plays in the Special Edition. All at once, it's both tremendously powerful and an incredible Tear Jerker, and is easily one of John Williams' best works. Replacing the original Ewok music "Yub Nub" is icing on the cake.
    • The theme for The Battle of Endor brings an air of epic grandeur worthy of such a climax.
  • Badass Decay:
    • Boba Fett. In this theatrical film, he's defeated fairly easily (by a blind man, no less) and (in the Special Edition) he does what might be seen as flirting with some strippers, which annoyed some fans (and his original actor) greatly for ruining his mystique.note 
    • Han Solo becomes a bit of a load, though this is more to show how much Luke and Leia have progressed while he was frozen in carbonite. In general, he also isn't too relevant to the plot, more or less tagging along on the final mission strictly because he's in the group. Perhaps to make up for it, he takes on shades of The Smart Guy via coming up with plans and ultimately saving the day with a clever ruse.
    • While still badass, Darth Vader spends most of the theatrical film kowtowing to the Emperor where the previous two movies saw him as stoicly The Heavy in charge. His conversation with Luke on Endor's moon might be the first example since Mustafar of Vader exhibiting real fear. Much of this is leftover from earlier drafts in which it's made more clear that the Emperor put an end to Vader's treacherous ambitions by reminding him who's Boss with the Dark Side, and he spends the film knowing he's a dead man walking, to be killed by his own son who will go on to take his place at the Emperor's side, and has accepted it under the rationale that at least this means his son will have a prosperous future.
  • Base-Breaking Character: The Ewoks were obviously an attempt to introduce "cute" aliens into the film, but many older fans ended up hating them or at least finding them annoying for their ridiculous Rock Beats Laser victory. Their "cuteness" is supposed to be offset by the fact that they have no problem eating sentients (they were going to eat the heroes after all), but that gets lost in the shuffle when people remember them. That being said, the Ewoks still have their fans, and there are some fans who can't stand them but are willing to tolerate Wicket.
  • Best Known for the Fanservice: This entry in the Star Wars franchise consists of the slave dancer, Leia in a metal bikini, and... something about some teddy bears.
  • Broken Base: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
  • Catharsis Factor:
  • Complete Monster: Palpatine. See the general franchise Monster page.
  • Contested Sequel: By means of Popularity Polynomial. At the time of release, Return of the Jedi was generally considered by fans to be on par or even better than the previous films, earning more at the box office and selling more merchandise than its predecessor, although it was far more divisive among professional film critics. Nowadays, many more fans hold mixed feelings about it in retrospect, as The Empire Strikes Back is more often said to be the best of the entire film series, let alone the Original Trilogy. Although Return of the Jedi is still usually considered better than any of the later films.
  • Continuity Lockout: Unlike the first two films, which you could follow on their own, Jedi fully assumes you've already seen the previous two films, so if you're a newcomer, it can be hard to follow some of the film's story, which has several plot points that build directly on events from the previous films.
  • Critical Dissonance: While still not considered bad by any means, it didn't get as good a reception from critics as the two prior films did, while also being well below its first two proper sequels. Among fans, however, it tends to be much more highly regarded, with some even considering it their favourite or second favourite in the series.
  • Director Displacement: Much like with The Empire Strikes Back, many people think George Lucas directed the whole film, but it was actually Richard Marquand who directed the lion's share of the movie. Muddling things further is that Lucas was constantly present during filming (unlike Empire where Lucas was tied up getting Lucasfilm off the ground and mostly left Irvin Kershner to his own devices) and did ghost-direct parts of the film. And Marquand sadly died shortly afterwards, so unlike Irvin Kershner he didn't get to provide a commentary to make his contributions clear.
  • Discredited Meme: Despite the popularity of "Slave Leia", over time, showing her in memes is seen as bad taste, implying that the fandom only likes the character because she is sexualized, instead of because she is a strong rebel leader.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Admiral Ackbar, thanks to the line "It's a trap!"
    • Continuing from The Empire Strikes Back, Admiral Piett who manages to be one of the few "normal" Imperial figures to be competent and notable. His death is also especially memorable.
    • Salacious Crumb, whose shrill laugh many fans find amusing.
    • Oola the Twi'lek dancer. You can probably guess why.
    • Even among those who genuinely dislike the Ewoks, Wicket has by far the most fans of any of them.
    • Max Rebo is loved by fans for being this strange yet cute blue elephant muppet playing on the organ. Many were delighted when The Book of Boba Fett featured Max Rebo playing in a cantina, confirming that he survived the sail barge explosion.
  • Fanfic Fuel: Since the story in Shadows of the Empire hasn't been re-canonized yet, then it's up for fan-interpretation about how many Bothans died to bring the rebels the information about Death Star II.
  • Fanon: The origin of Luke's green lightsaber crystal in the new Disney canon. In Legends, it was established that Luke made his crystal synthetically like the Sith used to do (although it turned out green rather than red due to Luke's light side energy). However, once Disney rebooted the EU, all lightsaber crystals are now naturally-occurring kyber crystals. Since kyber crystals are rare and sites abundant with them are under heavy Imperial security, it seems unlikely that Luke found his own crystal (which is why he made a synthetic one in Legends). So many fans believe that the crystal in Luke's lightsaber is the one that once belonged to Qui-Gon Jinn. Obi-Wan took possession of Qui-Gon's lightsaber after his death and this collectible figure by Disney seemingly confirms that he still possessed it by the time of A New Hope and Luke found the instructions and some of the parts on how to build one in Obi-Wan's hut. It's not too much of a stretch that Luke would have borrowed the crystal of his master's master, especially since the first lightsaber Luke used was his father's hand-me-down.
  • Fan-Preferred Cut Content:
    • Early plans for the film originally featured the heroes arriving on the planet Kashyyyk and teaming up with a tribe of Wookiees to help overthrow the Empire. However, George Lucas created the Ewoks to take their place, wanting a more primitive race to contrast the technologically-advanced Imperial forces. Many fans prefer the original idea with the Wookiees, as they found the teddy bear-like Ewoks to be too childish by comparison.
    • The Battle of Endor originally contained a subplot where the Emperor orders Moff Jerjerrod to fire the Death Star on Endor, but he hesitates giving the order. Many fans think that this should have been included in the film, as it expands his role and makes him more sympathetic.
  • Fans Prefer the New Her: Leia is infamously forced into the gold bikini by Jabba, and it's meant to be degrading for her. It hasn't stopped years of cosplayers from excitedly replicating it. Or men from fantasizing about it.
  • Fight Scene Failure:
    • A funny little mistake left in that fans affectionately call, the "Force Kick". During the Pit of Carkoon sequence, just after Han accidentally triggers Boba Fett's jetpack, Luke seems to kick one of Jabba's henchmen in the face, but was actually just out of reach.
    • Several of the fights between the Stormtroopers and the Ewoks, who are so small they can't possibly pose a physical threat to full-grown men in armor. In the words of Rifftrax, it looks like the Ewoks gently tap them to death. The intent was probably to show them gaining the upper hand in spite of their primitive equipment through sneaky guerrilla tactics, but it doesn't quite translate.
  • Fountain of Memes:
    • The Emperor. The deliciously evil delivery of his hate-filled lines makes him extremely quotable.
    • Admiral Ackbar, thanks to his hammy lines like "It's a trap!" and "Our cruisers can't repel firepower of that magnitude!". His gravelly voice and Sean Connery-esque accent make doing impressions of him just so much damn fun.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • A Legends Universe version. Remember that little bit in the Special Edition, where a mob on Coruscant is toppling a statue of Emperor Palpatine? Well, in the novel Iron Fist, it's revealed that immediately afterward, a massive number of stormtroopers entered that plaza to "restore order"... by opening up on the crowd on full-auto. No, their blasters weren't set for stun, why do you ask? The canon version isn't all that much rosier, as The Aftermath Trilogy shows that the Imperial forces on the planet brutally suppressed the celebration/riot.
    • Luke's initial anger at Obi-Wan for telling him that Darth Vader killed his father, rather than him actually being his father, was initially waved off as true "from a certain point of view". While it first seemed like a cheap retcon, it was then established in Obi-Wan Kenobi that Darth Vader himself said that he killed Anakin Skywalker to Obi-Wan's face, after Obi-Wan had tried to apologize for failing him. Giving further emphasis to how "many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view".
  • Heartwarming in Hindsight:
    • While Shaw being replaced by Hayden Christensen as Anakin's Force spirit might be divisive, after watching the Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars, it becomes a very powerful moment. Especially true for younger audiences:
      Youtube comment on Victory celebration: Hayden as Anakin at the end isn't a change I agree with... But it's one I understand. After seeing my younger sister watch Star Wars in chronological order, including The Clone Wars, the ending had an enormous impact. Hayden's Anakin was her hero and she finally got to see him return to the side of good. The ending was incredible to her and it really made me appreciate it a lot more too. When you look at something through the eyes of a child, it's an incredible thing to see.
    • Anakin's decision to Face Death with Dignity towards the end becomes more moving when, in Revenge of the Sith, we see that he was lured to the Dark Side with the promise of discovering a way of stopping death. Take into account the prequel trilogy and The Clone Wars cartoon, and we see over and over the Sith refuse to accept death: Palpatine screams defiance until he explodes then devises a way to return from the dead; Lord Vader screams his rage at Obi-Wan on Mustafar and refuses to die until Palpatine comes to transform him into Darth Vader; Maul survives being bisected and spends years more haunting the galaxy as a shadow of himself in the hopes of getting revenge on Palpatine and Obi-Wan. Contrast that with Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Luke peacefully accepting death as a natural part of life and becoming one with the Force. Yin and Yang; life and death are part of the harmony, and being in balance with the Force means accepting both; the Sith reject this and seek to dominate life and death as they seek to dominate all things. Redemption Equals Death aside, the fact that he can accept his death is proof of Anakin's redemption.
    • Luke's lightsaber is modeled after Obi-Wan's, only with a green blade instead of blue. In The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn, the Jedi Master who instructed Obi-Wan and discovered Anakin, is also shown using a green lightsaber. So, Luke has a lightsaber based upon the two Jedi masters in Anakin's life. And like Luke throughout this film, Qui-Gon fervently believes in Anakin's inner goodness while others are skeptical. In addition, the Prequel Trilogy revealed that Yoda used a green blade as well. So this means that Luke's new lightsaber could be modeled both on Obi-Wan's (similar hilt) and Yoda's (same color). He's paying respect to both of his mentors while stepping out of his father's shadow since he no longer uses his father's old blade.
    • Deleted scenes from Revenge of the Sith delve into the origins of the rebellion, showing that it was Padmé who planted the seeds. This casts a new light on Luke redeeming Vader and the subsequent defeat of the Emperor. Luke's journey began out of a desire to follow in his father's footsteps. It ended with him following in his mother's.
    • Luke's insistence that Leia will be the hope for the Rebellion if he fails becomes rather moving—and accurate—when she ends up leading the Resistance against the First Order in The Force Awakens after Luke disappears.
  • He's Just Hiding:
    • For a guy who was eaten by the Rancor, Jubnuk the Gammorrean was heavily speculated to have actually survived, which also caused some edit wars on Wookieepedia. The fact that the popup book Jabba's Palace shows Jubnuk being cut out alive and well from the Rancor's carcass does not help matters, either. This, despite the camera cutting away just as the Rancor is taking a huge bite out of the poor guy's head and upper torso.
    • This happened a lot with Palpatine, which various Legends stories established him surviving in spirit form and resurrecting himself through cloning projects most notably Dark Empire. Then The Rise of Skywalker, in a new continuity, has Palpatine back and as happy as ever.
    • Boba Fett fell into the Sarlacc in the film to his presumed death. However, given his popularity and the fact he carries enough munitions around to outfit a heavy weapons platoon, it was commonly theorized he could have escaped. This first entered official lore in Daniel Keys Moran's short stories in Tales from Jabba's Palace and Tales of the Bounty Hunters, and was recanonized in season 2 of The Mandalorian, with the first episode of The Book of Boba Fett showing how he escaped.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: See the franchise page.
  • It Was His Sled: As the conclusion to the original trilogy, much of the developments in the story have naturally remained in the public consciousness:
    • Leia is Luke's sister. Yoda gives the confirmation of the It Was His Sled moment from The Empire Strikes Back when he tells Luke (and the audience) that Vader is indeed Luke's father as he claimed.
    • Jabba the Hutt is a giant slug monster. While the character is iconic, all that fame does undermine the initial shock of seeing just what Han was talking about back in A New Hope, at least if you're not watching the Special Edition.
    • Darth Vader does a Heel–Face Turn and kills The Emperor before dying himself. This is seen as the most important element of Vader's character and is constantly brought up as why fans of him like him so much.
    • The Death Star blows up and the Empire is fatally weakened, especially since all media that takes place chronologically after this film has this front and center.
    • The Emperor can shoot lightning out of his hands. This came as a surprise at first since we had never seen anything like it in the films, but since then, it has become one of the most well-known force abilities.
  • Jerkass Woobie: When Luke is dropped into the rancor pit, a luckless Gamorrean guard who's standing too close falls in as well and gets eaten. Even considering he's a bad guy, it's hard not to feel a little bad for him as he squeals in helpless terror and tries in vain to climb up the walls to escape.
  • Memetic Molester: Jabba the Hutt. Poor Leia...
  • Memetic Mutation: Has its own page.
  • Memetic Psychopath: The Ewoks. We already know they'll gladly eat humans. Now ask yourself where all those Imperial helmets they used as drums came from. It's all Played for Laughs, but if Leia hadn't arrived in time and Luke hadn't been able to make Threepio levitate, we would've bore witness to Star Wars: The Green Inferno.
  • Most Wonderful Sound: The unique snap-hiss sound that Luke's lightsaber makes when ignited. Other lightsabers in the series occasionally make that sound, but Luke's does that always - and it never gets old.
  • Nausea Fuel: Jabba the Hutt is utterly revolting. As if his appearance, being a giant slug with toad features weren't enough. He completely lacks table manners, eats live prey, probably swallows them live too and is way too interested in his slave girls.
  • Never Live It Down: This theatrical film has its own page that is shared with the rest of the franchise.
  • No Yay: Jabba kidnaps Leia, forces her into a bikini, keeps her close to him on a chain, and makes her sleep next to him at night. Later, he forces her to leap on him so he can tell her he'll make her "appreciate" him.
  • Once Original, Now Common:
    • When Luke defiantly rejects the Emperor once and for all, Palpatine responding by unleashing Force Lightning on him was originally a terrifying moment. Up to that point, the Emperor had given no indication that he was any kind of physical threat to Luke at all, appearing to be nothing more than a weak old man who was dangerous because he commanded the forces of the Empire (including Darth Vader) and because of his ability to Break Them by Talking, so him suddenly shooting crackling lightning which inflicts tortuous pain from his fingers was a shocking twist. By the same token, up to this point the Force had only manifested as a guiding power that made Luke a better warrior and pilot, with its only physical manifestation being telekinesis (which Vader had admittedly used very effectively during his duel against Luke on Cloud City). Force Lightning was a whole new level of power which displayed to frightening effect how powerful the Emperor and his mastery of the Dark Side truly was; indeed, the novelization described it as a horrific perversion of the Force the likes of which Luke hadn't even imagined might be possible. Unfortunately, the expanded universe made it a trademark of every Fallen Jedi and Sith lord, to the point where it came to be considered more or less the default power for them. In the later stages of the Legends continuity, even Light Jedi (including Luke himself) started using it under limited circumstances! The ability had become so overexposed over the decades that going back and watching the climax of Return of the Jedi now makes it hard for a new viewer to see why Palpatine shooting lightning at Luke is such a big deal.
    • Darth Vader's Redemption. At the time, the idea of the series most prominent antagonist sacrificing himself for the heroes at the last minute was probably almost as shocking as the last twist related to his character, and it served to give the trilogy an especially optimistic ending while rounding out Luke's character arc almost perfectly. Decades later, though, a villain like Vader not getting redeemed is seen as more subversive, and countless similar villain redemption arcs including Vader's successor in the franchise have been accused of being Unintentionally Unsympathetic Karma Houdinis, and the arcs for promoting toxic ideas about family or one's ability to save the one's they love. More-fleshed out redemption arcs have also exposed how relatively minimal Vader's is by comparison and the Fridge Logic of why saving his son apparently made him pull a complete personality and ideological 180.
  • One-Scene Wonder:
    • The rancor-keeper (whose name, if you are curious, is Malakili) crying over his dead pet. Roger Ebert pointed that out as "a moment that helps explain the special magic of the Star Wars movies." He went on to get a story to himself in Tales from Jabba's Palace.
    • Sebastian Shaw's (Anakin Skywalker) unmasking scene lasted only two minutes and seven seconds and included just 24 words of dialogue spoken by Shaw, and he received more fan mail and autograph requests than he had for any role in the rest of his career. He also expressed particular surprise that an action figure was made of him from the film.
    • Mon Mothma, Leader of the Rebel Alliance who would go on to be featured prominently in the Expanded Universe, has only one short scene briefing the Rebels on the impending attack on the second Death Star. Her actress, Caroline Blakiston, once noted this, saying that she encountered people who were jealous of her for being in Star Wars, despite only appearing for about "twenty-six and half seconds".
    • A non-human example; the B-wings make their introduction here with the Rebels, but only get a few shots in before they vanish in the thick of the Battle of Endor. This is because the garbage matte effects proved so difficult that they had to be omitted from the majority of the battle seen onscreen.
    • A case that somehow fell from grace is the "You Rebel Scum!" trooper. It became a meme in the days of pre-Internet fandom, but now it's not as remembered.
  • Ron the Death Eater: Some viewers take Obi-Wan's Metaphorically True behaviour as proof that he was selfishly manipulating Luke from the start and coldly setting him up to kill his own father. While keeping the truth from Luke was morally dubious, Obi-Wan had a point — even before the Prequel Trilogy revealed Anakin's actions when he turned to the Dark Side — that there was no evidence that any goodness remained in Vader. He may have been planning to reveal the truth to Luke at some point later on, but was killed before he could do so, and it's also more or less stated that Obi-Wan's "certain point of view" was his own; he sees Anakin as dead. Vader and the Emperor needed to be taken down by any means necessary, and if those means included Vader being killed by his son, so be it. And apart from anything else, saying "Your father turned evil and killed a lot of people" wouldn't really have encouraged Luke to become a Jedi.
  • Slow-Paced Beginning: Some people feel that the film truly begins at the 35-minute mark.
  • Special Effects Failure:
    • The Max Rebo band in both versions, especially with Sy Snootles. In the original, she was a very static puppet. In the SE, she became a more detailed and mobile (albeit cartoonish) CG model that didn't blend properly. Max himself also looks nothing more than a cheap paper-mâché puppet in all versions.
    • The same can be said of Joh Yowza, who on top of being cartoony is also perhaps even more blatantly CGI than even Sy Snootles.
    • A TIE Fighter phases through the Millennium Falcon at one point during the climax. Fixed in the special edition.
    • The Rancor is an impressive looking creature, its integration with the actors... Not so much. This was not even addressed, let alone fixed, until the 2004 re-rerelease. And then again for the Blu-Ray release.
    • The sarlaac was a creature of terrifying simplicity, being essentially a large tentacled mouth whose full form was almost completely buried by the sand. Come the 1997 special edition, it returned with even more tentacles and a blatantly CGI "beak". Most fans felt that the beak took away from the sarlaac's ominous nature and it instead made it look like an enormous Venus Flytrap; the undeniable fakeness of the effect hasn't helped matters.
    • There are times where you can see the eyes of the actors in the Ewok costumes. Unlike most failures, this was never corrected in any rerelease.
    • As with A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back; in the unedited theatrical cut a number of shots featuring TIE Fighters have a faint silhouette of each model's garbage matte.
    • During a shot with Lando and Han in the rebel ship, the background behind them is a very fake-looking matte painting.
    • The Rebel and Imperial starships inserted into many of the backdrops throughout the battle above Endor don't move very convincingly. The fact that they are inserts is especially obvious whenever the camera happens to tilt, as they themselves don't move.
    • In some of the later editions, the greenscreen effects surrounding the Rebel troopers inserted into some of the ground battle shots are unfortunately very hard to miss.
    • When the Executor slams into the surface of the Death Star and explodes into a fireball, the surface is obviously a large-scale model, not helped by the fact that it is largely untextured, which is especially jarring when you glance the truly impressive surfaces of the Executor and the Death Star itself just a few shots earlier. In addition, it rather obviously explodes as if it were in an earthbound studio rather than in space, complete with a mushroom cloud. It doesn't even explode so much as just disappear while and explosion is superimposed over it.
    • The B-wings proved an especially unfortunate instance of this for the filmmakers. Because the garbage matte effects proved too difficult to effectively manage around them, they vanish from the battle almost entirely after just a handful of shots.
    • Upon closer inspection, the X-Wing shot down inside the Death Star is clearly recycled from one of those destroyed during the Battle of Yavin in A New Hope; this would be forgivable if not for the insert appearing translucent against the backdrop. To make matters worse, owing to the larger scale of the battle scene, it's the only fighter destruction shot in the Battle of Endor to receive fully-detailed model work for the explosion rather than the simplified "replace model with cloud of fire" effect used for most ship explosions.
  • Squick: While everything about Jabba is disgusting, his lasciviously licking his lips as he looks at the newly enslaved Leia takes the cake.
  • Take That, Scrappy!: Not in the film itself, but the 2012 guidebook The Essential Guide to Warfare has a section about the Battle of Endor from an Imperial soldier's perspective, and the way he described the Ewoks and their actions during the battle reeked of Nightmare Fuel, almost painting them as being similar to a bunch of Sociopathic Soldiers.
  • Theiss Titillation Theory:
    • Was there any more to Leia's slave girl costume beneath the panels of cloth hanging from front and back of the waistline? According to Carrie Fisher on the commentary, there wasn't, and at times, the cast and crew standing behind her could see "all the way to Florida", as it were.
    • Oola's pasties can be seen through her clothes in a few moments during her dance, and she suffers a wardrobe malfunction as she is being dragged towards Jabba the Hutt, and again as she falls through the trap door. You can still see a short bit of the first malfunction in the current special edition. Older editions have longer scenes.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
    • The musical number "Jedi Rocks", which replaced "Lapti Nek" in the 1997 version (see above) for no discernible reason except that the latter's disco and funk trappings may have made it seem a bit dated. Not only do some fans consider it obnoxious and trying too hard to be funny, but complain that it's overly distracting in the scene itself (Joh Yowza even gets up and yells right into the camera at one point). Ironically, the CG being a product of the 2000s makes the musical number feel even more dated than the funk song it was replacing.
    • Not as widely hated was the change from the "Yub Nub" number at the end of the movie to "Victory Celebration". That said, plenty of older fans who saw the original ending will insist that while the new version isn't bad (and fixed some timing issues with the Ewoks' drumming on the helmets during the scene), it's just another unnecessary change. Meanwhile, fans who saw the Special Edition first don't really mind, since "Yub Nub" wasn't as fitting a song in their eyes.
    • The 2004 rerelease changed the ending so that Sebastian Shaw's face was digitally altered to resemble an aged Hayden Christensen and especially that Christensen appears as Anakin Skywalker's Force spirit instead of Shaw. This caused a LOT of hate to be spewed, particularly at Hayden. This has lessened of late, however, with the revelation that George Lucas made this change by himself with stock footage, and Hayden was apparently never told about this change or had any part in it.
    • Darth Vader's Big "NO!" that was added in the Blu-Ray release was not only criticized for being a Call-Back to a moment from Revenge of the Sith that had been heavily mocked for several years, but also for making Palpatine look like Captain Oblivious for not immediately realizing that Vader was about to turn on him. The change also smacks of Viewers Are Morons, since for decades, fans had understood perfectly what was happening under Vader's mask without the character needing to say anything.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Shares a page with the rest of the films.
  • Ugly Cute:
    • Anakin's face under the Darth Vader mask is horrendously scarred, but looks like a sad old man otherwise.
    • Salacious Crumb is an obnoxious, yet strangely cute monkey-lizard alien.
  • Unfortunate Character Design: One of the background aliens in Jabba's palace, Tessek, appears to have scrota hanging off the back of his neck. His species, the Quarren, would appear in many more works throughout the franchise afterward, but very little has been done to address this design choice over the decades since and as some of these Quarren weren't relegated to background characters, more fans would start to notice (the most that has been in some cases was to cover it up with clothing).
  • Unintentionally Sympathetic: The Rancor became this thanks to its tamer Malakili mourning its death. So much so that the Star Wars Expanded Universe went onto to characterize it as an abused animal who was only violent because of how badly Jabba treated it.
  • Vindicated by History:
    • After the nearly universal backlash against Jar Jar Binks in the Prequel Trilogy, many fans have looked more favorably upon the Ewoks. They at least contribute more to the plot and meaningfully help the heroes in taking down the shield generator.
    • The movie itself also is more widely appreciated than it was at the time of its release. This is largely due to it being more of an Audience-Alienating Ending when it was truly an ending, whereas once the Prequel Trilogy and Sequel Trilogy were released and proved far more divisive, people looked on Return of the Jedi more fondly in comparison, viewing it as an imperfect but worthy conclusion to the Original Trilogy.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome:
    • Jedi raised the bar higher than any of the previous films effects wise. The Battle of Endor had some of the most ambitious special effects shots ever done. One of the standouts is a brief shot that the filmmakers dubbed "SB 19", where the Falcon flies into the camera just after getting swarmed by hundreds of TIE Interceptors. Despite lasting only three seconds, it is the most ambitious effects shot in the Original Trilogy, as it was achieved practically (computers of the time not being up to the task); the shot included 63 spaceships, countless other elements, and was comprised of 170 pieces of film. Each ship had to be shot on a blue screen stage, with a carefully programmed camera move, and each ship had its own set of mattes to isolate it and insert it into the shot. On top of that the exact timing of the flow of ships had to be calculated, so the proper mattes could be created whenever a ship was obscured by another element, and that brief shot took months to put together—but it was worth it.
    • Jabba the Hutt in particular deserves singling out as the second-greatest large cinematic puppet character of all time. At no point in the film does it even occur to you that the giant slug isn't a real creature (unlike with the versions seen in later films and special editions). When you know about the amount of work that went into making and operating the Jabba puppet it's even more amazing.
  • What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: RotJ frequently gets derided as being "too kid-friendly", despite Leia getting turned into Jabba's pleasure slave, wearing next-to-nothing. It also has Luke Force-choking aliens and, oh yeah, getting electrocuted to near death. Mark Hamill really sells the scene with his agonizing screams that tells you the lightning HURTS. Even the obviously kid-friendly cute and teddybear-like Ewoks were looking forward to eating our heroes after capturing them.
  • The Woobie:
    • Malakili the Rancor keeper crying over his dead pet. And the Rancor itself, once you know its backstory and the fact that Rancor are naturally a relatively peaceful species. They are essentially the pit bulls of the Star Wars universe: gentle animals that can, by cruel treatment, be turned into vicious monsters. This one here acts the way it does because Jabba doesn't feed it very much, hence why it eats everything thrown into the pit, it's horribly underfed. And he also made it fight other dangerous creatures as big as it was. In the Legends continuity, the animal keeper was even planning to escape with it because Jabba was planning to pit it against something bigger than it was, but then Luke showed up...
    • If you doubt that Oola or Yarna d'al' Gargan are woobies, read the Legends book Tales from Jabba's Palace.

Top