History YMMV / ANewHope

** By the same token, Luke's loyalty to R2-D2, saying that he's not willing to trade him in for a new droid because of how much they've been through together. R2-D2 saved Luke's mother when she wasn't much younger than he was during this movie, and his father had just as much of a bond with him.

* AlternativeJokeInterpretation: During Obi-Wan's lightsaber battle with Darth Vader, he calls him "Darth" as if that was his first name. This ''was'' the writers' intention at the time, but now that we know "Darth" is a title and not a given name, some viewers interpreted this as Obi-Wan calling him that sarcastically. After ''ObiWanKenobi'', it now has a more tragic meaning; Vader insists ThatManIsDead as he killed Anakin, but Obi-Wan still can't bear to call him by his new name, only acknowledging his title. Thanks to Guinness's wry delivery here, we have more layers of what [[WatsonianVersusDoylist Obi-Wan was really trying to say]] than we did forty years ago.

* AlternativeJokeInterpretation: During Obi-Wan's lightsaber battle with Darth Vader, he calls him "Darth" as if that was his first name. This ''was'' the writers' intention at the time, but now that we know "Darth" is a title and not a given name, some viewers interpreted this as Obi-Wan calling him that sarcastically.

** In retrospect, Owen and Beru are a little too glib about Luke acting like, in Beru's opinion, his father. "He has too much of his father in him" should have been met with a look of horror, not a smile. This is because Luke's father wasn't intended to be Vader at this point - he really was just someone who followed the CallToAdventure by becoming a Jedi.

* CommonKnowledge: One of the complaints about the Jabba scene that was added in from the 1997 Special Edition onwards was that it was needless, because the Greedo scene had supposedly been filmed with the intention of replacing that scene after it was originally deemed unusable. However, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw1gkNd6Z_8 originally-filmed scene with Jabba]] still has him asking Han why he killed Greedo. It's true that the Greedo scene was altered to include necessary exposition from the Jabba scene after Lucas realized the latter one couldn't be included in the theatrical cut, but both scenes were always intended to be in the film.

** Similarly people use Han's line "Jabba, you're a wonderful human being" as evidence that the scene should've remained deleted. Except, Declan Mulholland was only ever intended to be a stand-in to give HarrisonFord somebody to interact with and Jabba was always meant to be an alien creature. This means even when the scene was filmed back in 1976, Han was being a DeadpanSnarker with that line, rather than the continuity error fans treat it as.

* ValuesDissonance:
** There is not a single female (except Princess Leia) or non-white person of any sex among either the Empire or the Rebel Alliance. In fact, the only other major female character in the film is Aunt Beru, and she gets killed off early in the movie. Also, there aren’t any aliens (besides Chewbacca, but he’s a mercenary) to be seen, either. Not even RubberForeheadAliens, of the sort which were so heavily featured in the cantina scene. In the 21st century, this seems downright nonsensical, but in 1977... well, that was Hollywood with a director who doesn't have much clout yet, alongside shooting in the UK. This does at least also qualify as EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, as both the Prequel Trilogy, Sequel Trilogy and Anthology films feature a number of women, nonwhites, and nonhumans in prominent roles (and, similarly, the lack of aliens in the film is likely due to ''budget'' concerns more than anything). Even the latter two installments of the original trilogy had Lando, Mon Mothma, and various aliens as part of the Alliance.
*** One thing the first film ''did'' have was older, even elderly people -- not just Creator/AlecGuinness and Creator/PeterCushing, but many of the background actors in the rebel base sequence. Several of the flyers are distinctly past their prime, not all are conventionally attractive, and Porkins is even overweight! This casting [[FridgeBrilliance creates additional realism]]; these men are veterans who remember and fight for the Old Republic.
** "If we just avoid any more female advice, we ought to be able to get out of here." In 1977, this line was simply part of Han Solo's BelligerentSexualTension with Princess Leia and just part of his roguish character. Nowadays, it would probably only ever be spoken by a PoliticallyIncorrectVillain (It ''is'' worth noting that this line earns him a brief DeathGlare from Leia).
** In a meta example, Luke and Leia's sexual tension. Yes, we all know they're brother and sister now, and yes it's debatable if they were ever intended to be at this point, but as characters, they're completely unaware of their relationship, so there's no reason for them to have an issue being attracted to each other.

** There is not a single female (except Princess Leia) or nonwhite person of any sex among either the Empire or the Rebel Alliance. In fact, the only other major female character in the film is Aunt Beru, and she gets killed off early in the movie. Also, there aren’t any aliens (besides Chewbacca, but he’s a mercenary) to be seen, either. Not even RubberForeheadAliens, of the sort which were so heavily featured in the cantina scene. In the 21st century, this seems downright nonsensical, but in 1977... well, that was Hollywood with a director who doesn't have much clout yet, alongside shooting in the UK. This does at least also qualify as EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, as both the Prequel Trilogy, Sequel Trilogy and Anthology films feature a number of women, nonwhites, and nonhumans in prominent roles (and, similarly, the lack of aliens in the film is likely due to ''budget'' concerns more than anything). Even the latter two installments of the original trilogy had Lando, Mon Mothma, and various aliens as part of the Alliance.

** "If we just avoid any more female advice, we ought to be able to get out of here." In 1977, this line was simply part of Han Solo's BelligerentSexualTension with Princess Leia and just part of his roguish character. Nowadays, it would probably only ever be spoken by a PoliticallyIncorrectVillain. (It ''is'' worth noting that this line earns him a brief DeathGlare from Leia.)

** The Mos Eisley cantina, with Obi-Wan, Luke, and Han's first encounter as well as Greedo confronting Han.

* SpecialEffectFailure: Inevitable, considering the film was produced on such a low budget and nobody expected it to be such a hit, though many of the effects are shockingly good in spite of this.

** Luke Skywalker staring at Tatooine's twin sunset, which is one of the most important recurring images in the entire series, especially with the Force Theme in that scene.

* MoralEventHorizon: Tarkin ordering the destruction of the highly populated planet of Alderaan. Best lampshaded in the radio adaptation.
-->'''Leia:''' Tarkin, if ever there was a shred of humanity in you or these twisted creatures of yours, it's dead now. You're at war with life itself.

** The performance of Creator/AlecGuinness during his exposition of the backstory of the galaxy before The Empire came to be is great on its own, with Guinness successfully delivering an optimistic, then solemn description of Anakin Skywalker and the Clone Wars. With the prequel trilogy showing this in detail, it really matches what Obi-Wan says ([[FromACertainPointOfView with some liberties]]), and this scene is just as convincing if one watched the prequel trilogy first. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WytHmlDWEgk This]] video edit makes effective use of prequel trilogy footage and music woven into Obi-Wan's monologue.

** Princess Leia doesn't seem as bothered by the destruction of her home planet as you'd expect, or her ColdBloodedTorture at the hands of Darth Vader. This gets explored in the [[ComicBook/StarWarsMarvel2015 2015 Marvel Star Wars comics]], in particular ''ComicBook/StarWarsPrincessLeia'': Leia feels personally responsible for the destruction of her homeworld and her parents' deaths, but [[TheWomanWearingtheQueenlyMask can't show it]], especially with no surviving family or close friends to confide in (she just barely met Luke and Han). Meanwhile, the Rebel rank and file think she's a cold-blooded IceQueen, while the leadership won't allow her out of their sight to put herself in any more danger.

* SoOkayItsAverage: There really isn't much to say about this video game adaption of the 1977 movie. While it does follow the movie much more faithfully than the 1987 adaptation, the game in general doesn't have much else going for it.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: Take one look at the [[SeventiesHair hair styles and sideburns]] and you ''know'' that this film was made in TheSeventies. Add in the Asian-style mysticism and there's no doubt it's the 70s.

** "If we just avoid any more female advice, we ought to be able to get out of here." In 1977, this line was simply part of Han Solo's BelligerentSexualTension with Princess Leia and just part of his rougish character. Nowadays, it would probably only ever be spoken by a PoliticallyIncorrectVillain. (It ''is'' worth noting that this line earns him a brief DeathGlare from Leia.)

** There were exceptions, such as Creator/PeterCushing, who'd been in enough genre films that were also dismissed beforehand but proved successful, that he knew this would be a hit, if nothing else than with kids.

** As noted on the trivia page, Creator/MarkHamill has a story about seeing the trailer to ''A New Hope'' in theaters: after the concluding narration "One billion years in the making, and it's coming to ''your'' galaxy this summer!" a wisecracking audience member heckled "Yeah and it's coming to late night TV six weeks after that!" His prophecy, of course, turned out to be completely incorrect.

* CatharsisFactor: The destruction of the Death Star is ''immensly'' satisfying, considering they just murdered an entire planet. Even better, Tarkin [[TooDumbToLive refuses to evacuate despite being warned repeatedly]] and [[KarmicDeath gets destroyed along with it.]] Though, the prisoners and personnel who had private reservations about the destruction of Alderaan do put a damper in this to some.
* CommonKnowledge: One of the complaints about the Jabba scene that was added in from the 1997 Special Edition onwards was that it was needless, because the Greedo scene had supposedly been filmed with the intention of replacing that scene after it was originally deemed unusable. However, the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw1gkNd6Z_8 originally-filmed scene with Jabba]] still has him asking Han why he killed Greedo. It's true that the Greedo scene was altered to include necessary exposition from the Jabba scene after Lucas realised the latter one couldn't be included in the theatrical cut, but both scenes were always intended to be in the film.
** Similarly people use Han's line "Jabba, you're a wonderful human being" as evidence that the scene should've remained deleted. Except, Declan Mulholland was only ever intended to be a stand-in to give HarrisonFord somebody to interact with and Jabba was always meant to be an alien creature. This means even when the scene was filled back in 1976 Han was being a DeadpanSnarker with that line, rather than the continuity error fans treat it as.

** Pretty much all of Red and Gold Squadrons. For a bunch of red shirts, they have pretty memorable lines, and are guaranteed to tug at your heartstrings when they die.
** The Mos Eisley Cantina denizens. In the actual film they're basically set pieces instead of characters, but they did their job in the narrative--giving the viewer an impression of just how diverse and alien The Galaxy is--so well that most of them have [[AscendedExtra received extensive backstories]] in the ''Legends'' continuity.

** This hasn't stopped modern [[FanVid fan-made]] reimagining, such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to2SMng4u1k Scene 38 Remastered]], which turns it into an epic, brutal battle.
* FirstInstallmentWins: While many feel ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' is better, the original ''Star Wars'' is widely considered the game changer in the film industry, kicking off UsefulNotes/TheBlockbusterAgeOfHollywood alongside ''Film/{{Jaws}}''. It is the most successful film in the series accounting for inflation, it had the biggest gross of the Special Edition releases, and [[MayTheFarceBeWithYou Star Wars parodies]] usually take most of their inspiration from ''A New Hope''. It also has the highest score of any of the ''Star Wars'' movies on Metacritic at 92, even beating out ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', which fans usually consider the best in the series. It won the most Oscars of any Star Wars film, winning 6, and the only time any of these movies got Best Picture and Best Director nominations. Likewise, both of Disney's Anthology films, ''Rogue One'' and ''Solo'' are in effect prequels to this film, separate from the actual prequels by Lucas, which still makes it the most important and constantly revisited film of the franchise, and the most influential.

** Also, ''Rogue One'' revealed that the knowledge of the long-mocked exhaust port that singlehandedly led to the Death Star's destruction involved a lot of sweat and blood.

** Darth Vader "killed" Luke's father, since it is directly tied to perhaps [[LukeIAmYourFather the most known twist of the past half-century]].

** Darth Vader did not destroy Alderaan. Tarkin did. Even some long-term fans actually forget this.
** The wingman who flies on Vader's left somehow manages to escape blame for his flub. Han Solo only shot one of Vader's wingmen - the other one simply overreacted to Han's surprise attack and ''crashed his TIE Fighter into Vader's of his own accord''.

* {{Narm}}: [[Narm/StarWars Has it’s own page]].

** At the time, it was ''intensely'' controversial that there were no traditional opening credits. To wit--the only film that dared to save all the credits for the end was ''Film/CitizenKane'', which was made under a blanket AuteurLicense. The Director's Guild of America let it slide for Creator/GeorgeLucas only because they assumed the film was going to bomb and be quickly forgotten. [[AndYouThoughtItWouldFail It obviously didn't]], but when Lucas did it again for ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', the DGA issued Lucas a $250,000 fine that he paid before leaving the DGA altogether. Today, many filmmakers forgo traditional opening credits, or even opening titles, that now, the [=DGA=]'s insistence that artists be credited at the start of the film on the grounds of asking audiences to sit through credits where they wouldn't read the long list of professionals, seems to have been the wiser course.

---> '''Vader''': [[LampshadeHanging Your powers are weak]], [[FridgeBrilliance old man]].

* TheProblemWithLicensedGames: While for the most part the games based on this particular film have been pretty good, a notable exception is the 1987 [[UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem Famicom]] game by Namco, which is infamous for the liberties it takes with the film -- probably the most notorious is the fact that you fight Darth Vader about a half-dozen times in the game, and all but the last fight have him transforming into giant monsters halfway through[[note]](In reality, only the last fight is actually against Vader himself, with the previous ones all being against shape-shifting apprentices of his. Good luck understanding this if you aren't playing with a translated ROM however, especially seeing how this still bears ''no resemblance whatsoever'' to any of the films)[[/note]] -- along with a punishing degree of FakeDifficulty, and the fact that most of the gameplay mechanics have been ripped off from, of all things, ''VideoGame/AlexKidd in Miracle World''.

** As noted on the trivia page, Creator/MarkHamill has a story about seeing the trailer to ''A New Hope'' in theaters: after the concluding narration "One billion years in the making, and it's coming to ''your'' galaxy this summer!" a wisecracking audience member heckled "[[ItWillNeverCatchOn Yeah and it's coming to late night TV six weeks after that!]]" His prophecy, of course, turned out to be completely incorrect.

** At the time, it was ''intensely'' controversial that there were no traditional opening credits. To wit--the only film that dared to save all the credits for the end was ''Film/CitizenKane'', which was made under a blanket AuteurLicense. The Director's Guild of America let it slide for Creator/GeorgeLucas [[ItWillNeverCatchOn only because they assumed the film was going to bomb and be quickly forgotten]]. [[AndYouThoughtItWouldFail It obviously didn't]], but when Lucas did it again for ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', the DGA issued Lucas a $250,000 fine that he paid before leaving the DGA altogether. Today, many filmmakers forgo traditional opening credits, or even opening titles, that now, the [=DGA=]'s insistence that artists be credited at the start of the film on the grounds of asking audiences to sit through credits where they wouldn't read the long list of professionals, seems to have been the wiser course.

** Many people see it losing the UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Picture to ''Film/AnnieHall'' as this. Both are widely considered to be fantastic movies, though, and quite a few ''Star Wars'' fans even regard ''Annie Hall'' as [[TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou the one film they were okay with losing to]], given that it's about as different to the usual OscarBait films as ''A New Hope'' was.
** Quite a few see Creator/AlecGuinness losing Best Supporting Actor to Creator/JasonRobards in ''Film/{{Julia}}'' as this. Given how much Guinness came to hate the fame he gained purely for playing Obi-Wan Kenobi, however, this could have been for the best.

** As noted on the trivia page, Creator/MarkHamill has a story about seeing the trailer to ''A New Hope'' in theaters: after the concluding narration "One billion years in the making, and it's coming to ''your'' galaxy this summer!" a wisecracking audience member heckled "Yeah and it's coming to late night TV six weeks after that!" His prophecy, of course, turned out to be completely incorrect.

** As noted on the trivia page, Creator/Mark Hamill has a story about seeing the trailer to ''A New Hope'' in theaters: after the concluding narration "One billion years in the making, and it's coming to ''your'' galaxy this summer!" a wisecracking audience member heckled "Yeah and it's coming to late night TV six weeks after that!" His prophecy, of course, turned out to be completely incorrect.

* SugarWiki/DevelopmentHeaven: Creator/GeorgeLucas was so disheartened to learn that Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox didn't have a special effects department anymore that he set up his own - [[Creator/IndustrialLightAndMagic one that's the most prominent effects house in Hollywood]].

** In retrospect, Owen and Beru are a little too glib about Luke acting like, in Beru's opinion, his father. "He has too much of his father in him" should have been met with a look of horror, not a smile. This is because Luke's father wasn't intended to be Vader at this point - he really was just someone who followed the CallToAdventure by becoming a Jedi. Then again, it's possible that Obi-Wan didn't tell them what ultimately became of him.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** A strange and likely unintended one occurs in the Jabba the Hutt scene added in the special edition. [[EnsembleDarkhorse Boba Fett]] is seen as part of Jabba's entourage, showing that the two already have a frequent working relationship. In the original version of ''The Empire Strikes Back'', Boba Fett only delivered Han to Jabba after being brought on board by Darth Vader to assist him, which meant it was completely inexplicable as to why he was ''still'' hanging around Jabba's palace in ''Return of the Jedi'' as opposed to going off on his way to pursue other bounties.
** There was some criticism of the FridgeLogic that the only tractor beam on something the size of the Death Star could be disabled from a single small terminal. While not a serious complaint, some additional voiceover dialogue from [=C3PO=] was added to rereleases of the scene where the map to the tractor beam terminal was displayed for Obi-Wan, explaining that the tractor beam is powered by a network of seven nodes and disabling one of them would throw out the whole system.