History YMMV / TheEmpireStrikesBack

* AwardSnub: Many feel that Creator/FrankOz's portrayal of Yoda was very underlooked, between his voice acting and puppeteering work. Creator/GeorgeLucas attempted to campaign for him to get a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, but the voters ultimately felt that it didn't qualify as a "real" performance.

** Its Atari 2600 game, which was not only pretty complex for a 2600 game, but also is considered one of the best licensed games on the system. Then fast forward to the mid-1990s and the [[UsefulNotes/SuperNintendo Super Star Wars trilogy games]].

*** Is Vader's reputation for [[YouHaveFailedMe casually murdering his subordinates]] overblown? Admiral Ozzel acts patronizing to Vader (who has the authority he does [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections because the Emperor says so]]), disobeys the agreed battle plan, and is generally indicated to be incompetent. Captain Needa, meanwhile, interpreted an instruction to "update Lord Vader on the pursuit" as "personally fly over to Vader's flagship to apologize for a screw-up" instead of "pick up a radio", wasting probably an hour of everybody's time. However, Vader clearly respected Grand Moff Tarkin and a number of rank-and-file Imperial officers who were willing to bluntly-but-respectfully speak their opinions in ''Film/ANewHope'' (whereas he {{Force Choke}}d Admiral Motti for blatantly disrespecting him), and Captain/Admiral Piett is competent and treats Vader with respect, even (when the Rebel strike team tries to penetrate the shield in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'') volunteering relevant information that the Dark Lord didn't ask for which might make himself look bad. Piett survives multiple failures and dies in battle against the Rebels.

*** "He's just a boy." Is this Vader expressing doubt over Luke being a threat to the Emperor, trying to keep his plans to convert him a server, or is this Anakin Skywalker pleading for his son's life? Perhaps more than one?

** Han famously responding "I know" to Leia's love confession: A simple case of CannotSpitItOut? Did he not actually love Leia ([[Film/ReturnOfTheJedi yet)? Or did Han choose to [[BreakHisHeartToSaveHim say something callous]] so Leia wouldn’t feel tied down to a relationship with him [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy in the event he died during the carbon freezing?]]

** Han famously responding "I know" to Leia's love confession: A simple case of CannotSpitItOut? Did he not actually love Leia till Film/ReturnOfTheJedi? Or did he want Leia to be free in the event he didn't survive the carbon freezing?

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** The [[LukeIAmYourFather famous scene]] really doesn't have the same level of suspense on later generations as it did at the time of its release, largely due to MemeticMutation. Not having to wait three years to find out if it's true also helps. More than that, very few among the audience had reason to expect a plot twist of this nature to begin with. ''A New Hope'' was a GenreThrowback to B serials which largely didn't have such twists played for dramatic tragic effect, and while there was hype for ''The Empire Strikes Back'' it didn't lead to the great speculation audiences now have about any large blockbuster project. Audiences went in expecting more of the same old-fashioned B-Movie fun, and this kind of twist, which was not teased, nor promised, nor speculated upon, more or less made every other big-franchise twist either guessed at, speculated at, or obvious in its build-up and {{Foreshadowing}}.
** Darth Vader in the first movie and for most of ''The Empire Strikes Back'' was established as a consistent heel, torturing Leia, killing Obi-Wan, and in this film, putting Han Solo in carbonite, without any hint that there was more to him. For the film to pull off the twist so deftly that he goes from pure evil to ambiguous and empathetic in the final moments (such as when he stares sadly when Luke jumps into the vacuum on the bridge) kept people intrigued and eager to find out the truth and how it all ends until the third film finally came out. Nowadays it's no great surprise for series to drop huge twists and developments regarding characters for the sake of added complexity.
** The cliffhanger ending was shocking at the time since this sort of thing simply wasn't done, though audiences were generally hyped up for the resolution even if they had to wait years. If you're binge-watching the films, it doesn't have quite the same impact, and it's not uncommon for middle parts of trilogies to have cliffhangers because of this film's influence.
** The fact that this was a middle part of the story in the first place instead of a self-contained sequel was a major surprise back then. In comparison, the first film was self-contained with the promise of more adventures to come but not with dangling plot lines. And with the opening crawl first proclaiming this was "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" in the Star Wars series (the first film, then simply "Star Wars", got "Episode IV: A New Hope" in its crawl after this was released), fans first realized the possibility of Episodes I-III at some point. This all seems a bit quaint compared to today where studios make their franchise intentions clear with new movies.
** Also, a few aspects of Lando Calrissian and how he related to the real world can easily pass by many viewers born ''after'' the movie came out, or especially ones born in the 21st Century:
*** Firstly, his flirting with Leia. Today it comes across as just a bit sleazy, cements Lando as a would-be charmer but perhaps not as good a "scoundrel" as Han, and might even provoke a few accusations of the person of color being made to seem "aggressive", but when the movie was released, miscegenation laws [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_v._Virginia were a mere thirteen years dead nationwide]]. The mere fact that Billy Dee Williams got to do this with Carrie Fisher, and that in-universe ''nothing was weird about it'' aside from making Han a bit annoyed for reasons that have nothing to do with race, was for many a sign of greatly changing times and still a big deal.
*** On that tack, the mere fact that Lando was played by Williams, a black man, and was in a position of authority over a city and that nothing was weird or out of place about this in a major mainstream film was a very big deal (and many folks of color of a certain age would cite it as an inspiration as late as [[http://time.com/black-panther/ thirty-five-plus years later]]). He does lose his authority, but this has more to do with sheer force and the overall tyranny of the Empire than it does any kind of racial reading.
** The status of this film as the "darkest ''Star Wars'' film" or even a dark film in general is harder to appreciate for modern audiences. ''The Empire Strikes Back'' doesn't actually have any major {{Character Death}}s and the only intense violence is Luke getting crippled at the end, the impact of which is immediately undone with a bionic hand that works far better than any real-world prosthetic, which fans of newer fantasy works like ''Series/GameOfThrones'', which treats a similar crippling incident as a traumatic CareerEndingInjury with actual story consequences, find unimpressive. Those who have seen the prequels first note that ''Revenge of the Sith'' with Order 66 and Anakin's [[WouldHurtAChild massacre of the younglings]] was a much more violent and darker moment than anything in ''Empire'', while fans of the Disney era point out the more visceral violence and action in both the sequels and ''Film/RogueOne's'' hallway massacre scene is considered Vader's most horrifying scene in any Star Wars film.

* {{Squick}}: After ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'', Leia kissing Luke on the mouth became this. Even though she states in ''Jedi'' that "somehow" she had "always known" that she was Luke's sister, she may or may not have done it [[OperationJealousy to make Han jealous]] (in which case, that may or may not be an implied {{Retcon}}).

** Considering the prequels revealed that Yoda and R2-D2 knew each other before their meeting here, is R2 fighting with the old Jedi Master over Luke's lamp him purposely trolling one of the galaxy's most powerful beings [[ItAmusedMe for kicks]]? Is he playing along with Yoda's decision not to reveal himself to Luke by pretending to fight him? Or does he blame Yoda for Anakin's turn to the Dark Side and the whole argument between the two is basically R2 CallingTheOldManOut--or is R2 doing is as a [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan means of snapping Yoda out of his seemingly delusional state]]?

*** For instance, in the old dialogue Vader already knows who Luke is, but in the new dialogue this may be when he learns who Luke is, or he may be feigning ignorance (which appears to be the current assumption lore-wise). Another factor is that [[spoiler:Vader and Anakin (who was previously first named only in the next film) are one and the same]] which may affect the import of either interpretation of the new lines.

** The twist worked without too much trouble nonetheless, because the revelation is just as bewildering for [[AudienceSurrogate Luke]] as it is for the audience, and because it's quite dramatically effective: Luke learns that his perception of his father is a lie and is forced to question his path of vengeance, Vader gains character depth beyond being a ruthless villain, and Luke's potential fall to the Dark Side is much more palpable with the knowledge that his own father succumbed to the temptation. This was foreshadowed earlier in the film with Luke's Force vision of Vader with his own face, though this is only [[RewatchBonus more obvious in hindsight]]. For a first-time viewer, the scene could just be interpreted as Luke needing to confront his potential inner darkness as symbolized by Vader (which is developed further in ''Return of the Jedi'') and thus the familial reveal would still be surprising.
** Also, some dialogue and acting in the first film fortuitously appear in hindsight to be foreshadowing, like Luke being said to have "too much of his father in him", [[HesitationEqualsDishonesty Obi-Wan briefly hesitating]] when Luke asks about his father. To a lesser extent, [[MeaningfulName "Vader"]] is spelled (though not pronounced) identically to [[BilingualBonus the Dutch word for "Father"]] [[note]] Lucas actually derived it from ''Invader'' though has acknowledged the other meaning as serendipitous [[/note]], and the traits Obi-Wan told about Luke's father lined up with Vader surprisingly well, creating (unintentional) foreshadowing - he proved to be a skilled star pilot during the Battle of Yavin, and shown himself be a cunning adversary overall. Still, ''Return of the Jedi'' had to handwave the retcon of Obi-Wan's deception as him speaking from "[[MetaphoricallyTrue a certain point of view]]".

** The pilots of Echo Squadron have become quite popular in the EU, especially Wes Jansen and Derek 'Hobbie' Klivian. Not to mention Wedge Antilles, who was already an EnsembleDarkhorse from the first film.

** Likewise, Darth Vader in the first movie and for most of ''The Empire Strikes Back'' was established as a consistent heel, torturing Leia, killing Obi-Wan, and in this film, putting Han Solo in carbonite, without any hint that there was more to him. For the film to pull off the twist so deftly that he goes from pure evil to ambiguous and empathetic in the final moments (such as when he stares sadly when Luke jumps into the vacuum on the bridge) kept people intrigued and eager to find out the truth and how it all ends until the third film finally came out. Nowadays it's no great surprise for series to drop huge twists and developments regarding characters for the sake of added complexity.

** While it's easy to miss at first due to how fast it goes by, close examination of the part where Vader cuts off Luke's hand reveals that the blade ''completely'' misses his arm!
*** Perspective effects notwithstanding, it also looks like Vader sliced Luke's hand off without cutting through the sleeve around it, since the source of the pyrotechnic sparks are ''inside'' the cuff. This may also have been a self-censorship choice—photos of the prop arm used in this shot show burn marks at the cut, so it's possible that it was decided to hide Luke's blackened stump to not further traumatize younger viewers.

** Considering the prequels revealed that Yoda and R2-D2 knew each other before their meeting here, is R2 fighting with the old Jedi Master over Luke's lamp him purposely trolling one of the galaxy's most powerful beings [[ItAmusedMe for kicks]]? Is he playing along with Yoda's decision not to reveal himself to Luke by pretending to fight him? Or does he blame Yoda for Anakin's turn to the Dark Side and the whole argument between the two is basically R2 CallingTheOldManOut--or is R2 doing is as a [[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan means of snapping him out of his seemingly delusional state]]?

** Considering the prequels revealed that Yoda and R2-D2 knew each other before their meeting here, is R2 fighting with the old Jedi Master over Luke's lamp him purposely trolling one of the galaxy's most powerful beings [[ItAmusedMe for kicks]]? Is he playing along with Yoda's decision not to reveal himself to Luke by pretending to fight him? Or does he blame Yoda for Anakin's turn to the Dark Side and the whole argument between the two is basically R2 CallingTheOldManOut?

** A common fan theory is that Admiral Ozzel was a [[TheMole double agent]] or Rebel sympathizer, and so his seeming incompetence (not wanting to search the Hoth system, alerting the Rebels to the imperial fleet's presence by coming out of light speed close to the solar system) was actually his attempt at undermining the Empire's efforts to find them. A few POV scenes of Ozzel in ''Legends'' render this unlikely in that timeline, as he is portrayed as demonstrably incompetent, disdainful of the Rebels, and primarily concerned with his own advancement. Captain Needa, on the other hand, was posthumously stated to have had Rebel sympathies in ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Wedge's Gamble]]'' but this was almost certainly a false claim, as it was suggested by an Imperial crew member to Needa's cousin as a way of ingratiating himself to their New Republic captors.

*** Is Vader's reputation for [[YouHaveFailedMe casually murdering his subordinates]] overblown? Admiral Ozzel acts patronizing to Vader (who has the authority he does [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections because the Emperor says so]]), disobeys the agreed battle plan, and is generally indicated to be incompetent. Captain Needa, meanwhile, interpreted an instruction to "update Lord Vader on the pursuit" as "personally fly over to Vader's flagship to apologize for a screw-up" instead of "pick up a radio", wasting probably an hour of everybody's time. However, Vader clearly respected Grand Moff Tarkin and a number of rank-and-file Imperial officers in ''Film/ANewHope'' (whereas he {{Force Choke}}d Admiral Motti for blatantly disrespecting him), and Captain/Admiral Piett is competent and treats Vader with respect, even (when the Rebel strike team tries to penetrate the shield in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'') volunteering relevant information that the Dark Lord didn't ask for which might make himself look bad. Piett survives multiple failures and dies in battle against the Rebels.
*** "He's just a boy." Is this Vader expressing doubt over Luke being a threat to the Emperor, or is this Anakin Skywalker pleading for his son's life?
*** Prior to the release of Film/ReturnOfTheJedi many people including Creator/JamesEarlJones himself believed Vader was lying about being Luke's father to seduce Luke to the dark side. It got to the point that Lucas had to include the return to Dagobah in ROTJ to dispel any doubts.

** ''Series/TheMandalorian'' has shown repeatedly that Yoda's race are voracious carnivores that even at a stage of development equivalent to a human infant can and will catch prey as big as their head and consume it alive. This suggests that setting up his exile in a swamp teeming with critters may have been motivated by the plentiful food available.

** When Lando frees the Falcon's crew from the Imperials and uncuffs Chewbacca, Chewie could easily have broken Lando's neck or pulled his arms off instead of throttling him. Was he just intending to kill Lando more slowly, or did Chewie realize that Lando had switched sides and just wanted to make him squirm painfully before accepting his help?
* AssPull: At the time, [[LukeIAmYourFather Darth Vader telling Luke that he was his father,]] a {{Retcon}} made during script rewrites (in an early draft, Luke's father - who was not named Anakin until ''Return of the Jedi'' - appears as a Force Ghost to him before he goes off to Bespin). It came right out of nowhere, since in the previous movie Obi-Wan clearly said Luke's father was a hero whom a young Jedi ''named'' Darth Vader betrayed and murdered, and Obi-Wan even called Vader by his first name Darth, and up till then his words were taken at face value. A very early ExpandedUniverse story had already mentioned Obi-Wan, Vader and Luke's father together.

*** For instance, in the old dialogue Vader already knows who Luke is, but in the new dialogue this may be when he learns who Luke is, or he may be feigning ignorance. Another factor is that [[spoiler:Vader and Anakin (who was previously first named only in the next film) are one and the same]] which may affect the import of either interpretation of the new lines.

*** Even so, the shocking twist and DownerEnding (innovative in film at the time) made the film difficult to accept even for fans and it took the uplifting ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' to cement this film as a beautiful and heartbreaking middle chapter in a larger story.

** A common fan theory is that Admiral Ozzel was a [[TheMole double agent]] or Rebel sympathizer, and so his seeming incompetence (not wanting to search the Hoth system, alerting the Rebels to the imperial fleet's presence by coming out of light speed close to the solar system) was actually his attempt at undermining the Empire's efforts to find them. A few POV scenes of Ozzel in ''Legends'' render this unlikely in that timeline, as he is portrayed as demonstrably incompetent, disdainful of the Rebels, and primarily concerned with his own advancement. Captain Needa, on the other hand, was posthumously stated to have had Rebel sympathies in ''[[Literature/XWingSeries Wedge's Gamble]]''. Although this is debatable as it was made up by his nephew just before being captured by Rogue Squadron.

* ToughActToFollow: Oh, so very much. Over forty years after its release, and with nine films added to the theatrical franchise in the interim, it is still widely considered the best ''Star Wars'' film, with every subsequent film being varying degrees of ContestedSequel.

** Another minor gripe but in the Special Edition and 2004 DVD release, the ad-libbed line "You're lucky you don't taste very good" which Luke says to R2 on Dagobah was changed to the original line "You're lucky to get out of there." Not a big issue but the former line just sounds better.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Modern viewers may recognize General Veers (portrayed by Creator/JulianGlover) as Grand Maester Pycelle from ''Series/GameOfThrones'' or Walter Donovan from ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade''.

*** The Wampa was mostly removed because of it in the original version. The Special Edition inserts newly filmed scenes of it.

* SacredCow: This film ties with ''Film/ANewHope'' for the Star Wars film with the highest following. Even people who don't like the prequel and sequel trilogies will not pick on this film. Also, do ''not'' criticize the famous ItWasHisSled scene if you know what's good for you.

** The special edition also sees fit to insert several new shots of Vader returning to the Excecutor during the climax, as well as changing his "Bring my shuttle" line to "Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival". While there are those who appreciate the movie showing this since he originally seemed to get back to his ship unreasonably quickly, others think it breaks up the flow of the Cloud City escape, over-explains a plot-point that was fairly self-explanatory, and think the old line and and its much angrier-sounding delivery is more appropriate considering that he had just come ''so'' close to capturing Luke. The fact that the shots of Vader's landing are very obviously repurposed footage from the opening of ''Return of the Jedi'' doesn't help.

* TrueArtIsAngsty: Fans who prefer ''Film/ANewHope'' or ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' tend to dismiss praise for this installment as this trope.

** Also worthy of mention is Frank Oz's amazing puppetry of Yoda. Despite being a tiny foam latex hand puppet, at no point do you not think that he's a living, breathing character that is acting right alongside Mark Hamill on the set.

** Also, some dialogue and acting in the first film fortuitously appear in hindsight to be foreshadowing, like Luke being said to have "too much of his father in him", [[HesitationEqualsDishonesty Obi-Wan briefly hesitating]] when Luke asks about his father. To a lesser extent,[[MeaningfulName "Vader"]] is spelled (though not pronounced) identically to [[BilingualBonus the Dutch word for "Father"]] [[note]] Lucas actually derived it from ''Invader'' though has acknowledged the other meaning as serendipitous [[/note]], and the traits Obi-Wan told about Luke's father lined up with Vader surprisingly well, creating (unintentional) foreshadowing - he proved to be a skilled star pilot during the Battle of Yavin, and shown himself be a cunning adversary overall. Still, ''Return of the Jedi'' had to handwave the retcon of Obi-Wan's deception as him speaking from "[[MetaphoricallyTrue a certain point of view]]".

* CommonKnowledge:
** [[BeamMeUpScotty It's not]] "LukeIAmYourFather", it's "No, I am your father." Even an EU/Legends novel once had Luke remember the line this way. It's not "No, Luke, I am your father" either, except in the [[Radio/StarWarsRadioDramas radio play adaptation]].
** With the release of the Prequels and Sequels and those films being dubbed as [[{{Sequelitis}} subpar follow-ups]] themselves by parts of the fandom, the claim that [[ContestedSequel "people hated Empire at the time too" or that it was "divisive too"]] allegedly because of the darker tone and the twists has somehow taken root due to defenders of these trilogies (but particularly the latter) and Lucasfilm-affiliated people themselves, with newer fans who were brought into the series by these later films unwittingly perpetuating this in turn. But in truth, this is really blowing the VocalMinority at the time out of proportion. While ''Empire'''s original release had the lowest theatrical gross of the trilogy, the film got [[http://fd.noneinc.com/secrethistoryofstarwarscom/secrethistoryofstarwars.com/originaltrilogyreception1.html an overall]] [[http://fd.noneinc.com/secrethistoryofstarwarscom/secrethistoryofstarwars.com/originaltrilogyreception2.html positive reception]] from critics and fans alike. It even got more positive professional newspaper and magazine reviews than ''A New Hope'' had, though averaging slightly lower in terms of scores. While some critics consigned the movie to the SciFiGhetto as they had with the first, and some of them who liked ''Star Wars'' better claimed that it worked as both a straight adventure and a winking pastiche/homage to various media genres and stories while ''Empire'' was "only" a self-referential straight adventure, many others just took it on its own terms. The darker tone and the twists actually got people excited. ''Empire'' topped the worldwide box office in 1980 (with steadier legs at the box office compared to some later movies in the series, though they were still chart-topping) and had three successful re-releases in theaters in the intervening years before the third movie. It did not need to be [[BetterOnDVD released on home video]] in order to be better appreciated, all the more because its first home video release was in 1989, years after the trilogy ended. The very year it came out, so without the benefit of the passage of time, it even won Best Film at the ''People's Choice Awards''. Besides, claiming this about ''Empire'' is not only [[LogicalFallacies whataboutism,]] but the "proof" is just taking those critics who didn't like the first film to begin with as representative of the critics and fandom at large. As much as the later films may be divisive, the originals were the ones that pretty much everyone liked, which enabled the later films to be made.

* BrokenBase:
** While this is par for the course with the changes made in the 1997 Special Edition and onwards, the new shots of the Wampa are some of the more hotly debated changes in the newer version, with some fans preferring the NothingIsScarier aspect of the theatrical version mostly keeping the Wampa off-screen, and others feeling that the new shots of the Wampa make the scene flow much better. For what it's worth, both George Lucas and Irvin Kershner disliked how the theatrical version turned out, as it had to be heavily cut down due to SpecialEffectFailure with the original Wampa costume.
** Aside from the Wampa, and later Boba Fett's dialogue being redubbed by Creator/TemueraMorrison in the 2004 DVD edition (and even that's less contentious than it once was, following Morrison's later return to the role for ''Series/TheMandalorian''), this is the only film where the changes made in the Special Edition onward are widely considered to enhance the film rather than detracting from it. The reshot Emperor sequence with Creator/IanMcDiarmid is often cited as an improvement over the original (at least in terms of visuals, as some dislike his and Vader's revised lines for over-complicating things), the additional shots of Cloud City and the CGI windows replacing the white hallways are seen as adding more life and colour to the environment, and the SpecialEffectFailure of Luke turning transparent in the ending sequence is completely fixed up. However, it goes without saying that the original version will always have its defenders, and even people who prefer the Special Edition will still say that the original should still be available as a viewing option.