10 Important Star Wars Details That Are Almost Never Mentioned

Australian Cinephile

Droids have feelings too, you know.

Transcript

00:00The Star Wars franchise has been around for a whopping 45 years, with 11 live-action films

00:04hitting cinemas during that time, plus the animated Clone Wars feature. That's quite a lot of movie,

00:10and yet there still hasn't been enough screen time to give every tiny detail the attention it

00:14deserves. A recent Reddit thread discussed that very subject, with Star Wars fans bringing up

00:18various details that were either explored too little or not explored at all. I'm Emile from

00:23WhatCulture and these are 10 Star Wars details that are almost never mentioned.

00:2610. The impact of Owen and Beru's death on Luke

00:31The final scene of Revenge of the Sith shows Obi-Wan Kenobi handing an infant Luke Skywalker

00:36to Owen and Beru Lars, who go on to raise the boy like he's their own. In A New Hope,

00:40Owen and Beru are murdered by Imperial soldiers, with Luke stumbling across the grisly sight of

00:45their charred corpses after returning from a chat with Obi-Wan. Though Luke is visibly shaken when

00:49he discovers what has happened to Owen and Beru, he immediately sets out on the path to becoming a

00:54Jedi Knight, and the impact that their deaths surely had on him is never mentioned again.

00:58Luke seems sadder about Obi-Wan's death, a guy who he barely knows, than he does about the deaths of a

01:04couple who, for all intents and purposes, were his real parents. With their deaths being so brutal,

01:08you'd imagine the image of their crispy bodies would gnaw at his insides constantly,

01:13especially considering he never got to say goodbye, or thank you, or anything. From a certain point of

01:18view, it's quite cold. 9. How Palpatine Built a Star Destroyer Fleet Without Anybody Noticing

01:26How? How do I even? Let's do it anyway. Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker did such a bad job of

01:32explaining things that you had to go and play Fortnite if you wanted more context of the story.

01:37Even when the movie did explain things, these explanations were lazy, such as Poe's regularly

01:41memed line about how Palpatine has risen from the grave. Somehow, Palpatine has returned.

01:47Thank you, JJ. Clays things up. Something else the movie doesn't explain is how exactly Palpatine

01:52managed to build a massive fleet of souped-up Star Destroyers, a hugely important detail that

01:56the movie glosses over entirely. Where did he get the materials? How did he equip each ship with the

02:01planet-killing laser? How, on Exegol, did he finance this whole venture? With this fleet being the

02:07centrepiece of Palpatine's plan, it's unforgivable that the movie doesn't even try to

02:11explain it. And though extra backstory is available for those who want to do some homework, it's

02:15a total head-scratch for folks who only watch the films.

02:208. Droids Can Possess Human Levels of Sentience

02:23Some of the most beloved characters in Star Wars are droids, with the likes of C-3PO, R2-D2

02:28and BB-8 delivering many highlight moments in the movies they appear in. Despite this popularity

02:33though, something the movies never really discuss is that droids can possess incredibly high levels

02:37of sentience and yet they're often treated as emotionless, disposable or even just as

02:42jokes. Take C-3PO in Return of the Jedi, who seems terrified at the prospect of working for

02:47Jabba and even expresses self-doubt, wondering aloud if he did something to warrant Luke leaving him behind.

02:52What could possibly have come over Master Luke? Is it something I did?

02:57Oh, 3PO, come here, give me a hug, if you can feel it.

03:01In that same movie, we even see a gonk droid screaming with pain while being tortured,

03:05which makes you think about all the other times droids have been damaged or mistreated and how

03:09they must have felt. Though the concept of droid rights was touched on in Solo A Star Wars Story,

03:14it's an issue the movies have never done justice, despite the crucial role various droids have played

03:19in almost every single film. Droid rights now.

03:237. Ewoks are highly skilled fighters

03:26Mention the Ewoks to a casual Star Wars fan and they'll probably start talking about how adorable

03:31they are, which is fair enough. Just look at their fluffy little faces. But look,

03:35something people never talk about and something that, if their reputation as lovable plush toys is

03:39anything to go by, the movies haven't made clear, is that the Ewoks are among the most skilled fighters

03:44in the Star Wars Galaxy. Just look at how they completely outclass the technologically superior

03:50Empire in Return of the Jedi. They coordinate their ambush outside the shield generator perfectly,

03:55starting off by using R2 and 3PO as a distraction and following this up by forcing the Imperial

04:00Troopers to split up and run into the woods, right where the Ewoks want them. And that's not to

04:05mention how bloodthirsty they are, with the little beasts fully intending to dine on Han until 3PO's magic

04:10convinces them otherwise. The Ewoks look fairly harmless and the majority of their scenes are

04:14played in a light-hearted way, which greatly distracts from their brutality and combat efficiency.

04:20Teddy bears, they most certainly are not.

04:236. The destruction of the Death Star brought the Empire's followers closer together

04:27The destruction of the first Death Star at the end of A New Hope was a huge victory for the Rebel

04:32Alliance, but if you look at it from the Empire's point of view, then it was nothing short of an act of

04:36terrorism. The movies never touch on the fact Luke murdered millions of innocent people when he blew

04:41up the planet killing machine. All those janitors, technicians, what about the chefs, who were only

04:46working for the Empire because it was a job or because they were too scared to leave? Further still,

04:50it's highly likely that this mass murder actually brought people from the Empire closer together

04:54and possibly even galvanised the additional support for the Empire across the galaxy. Though this

05:00angle was somewhat explored in 2017's Star Wars Battlefront II game, the movies never take the time to ponder

05:06such interesting details with the ramifications of the Rebels victories never being looked at from

05:10the opposing point of view. It almost makes you want a Taken 2 style spin-off, where the father of

05:15a murdered Death Star employee hunts down Luke to enact his revenge. Go on Disney, you know you want to.

05:225. The Jedi are incredibly rare mythical beings The Jedi are prominently featured throughout the

05:27entire Skywalker saga, from Obi-Wan and Anakin in the prequels to Luke in the originals and Rey in the sequels.

05:33This ends up giving off the impression that there's a Jedi on every street corner, making it easy to

05:38forget that in actual fact they are mythical beings and that the vast majority of people

05:42in the galaxy have never actually seen one. Luke Skywalker, I thought he was a myth.

05:48Because we follow one of these lightsaber-wielding heroes for each of the nine core movies, it does

05:53feel they're way more common than they actually are. Remember, the Jedi Order is fairly reclusive

05:58during the prequel era and pretty much extinct for the next six movies.

06:024. The dark side of the force isn't inherently evil

06:06Force users are divided into two camps, the Jedi and the Sith, or the light and the dark. The movies

06:12draw a firm line between these two camps, telling us that the dark side is evil and that light, well,

06:17is right. Jedi want that on a t-shirt. While most on-screen evidence points to this being true,

06:23a notion that isn't fleshed out is that the dark side in isolation isn't necessarily evil. Rather,

06:28it's the users of the dark side who abuse its power for their own selfish or chaotic intentions.

06:33Look at someone like Count Dooku. Though he wields the dark side of the force, he hasn't let emotions

06:39like anger and hatred corrupt him, like they have for so many other Sith. Instead, he uses his dark side

06:44abilities with control. He's clearly far more level-headed than the likes of Vader and the Emperor,

06:49proof that dark side users need not become mustache-twirling megalomaniacs. And then there's

06:54Dark Vectivus, who also practiced the dark side but never let it consume him and could save off

06:59that destructive temptation. Despite what the movies might tell us, wielding the dark side doesn't

07:03automatically mean that a person is evil or that they will always succumb to the lure of power.

07:08It just depends on the person.

07:113. How Maz Kanata acquired Luke's lightsaber

07:14When Maz Kanata pulls Luke Skywalker's blue lightsaber from a box and hands it to Finn in The Force Awakens,

07:19Han Solo asks her where she got it. Her response? A good question for another time.

07:24In hindsight, her refusal to give an explanation feels startlingly similar to Poe's,

07:28somehow, Palpatine returned. Sorry, I can't even say anymore.

07:32And though this particular detail arguably isn't as important, it's nonetheless frustrating that the

07:37movies never reveal how Maz acquired a lightsaber that was presumed lost deep within Cloud City.

07:42Some fans have headcanonized that because Maz was a pirate queen, she acquired it via her connections

07:46to the smuggling world. After all, she's lived a long life, so had plenty of time to stumble across

07:51it. Other Star Wars media has discussed the lightsabers post-Luke Fate 2, revealing that a

07:56random ognort found it on Cloud City and kept it from being destroyed. But as for how it made its

08:00way into Maz's hands, that's a good question for another time.

08:042. Dismemberment makes Force users less powerful

08:08Though the whole midichlorian thing has been largely swept under the rug in recent years,

08:11it's still part of Star Wars canon. Midichlorians which live inside the body's cells are linked to

08:17Force potential, so the higher the midichlorian count, the more Force potential an individual

08:21will have. So what would happen if that count was suddenly reduced? In a 2005 interview,

08:27George Lucas himself spoke about that idea, discussing how dismemberment would affect a Jedi

08:32or a Sith's Force abilities, stating Anakin actually became less powerful after Obi-Wan chopped him into bits.

08:38Lucas went on to explain that the Emperor viewed Luke as a primo version of Anakin,

08:42simply because his body was more intact, and this was why he offered the younger Skywalker the chance

08:46to join him. Despite this idea coming straight from the horse's mouth, not a single Star Wars film

08:51has ever delved into it, which is bizarre considering how the franchise's two main characters both suffer

08:56dismemberment at various points. 1. The Severity of the Republic's Geonosis Defeat

09:01The arena battle in Attack of the Clones is a terrific spectacle, but the ramifications of its outcome

09:06are severely underplayed throughout the rest of the prequels. To recap, Jedi Master Mace Windu leads

09:11a strike team into the Geonosis arena to rescue Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme, only to be met by an

09:17army of battle droids. An all-out brawl ensues and many Jedi are slaughtered, with the survivors being

09:22rescued by Yoda, who whisks them away with some rather handy gunships. Despite hundreds of Jedi

09:27entering the arena, there's only a handful of them left when Yoda shows up, meaning a vast majority of

09:32what was supposed to be the most formidable fighting force in the galaxy was killed within minutes.

09:36Even worse, Mace tells Yoda before the battle, I'll take what Jedi we have left, implying the

09:41ones in the arena were all the Jedi that remained. Weirdly though, the rest of the prequels failed

09:46to convey how catastrophic it was that so many Jedi died in such a needless manner. I'm afraid to say

09:52there's not much we can do about this now, but let's just hope that Palpatine somehow doesn't return.

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