As perhaps the biggest franchise of all time, it isn't surprising that fans explore each of the Star Wars movies in great detail. And as beloved as the movies are, fans are also not shy about highlighting some of the inconsistencies or mistakes they find along the way. Inevitably, this also includes the occasional plot hole.
Fans on Ranker have chosen what they find to be the biggest plot holes in the Star Wars universe. In some cases, these are fun little things some eagle-eyed fans picked up on, others are big enough that fans might wonder how they went unnoticed. While they don't ruin the enjoyment of the movies, they are fun to look at.
The original trilogy kicks off as R2-D2 and C-3PO are able to escape the captured Rebel ship by boarding an escape pod. However, the whole thing could have ended right there if some Imperial troops had used a little logic.
As the pod detaches from the ship, one Imperial officer makes a comment that it's not worth blasting because there are no life forms detected. However, they would be well aware that the Rebels have droids who could be escaping with vital intel.
Many fans consider the trench run in A New Hope to be the best battle in the Star Wars movies. But other fans have also pointed out that the thing that gives the Rebels the time to stage one last attack is quite flawed.
The Death Star's attack on the Rebel base is delayed because they have to travel around a planet to fire upon the moon they are hiding on. However, the Death Star weapon could simply blow the planet away and then fire on the moon.
The climax of Attack of the Clones takes place on the planet of Geonosis and leads to the heroes confronting Count Dooku. At one point, Padme is knocked from the speeder in which the heroes are pursuing Dooku and they are forced to go on without her.
However, the fact that Padme later comes to find Anakin after his fight with Dooku poses the question as to how she knew where they were. She didn't know where Dooku was heading and there was no way she could have seen where they went. While there are some ways it can be explained, it does just seem like a quick way to get the characters together.
It seems as though the life scanning technology that is available causes more problems than it solves for the Empire. In A New Hope, the heroes board the Death Star as the Millennium Falcon is picked up. The Imperial soldiers find that the ship's log indicates no crew on board which allows the heroes to sneak out undetected.
Given that the Imperials could scan an escape pod and determine there were no life forms on board, it would make sense for them to do the same with a mysteriously empty ship they just brought aboard.
After everything that Leia had been through, many fans thought the character had met her end in The Last Jedi when she was blasted out into space only to show she has Force abilities that allowed her to fly back to the ship.
The moment was hugely controversial as fans felt it made no sense that this person who was never seen to be trained as a Jedi was suddenly quite powerful. However, The Rise of Skywalker went further to explain this supposed plot hole and show that Luke had indeed trained Leia.
There are a lot of storylines fans want to see explored in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series, but many fans would like an explanation for the seemingly terrible decision to hide Luke Skywalker on Tatooine.
Following Padme's death, Luke and Leia are separated and hidden to ensure their father doesn't find them. However, Obi-Wan and the others decide the best option for Luke is to hide him on his father's home planet with the relatives Anakin is aware of and use Anakin's last name.
It is always impressive when a long-running franchise can do something that fans had never thought of before. One of the best moments in The Last Jedi is when General Holdo defends the remaining Rebels by aiming her ship at the First Order fleet and using the hyperspace jump.
Seeing the fleet torn to pieces was a terrific moment, but fans quickly saw it as a plot hole. Their reasoning was that if it was possible, why wouldn't that be used more often in battle. This is another plot hole addressed in The Rise of Skywalker where it is suggested that move has a low probability of working.
The prequel movies filled in some of the holes in the original movies and added some new context to other aspects. But there were some cases in which that also confused things as with Leia's memories of her mother.
In Return of the Jedi, Leia tells Luke the vague details she remembers about Padme but Revenge of the Sith clearly shows that Padme died during childbirth and barely even saw her daughter. There might be something about the Force that could explain it but it does feel like an oversight.
Another issue with the prequels is how it insists on bringing as many of the original characters together as possible. Not only does this make the universe seem smaller but it also adds some bizarreness that all these people had already met each other.
Strangest of all, Vader shows no signs of recognizing the heroic droids who help save the day despite the fact that he went into battle with R2-D2 various times and actually made C-3PO himself.
Rey quickly emerged as the protagonist of the sequel trilogy and made for a complex and fun hero to follow. But some fans felt it was not realistic how quickly Rey took to the Jedi ways without any training. She is shown to be able to use a lightsaber and the Jedi mind trick almost immediately.
However, there are also a fair amount of fans who have pushed back on this criticism. Many have pointed out that Rey's growth and her time shown training as a Jedi pretty closely follow Luke's own path in Star Wars.
