Fan Theories: Star Wars

The six Star Wars movies managed to print themselves into cinema history as one of the most recognized movies ever, with many internet memes originating from the franchise.

However, the six episodes also left fans with numerous questions. Some are probably result of goofed-up scenes during the shooting, like the one where Jar Jar Binks falls down on the opposite side of the bridge as compared to where he jumped off from. But other theories, like Boba Fett murdering Luke's stepparents seems to be so plausible and evident that an observer may as well believe that Lucas intentionally hid certain tiny details hinting these occurrences.

Many thanks to the numerous users of Reddit from where I gathered most of these fan theories. They are results of long and fruitful discussions, with input from more than a hundred people for all these theories, which would leave it rather hard if not impossible to appropriately credit each. But if you are interested in more fan theories, I suggest hopping over to the mentioned subreddit and join in the discussion.

The character of Jar Jar Binks is one of the most controversial in cinema history, few have gathered so many haters as he did. He was probably supposed to be a comic relief character to lift the mood in the prequels, but ended up with a far lesser role due to sheer hatred and critique from the fans.

Now the theory begins with the assumption that Binks was fare more than what he showed himself to be. Over the course of the first episode, he displays random acts of seemingly "luck" that usually end up saving the scene, like taking out the captain of a droid tank or unleashing the boombas on the droid army when the Gungans flee.

In fact, fans on Reddit compared Jar Jar's fighting technique to a special Kung Fu discipline, the Drunken Fist Wushu. A look at Jar Jar's moves and then comparing them to a Wushu master reveals some odd parallels.

In fact, Jar Jar is seen dodging blaster shots numerous time during the battle on Naboo, something only Jedis are supposed to be doing. He also performed a casual force jump in front of us when diving into the pond with the two Jedis, something that leaves both with open mouths before they follow him underwater.

But that's only one thing, where those the Sith collaboration come into play? Jar Jar is seen using hand gestures numerous times during the prequels when he wins important decisions from characters. He's seen waving his hand when he's promoted to be a general, he gestures towards Padmé before he's appointed representative of Naboo and he gestures with both hands towards the senate when he convinces them of abandoning democracy itself.

He also persuades the two Jedi to travel through the planet core so that they need him, and he causes a scene that eventually leads to the discovery of Anakin Skywalker. Along with this, Jar Jar is often seen as entourage to Palpatine even way after he achieves power and would no longer need the creature.

Will we see a return of Jar Jar Binks to the new trilogy? There have been rumors of Gungan concept art and masks behind the scenes, so let's hope for the best. Or the worst?

The ewoks, no matter whether you love or hate them, were a rather interesting addition to the last episode of the franchise. It wasn't their appearance, weapons or language that made them so strange and mysterious, but the fact that they actually tied Han Solo to a branch and sought to ... roast him. Probably to serve his flesh as meat on a feast for their gold god.

Now this also raises the question: where did all the stormtrooper bodies go that remained after the battle of Endor? The answer is quite simple: they were eaten. Helmets can be seen during the last scenes of the feast, used as a drum kit by an Ewok, but all the bodies are missing.

Another issue with the Battle of Endor is the destruction of the second Death Star. A space object of such a size must have rained death upon the moon, eradicating any and all life on it with fiery debris falling from the sky or the explosion's shock wave altering the moon's ecosystem, orbit or atmosphere.

Sounds a bit strange, yes. But let's look into it. Qui-Gon was an apprentice of count Dooku, a sith Lord. Qui-Gon's first apprentice, Xanatos turned to the dark side (and was proclaimed Darth Xanatos).

He was one of the Jedi who knew about the clone army, and even one who took part in negotiating the deal that'd see the clone army created. He also convinced the Jedi council of accepting Anakin as a padawan despite his anger and fear issues, with the obvious intention of training him himself.

Now this could be enough to prove him being a Sith, yes, but the evidence is still not enough, so let's dig deeper. The idea of life after death is a Sith concept, as the Jedi are rather contempt with the end of life, leading to the assumption that the technique of becoming a force ghost is a Sith technique.

There are only three force ghosts featured in the movies, with an additional one mentioned. These are Anakin, Yoda, Obi Van and Qui-Gon's ghost referred to by Obi Van when talking to Yoda. It's known that Obi Van learned the technique from Qui-Gon, and Yoda learned it from Obi-Van. But who taught it to Anakin?

He had little time to do such before he turned to the dark side, and Obi Van only talks about his encounter with Qui Gon's ghost in the third episode, which leaves the question whether Anakin actually learned it from Palpatine. The Emperor does indeed mention a certain Darth Plagueis who defeated death itself. The answer is simple, Qui Gon learned it from a sith, just like Palpatine did.

When Han Solo is introduced to the audience in episode four, he boasts with having " "made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs, ...". Fans of the franchise have theorized long about this strange remark due to an obvious reason: Han boasts about the speed of the Falcon, but parsecs are measurement for distance.

The Kessel run is supposedly a smuggling route where the addictive spice of Kessel is carried from one planet to the other through an extremely dangerous part of the galaxy, ridden with black holes.

The theory states that Han did not brag about his ship's speed, but his ability to navigate through a forest of black holes on high speed, setting the record for the Kessel run among the smugglers.

There are numerous indications in the original trilogy towards the fact that Han Solo is a force user, although he doesn't know about it. His piloting skills strangely resemble those of Anakin Skywalker, whom we know had his reflexes from extreme sensitivity to the force. Compare Han Solo navigating through the asteroid field with Anakin's pod racing. In many senses, he is a far better pilot than Anakin Skywalker, outmaneuvering star destroyers, three at a time once.

The other evidence is his skills with blaster rifles and pistols. Stormtroopers are legendary with their inaccuracy, but all in all, it's the same for Chewbacca, Lando, Luke or Leia. The only two people to be more accurate than usual with blasters are Obi Van (when he shoots general Grievous' heart) and Han Solo (numerous times over the trilogy, for example shooting the Sarlac's tentacle while being ... blind).

The question is whether his sensitiveness was noticed by anyone else. When he refers to luck in a scene during their flight towards the remains of Alderaan, Obi Van mentions to him with a smirk that there's no such thing as luck in the galaxy.

Other hints that he could be force sensitive is how he found Luke on Hoth against all odds and how he survived being frozen into carbonite. With the now non-canon expanded universe, we also learned that his children grew to be force sensitive as well.

This is a small fan theory that doesn't really influence the outcomes of the story. Owen and Beru died an sorrowful death on Tatooine, leading to Luke abandoning the planet with no connections left to it. But the remains of the two are charred skeletons, something that we haven't seen before, definitely not in fights with stormtroopers.

Which leads to the question how they died. When Darth Vader hires the bounty hunters in the next episodes, he explicitly tells Boba Fett some instructions:

He tells that to Fett probably in knowledge of the previous incidents. Vader could have hired him to find the droids, and we know Boba Fett was on Tatooine that time because he's present during Jabba's talk to Han Solo.

And naturally, in the last episode we see that Boba Fett has a flamethrower attached to his wrist.

This fan theory deals with the seemingly odd behavior of R2D2 who seems to know the best way out of most situations by chance over the course of the episodes. R2D2's memory was never wiped and thus it was the perfect agent to accompany Leia on a diplomatic mission and obtain the rebel plans.

The two droids "happen" to become possessions of Luke's aunt and uncle on their farm, from which R2D2 eventually sets off to find Obi Van, luring Luke along. They then head to Mos Eisley, where they stumble into Chewbacca.

According to the theory, R2D2 sent a distress signal when Leia's ship got under attack, calling for help from the rebels to which Chewbacca answered by dropping the cargo they were smuggling and heading straight towards Tatooine. Just remember the scene in the cantina, Obi Van heads to Chewbacca way before the droids are even thrown out., Obi Van and Chewbacca negotiate a random price that they all know they can't pay in front of Han Solo, yet he accepts it and they board the Falcon.

On the death star, Chewie also helps Luke convince Han of his rescue plan for Leia, a sudden mission they didn't expect to have but was their responsibility to carry out as rebel agents with R2D2.

Chewie agrees to flee Yavin IV. with Han for the sole reason to have a backup plan for the rebellion in case the base eventually gets destroyed. Yet they change their mind and go back to fight and save Luke in the last moment.

The fan theory goes as far as to claim that Chewbacca was one of the few in knowing of the Skywalker family line, and he sets up Leia with Han for the sake of keeping her away from Luke, her twin brother.

It's questionable what the Emperor ever wanted with his machination, the Empire. But there's a rather complicated answer, which is unity against a threat from outside the galaxy.

Think of it, the Republic obviously dis-functioned, even without Palpatine's involvement it would have eventually crumbled into dust. What Palpatine did was grab the central power and unite all systems under the Imperial banner, militarize the whole galaxy and create a fleet and an army that was greater than any before.

For example, why would the Empire need a space station that can destroy planets, if the only faction the Empire would ever fight were rebels scattered across the galaxy? The answer is simple and show in the last episode, where the Death Star is proven to be extremely effective against enemy flagships.

Palpatine saw a crumbling republic and learned of an impending foreign invasion, to which he decided to react with uniting the forces of the galaxy under one banner by force, slowly preparing and army and a fleet to fend off Lucas' reapers.