At the end of The Empire Strikes Back, Han Solo‘s fate wasn’t a mystery. The rebels knew Boba Fett was taking his carbonite slab to Tatooine in order to get Han’s bounty from Jabba the Hutt. It’s always been somewhat nebulous about how long Han was supposed to have been frozen, but his friends had the time to arrange his rescue. But how much thought did they really put into it? Star Wars fans have called out a pretty big Return of the Jedi plot hole this week, so Nerdist News is asking the hard question: how exactly was Luke Skywalker‘s plan supposed to work?
Join host and the Max Rebo Band’s backup singer, Jessica Chobot, as she attempts to make sense of it all. As far as we can tell, the first part of the plan was to send Lando into Jabba’s palace undercover as a guard. So far, so good. Next, C-3PO and R2-D2 were sent in with a message and a warning for Jabba. Here’s where things get dicey. If Jabba had accepted Luke’s first ultimatum and freed Han, then how were they supposed to get the droids back? Or for that matter, Luke’s lightsaber?
It wasn’t a coincidence when Leia and Chewbacca arrived at the palace after the droids were put into Jabba’s service, but they both ended up captured fairly quickly. That couldn’t have been on purpose, could it? Because from there, the plan appeared to fly off the rails, and Luke couldn’t use his Jedi mind tricks on Jabba to get them all out of trouble. We love Artoo, but it sure seems as if the plan’s final stage hinged upon the droid being in the exact position at the right time to give Luke his lightsaber back. The Heir to the Empire novels showed us how badly things could have gone, if the critical moment had been thwarted.
Some of Luke’s apologists have suggested Lando and Leia were essentially going rogue with their plans. But it doesn’t exactly let Luke off the hook, and it really makes Leia and Lando look bad. Wouldn’t this have been a lot easier if Luke had simply infiltrated Jabba’s palace instead of Lando or Leia? It’s almost as if someone set all of this in motion just for a major action set piece. George Lucas, we’re looking at you!
What do you think about the convoluted plan to save Han Solo in Return of the Jedi? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!
Images: Lucasfilm
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