When it comes to sci-fi franchises, the fandom is always ready to come to blows over the strongest characters. By “come to blows,” we mean feverishly typing on their keyboards. Throw Star Wars into the mix, and you just raised the ante exponentially. At least it makes for entertaining debates.
Anything outside the original Star Wars trilogy is a point of contention with longtime fans. Whether it’s the prequel or sequel trilogy or Disney’s numerous spinoff movies and streaming series, viewers have plenty of material for an online war of words. There’s no better place than social media to get the party started.
The latest round of debate is courtesy of a recent post on Reddit.
This comes from one of the most popular films in Star Wars, 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back. After destroying the Death Star in the 1977 original, Luke is visited by Obi-Wan’s Force ghost, who sends him to the Dagobah system to train with Yoda. Before Yoda officially christened him a full-fledged Jedi knight, Skywalker has a vision of his friends in danger on Cloud City. Despite Yoda’s warnings, Luke flies away to have his first showdown with Darth Vader.
Ultimately, Luke lost the duel with Vader, but he held his own, which as the Sith lord famously stated was, “most impressive.” Despite losing his hand, Luke must have been seriously powerful to hang with someone on Vader’s level, but just how strong was the young Skywalker?
The logic there makes sense, but not everyone is so inclined. One user wondered if Vader, knowing he was fighting his son, showed restraint. When you’re a Sith lord, anything outside of murder is considered holding back, and that includes chopping off your kid’s hand.
In the end, the ruling comes down to who is behind the camera.
In other words, Star Wars, like most fiction, is consistently inconsistent. Considering the franchise is older than a good portion of its fans, that Disney and Lucasfilm have managed to maintain some semblance of consistency is commendable, to say the least.