10 Glaring Plot Holes You Didn't Realise The Movie Actually Solved

5. Why Does Obi-Wan Lie? - Star Wars

Obi-=Wan Kenobi Alec Guinness Star Wars
Lucasfilm

The Plot Hole: Star Wars is the typical fantasy story, just transplanted into space; there's a wizard, an evil castle and camp sidekick. Heck, the hero is even an orphan. Not just any orphan either - his father was killed by the big bad guy.

But then in The Empire Strikes Back it's revealed that the big bad is his father. Cue worldwide playground debates and a subsequent marring of Obi-Wan Kenobi's lines in A New Hope - now Alec Guinness' Jedi looks like a senile fool.

The Solution The Movie Gave Us: The solution the series gives is pretty explicit, it's just pretty hard to swallow, particularly in light of the prequels. In Return Of The Jedi Obi-Wan calms a naturally perturbed Luke by saying his previous statements were true "from a certain point of view". In the same way Jar Jar's funny from a certain point of view.

It's not much of an explanation, although it still is one. Lucas didn't want Obi-Wan to be an all-out liar, so tempered it by striking a middle ground. The ret-con does prompt some more questions - why did Obi-Wan link Vader to Anakin at all - but it doesn't mean this is the plot hole it's so often stated to be.

Contributor
Contributor

Film Editor (2014-2016). Loves The Usual Suspects. Hates Transformers 2. Everything else lies somewhere in the middle. Once met the Chuckle Brothers.