10 Greatest Unspoken Star Wars Movie Plot Points

Darth Plagueis was right there all along.

Star Wars Revenge of the Sith Palpatine Anakin
Disney

Star Wars is such a gargantuan franchise at this point that it's basically impossible for any single movie to say and do everything a filmmaker wants to, incorporating every character, location, and event that means something to fans.

And so, perhaps more than any other IP in history, Star Wars does a lot of its storytelling on the periphery, slyly revealing fascinating plot points in the background, whether through implication or clever visual signposting.

It's a tough trick to pull off, but with the Star Wars fanbase being as insatiable and eagle-eyed as it is, they've caught literally dozens of low-flying sleights of narrative hand throughout the decades.

Picking just 10 plot points isn't easy, though these are the ones that best flesh out the Star Wars universe, lending emotion and meaning to its characters and even perhaps making you think about scenes in totally different ways.

Needless to say, you'll never look at the world of Star Wars quite the same way again after considering these hush-hush plot points, each of which say so, so much without actually saying anything at all...

10. The Reason For R2-D2's Disobedience - The Empire Strikes Back

Star Wars Revenge of the Sith Palpatine Anakin
Disney

You'll probably remember that, in the Empire Strikes Back, R2-D2 demonstrates a habit of disobeying Luke Skywalker's (Mark Hamill) orders to stay put and remain with the ship.

While at first glance this seems like nothing more than R2-D2 being an amusingly independent-minded droid who wants to help his charge complete his mission, the much sadder truth is actually subtly explained in the prequels.

In Revenge of the Sith, when Anakin (Hayden Christensen) touches down on Mustafar with R2 in tow, he tells him to stay with the ship. Except in this case, R2 obeys Anakin's request, only for Anakin to subsequently become Darth Vader and never return to R2.

This in turn seemingly caused R2 to develop some understandable abandonment issues, and so in the events of the Original Trilogy, he's not about to sit still and wait around for a human who may or may not abandon him.

While we can technically put this down to George Lucas developing the plot point in retrospect in the prequels, it's still totally effective in explaining R2's distaste for compliance.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.