10 Greatest Unspoken Star Wars Movie Plot Points
6. Why Darth Vader Stopped Boba Fett Killing Chewie - The Empire Strikes Back
A question that's bugged fans ever since the release of The Empire Strikes Back is why Darth Vader stops Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch) from shooting Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) in the film's climax as Han Solo (Harrison Ford) is being encased in Carbonite?
Fett goes to shoot Chewie, but Vader lifts up his hand and stops Fett from firing, a seemingly bizarre move that has seen fans perform Olympic-level mental gymnastics in an attempt to explain.
Some assumed Vader didn't want to risk an errant blaster shot ruining the Carbonite, or perhaps he simply had a sense of honour about dealing with his prisoners.
But 2020's canon comic Darth Vader #12 finally lends context to Vader's actions, revealing that he wanted to keep Luke's friends alive to demonstrate the carefully controlled power he could exert over the Rebels.
It's certainly a better outcome than ass-pulling a convoluted reasoning for why Vader might specifically want to keep Chewie alive - it's really a Machiavellian feat of psychological warfare on Vader's part.