Luke's plan was to destroy Jabba the Hut.<p>Jabba had been chasing Han since before <i>A New Hope</i>. If Luke just were to break Han out, then Han would be back in the same thicket he was before: running from Jabba. The group was tired of that.<p>The plan is rough, yes, but in a confident way: "If we just get us all inside the palace, it will be like planting dynamite."<p>Was it dishonest then, for Luke first to ask Jabba nicely? No, I don't think so. If Jabba sincerely gave up Han, then that means that Jabba's heart would have changed and would no longer be chasing Han. Therefore both goals would have been reached without blood (free Han and end the hunt). I don't think Luke counted on this. But even though Luke had a plan B, the chance presented to Jabba was real.
Luke was never meant to enter. He was supposed to be the getaway pilot.<p>Lando, R2D2 and C3PO are supposed to break out Chewie, fetch Leia and Han, then all escape and get picked up by Luke.<p>Luke is just winging it after everybody missed the rendezvous, as Leia underestimated just how long Jabba and his entourage could wait silently behind a curtain.<p>The lightsaber was carried in by R2D2 as a backup weapon for Leia, who also came up with the plan.
This sounds like a question Sci-fi Stack Exchange would make mince meat out of. For example: <a href="https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/182014/why-does-the-death-star-have-a-trash-compactor" rel="nofollow">https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/182014/why-does-th...</a><p>But seriously, little inconsistencies like these make me think Star Wars was just meant to be a kids’ movie and not a sacred document to be handed down and analyzed by generations like the Tanakh or something.
It was like the idea behind a lot of startups: "We're gonna bring a lot of really talented people together in the same space to collaborate, and just see what happens."<p>In <i>another</i> galaxy far, far away, the palace ended up as .jabba, a trendy coworking cafe. You had Boba Fett hacking away in the corner on his space-food delivery startup (bounty hunting's the day job), jawas on their ridesharing service (can't ever understand the damn drivers), C-3PO his AI blockchain chatbot, etc.
They did coordinate. It does not make any sense that they wouldn’t after the ending of Empire.<p>Lando was not going to rescue Han. He was there just in case they needed backup.<p>Leia was going in to unfreeze Han. When they needed to get away quickly, they couldn’t carry him frozen, and he needed time to come to after being unfrozen. My guess is that they planned to hide out until Luke came in, or Leia planned to go “well I don’t know who unfroze him. Probably Chewy, but definitely not me, I am just a bounty hunter.” Getting caught was not a part of the plan.<p>The droids came in to sneak in the lightsaber. Luke knew they weren’t enough to pay for Han. Jabba would have never accepted that.<p>The plan for Luke was to mind trick Jabba. If that didn’t work, it was to grab his lightsaber and fuck shit up. He got caught because Leia got caught. If Leia was still set up as an undercover bounty hunter, and R2D2 was close by, he could have just started slicing and dicing. Instead he had to fight the Rancor.<p>In the end, it was sheer luck that Jabba was doing the typical villain thing instead of just shooting them on the spot. To be fair, he clearly had a weakness for being theatrical. That’s why he kept Han frozen.<p>But. Star Wars is full of ret conning by fans and by Lucas. None of this crap was thought through before filming. Well not a lot at least. I believe the basic plot was, but details were not. Like I don’t think that Lando’s character existed before ANH was filmed. Which does drive me kinda nuts because people hail SW as such a complete universe. In reality, Lucas did a lot of just random stuff in the first three movies and then it had to become canon, sometimes through really crazy explanations. See the gaffe with parsecs being a unit of distance and how what makes the Falcon so fast is it’s navigational computer (a detail that was never mentioned in any movies for any ship, including the Falcon), and not because they screwed up how measurements of space and time work to sound cool.
I assumed that they really just didn't communicate with each other well. Leia showed up on her own (and failed), Luke sent the droids as part of _his_ plan (also failed), Lando was trying to get Han out from the inside (interrupted by the other plans)... they just didn't coordinate.
It's interesting to wonder how crowds would receive Empire Strikes Back if it came out today. I wager it would get roughly the same praise about special effects in action and criticism about bizarre story as the most recent Disney episode
I have a similar question about a different movie: in <i>Die Hard</i>, Bruce sure whines a lot about how the police are <i>following the Plan</i>. But...what were they <i>supposed</i> to do, if not follow their best available Plan? What did Bruce <i>want</i> them to do, if he had his druthers? Should they...NOT follow The Plan? Follow the <i>second</i>-best available Plan?<p>Going forward, how ought The Plan be modified? Should they add a "now we roll a 20-sided die!" step, so future terrorists can never again be sure what'll happen?
Someone should start a movement to point out the plot holes in Star Wars from wipe transitions that would obviously have killed the characters in the scene being wiped. Yet later, there the characters are again, no explanation given.
The "How it should have ended" series is great.<p>How Return Of The Jedi Should Have Ended <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdukWtJwlPU" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdukWtJwlPU</a>