The Star Wars franchise has given us a whole galaxy full of strange worlds, weird creatures, and fascinating mythos. It figures, then, that there are some mysteries out there, far, far away, that we just don’t know the answer to.
Think about it, throughout the history of Star Wars, we have been puzzled by so many difficult questions: Who shot first? Was Finn a Jedi? What the hell were they thinking when they made The Rise of Skywalker? It’s possible we will never know, no matter how many times we watch the Star Wars movies in order.
Now, a new conundrum has emerged in relation to the Empire Strikes Back. It may be one of the best science fiction movies of all time, but there’s a big problem with the film’s ending.
Over on Reddit, fans of the saga are pulling their hair out trying to determine what that iconic shot of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and the best Star Wars droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, actually takes place. What are they looking at? What is going on?
Seeing a group of the best Star Wars characters standing triumphantly after evading the clutches of Darth Vader and the Galactic Empire has been enough for us to gloss over this discrepancy for a long time, but now we demand answers.
The best answer we found comes from AlexPatriamStudios, who reckons the cluster of bright light and stars the gang are looking at may be the Rishi Maze (fans of the Clone Wars might recognize that name). Alternatively, the Star Wars cast members might be looking at the actual main galaxy the movies exist within. That’s some mind-boggling information to take in, but it is possible for the Rebellion fleet to have flown outside of their own galaxy, apparently.
And why wouldn’t they? The heroes probably very keen to get as far away from Vader as possible, after all. However, we really like this idea, from NegativeAffirmations: “I love how there is some elaborate, technical explanation to retcon continuity all because the arts department at ILM thought a galaxy would make a good visual for a three-second shot in a film made in 1980.” Sometimes, things just look cool, and they don’t need a big explanation.
For more from a galaxy far, far away, here’s what we know about the new Star Wars movies, The Acolyte release date, and the Andor season 2 release date. Alternatively, dive into our list of the best Star Wars villains and see how many Sith you can count there. And while we’re on the topic of cool things in space, let’s look ahead to The Marvels.