In the history of cinema, there is probably no franchise that is more beloved than Star Wars. Of course, this does not mean that the series is without its faults.
The flaws of the series range from tiny issues to massive problems. Some of these faults could have easily been fixed, however. With that in mind, here are ten simple fixes that would have made the Star Wars movies even better, listed according to the order of film release.
10 Vader On Hoth
The Battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back is certainly impressive. The battle revolves around the Rebels trying to keep the Imperial walkers from destroying a shield generator so that Darth Vader can enter the Rebel base with his ground troops. It does convey the Rebels' desperate situation, but when Vader is finally able to start his attack, the result is rather anticlimactic. His troops try to prevent the departure of the Millennium Falcon and he just sort of walks in when Han Solo is finally able to take off.
But what if we had seen Vader's initial attack on the base? What if we had seen Vader and his men fighting their way through the Rebel ground forces that stood between them and the entrance to the base? This would have given the battle a more epic scope, raised the tension of Han and Leia's escape as Vader gets closer to them, and made Vader a more intimidating threat in the minds of the audience.
9 The Luke/Leia Reveal
Fans now accept the reveal from Return of the Jedi that Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia are actually twins who were separated at birth. However, the actual reveal in the film is rather clunky and feels somewhat shoehorned in. This is because as Obi-Wan talks about Luke's sister, Luke suddenly has an epiphany and realizes that Leia is his sister. Obi-Wan confirms this and they move on. It all feels far fetched and silly because of its execution.
This reveal would have had a much better execution if the script had just called for Obi-Wan to outright tell Luke that Leia was his sister. The dialogue would likely have flowed more naturally, resulting in a reveal that feels less forced.
8 Jar Jar
As controversial as Jar Jar Binks is, he is necessary to the plot of The Phantom Menace in two places: at the beginning when he helps the Jedi sneak into Theed and at the end when he puts the idea into Padmé's head to ask the Gungans for help to take back Naboo.
However, Jar Jar is in significantly more of the film than in these two moments, and his presence serves no particular purpose when the group arrives on Tatooine. This is why it would have been better if he had stayed on the ship while Qui Gon and Padmé went to get parts. This would have made the film more focused as it introduced Anakin Skywalker and spared us some of the most infamous Jar Jar moments.
7 Padmé's Parents
One of the clunkiest aspects of Attack of the Clones is the love story between Anakin and Padmé, so much so that some fans wonder how Anakin was able to win Padmé over at all. The answer is that Padmé was attracted to him the moment she saw him (note how she checks him out when they greet each other at the beginning of the film).
This plot point is made a lot more clear, however, in a deleted scene from early in the film where Anakin and Padmé visit Padmé's parents. The scene makes it very clear that Padmé is holding back feelings for Anakin, and keeping it in the film would have made her decision to be with him feel a bit more natural.
6 Essence Transference
One of the most mocked lines in Revenge of the Sith is the medical droid's assertion that Padmé has lost the will to live. Some fans have speculated, however, that since Palpatine tells Vader that Padmé is dead (a fact which he should not know), Palpatine actually transferred Padmé's life force to Vader.
This is certainly a more plausible explanation and would have been easy to include in the film. Simply show Palpatine meditating over Vader. Then indicate that Palpatine is reaching out with the Force and show Padmé screaming in agony. Cut back to Palpatine as he looks down on Vader, who is becoming calmer. This would have been a fascinating image and also given a plausible explanation for Padmé's death.
5 The Map To Luke Skywalker
One of the major criticisms of The Force Awakens is that it is a retread of the events of A New Hope. This criticism is not helped by the fact that Starkiller Base does nothing to impact the main plot of the film, which is to find Luke Skywalker.
This did not have to be the case, however. Kylo Ren reveals to Rey that the First Order already has most of the map to Luke Skywalker and they just need the piece that she has. Since Rey now knows where to get the rest of the map, she should have mentioned this to her friends when she rejoins them and they could have stolen it from Starkiller Base's computer system. This would have justified the presence of Starkiller Base within the story and made it feel like less of a distraction from the main plot.
4 The Death Of Bodhi
One of the best relationships in Rogue One was that between blind Force-sensitive Chirrut and his friend Baze. Since they are introduced together, it is only fitting that their deaths are linked.
Except they're not. The death of pilot Bodhi is cut in between the deaths of these two characters. This completely interrupts the emotional flow of the scene between Chirrut and Baze and lessens the impact of Baze's death. If Bodhi's death had simply taken place after Baze's death, the result would have been a much better sendoff for one of the movie's best duos.
3 Captain Phasma
Canto Bight is one of the most criticized aspects of The Last Jedi. There are certainly a number of ways to make this subplot better, there is one easy solution that actually also resolves another issue with the film: Captain Phasma's minimal role.
Instead of the tension in Canto Bight coming from Finn and Rose committing a parking violation, what should have happened is that Phasma notices Finn and Rose leaving the Resistance fleet and following them to Canto Bight. Once there, she alerts the authorities and has them arrested. This would have tied the Canto Bight subplot more into the main plot of the film and given Phasma something to do.
2 Qi'ra
Despite being fairly well made, Solo: A Star Wars Story is difficult to get emotionally invested in since the film anchors Han's motivation is his romantic relationship with Qi'ra. Because audiences know from the original trilogy that this relationship is doomed to fail, it is difficult to care about them as a couple.
A simple rewrite would have made this better. Simply change the relationship between Han and Qi'ra to a sibling relationship. This would have immediately raised questions in the audience's mind about why Qi'ra is not in the original trilogy and created some suspense about her fate. It would have also made her betrayal of Han hit a lot harder both for Han and for the audience.
1 Palpatine Clone
As has recently been revealed by the novelization of The Rise of Skywalker, Palpatine's return was made possible through cloning technology and essence transference. Given that the nature of Palpatine's return was a major source of confusion for audiences, it probably would have been easier for people to enjoy the film if this point had been cleared up right away.
According to Palpatine actor Ian McDiarmid, they actually did film an exchange that explains this, but it was cut. Given the subsequent reaction from audiences, this movie would have been improved if this exchange had been kept in.
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