Which Star Wars movies are best is always a fierce topic of debate amongst fans, though you’ll find few who’ll argue with the quality of 2016’s Rogue One and the movie that started it all, 1977’s A New Hope. However, a dissenter has appeared, arguing that A key plot point means most of these films’ stories are entirely redundant.
This has raised hackles with fans, but at first glance? Well, maybe – just maybe – they have a point:
Fortunately, knowledgeable fans have swept in to explain why this isn’t necessarily a plot hole, pointing out that in A New Hope Leia and the Rebels weren’t initially aware there was a key flaw in the Death Star that could lead to its destruction. Another reply underlines that there’s a difference between the Death Star technical schematics that are at the core of Rogue One and the floor plan R2-D2 downloaded in A New Hope.
Another key thing to consider is that A New Hope was rewritten many times prior to filming, and there may be some inconsistencies that George Lucas couldn’t have foreseen becoming a plot hole so many years later. As such, Rogue One in its entirety may be a roundabout way to resolve issues like the Rebels knowing about the exhaust port weak spot.
Either way, while A New Hope and Rogue One remain some of the best times you can have in a galaxy far, far away, perhaps if you whip out a microscope and train it on the plot there are some small wrinkles that don’t make sense. But does it spoil our enjoyment of them? Not in the slightest.