Darth Vader’s Millennium Falcon Obsession Reveals Surprising Secret To Fans

By Chris Snellgrove | Published 32 seconds ago

The Empire Strikes Back It’s definitely the best Star Wars movie, but it’s still the one that left fans with questions. For example, it’s never quite clear why Darth Vader is focused enough to risk thousands of Imperial lives to fire the Millennium Falcon. However, another fan theory offers a good answer: he would see a powerful Force user on the ship, and not knowing that it was actually Luke Skywalker’s twin Leia, he would think that the man who destroyed the Death Star was on the ship.

Darth Vader Wants the Millennium Falcon

In case you need a quick refresher, Darth Vader personally helped attack Hoth, and after the Millennium Falcon escaped, he led the pursuit in his own Star Destroyer. The Rebels’ escape is successful thanks to Han Solo’s cunning and driving skills, and we see that the pursuit costs the Imperials dearly in terms of lives lost. Two Star Destroyers collide and one appears to be destroyed by an asteroid, and fans have spent decades wondering why Vader was willing to lose nearly 47,000 lives (total for a Star Destroyer) to chase down two humans, two droids, and one alien. .

There are obviously several valid reasons why Darth Vader might be concerned about capturing the Millennium Falcon, including the fact that it would be the only way to investigate any Rebels behind the mysterious attack on Hoth. Additionally, he was getting more pressure from the Emperor, who came in with a hologram warning him about “their new enemy, Luke Skywalker.” According to this fan theory, Vader’s pursuit of the Falcon leads to the fact that he was completely convinced that Luke Skywalker was on board, and he was willing to sacrifice many Imperial lives to capture the Empire’s greatest enemy.

Darth Vader Meets Leia in the Millennium Falcon

It is a very good theory because the culmination of Return of the Jedi confirmed that Vader was unaware of Leia’s existence. In fact, Luke Skywalker doesn’t give in to anger until his Dark Side father threatens to find Leia and convert her to his cause. So, the Darth Vader of The Empire Strikes Back we would have heard a powerful Force user within the Millennium Falcon and he just assumed it was Luke. At a distance, his presence would feel like Luke’s presence during the Death Star attack (“The force is strong too,” he said at the time).

Some Star Wars fans might feel that Darth Vader’s Millennium Falcon obsession doesn’t need a compelling reason, and it’s admittedly funny to think that the Dark Lord of the Sith doesn’t care about the body count of his obsession (about 47,000 people gone, and that’s just from Star Destroyer that we know of!). However, we like the idea that Vader always has an ulterior motive. In the making of novels of A New HopeObi-Wan Kenobi thought that his former student was “marking time in preparation for a mysterious abomination.” Taking it from his old Jedi Master, this bionic baddie does nothing without reason.

If nothing else, this fan perspective will change the way we view events The Empire Strikes Back. The next time Darth Vader chases the Millennium Falcon down, remember that he might think he’s hunting Luke Skywalker. Little did he know that the young man was chilling on Dagobah, taking a one-week crash course that would help him eventually become the galaxy’s greatest Jedi Master.