The Classic Return Of The Jedi Scene That Makes No Sense
Return of the Jedi is typically seen as the weakest of the Original Trilogy of Star Wars films, but it still has plenty of great moments. One of these is the dramatic rescue of Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt’s Tattooine stronghold, which had much stronger storytelling than the later scenes on Endor. There was one scene that made no sense, though: pay close attention to the disguised Leia’s negotiations with Jabba and she apparently communicates “I want 50,000, no less” by simply saying “kyoto, kyoto.”
Han Solo Frozen
Just in case you’ve forgotten the scene (Return of the Jedi did come out a long, long time again, in a 1980s far, far away), let’s do a quick recap. At the end of the previous film, Han Solo is frozen in carbonite and carted away by Boba Fett.
The Bounty Hunter takes his prize to Jabba the Hutt, someone who had been after Han for years because the smuggler once had to dump valuable cargo to avoid getting arrested by the Empire.
The Crazy Plan
By Return of the Jedi, Han (still frozen in carbonite) has become Jabba’s favorite decoration, and instead of using, say, the might of the Rebel fleet, his friends decide to go on a rescue mission so wacky you’d swear it was planned by deranged Dungeons & Dragons players.
The plan mostly revolves around covertly getting everyone in place–freeing Han from carbonite and getting him and Luke thrown in the same jail. Lando is undercover as one of Jabba’s guards, and Leia decides to bring some muscle in by donning an elaborate disguise and selling Chewbacca to Jabba.
Leia’s Disguise
This Return of the Jedi scene is cool in large part thanks to the fact that we don’t yet know this is Leia–she has an elaborate disguise and speaks in an alien language.
As with Jabba’s own alien speech, the subtitles helpfully tell us what she is saying during the negotiations. Unfortunately, if you compare the words she says with the meaning behind them, you’ll see that none of this really makes much sense.
Not Enough Words
According to the subtitles, she is trying to drive a hard bargain with Jabba: after C3PO tells her that Jabba will happily pay the 25,000 credit reward, she demands double, saying ‘I want 50,000, no less.”
Out loud, though, the character simply says “kyoto, kyoto.” Simply put, we don’t think repeating the same word twice would actually express the more complex statement that the disguised Leia is making.
Nitpicking Is What We Do Best
Weirdly enough, this absurdity is driven home by Jabba himself. Whenever he speaks in Return of the Jedi, he talks for long enough that it seems plausible he is really saying what we see in the subtitles.
And throughout the franchise, Chewbacca typically makes enough noise that it sounds like he really said whatever Han claims he said.
The disguised Leia is pretty much the only case in Star Wars where we are supposed to believe that repeating a single alien word is meant to convey a complete sentence.
Before anyone says it, we get it…nitpicking on this level is a bit crazy, but it’s nitpicking that comes from a place of love. After all, these are the kinds of things you only notice after watching Return of the Jedi so often that the VHS tape breaks.
We’re happy to have the Blu-ray now because compared to modern tripe like The Rise of the Skywalker, this final film of the Original Trilogy seems nearly flawless and worth endless rewatching.
