Times Star Wars Went Too Far

The "Star Wars" franchise has offered audiences lots of thrilling escapism over the decades, with each new generation getting a collection of exciting new movies to call their own. However, the pervasive presence of "Star Wars" in global pop culture can't paper over the fact that, sometimes, this cosmic saga has messed up. 

Not just in delivering subpar movies but also in highlighting moments that just went too far. It's one thing to deliver unorthodox storytelling choices, but there have been several instances where the "Star Wars" has dabbled in gags, dramatic beats, and even weighty themes that a series aimed at children just can't hope to properly portray. When you take notice of all those times the series exceeded its grasp, you can clearly see where the "Star Wars" franchise has crossed a line.

Such instances are spread all across the "Star Wars" media landscape and range from the most famous "Star Wars" films to obscure titles like "The Star Wars Holiday Special." Just as there are countless examples of unforgettable fun across these tales of good and evil, there are also lots of moments that proved distracting when they went too far.

Before the prequel trilogy, the aliens in "Star Wars" weren't devoid of racially stereotypical behavior (hi Nien Nunb!), but it wasn't as aggressively apparent in this galaxy far, far away. That all changed within minutes of "The Phantom Menace," as noted by multiple news outlets at the time. 

First, the Los Angeles Times observed that Nute Gunray speaks in an accent that, charitably speaking, sounds like it resembled a caricature of an Eastern accent. It is all downhill from there, as a trip to Naboo sees Jar-Jar Binks waltzing onto the screen, sounding like what The Baltimore Sun likened to an unfortunate combination of minstrel and Rastafarian stereotypes. Slate notes that leaving Naboo doesn't help matters, as viewers soon meet a potentially anti-Semitic stereotype in Watto, who flies around talking about his love for money. 

Classic aliens in the "Star Wars" franchise made you want to buy their action figures. The aliens in "The Phantom Menace" largely reminded moviegoers of ugly racial stereotypes from Earth, but without any commentary or subversion to justify their presence. While the two later entries in the prequel trilogy toned things down a bit, the recurring presence of characters like Watto and Jar-Jar Binks across these movies kept this puzzling element alive. There are limitless possibilities when crafting new Star Wars aliens, so it's bizarre that the prequel trilogy took things too far by designing aliens around lazy racial stereotypes.

There's a kiss at the start of "The Empire Strikes Back" that, to quote Franklin D. Roosevelt, "will live in infamy." After Luke Skywalker is rescued from the clutches of Hoth's cold weather, this young Jedi is resting up and talking to his pals, including Han Solo and Leia Organa. This discussion eventually dovetails into an argument between Organa and Solo concerning the possibility of Leia harboring secret romantic attractions to this scoundrel. To prove that Solo doesn't "know everything about women yet," Organa proceeds to plant a big smooch on Skywalker's lips, causing this recently rescued individual to smirk with pride once the burst of romantic passion is over.

In the grand scheme of "Star Wars" lore, it's apparent why this scene goes too far given that Skywalker and Organa are siblings separated at birth. In defense of "The Empire Strikes Back," that piece of lore wasn't defined yet when the film was in production, with George Lucas initially even planning to have Luke's sister be a new character (via Esquire). Still, as part of a sprawling saga, the greater context of the duo's relationship makes this moment squirm-inducing rather than its initial intent of registering as just humorous. No wonder this kiss has been burned into the minds of "Star Wars" fans for all the wrong reasons!

In "Attack of The Clones," Anakin Skywalker's descent to the dark side of the Force begins when he sneaks into a Tusken Raider camp and finds his mother dying from extreme injuries. After they share one final goodbye before she passes away, Skywalker looks up from her corpse, enraged. He then bursts out of the tent she was held in and slices down a Tusken Raider. The screen cuts to black, but Skywalker later informs Padme Amidala that, in an act of rage and revenge, he killed all of the Tusken Raiders on the premises, including "the women. And the children, too!" 

The trajectory of the prequels trilogy means that Anakin Skywalker has to grow more and more nefarious as these movies move along. It was only inevitable that one of these features would contain a sequence where Skywalker commits some unspeakable act of violence. However, as executed here, Skywalker's vicious revenge goes a bit too far, mostly because there's never a moment for "Attack of the Clones" to properly process the gravity of this event. The story has to get Skywalker and Amidala off to Geonosis for the climactic battle, which rushes through both the characters and the audience while processing this grave deed. Though it makes sense in his character arc, the slaughtering of the Tusken Raiders is clumsily executed enough to undercut its important intent.

Once Leia Organa is captured by the nefarious crime lord Jabba the Hutt, this space slug proceeds to dress the princess up in a chain bikini reminiscent of the outfit worn by a recently deceased Twi'lek dancer. Organa proceeds to wear the costume for the majority of "Return of the Jedi's" first act. It isn't until the action shifts off the planet of Tattoine that she gets a new costume. Though Organa didn't don this bikini again in "Return of the Jedi," this costume quickly became an iconic piece of imagery that was common in cosplay circles and merchandising.

The latter use of the chain bikini costume is downright disturbing given how Organa had no say in wearing this outfit, as she is forced to do so by Jabba the Hutt. However, Lucasfilm merchandising had no problem taking this image and putting it on posters, T-shirts, and other apparel. Esquire reports that the dissonance between the costume's meaning in "Return of the Jedi" became so pervasive that Lucasfilm, shortly after Disney absorbed the company, even agreed to stop producing merchandise featuring this attire. At least this decision eased up the prominence of this moment in "Star Wars" that went too far.

Padme Amidala is nowhere to be seen in the original trilogy of "Star Wars" movies from the 1970s and 1980s. Thus, it is only a matter of time before the lone prominent lady character in the prequel trilogy is either killed off or otherwise pushed to the sidelines. Even with everyone aware of this inevitability, however, it was still shocking how "Revenge of the Sith" chose to dispose of the then-pregnant Amidala. After a confrontation with her husband, Anakin Skywalker, on the planet Mustafar, Amidala is Force choked by Skywalker. Shortly after, a medical droid notes that they can save the babies, but Amidala herself is dying for inexplicable reasons.

Perishing shortly after she informs Obi-Wan Kenobi that Anakin still has "good in him," Amidala's primary purpose of birthing Luke and Leia is complete. All that's left is for her to be given an extravagant funeral. It's a strange whimper of a conclusion for the character, especially since it contradicts how Leia states that she can remember her in "Return of the Jedi." There was pre-established lore that could've allowed an easy out to avoid killing off Amidala. Instead, "Revenge of the Sith" goes too far in killing off the only notable lady in these origin films and gets rid of her in a bizarre fashion to boot.

Everybody loves Grogu, aka Baby Yoda. Fans make memes about him, t-shirts featuring his adorable mug are everywhere, he's even gotten his own Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade float. However, that doesn't mean Grogu is devoid of controversy in the "Star Wars" franchise. One Season 2 episode of "The Mandalorian" features Grogu scarfing down the eggs of their frog alien passenger. While the titular lead of "The Mandalorian" tells Grogu to knock it off, this baby is always eyeballing the canister containing the eggs.

Meant as a dark gag, fans did not respond well to Grogu's egg consumption which, in effect, reduces the population of this already struggling alien species to even lower numbers. A brief backlash occurred that proved so loud that Insider reports that a creative arts manager at Lucasfilm put out a response defending the youngster's actions by comparing the frog eggs to chicken eggs. Of course, the controversy didn't last long and people were soon back to making GIFs out of adorable bits of physical comedy from Grogu. However, this character's controversial approach to satisfying his hunger shows that any "Star Wars" character, even fan-favorites, can end up going too far.