Star Wars: Return of the Jedi opens by resolving the cliffhanger ending of The Empire Strikes Back. Han Solo has been imprisoned in carbonite and is on display in Jabba’s throne room, with Luke, Leia, and Lando on a mission to save him. Leia’s plan to sneak in disguised as a bounty hunter fails, resulting in her humiliating time as a gold-bikini-clad slave girl.
Luke tries a different tactic, marching straight into Jabba’s Palace and demanding her release in exchange for C-3PO. Jabba isn’t impressed and sends him plunging into the Rancor pit, but when that fails, decides to just toss Luke and Han into the Great Pit of Carkoon to be digested. But, as we all know, R2D2 delivers his lightsaber, Luke saves the day, and Jabba winds up strangled by Leia.
But was their success dumb luck or a well-executed cunning plan? Fans are busily debating its merits on r/StarWars, and there’s a clear split in opinion:
The top-voted reply says Luke likely knew his effort to appeal to Jabba’s better side would likely end in failure – he did after all grow up on Tatooine and would have been well-aware of Hutt ruthlessness. And hiding his weapon with R2-D2 shows that he expected things to go south fast:
Others point to Lando hiding out in the palace, likely feeding information back to Luke:
Others point out that if Jabba had agreed to Luke’s plan they would have then had to save the droids:
But it’s worth pointing out that Luke’s plan did succeed with zero friendly casualties and that it clearly had several fail safes built in:
It’s also noted that the novel Shadows of the Empire reveals that what we say was a last-ditch attempt, though the story itself is non-canon:
Despite it all, some think Luke just got lucky:
But you can’t argue with results and even if luck and quick-witted improvisation were what let them come out on top they still won. Or, if you’re feeling mystically minded, any good Jedi should trust in the Will of the Force.