Star Wars invites intense reactions from its fans. This is a sign of how much the fans love the property - if they didn't care, they wouldn't react nearly as strongly. There are plenty of things about Star Wars that have annoyed the fans over the years and they make sure that everyone knows it, especially in online fan spaces.
Beyond the broad strokes, there are lots of moments and events throughout the franchise that many fans find particularly egregious. These moments have split the fan base and caused online flame wars that could rival even the conflicts in the movies themselves.
10 The Darth Vader Exegol Arc Pretty Much Breaks Canon Entirely
Marvel's Star Wars comics have been mostly well received, but writer Greg Pak's Darth Vader run has stirred a bit of controversy. The book was tasked with doing some background set up for Palpatine's Final Order on Exegol and showed Vader going there between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
Vader discovered everything Palpatine did there, from the cloning to the Xyston-class Star Destroyer fleet. Where this breaks canon is when Vader doesn't warn Luke about any of it. Vader becomes a Force ghost after his redemption and could have warned Luke at any time. Trying to make the reviled plot beats of The Rise of Skywalker work made things even worse.
9 The Relationship Between Rey And Kylo Ren Brought Up Questions About Glorifying Abuse
The Sequel Trilogy eventually became the Rey and Kylo Ren show, a move that hurt every other character in the films. The Last Jedi started setting up a pseudo-relationship between them, something shippers on various online platforms ran with. However, another group of fans brought up just how disgusting their whole dynamic was.
Kylo Ren and Rey met when he used the Force to knock her out and then interrogated her, trying to enter her mind without her permission. Even in The Last Jedi, Ren was basically manipulating her into joining him and he had all the hallmarks of an abuser. Putting the two of them in a relationship of any kind was extremely tone deaf.
8 Showing Anakin Skywalker As A Precocious Child Has Been Widely Reviled
The Prequel Trilogy has been re-evaluated in recent years, but that doesn't make a lot of the mistakes it made any better. One of those was beginning the story with Anakin Skywalker as a nine-year-old boy. Showcasing Anakin at that age was George Lucas's way of appealing to young audiences, but it ended up undermining the character in a lot of ways.
Anakin Skywalker was played a little too normally for the boy who would become Darth Vader and it led to a lot of older fans not enjoying The Phantom Menace.
7 Jar Jar Binks's Entire Existence Is Enough To Send Many Fans Into A Rant
The Phantom Menace had a lot riding on it and while it got a lot of things right, it made some big mistakes, ones that taught Lucasfilm some lessons over the years. One of those mistakes was the often childish tone, a lot of which came from Jar Jar Binks, the bumbling Gungan who basically existed for comic relief.
While children who watched the movie enjoyed the character, eventually coming up with the Darth Jar Jar fan theory to rationalize their esteem for him, older fans didn't, and to this day, mentioning Jar Jar Binks can send many fans into meltdowns.
6 The Reveal Of Luke's Paternity Angered A Lot Of Fans Back In The Day
The Empire Strikes Back is widely considered the greatest Star Wars movie of them all. Part of that was the twist ending, where Darth Vader revealed he was Luke's father. It went down as one of cinema's most iconic- and misquoted- moments, but that doesn't mean there weren't a lot of fans angry about it in 1980.
The move polarized audiences, with some praising it as bold and others hating it. While it would eventually be redeemed and accepted (sort of like Vader himself later), when it happened it was the kind of divisive moment that revealed the fervency of Star Wars fans.
5 Resetting The Status Quo In The Sequels Invalidated Everything About The Original Trilogy
One of the strangest parts of the Sequel Trilogy was how little respect it had for any characters or events of the preceding trilogies, beyond the story structure of the Original Trilogy. Instead of presenting a new status quo in a post-Empire galaxy, The Force Awakens basically just re-hashed the entire conflict of the Original Trilogy with the Resistance and First Order standing in for the Rebels and Empire.
Fans noticed immediately and began to comment about how this cheapened everything the characters of the Original Trilogy went through. It soured many fans immediately and even people who enjoy the Sequels point to it as a misstep.
4 Finn's Entire Story Arc In The Last Jedi Was A Rehash Of His Arc In The Force Awakens
There is no character in the Sequel Trilogy whose potential was squandered more than Finn's. His status as a defected stormtrooper seemed rife with potential for growth, a plot line fans had never experienced before. However, starting with The Last Jedi, the character was completely wasted.
The movie's plot line for Finn saw him basically learning the same lesson as the last film, learning to not only think about himself and to help others again. It was a complete waste of time and just one of the many mistakes made with the characters, angering fans and actor John Boyega, who was quite vocal about his displeasure.
3 The Holdo Maneuver Made Everyone Question The Point Of Space Battles
The Last Jedi has its fans, with some thinking it's the most profound Star Wars movie. However, it's also one of the most controversial of the films. One of the biggest moments of controversy was the scene with the Holdo Maneuver: Admiral Holdo took the Raddus into hyperspace and collided with the Supremacy, gravely damaging the ship and destroying much of its fleet.
If this was always an option, what was the point of space battles? Just strap hyperdrives to large enough asteroids and throw them at enemy fleets. They tried to explain it away in supplementary material as special shields making it possible, but most found the explanation nonsensical.
2 Putting The Announcement Of Palpatine's Resurrection Into Fortnite Angered Every Fan Who Didn't Play The Game
Lucasfilm has long been about merchandising and putting Star Wars into all kinds of media, but they made a huge mistake in the run-up to The Rise of Skywalker. They placed Palpatine's announcement of his return, something that most fans would have expected to be in the movie, in the game Fortnite.
Fans were livid. Fortnite appeals to a generally younger audience and many older Star Wars fans don't play it. Putting plot-crucial info in a game that not all fans had access to angered them, even the ones who hailed Palpatine as the best Sith.
1 Luke Skywalker's Character Regression Angered Fans Immensely
The Last Jedi seemingly existed to anger parts of the fandom, and the greatest example of that was Luke Skywalker. Fans had read about him in Legends novels for years, wanting to see what he looked like in canon, and what they got angered them. Luke's character had regressed to a tremendous degree.
Luke Skywalker, a man who tried to redeem his mass murderer father, fell to a moment of weakness because of a Force vision, which he was taught not to trust in The Empire Strikes Back. Throughout the rest of The Last Jedi, he was a broken shell instead of a person who had grown and become better, which was his entire arc in the Original Trilogy. The movie tried to redeem him at the end, but it was too little, too late for many fans.