Ask most Star Wars fans who the most powerful character in the Star Wars Universe is, and you’ll get a small handful of unique responses.
My guess is most will say Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine, or possibly Yoda.
Based on each of those candidates’ respective bodies of work, all three are admirable selections. Thing is, this exercise reflects what most Star Wars fans tend to do when presented with similar discussion topics: consider the entire universe, which includes 6 movies, an animated franchise, hundreds of novels and comic books, role playing games, video games, and much more.
Today I want to try something different. We’re still going to examine the most powerful characters in the Star Wars Universe, but not over the course of history. This is a discussion of where the characters stand where we left off, after Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.
These Power Rankings are based only on the Star Wars movies (no Expanded Universe), and we rank based on where the characters’ storylines left off at the end of ROTJ. The rankings are based on various factors, as we’ll attempt to explain and defend in each ranking. One caveat: Force Ghosts don’t count. You have to be alive and in the flesh to rank on this list- sorry, Yoda & Obi-Wan.
From 10 to 1, the most powerful characters in the Star Wars Universe (how we left it):
10. Dengar
All due respect to IG-88 and Bossk, but Dengar seems to be the head of the bounty hunter class now that Boba Fett is no longer with us.
No need to hit the comments with the “Boba escaped the Sarlaac Pit!” talk, we already ruled out the Expanded Universe. Even if he did “jet-pack” his way out of there, he had already lost cool points by the way he got knocked into the Pit of Carkoon.
9. Chief Chirpa
Yeah, you hate to see this happen, but search your feelings. You know it to be true.
Now a legendary tribe of warriors revered for having “defeated” The Empire, the Ewoks have re-written their place in the history of the Star Wars Universe. Chirpa was the head of his Ewok tribe’s Council of Elders, and noted for being a strong warrior. No matter how you feel about the Ewoks, a simple body count reveals the sad truth: Ewoks are better fighters than Stormtroopers. Maybe the Kaminoans should have cloned an Ewok instead of Jango Fett. I’ll understand if you stop reading this now.
8. Bib Fortuna
Being Jabba the Hutt’s majordomo has to be good for something, right? We see Luke and his rebel friends dispatch many of Jabba’s minions at the Sarlacc Pit, and while we see Princess Leia kill Jabba on the sail barge, we never see Bib meet his end (in my mind he hauled headtails off the sail barge as soon as the shit went down).
Being second in command at Jabba’s Palace, and devoid of many of the other original inhabitants, Fortuna easily assumes control of Jabba’s assets and holdings. “Die Wanna Wanga”, playa.
7. C3-P0 & R2-D2
Knowledge is power, and by this time, these two have seen everything. I know, they had their memories erased between Episodes 3 and 4, but any good hacker can retrieve the important stuff.
The only reason these two don’t rank higher is because despite their wealth of knowledge, they don’t really have a means of putting it to use; although if they fell into the wrong hands…
After what we’ll refer to as “The Skirmish at the Sail Barge”, Lando becomes a general in the Rebel Alliance. As pilot of the Millenium Falcon, he is a leader in the rebel’s assault on the Death Star II. Calrissian played a big part in the success of the attack, as he convinced Admiral Ackbar to disregard his instinct to call for a retreat.
At this point, Lando seems to have totally redeemed himself for the whole “allowing The Empire to set a trap for the rebels on Bespin” deal. We also see the way Mon Mothma looks at him, so we’re sure he’ll be just fine.
Leading the attack on Death Star II from his Mon Calamari warship, Ackbar was the Rebel Alliance’s highest ranking commander. Despite his instinct to retreat, he and the other rebel forces got the job done in the end. His leadership role in the Alliance’s victory assures him a high-ranking position in the New Republic.
4. Han Solo
His significant other is one of the last remaining Force-sensitives. Expanded Universe aside, as Return of the Jedi ends we can assume Han and Leia make it official, thus rendering Han and Luke not just friends, but family.
So Han is presumably married into the only surviving family of Jedi, and he was a Rebel Alliance general. Seems like he’s all set at this point- and if worse comes to worse, Chewbacca’s still got his back.
3. Leia Organa
The positives: she’s Force-sensitive, she’s royalty. The negatives: the only one left to train her in the ways of The Force is her relatively inexperienced brother, and the planet she helped govern has been disintegrated. It’s been a rough ride for Leia, she deserves her due here. She killed Jabba the Hutt with her bare hands (and a chain), that’s gotta be worth something right?
Her brother is now the most powerful person in the galaxy, and with her experience in government, she’ll surely be offered or elected to a position of power in the New Republic.
2. Mon Mothma
A leader in the resistance movement against The Empire, Mon Mothma had no qualms about publicly challenging Emperor Palpatine. Mothma was in charge of the Alliance’s mission to steal the plans for the first Death Star, and she stood before the rebel forces in Return of the Jedi, preparing them for the Battle of Endor.
Surely when The Empire fell and it came time to establish a New Republic, Mothma would be a logical choice to build the galactic government around.
1. Luke Skywalker
No surprises here, it has to be Luke. The only remaining Jedi Master, at this point he’s the only show in town. The Rebel Alliance taking down the Death Star II would not in and of itself have completely dismantled The Empire, it took Luke’s battle with Vader and The Emperor to truly decapitate the beast.
While Luke didn’t necessarily take down The Emperor by himself, he did orchestrate his father’s turnaround and redemption, which enabled the rebels to liberate the galaxy. At the end of Return of the Jedi, he is in a sense the “last man standing”, and if the Jedi Knights are to be re-established, it will be Luke who spearheads the effort.
Coming tomorrow: UnderScoopFire Podcast Episode 35: Attack of the Hashtag – we discuss all things Star Wars, including the Expanded Universe and what director should take George Lucas up on his offer to develop Episodes 7, 8 & 9!
Image credit:
starwars.wikia.com
*pushes up glasses on nose* Correction: R2 did not have his memory erased between 3 & 4, only 3P0 did. =)
Damn! I read thru that thing 3 or 4 times, KNOWING that I’d put something bone-headed in there. Good catch Dex! I should have consulted Dexter Jettster at the diner before posting this! He’s a wise one.
Awesome, but I have to reiterate the R2 non-wipe already mentioned, Still you can consider the two a collective so it works.
Although I think Boassk would have to rank above Dengar in Bounty Hunters.
You know, I had trouble with the Bossk/Dengar toss up – then I factored in Simon Pegg voicing Dengar in the Clone Wars series and that made me think Lucasfilm holds him in a higher regard than Bossk if they went to the trouble to cast a big name to voice him. Besides that, I’m with you.
How timely! Now that it looks as though we will be seeing episodes 7-9 we’ll get to see how your rankings play out, although I’d be hard pressed to disagree with any of your list.
Thanks Tom! Yeah I couldn’t resist the urge to put this old post back to the top of the front page after Tuesday’s news – especially with EP7 taking place after ROTJ!
Lando and Ackbar should be flipped. We all know that he may, technically, outrank Lando, but Lando still has all kinds of political ties, underworld connections and a BADASS co-pilot, plus, he’s BFF’s LOBOT. Lobot is the MAN.
*With Lobot. Sorry. Also: Chirpa’s a BADASS. Ewoks forever, son!
fulx