Fan reaction to The Terminal Jedi has been mixed to say the least, but it'southward not the first divisive film the Star Wars series has always had. That award goes to The Empire Strikes Back.

Today the general consensus is that Empire Strikes Dorsum is the best Star Wars movie. It has an audience score of 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 8.viii/10 on IMDb, compared to A New Promise's 96% and 8.7/10, respectively. These user scores weren't generated until decades subsequently the original trilogy was released, only it'southward not like fan opinion could have shifted that much, right?

What would fans have been saying on the internet in 1980?

A One thousand thousand Voices Cried Out

Before the net, sci-fi fans got their entertainment news from magazines. The biggest sci-fi magazine of the '80s was Starlog, a magazine that focused more than on movies and television than on prose.

The magazine besides provided an outlet for fans wanted to speak their heed in the form of a letters column, making information technology the closest thing to an net forum or social media app circa May 1980.

Thankfully, Archive.org has a collection of Starlog, and so let'due south take a await at issues #39-41. What were the fans maxim?

As with The Concluding Jedi, fan reaction was mixed to say the to the lowest degree. Some felt it was better than the first one, some enjoyed it merely had complaints, and some were disappointed. But what'southward most interesting is how specific comments or criticisms mirror those of The Last Jedi…

[Spoilers for The Terminal Jedi and The Empire Strikes Back follow.]

That's Non True, That's Impossible

There'southward been speculation online well-nigh whether or non it's true that Rey'due south parents were actually just nobody. I hateful, Kylo Ren is a bad guy, he could take been lying. Information technology turns out some fans were similarly skeptical about the revelation of Luke's male parent.

Robert 50. Beedy-Scarola:

Is Luke related to Vader? Most recall so at present that Vader came right out and said it. Well, I say, do y'all believe everything you hear? Vader may have lied just to enlist Luke to his side. Vader would then dispose of Luke once he got what he wanted.

Just how many fans remained in deprival until Render Of The Jedi? Information technology'south hard to say without a published poll, but accounts from people "who were there" posted on Reddit and Quora suggest it was a fairly loftier amount. One historical record that backs this up is a Seton Hall University 1981 yearbook business relationship of David Proust'south visit:

The respond to the question which haunted millions since the release of the film "The Empire Strikes Dorsum" was answered by an skilful, November 11, 1980.

David Proust, who portrayed Darth Vader in "Star Wars" and the electric current sci-fi epic laid it on the line.

"I am Luke Skywalker's father," he said.

Did you feel like The Final Jedi left also many unanswered questions? Empire Strikes Dorsum viewers felt the aforementioned.

Sean Bernard:

I know they wanted to leave something to settle in the other sequels, only they left a little as well much. For case, Han Solo'south predicament. The movie should not take concluded until Han was either killed by Boba Fett or Jabba or rescued by Lando Calrissian or Chewbacca, the former, preferably. Also, the fate of Bespin is not told. Was it taken by Lando's troops, taken past Purple troops or destroyed by Vader? I like Lando Calrissian and Baton Dee Williams was very practiced playing the part.

At that place was besides the unresolved question of there being "another." Fans speculated away.

Arlene Bahrenburg:

And, i of the biggest questions in my heed is who is Yoda's "other" pupil? Could it possibly be a girl — a love interest for Luke? I accept 1,095 days in which to draw my own conclusions.

Beak Smith:

Could information technology be Vader himself? Because that there was an equilibrium of power between the good and dark sides of the Force, it would non be impossible to turn Vader into the antithesis of what he is at present, especially if Luke (who, except for Yoda may be the about powerful fellow member of the practiced side of the Force) is truly his son.

Keith Hoffman:

I suggest Princess Leia. She is young enough for the preparation; she withstood Darth Vader's tortures; she is dedicated to the cause; Princess Leia, not Lando, "heard" Luke's cries for aid; Han Solo is not in shape to exist going anywhere for awhile and he is besides sometime. I wouldn't be surprised if in the third film, Leia, instead of Luke, destroys the Emperor. Of form, it will be the year 2000 before we find out.

Keith was a little off in his guess on the release twelvemonth of Return Of The Jedi, simply was surprisingly close on the release year of the first prequel.

The "Ship" That Made The Kessel Run In…

Some modern fans Star Wars have expressed disappointment most their favorite "send" being invalidated. There were 1980s fans who expressed the aforementioned disappointment (before Return Of The Jedi invented the sibling connectedness).

Carol Kane:

C'mon Leia, why don't y'all take a look around? Tin't you meet what Luke is upward confronting? You lot could have a "nice guy" like him. Instead, you are turning your back on him. Forget that it was Luke that saved you from having your atoms scattered throughout the galaxy. Forget that it was Luke, and not Han Solo, that wanted you rescued from the Death Star detention area. But you don't demand to remember all that, Leia. As long every bit hot-lips Han is around, who needs Luke anyway?

Fans even disagreed about the "I know" line.

Jeannette Vogelpohl:

Somebody should tell Harrison Ford that when a woman tells a human, "I love you," "I know" is not an acceptable response. That scene was non funny, it was infuriating.

Nancy Savula:

Empire Strikes Back is fantastic. The special effects are superb. And Han Solo'southward "I know" is the all-time line since Rhett Butler's "My love, I don't requite a damn." I dearest information technology.

There are mod fans believe politics didn't enter geek culture until the net historic period, but Starlog proves it was there much earlier.

Richard Hess:

George Lucas has fabricated a film even more racist and sexist than the get-go. I would retrieve that Billy Dee Williams would resent beingness the token blackness in the film. Also, there was only i other woman, apart from Carrie Fisher, in the motion picture.

If yous're racking your brain to remember that other adult female in Empire Strikes Back, the author was probable referring to Brigette Kahn'southward "Other Rebel Officer," the only other adult female with a speaking line.

I Have A Bad Feeling About This

Starlog staff writer David Gerrold presented his own fix of criticisms in a review entitled "Empire Strikes Out." Despite the punchy headline, he didn't really detest information technology; he merely didn't call up it was amazing as mainstream critics were maxim.

I liked information technology. I really did. I just didn't like it enough.

Just well-nigh every other critic in the country has been telling you how good the motion picture is; they've been falling over themselves to tell you. Information technology's embarrassing. I experience guilty for not liking it every bit much as I'g supposed to.

His initial criticisms are those of a difficult science fiction fan pointing out scientific inaccuracies. For instance, when the Millennium Falcon lands inside that giant space slug on an asteroid, there shouldn't be whatsoever gravity that they can only walk around, and they should exist wearing suits to protect them from the lack of atmosphere. The latter trouble returns in The Last Jedi when Leia is blown into infinite.

Gerrold besides wonders how a infinite slug can survive on an asteroid without a nutrient source, how the Falcon tin can get from the Hoth arrangement to the Bespin system when the hyperdrive is broken, and a few other smaller nitpicks that he dismisses himself as nitpicks for a film that'southward more scientific discipline fantasy than science fiction.

When he gets to his story criticisms,  things become more subjective. He feels that the lack of a McGuffin — the matter that everyone is after, like the get-go moving picture's plans to the Death Star — weakens the sequel. He feels that the movie is too fast paced, and that the pacing led to an unsatisfying climax. He felt like Luke didn't actually abound or learn anything, and that Yoda should've put the ship right dorsum where it was after lifting information technology upwardly, to make Luke learn to practice it himself.

Simply his criticisms of the story'south structure are what I found most fascinating:

Structurally, the pic is flawed by its need to imitate its predecessor's "formula" of fast-paced cross-cut. Nosotros cutting back and along betwixt Luke and Yoda on Dagobah and Leia and Han in the asteroids, and the time sense of both sets of events is distorted. How long were Han and Leia fleeing? How long is Luke studying?

Cutting between different stories happening in dissimilar places is then commonplace today that we accept it for granted, but dorsum then it was still considered a bit avant garde, confusing, or but bad craft. George Lucas first played with this technique with American Graffiti, and in the documentary The Making Of American Graffiti he explains:

Information technology was one of the first movies to e'er tell four stories simultaneously and take the four stories non really be connected with each other. The studio said that was impossible, you can't do that. You have to tell one story, and so the adjacent story, and the next story.

Well, now, all of television is done that manner, I mean, most every television set show has got that style. But at the time, it was extremely controversial. And one of the reasons a lot of studios wouldn't touch it is because I was trying to intercut these four stories.

People don't realize, with these kinds of movies … it'southward because they're fresh and they're different and they're experimental that, I think, people nonetheless similar to scout them. Now, the whole industry sort of moves in that management and they go the standard, but people forget that at the fourth dimension those movies were made, particularly American Graffiti, it was a very avant garde movie.

Gerrold'southward complaint well-nigh Empire Strikes Back's structure mirrors the studios who passed on American Graffiti:

Why not stay with Han and Leia until they get out the asteroid and head for the Bespin system, then cut to Luke arriving at Dagobah and stay with him until he leaves?

Changes the footstep? Yes, information technology slows it down. It also suggests some scale of distance between these places. (Crosscutting also implies simultaneity — a concept which most modern physicists say is impossible, specially on an astronomical scale. Sorry.)

Film is a medium that continues to evolve, so who knows, mayhap one day the pacing of The Last Jedi won't seem as odd to people. Maybe the answers given in later films will be satisfying enough that people no longer question them.

Will The Final Jedi ever considered the best Star Wars movie, fifty-fifty better than Empire Strikes Back? I'm non and then sure nearly that. But we'll see.

As for Gerrold'due south review, fans of course responded with a mix of praise and vitriol, just as you'd look from the pre-internet internet. The more things change…