The original Star Wars trilogy is just about then only set of films in the Galaxy that haven’t been met with a mixed reception. Everyone knows they are timeless, with George Lucas at the absolute top of his game. The visual effects were ahead of their time, with Lucas managing to cast a set of relatively unknown actors in roles that would propel them to eternal fame.
Despite this, not all of these characters were evenly matched in of intelligence. We’ve ranked the primary characters in the Original Trilogy based on how clever their decisions and actions made them seem.
Jabba The Hutt
In fairness to Jabba, he had managed to lead an impressively sizable crime syndicate, with various people working beneath him. This mostly came from his intimidating size (although he was just a big slug) and money, though, rather than his brain. The fact that he ended up being strangled to death by a chain his own slave was attached to is a testament to his stupidity.
Boba Fett
One of the most-loved characters in the history of Star Wars was also one of its least impressive. He might have looked cool, but Boba Fett pretty much failed to do anything and spoke just a couple of lines.
His death was quick and sudden as he fell into the Sarlacc pit, without being able to draw on his clone-cleverness to avoid it.
Lando Calrissian
The Solo film might have shown us that Lando was pretty great at cheating in card games, but the original trilogy took a while to start painting him in a positive light. He, like Han, was an impressive pilot, but he was shown to be quite morally weak and typically forced to rely on illegal activity.
Han Solo
A fantastic pilot and a nice guy (even if he didn’t really want people to know), Han Solo was a fan favorite from the very first time Harrison Ford showed his face in A New Hope.
However, as old and wise as he would become by the time of the sequel trilogy, the Solo of the original three films was young and immature. His bold decisions made before he could analyze the situation often landed him in hot water.
Darth Vader
Watching the original Star Wars trilogy introduced you to a Vader who is a ruthless killer, a genius pilot and a master of the dark side of the force. He had turned himself into a feared force of evil, which takes a lot of skill. With the context of the prequels, it’s hard to disconnect him from the moany teen angst of his unintelligent previous life as Hayden Christianson, though.
Grand Moff Tarkin
Tarkin is a tough one to place. On the one hand he cleverly worked his way up to the top, overseeing the creation of the Death Star and giving orders to Vader himself.
On the other hand, the Death Star was built with an intentional fatal flaw right under his nose, and it was his inability to see that which eventually led directly to his death.
Luke Skywalker
The version of Luke we met in the original trilogy was an immature and confused young man who had never been exposed to the force. He was a quick learner but by no means a genius Jedi like many of those we met in the prequel trilogy. He also hadn’t turned into the old, wise version of himself as seen in the sequels. Despite this, he was able to rather impressively lead the fight against both Death Stars and help his father return from the Dark Side, so fair play.
Leia Organa
Long before her days as General, Leia Organa was still dishing out orders and sass left right and center that proved her to be one of the most consistently level-headed and intelligent characters in Star Wars. Beyond her time as a high-ranking resistance member, she also trained as a Jedi, which is what allowed her to train Rey many years later.
Emperor Palpatine
While Palpatine was clearly the cleverest man in the room throughout both the prequel and sequel trilogies, he had his flaws here.
He led from the shadows at first, but eventually made his presence known. It was his confidence that he would be able to bring Luke to the dark side and have Vader remain faithful that proved to be his (temporary) downfall.
Yoda
The original trilogy treated Yoda perfectly. He was slightly crazy and edging ever closer to his death bed, but he really did know what he was talking about. He was the reason Luke was eventually able to find out about his sister, and his training is what meant Luke could finally fight against the dark side of the force.
