The Empire Strikes Back/YMMV


 * Awesome Music: The Imperial March.
 * Director Displacement: As noted on the main page, George Lucas was the executive producer, and neither directed nor wrote the final script for the film.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: Boba Fett. He had no more than four lines in the entire series and to this day he is highly regarded as one of the most popular characters in the entire series due to this mysterious character who could get semi-huffy with Darth Vader and live (and, of course, his awesome armor).
 * A non-character example: the All-Terrain Armored Transport walker. Next to the Death Star, TIE Fighter and Star Destroyer, the AT-AT is the "face" of the Empire in popular media.
 * Admiral Piett. Originally a one-off character, he was brought back for Jedi thanks to fan requests.
 * The pilot's of Echo Squadron have become quite popular in the EU, especially Wes Jansen and Derek 'Hobbie' Klivian. Not to mention Wedge Antilles, who was already an Ensemble Darkhorse from the first film.
 * Even Better Sequel
 * ...In hindsight, yes. At the time of its release, the movie was panned for being rather a Genre Shift from A New Hope. It was only after a Genre Shift back to the original formula (in Return of the Jedi) that everyone realized this film's direction had actually been a better one.
 * ...and with time. When Return of the Jedi premiered, it was widely praised for going back to the adventure feel of the original. In fact for many viewers the second movie started being noticed when the trilogy was released on home video and people began to watch the three in order.
 * Fridge Brilliance: Why did Lando order the evacuation of Cloud City? Was it only so they could escape the tightening clutches of the Empire while they still could, or was it to make it harder for the Imperial troops to stop the heroes' escape by giving them a chance to slip out amongst the confusion of the general evacuation?
 * Can't it be both?
 * It Was His Sled: Vader is Luke's father.
 * Memetic Mutation: Luke, I am your father!
 * "I love you." "I Know."
 * Never tell me the odds!
 * You nerfherder!
 * Never Live It Down: Lando betraying Han.
 * The Problem with Licensed Games: Like with the previous film, averted again, this time with its Atari 2600 game, which was not only pretty complex for a 2600 game, but also is considered one of the best licensed games on the system. Then fast forward to the mid-1990s and the Super Star Wars trilogy games.
 * Squick: After Return of the Jedi, Leia kissing Luke on the mouth became this. She was doing it to make Han jealous, if that makes it any better.
 * Special Effects Failure: Largely on the planet Hoth due to technical limitations:
 * The Tauntaun shots have not aged well.
 * The Wampa was mostly removed because of it in the original version. The Special Edition inserts newly filmed scenes of it.
 * During the AT-AT battle, the Snowspeeders (and related shots, as per Word of God) were not printed at their full opacity. This is evident in a view from the cockpit. Like the Wampa example, this was eventually fixed.
 * Tough Act to Follow: Oh, so very much.
 * Unintentionally Sympathetic:
 * Poor Captain Needa. He clearly knows he's going to die but he tries to apologise in person on the small chance Vader will be merciful and/or take the blame for losing the Falcon (which has more to do with the daringness of Han Solo than any tactical shortcoming on Needa's part) out on him personally rather than the whole ship.
 * Piett. The newly promoted Admiral is fully aware of his own officers that Vader keeps killing, and the poor guy has this look on his face that screams "Oh god, I'm next." Ironically, Vader lets him live all the way through the movie and well into Return of the Jedi. In fact, when Piett does finally die, Vader has nothing to do with it.