For all the folks out there who recall going to see this back in 1980, what were your first thoughts/reactions to it?

I was six years old when my parents took the entire family to see ESB. It was the very first Star Wars movie that I ever saw.

Prior to seeing this movie, I was friends with a kid (slightly older) who had a lot of SW toys, including action figures. He would recreate lightsaber fights between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan and even ones between Vader and Luke. He had told me all about how Darth Vader killed Luke's father. So, going into the movie, I knew that Vader was the main villain.

My impression throughout the movie was how much the heroes suffered defeat: losing the battle of Hoth, Han getting frozen, Luke not doing all that well while being trained by Yoda. But I was always anticipating Luke confronting Vader in a lightsaber duel in order to avenge the death of his father. And when Luke finally faces Vader, he's basically outmatched, only to have his hand cut off, and then the big reveal happened.

Being six years old, I felt rather discouraged at how the story went. It certainly made me anticipate the next movie that would follow. I saw ROTJ next in 1983 which then became my favorite one, but I would not actually see the original Star Wars until it played on TV in 1984. After that, I decided that Jedi was my favorite.

I would record all of the SW movies on VHS tape shortly after that. After many, many viewings of all of the movies, it took me sometime to realize that ESB was my favorite (when I was around 14). And I would say that the music certainly played a big part in it, along with the atmosphere and an appreciation for the importance of using setbacks and defeat in terms of having a story that has strong emotional impact.

I thought it was THE BEST MOVIE EVER MADE, still think it's one of the best.

And I managed to avoid assholes bearing spoilers before I saw it, and was genuinely shocked by the big twist. Assholes who spoil movies should burn in hell, or be jailed in real life.

It was the greatest thing I’d ever seen! I was the first kid in the neighborhood to see it and all the other little kids wanted every detail when we got home from the theater. Being seven years old at the time I very naturally spoiled everything 😆.

As a lil kid I remember being all excited on the day of going to see it and standing outside the cinema in a long queue for at least an hour, I don’t remember a thing about the movie other than that I loved it, same with A New Hope.

Kids didn’t tell me the major spoilers as far as I remember. ROTJ is a different story, I read a movie tie in book which was released before the movie hit the screens in the UK, so I knew everything that happened by heart before I’d even seen it.