It’s such a perfect conclusion to Luke’s arc, and to Anakin’s (which doesn’t need the prequels to exist fully here in the original trilogy). When he moves forward, broken and weary, and lifts his master up above him, throwing him over the edge into the abyss. We see it even beneath the mask, when Vader dies and Anakin wakens from his long slumber. Love, it turns out, is the one thing the Emperor never counted on. Palpatine sees this as weakness and begins to torture the young Jedi with Force lightning.īut it isn’t weakness. He casts aside his lightsaber and appeals to his father’s love. Luke fights, almost giving into his rage and pain and hatred. The ensuing fight is one of the most gripping scenes in movie history. In any case, the most important, most powerful scene in all of Star Wars takes place when Luke once again faces Vader, this time with the Emperor looking on. (I was going to type “Turn toward the Light Side” but nobody says the Light Side. This gives him the strength to do what he now realizes he must: Go to Vader, his father, and try to convince him to turn away from the Dark Side. That even should he perish, the Jedi Order can live on in her. First, that Leia is his sister and that the Force is in her, too. Luke realizes on Dagobah two things when he returns to find Yoda dying. Now Luke-and Lucasfilm-are returning to finish what they started, only this time they’re going to do it right. I now realize that this actually makes sense if you think of the first film as a rough draft. In some ways, the final showdown on Endor and with the rebel fleet against the Death Star is a redo of the final act of A New Hope, and I’ve made fun of it for that in the past. He rescues Han with the help of Leia and the rest of the gang, and then they turn their sights on the Empire. Return Of The Jedi brings Luke back as the last Jedi Knight, fully trained and far more powerful and wise. Our heroes are beaten, staggered, down for the count. He also learns that the man who killed his mentor, the second most powerful man in all the galaxy, is his father. He fails-almost dying on Hoth, his weakness showing on Dagobah-and by the end of Empire he’s maimed, his friend has been taken captive and the Empire looks stronger than ever. Luke is now more experienced when our journey begins, but still not a strong user of the Force. In many ways, A New Hope is more like a prequel to this story, which is the heart of all Star Wars. The next two parts- The Empire Strikes Back and The Return Of The Jedi-tell a coherent story with a beginning, middle and end. Lucas and his team made a great movie and only after it was a hit did they go back and devise the next two parts to the trilogy. So I consider Star Wars something of a rough draft.
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