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The last stand of Luke Skywalker and the redemption of Darth Vader
Star Wars: Episode VI—Return of the Jedi
Writers: Lawrence Kasdan & George Lucas
Director: Richard Marquand
All roads lead to the Emperor’s throne room! While the Rebellion takes its final shot at the dreaded Galactic Empire on the surface of Endor and the stars above, Luke Skywalker has bravely slipped off to confront Emperor Palpatine and save Darth Vader. Full of high stakes and interpersonal drama, this sequence is the resolution of decades of storytelling and has implications for everything that would come after it. So, is this the greatest sequence in Star Wars? Can we even answer that? We do love Star Wars and the quest for that answer is never far from our hearts and minds.
Yet, honestly, how can we really determine whether this is the best scene or sequence in Star Wars? You and I have been on a long journey to get to this very point and here’s where we’re at. I have to come clean. We can’t really determine this. It’s impossible. Art is subjective, Star Wars even more so. You might react more to the scene in which Princess Leia feeds Wicket a snack and you wouldn’t be wrong. (In fact, my love of snacks has me listening to your reasons intently.) The throne room sequence is also part of the larger final act of Return of the Jedi, so some of the greatness comes from the pacing and intercutting with that great Battle of Endor itself. However, when you pull apart the sequence and take it in as its own, you find the very fate of the galaxy’s spirit being determined between three souls. Let’s walk into the Emperor’s throne room. Which is, yes, my favorite scene in Star Wars.
This is the last stand of Luke Skywalker. After three movies in the pursuit of victory over evil and the title of Jedi, Luke’s journey has come down to his grand plan of distraction. He’ll waltz into the belly of the beast, keep Sheev and Darth distracted long enough until the second Death Star blinks out of existence, and head off to the great Force ghosts party in the sky. Except the Emperor has foreseen that (and pretty much everything) and, as the Death Star starts picking off Rebel ships, Luke is faced with a hard truth. He’s not getting out of this without a fight and it’s a fight he can’t win without dancing close to the shadows of the dark side. Which is a delicious layer added as you mature as a fan.
As a kid, I was begging Luke to grab that beautiful green lightsaber and start fighting! After all, we had just watched him use that blade to cut up a speeder bike in mid-flight and take down Jabba’s henchmen with ease (while Leia poetically removed Jabba himself). It makes perfect sense that Luke should activate that saber and end this thing. It’s only through time, and many repeated viewings through the remaining days of my youth into my arrested development years, that you see Luke straining at every turn to not fight. By the time he is hiding underneath the stairs, the lesson of his journey so far emerges; everything he’s learned and every skill he has lead him to the knowledge that he cannot win by fighting. So, that’s when it falls apart. That’s when his frightened mind betrays his own sister and Vader knows where to get him. Jedi use their power for knowledge or defense, but, here, Luke strikes out against Vader, screaming as he launches at his father. What follows is my personal favorite shot in my favorite scene in all of Star Wars.
Green and red blades clash as John Williams brings in a choir of voices into the spotlight for the first time in the series. As Luke taps into his anger, bringing his desire to protect his sister dangerously close to the edge of darkness, he gains the advantage. Some mighty hacks of the blade and Vader is down, hand gone, and gasping for air. Every lesson from the last three movies, every chapter of Luke’s fabled hero’s journey comes down to this moment. Choices, morality, and the desire to rise above the pull of the dark side all comes down to the decision Luke makes before the cackling Emperor.
He throws down his lightsaber.
Now he knows how his father fell. Now he knows that he cannot fight. He is a Jedi, like his father before him. When it comes to the original trilogy, this is the climactic moment. The battle continues, the war is soon over, but Luke Skywalker’s victory has been achieved without violence. This is the act that leads to the redemption of Darth Vader.
Which pulls to a close the six chapters of the saga. If you listen to George Lucas, the answer to the question of what order to watch these first six movies in is rather clear. Episode I through Episode VI. This is the rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. So, now we can watch this with our eyes on Vader. The long-simmering fear inside Darth Vader, that he was and is still Anakin Skywalker at his core, has now raced to the surface. His son’s compassion has quickly turned to a sacrifice. You can almost feel himself reconnecting with that young boy on Tatooine whose heart was full of the desire to help others and the instinct to care. Six chapters now build to this moment in the life of Anakin. He strikes out against his master. The cost of his redemption was his life and it shouldn’t have been any other way (Vader does spend twenty-years doing some pretty heinous things) but the act brings balance to the Force. The Emperor is dead, and the Empire has begun to fall.
This is the final road connected to this sequence. It’s the road that stretches far out ahead into the sequel trilogy and the stories that lead to them. The Empire has fallen, but out of the ashes rises the First Order. The Republic must rise as well, fraught with the problems all governments face and racked with the scars of this Rebellion. Luke Skywalker is the last Jedi, but, keeping with his final lesson, he has begun a quest for knowledge and is not primed to be the great guardian of this galaxy. He’s primed to reshape the Jedi Order. Challenges lie ahead for him, but he’ll always return to the type of Jedi he became in that throne room.
All roads do lead back to this sequence. Back to the Emperor’s throne room. Back to the moment Luke Skywalker throws down his weapon. Does that make it the best moment in all of Star Wars? Is this the one sequence all others look to? You tell me. All that I know, in the end, is that every line of sharp troubling truths from the Emperor, tortured pain from Vader, and hopeful honor in Luke, every moment of the duel, every moment of the score, every image and beat of tension, doubt, violence, and, finally, peace, feels perfect.
It all feels like Star Wars.