Star Words: Episode VI, Part 31

[matril]

Let's be honest. An awful lot of these posts from here on out are going to be quotes from Luke, with close-ups of his earnest, piercing gaze. This, for me, is the heart of Star Wars: a son who loves his father so much he saves his soul. And I might point out, Vader's redemption was in the earliest drafts of Episode VI. Other plotlines were considered and tossed out and revamped, but the climax was always intended to build up to the return of Anakin.

So Luke has urged his father to reclaim his old identity. He declares that Vader must have good within him; that's why he didn't kill Luke before. He displays this faith by turning his back on Vader, and for a breathless moment we might wonder if it's a deadly error. The green lightsaber flashes to life right behind Luke. But Vader is merely inspecting the weapon, voicing his approval of Luke's maturing skills.

Luke doesn't need his approval. He doesn't need to prove himself anymore. He dismisses all of that with three simple, heartbreaking words.

"Come with me."

Yeah. I've explored this before, in my Episode III series. The parallels between Luke and Padmé cannot be coincidental. He is his mother's son. He is here to remind Vader of what he lost and what he can still regain if only he lets go of the Dark Side. Oh, my heart.

Vader's response is all the more telling. He doesn't lash out in anger. He doesn't snap an instant reply. He pauses, turns away. Says Obi-Wan once thought as you do. Retroactively, I can imagine him thinking of someone other than Obi-Wan, but not being able to speak of her aloud. Someone else had faith in his goodness, once. You don't know the power of the Dark Side. His attitude is not proud or confrontational. Just resigned. Hopeless.

All he needs is something to give him hope again. And his son will offer it.

Next time, more gold from this scene, naturally.....

Comments

[krpalmer]

There's definitely a lot that can be said about these scenes with Luke and Vader, although your previous posts have helped remind me there's more to Return of the Jedi than "these scenes and a lot of brushed-off filler," as some disparagement may have shifted to over the years... In noticing how you treated "Vader handling Luke's lightsabre," I did get to considering how a certain emphasis in third-party stories on "Jedi building their lightsabres" finally tempted me into thinking "that doesn't have to be some universal final ritual for them."

I also remember now your looking ahead to this line. As for Vader's "You don't know the power of the Dark Side," if I can be so bold as to assume your line for next week isn't its immediate followup "I must obey my master," I can bring up how I did once happen to think Vader isn't bringing up the "join me" offer he made in The Empire Strikes Back. When J.W. Rinzler's "The Making of Return of the Jedi" started repeatedly editorializing on that being an inexplicable failing I did get annoyed; I'd already theorized Vader knows Luke's escape at the end of the previous movie closed a window of opportunity for him, and in no longer being sure he can turn his son to the Dark Side himself whatever savour he found in being evil is vanishing for him...

[matril]

It seems very odd to me that anyone would latch onto that change as some kind of error or plot hole. I thought it was quite deliberate from this exchange that Vader has begun to shift from a certainty of the Dark Side's greatness to a deep regret but feeling of depressing inevitability. Just one of those examples of how we all have our personal interpretations, and the meaning of stories is whatever we make for ourselves. (Though of course my interpretation is the most correct. ;)

[krpalmer]

I guess it's a matter of "is someone willing to be positive?", and it's easy enough to imagine people rubbed the wrong way by other things developing negative takes on whole stories without ever quite realizing it... (The danger these days, though, is I can imagine being challenged with "surely it's possible to be positive about this later spinoff and what's come before, if you'd only work at it too...")

[matril]

True, but then I would point out that the Disney space movies themselves present such a cynical view -- nothing our heroes accomplished in the original trilogy mattered at all. That's why I dislike them so much (among other reasons).