In my mind, I likened my own father to Darth Vader, and, like an aging Luke in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, I still feel the effects of these actions. They are different, but they are the same.Īnd it makes us even more emotional when we see his ghost appear on Endor, the visage of his younger self, the way he viewed himself when he was last good. Where Anakin uses this as inspiration to take up the sword, Luke uses it to take up the cause of peace. It connects Luke to his father even further, as we think back to Anakin losing his own mother in his arms. Luke found the light in his father, and it is moving to him. Here are two people who have spent almost three complete movies trying to kill each other, and they realize they share a common bond and love and empathy for one another. Now, he would have to confront that unabashedly and with confidence.Īnd we have this moment, played beautifully between Sebastian Shaw and Mark Hamill, where they share this empathy and understanding for the first time. Remember, when Luke faced his failure at the cave, his fear was seeing his own face reflected beneath the mask. Here he is, removing the mask of the man who had been his greatest fear, and he’s doing it with courage and purpose. And Luke is moved to do it without further hesitation. “Just for once, let me look on you with my own eyes," he tells his son. What reason could he have? We know why we want him to take it off, but why does Vader? We as an audience want to know why he would want to take his mask off. The response? “Nothing can stop that now.” “But you’ll die,” Luke says with so much soul and empathy in his voice that it brings chills. And has a final request in his dying moments. He would have done it easily.Īs father and son reach the Imperial Shuttle, it’s clear that neither of them can go on until they have their conversation.ĭarth Vader, this character who we have viewed as a monster, the greatest and most terrifying villain in the history of film to that point, is a person. Had Luke abandoned his father, there would have been no question of his escape. After Vader defeats the Emperor once and for all, Luke drags him through an exploding Death Star in what could be an act of needless sacrifice. Luke Skywalker is the beating heart of the scene he cannot bear to let his father die alone. That is not to say he shouldn’t atone for what he’s done (as he definitely does die for his sins). Vader has turned back to the light and understands, at least in part, the error of his ways, illustrating to us that it’s never too late to eschew evil. When he makes his final choice, we know why. In the early parts of Return of the Jedi, we’re given confirmation that Vader was telling the truth, so the audience is left to grapple with the idea that there is a human inside of that suit, one once worthy of love, one who was once loved enough to conceive the Skywalker twins.īut how did such a person become such a monster? Without the aid of the (brilliant) prequels, we’re only left to guess.Īs Vader watches Darth Sidious torture his son, we can practically read his emotions through the mask. The revelation at the end of that film about Luke Skywalker being his son certainly clouded the issue. We’d seen glimpses of Darth Vader's scarred head in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, but we couldn’t be sure if he was even human. When this particular scene first appeared in 1983, this was our first glimpse at who was really behind the mask. Why is this scene so important in Star Wars and one of its best? For me, the answer becomes intensely personal, as anything that informs a life’s philosophy tends to be. That’s what makes it the best scene in the saga, at least as far as I’m concerned. More than any moment in the Star Wars saga, the one that did this most effectively, in my mind, was the scene in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi when Darth Vader is finally unmasked by his son. When films are at their best, they help you understand the world around you better, they help you understand other people with experiences different than yours, and they help you understand more about yourself and what you’re made of. Roger Ebert famously likened films to machines that generate empathy. Today, we celebrate the emotionally wrought scene in which Luke Skywalker sees his father for the first time in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi. Leading up to The Rise of Skywalker, we're breaking down and celebrating our favorite scenes from the series. While it's impossible to sum up everything we love about these films, we here at SYFY WIRE are going to try. Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker marks the end of the Skywalker Saga, a nine-movie series that's spanned 42 years and three generations of characters to capture the imaginations and hearts of millions of fans around the world.
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