Star Wars Essay (Pre-Awakening) (Kind of me searching)

Dear Reader,

In honor of the latest and possibly (my crippled ass) last Star Wars Movies, Episode III, Revenge of the Sith, I have decided to tell you all the reasons why Star Wars is an uberelite movie trilogy. I shall be focusing on the orignal episodes, IV, V, & VI, because I & II have been piles of dung. This is an analytical essay of the originals, enjoy:

After almost thirty years of Star Wars, we can safely say that the greatest science fiction saga of our time has come to a close. With the opening of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas, the creator of this marvelous galaxy far, far away, was able to illustrate fully Anakin’s descent into the dark side of the force. The large fan base is again reminded of the true hero of this epic, and how this entire saga has really been his story.
Even though in the first Star Wars trilogy from the seventies seems to be about Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and their noble struggle against the evil galactic empire, I believe we can bring this good versus evil theme from Star Wars to a smaller and more personal level, good versus evil raging within a person.

The first major character we see to come striding onto Princess Leia’s Corellian Corvette is the venerable Darth Vader. As soon as the audience hears his haunting breathing, we fall in love with him. (Well, at least we geeks with twisted personalities do) The audience at once knows that he means business, and will be a major character throughout this movie. After we see this experienced Lord of the Sith force choke the ship’s captain to death, we are reassured that our assumptions were correct. We are so awed by James Earl Jones’s bass monotones as he instructs his troops as to their orders, we almost want to go down with the detachment team to retrieve the jettisoned escape pod too.

In the following installment, the Empire Strikes Back, the audience is left thinking the Galactic Empire has defeated the vain Rebel Alliance, thus the title. Vader’s theme throughout this movie sums his character up in two words: Military Efficiency. This is also the installment to finally reveal to us that Vader is Luke’s father. Even though we may at first think he is lying, we know that the Sith is not….as Luke screams with confusion and despair. The audience can now deduce why an aged Obi-Wan Kenobi told Luke that Darth Vader killed his father, Anakin Skywalker. In a way, Anakin died when he donned the mask and cape as a brutally burned abomination. So consumed by the dark side of the force was he, that the slave boy from Tatooine died as he was submerged in rage and despair. He eventually became what he had feared to become for so many years.

“He is more machine now, than man”- A spectral Obi-Wan’s explanation in the next installment, to a confused Luke on Degobah. The old and trusted Jedi Anakin Skywalker had truly died to Obi-Wan. The last of the first three films, Return of the Jedi, opens with a more sinister note, as the audience first sees Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader’s master, up close. His apprentice and he wish to try to turn Luke to the dark side, where they believe he will be able to become a powerful ally. Either this, they decide, or he must be destroyed. The audience is then taken on a long trip with Luke to save Han and then fly to complete his training on Degobah with Master Yoda. The audience is led to believe that the title of the movie is about how Luke is on his way to Vader and a final showdown: Return of the Jedi. On Degobah, Luke is finally told the truth by Obi-Wan, after Yoda fails to tell him before his “union with the force”. After Luke’s inevitable hesitation at the thought of having to kill his own father, Obi-Wan tells him that he must face his destiny, for the benefit of freedom throughout galaxy. However, Luke can still see goodness behind his father’s hard mask. Here is shown the theme of good versus evil, but within a person: Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. We again see this clash of wills within the father when Luke turns himself in on Endor. Luke tries to tell his father there is still hope for him to become a Jedi once more. The audience is shown for the first time Vader may have regrets about his descent into the dark side when he tells Luke: “It is too late for me.” After all of the heinous acts he has committed, such as the Jedi Purge (killing off the Jedi order) and similar alien holocausts that he led, Darth Vader feels Anakin Skywalker, a good man, could not return. However, he is able to prove himself wrong to Luke hours later during the throne room duel between him and Luke in front of the Emperor. As Vader is on his last gasping breaths, with wounds sustained during the duel, he watches morosely as his master force shocks his stubbornly good son. Luke calls out to his father for help: his body writhing from the pain of the dark side of the force. The camera focuses in on Vader, watching his head turn slowly from his cackling master to a screaming Luke. His head turns from one to the other, until finally the good man is reborn, and he throws his former master into a seemingly bottomless pit in the new Death Star. Luke, now able to move, comes over to his father’s side, as the elder Skywalker collapses to the ground in exhaustion. Anakin asks to see his son with his own eyes for the first time, as his last death rattle combines with the explosions caused by rebel ships deep within the bowels of the Death Star. Anakin asks his son to leave him….but his son replies that he must save him. Anakin’s reply is what many fans believe Star Wars to be all about: “You have saved me….you were right.” Even though he dies on the cold floor of the throne room, Anakin, through himself and help from his son, has redeemed himself.
This entire saga has had one constant main character: Anakin Skywalker. With the latest movies coming out to show how he descended to the dark side, the audience is able to see how good of a man he was before he turned. These movies, especially Episode III, bring to light how Anakin Skywalker’s redemption in the Sixth and chronologically last installment of this saga illustrates how good will always overcome evil, though this battle could rage on a galactic scale, or on a personal scale. Anakin Skywalker was able to redeem himself and unite with the force to sit alongside Obi-Wan and Yoda. Truly, the Jedi had returned.