Luke Confronts Vader

Return of the Jedi

It’s the calm before the storm. The eve of the Battle of Endor which will ultimately bring the Empire to it’s knees. And amid the impending drama that will put the ‘War’ in Star Wars, we have a moment of reflection and our best window yet into Darth Vader’s internal struggle.

Luke turns himself over to the Empire in order to come face to face with his father. He’s learnt that the paternal bombshell dropped by Vader at the end of The Empire Strikes Back was indeed the truth and now it’s time to try and save Anakin Skywalker – and for a while here, it looks possible.

The two stand in a corridor within the Empire’s shield generator compound on Endor. Father and son are about the have a rather poignant chat. When Luke mentions Anakin’s name, Vader quickly snaps back to dictate that the name means nothing to him. Luke’s hit a nerve – his foot firmly in the door.

But the most powerful line in the entire sequence is a Star Wars cornerstone. Vader tells Luke, “you do not know the power of the dark side.”

Similar to what Vader says to his son on Bespin, only this time it is not an intimidation tactic. Instead, on hearing Luke’s plan to free his father from the prison of the dark side, this is more of a plea from Vader. It’s the immense power that is keeping him shackled. It’s the first time in the saga that we see Vader’s vulnerability.

It’s this internal struggle that makes Vader such a fascinating character, brilliantly depicted in both this scene and in Charles Soule’s superb Dark Lord of the Sith comic run – the Marvel series which introduced me to the wonderful world of comic books in general.

By bringing Vader’s internal conflict back to the surface, Luke sows the seeds for his father’s eventual redemption. Dare I say it, Luke’s gained the high ground, (there, I said it), in the battle to retrieve Anakin Skywalker from the darkness.