Luke Defeats Vader

Return of the Jedi

Well, we’ve made it to the business end of the list. Possibly the hardest decision of the lot was choosing which of the top two moments would sit at the number one spot – ask me next week and the two may have switched places once again.

But, for now at least, my second favourite Skywalker Saga moment is from the climax of Return of the Jedi – the movie which until the release of The Last Jedi, was my favourite film of all time and not just in the context of Star Wars.

The final 30 minutes of the movie is nothing short of exhilarating, with the ground assault tussle for the shield generator on the Forest Moon combining with the space battle above and Luke’s personal struggle against the dark side within the Emperor’s throne room on the second Death Star.

It’s Luke’s battle against his father and the dark side of the force that is the most powerful. Wearing black throughout the movie, force choking Gamorrean Guards and his connection and attachments to his friends and family, the dark side growing within Luke had been foreshadowed throughout the film. Vader is about to pull on the thread that will bring down Luke’s resistance.

Luke is hiding from Vader to avoid fighting until the Sith Lord delivers the trigger. “If you will not turn to the dark side, then perhaps she [Leia] will.”

Raw emotion as Luke emerges, screaming “no” as he attacks Vader with previously unseen ferocity. He’s swinging wildly and with intent. The score builds. The cinematography is beautiful as we view the fight from behind a staircase and then from above, as the green and red lightsabers clash time and again.

Vader’s backpedalling, eventually forced the ground by Luke’s barrage as the Jedi crosses the line and invites the dark side in as he strikes down on his father. Finally, he breaks through Vader’s last defences and slices off his hand.

But what Luke does next is the most inspiring moment in Star Wars. He suddenly sees the error in his judgement, noticing his own bionic hand and where his father’s used to be just moments before. Despite the Jedi promising in the prequel trilogy – and convincing young Anakin – that once you tread down the dark path there is no turning back, Luke is about to shatter that idea.

He will not become the Emperor’s new apprentice. He will not give in to the dark side. The Emperor has failed, his ideology flawed.

“I am a Jedi, like my father before me.”

It’s Luke’s courage in this moment that inspires Vader to ultimately end the Empire, throwing Palpatine down the reactor shaft and – well, we presume[d] – to his death. Luke showed Vader that the dark side was not a prison and that the light could still emerge from the darkness.

It’s a moment that has become more powerful as extra layers have been added to the Skywalker story, be it in the form of the prequels or the Darth Vader comics. Luke Skywalker does what no Jedi had dared to do, shattering notions in the process and inspiring cinema’s most iconic villain to escape the dark side.