What I’d like to write about I can’t. Two of the more interesting projects I’m working on still haven’t been announced. One should be announced in May; the other…who knows, but later than May. Stay tuned…
What I can say is that our video/doc crew is starting work on a sizzle piece for Jeffrey Brown’s heart-warming and funny Vader’s Little Princess; the Prequel Trilogy Storyboard book is nearly done — and set for a May release — and looks great; the next book in the Star Wars Art series is approaching final stage and I’ll show the designed pages to George Lucas in a couple of weeks; and the first designed pass of The Making of Return of the Jedi is also due in a couple of weeks. First pass is my favorite stage: images, captions, and text are all together and designed for the first time — but we can still make changes, correct errors, improve.
Speaking of Jedi, here’s something that puzzled me while I was writing that book… If Darth Vader is out to overthrow the Emperor, why doesn’t he let Luke follow through with his lightsaber death blow — and kill the Emperor? The Emperor would be dead and father and son could rule the galaxy, as Vader had confessed as his greatest ambition in Empire.
That moment works in the film — almost because the audience doesn’t want Luke to give in to his darker, malevolent feelings, so we’re relieved that Vader blocks his blow. But why does Vader do it? As a few critics noted back in 1983, it seems like Vader has abandoned his dynastic dreams. Lemme know your thoughts in the comments section, if you want…
I asked George the same question and his answer is in the book — a fairly long answer — so you can check your own reasoning against George’s when the book comes out.
Next blog: Do hamsters dream of analog visual effects?
Lucasfilm executive editor J. W. Rinzler is the author of The Making of Star Wars and The Complete Making of Indiana Jones. He is now writing The Making of Return of the Jedi (and really looking forward to finishing it) for a fall 2013 release. You can visit jwrinzler.com for more info.
Tags: Emperor, Luke, Return of the Jedi, storyboard, Vader's Littpe Princess
I think there are several possibilities, which may not be mutually exclusive:
1) Motivated by fear of discovery: Vader believes, with good reason, that the emperor has some plan to stop Luke from killing him. He doubts that Palpatine would stake his life on complete trust from Vader, so he assumes that, if he doesn’t step in to protect his master, then his master will protect himself AND realize that Vader was willing to betray him, or at least let him die (which, to be fair, is perfectly in line with the way Sith think). Vader’s not ready to spring his trap yet, so he plays his part.
2) Motivated by order: Vader is still a proponent of “Order Above All”. Letting Luke kill the emperor, and then having to fight Luke himself without complete confidence that he will defeat his son, could leave the rebels (the very symbol, in Vader’s mind, of disorder in the galaxy) in charge if Luke won the fight. So in this scenario, Vader’s not sure he can beat Luke by himself, and doesn’t want to risk the galactic order on himself. Remember, Vader doesn’t see himself as evil like other Sith have — he believes he is, as Nietzsche put it, beyond good and evil.
3) Motivated by family psychosis: The elephant in the room, not-so-secret “secret” about Vader and Palpatine is that the emperor is a surrogate father for Vader. Vader doesn’t love him, of course (in fact he probably hates him), but his issues with family are particularly complex and could have made it so that he doesn’t want to see his “father” go out like a chump. That is, until his pretend-father is about to kill his for-real son.
4) Motivated by a twisted sense of honor: Vader wants to take the emperor out himself, mano-a-mano, in the most direct fashion possible. Although Vader is crafty and clever, he shares with Han Solo the desire for a straight fight, without all the sneakiness (amply demonstrated during the Clone Wars). He doesn’t want to orchestrate Luke into killing the emperor; he wants to do the deed himself.
5) Motivated by hatred: similar to #4, but instead of wanting to kill Palpatine himself for reasons of honor, he wants to kill him personally because he just hates the guy so much. But I don’t think this fits in well with Vader’s actions during RotJ.
6) Motivated by obedience or compulsion: Vader’s obeyed and protected the emperor for so long, his instinctual reaction is to save him this time, too (and you could argue that this is something Palpatine is aware of, and is aware that VADER is aware of it as well, which really shows the emperor’s complete control over Vader’s will — he knows all Vader’s secrets, and Vader really is, more or less, the emperor’s lapdog). Along the same lines, there could be some form of ever-present force persuasion involved.
Personally I think it’s a combination of 1, 2, and 6.
@Andrew: interesting theories, but one thing bothers me. You seem to imply, without any doubt, as well as J.W. Rinzler, that Vader already made his choice and is trapping the Emperor.
Even if Vader already made his offer to Luke in Empire, I (and this is only my point of view) have always seen Vader in Jedi being totally loyal to Palpatine, having accepted his own fate, the fact that he is not Anakin Skywalker anymore, and mostly the fact that he doesn’t have any choice. Loyal to Palpatine until the last moment where he realizes his true feelings for his son.
Darth Vader was loyal to the Emperor.He wanted luke to be his apprentice.Emperor only used Vaderto rule the galaxy,while Vader did not know it.At the end Darth Sidious wanted Luke to defeat Vader and to be his apprentice.Anakin turned back to the light side as emperorwas about to kill luke.Only then he fought against emperor.
Hmm. I’d always figured Vader was saying whatever he had to say, whether he meant it or not, to convince Luke to join him at the end of the “Empire” duel. But then, I was convinced he was lying about being Luke’s father. (I was twelve. Cut me some slack.)
I imagine that George Lucas intended it to be somewhat ambiguous at that moment in the story. We are supposed to ask ourselves, “Is Darth Vader the faithful servant of the Emperor?”
I believe that Darth Vader is trying to save his son, not just his son’s physical body, but his soul. Darth Vader does not want Luke to strike the emporor down in hatred and go down the path to the dark side.
The Emperor however is arrogant and only assumes that Darth would not allow Luke to strike him down because the Emperor assumes that Darth is still basically loyal.
It’s wonderful really because there is so much in the last third of ROTJ where we read internal conflict in Vader even though all we can see is a mask. It’s there when they bring in Luke in the cuffs also.
The moment when Darth blocks luke’s saber is also interesting because Darth MUST decide SOMETHING at that moment, similar to how Anakin MUST decide whether to stop Mace in Ep. III. Being passive is not an option at that moment. Leading up to the release of Ep. III George was saying that there would be “a moment” when he has to choose, and I think that is the one he was referring to. The blocking moment in Ep. IV was a similar moment for Vader, this time on the path to redemption.
I think it’s because Vader knows that the Emperor goads victims into taking aggressive actions by pretending he’s weak. Vader himself saw this before when Sidious was fighting Mace Windu. He asked Anakin to save him, claiming that he was weak. Anakin sliced off Mace’s hand and soon after we see Sidious bounce back – clearly not weak – and zap Mace out of the window.
In ROTJ, Vader saw one of two possibilities. First, the Emperor would handily defeat Luke and deflect the lightsaber blow. In this case, Luke would have started down the Darth Side path and Sidious would replace Anakin with Luke as his apprentice. By blocking the blow, at least Vader can try to prove that he’s the stronger one.
Second, if Luke succeeded in killing the Emperor, Luke – not Vader – would usurp the title of Dark Lord. In ESB, Vader wanted Luke to join him as an apprentice or as “father and son.” However, if Luke is powerful and dark enough to kill the emperor, at best he would make Vader HIS apprentice.
Either option is bad for Vader. At least in fighting Luke and saving the Emperor, he would maintain his position as apprentice.
As someone who grew up during the time of the OT, I am REALLY looking forward to the “Making of ROTJ!”
I’ve only recently been able to purchase your other “Making of” books. And they are wonderful!
My only question: Since I am a bit “late to the party” and Starwars.com has been redesigned in the past year–is there still a place to locate and download your “Final Chapter” to the “Making of Revenge of the Sith?”
I think that since ESB Vader has been thinking about Luke (and to a lesser extent Leia) and starts realizing how he was used by the Emperor. I think maybe he stopped Luke because he didn’t want Luke to fall to the Dark Side and new that would be a big step. It also could have been that at that point it wasn’t a good time to strike at the Emperor and wanted things to play out a little more first.
Vader is afflicted with the very same demon that tormented Anakin when he was just a young boy on Tatooine: SLAVERY. Just as Anakin was a slave to Watto, Darth Vader is a slave to the dark side, and Palpatine is as close to the dark side incarnate as we get in the movies. Therefore, Anakin is hopelessly a slave to Palpatine. Try as he might, he can never fully follow through on his plots to overthrow Palpatine. Remember in the Force Unleashed story when Vader’s original plan was to use Starkiller to overthrow the Emperor? Ultimately, Vader does a complete 180 and decides to use Starkiller as a pawn to bring down the fledgling Rebel Alliance. When Starkiller learns of the depth of Vader’s betrayal, he says a line that really struck home: “You’ll never be free!” Starkiller realized in that moment that Vader could never oppose Palpatine and successfully overthrow him purely on his own initiative. As long as Vader embraces the dark side, he will constantly be in bondage to Palpatine.
Then in the original trilogy, we have Vader initially wanting to use his son to succeed where Starkiller had failed. He truly did want to overthrow Palpatine, but not because he was interested in redemption or saving the galaxy. He merely wanted to get revenge on Palpatine and rule in his stead. The problem is that Vader has no interest at the time of rejecting the dark side, and as long as he embraces the Sith way, Palpatine will always play him like a puppet. When Vader meets Luke on Endor before going up to face Palpatine, He morosely tells Luke a chilling line that puts his state of bondage in clear perspective: “It’s too late for me, my son.” Vader is defeated, and he knows it. Whatever fleeting ambitions he may entertain about usurping his master, Vader knows deep down that he can never do so. Palpatine has subjugated him to such a degree that Vader ultimately resigns himself to the fact that perpetual slavery is his lot in life. Only when Luke aids his father and reminds him how it feels to serve the Light Side can Vader find the strength at the very last moment to reject Palpatine. He breaks free of Palpatine not out of vengeance or ambition or lust for power. He is able to break Sidious’s hold on him because he turns his back on the dark side and allows the Will of the Force to use him to finally fulfill his destiny.
Alone, however, Vader could never have risen out of the dark place he was in. He would always be Palpatine’s leashed dog. That’s why he blocked Luke’s lightsaber strike. He resigned himself to be Palpatine’s pawn. He felt so broken that he ultimately came to believe resistance was futile. Seeing Luke in danger (both physically and spiritually) gave Vader the grace he needed to emerge from the shadows.
Back in the OT, there was no Rule of Two. Luke had just turned Vader down even under the most persuasive circumstances imaginable: remove evil tyrant + rule galaxy with dad OR die. Nothing Vader could have done in RotJ was likely to succeed if *that* didn’t. But since there was no Rule of Two, the intent is likely that Vader simply wanted the consolation prize, his son with them on the dark side. So he aids the Emperor.
Enter the PT and the Rule of Two. Now Vader knows he will be replaced by Luke, at least if all of the bad guys’ dialogue about how awesome and dangerous Luke is, is any indication. Which makes that block even more nonsensical than it was to begin with.
Enter Ryder Windham’s book “The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader” which handily implies a controversial retcon: Vader had given up hope on Luke after Bespin, knew he was about to be replaced, yet didn’t want Luke to take his place. So he decided to end him. Spare Luke the dark side. Keep up the charade. With the added benefit of making Vader’s eventual turn even more drastic.
Interesting that the book will give GL’s insight to a very valid conundrum !
My take on it is that plotwise chronologically, Vader has only just said, “If you only knew the power of the Dark Side…. I *must* serve my master”. Wonderfully, usefully vague, I know, but in-lore I take it to mean that there’s *something* – something in the dark side and its lure – that means Vader *has* to obey his master’s wishes, has to protect his master, put aside his own intentions and secret agenda for dynastic rule [husband & wife, father & son]. Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate. I’m also reminded of old OB1’s words to Luke, “The Force controls your actions, but you can control it too” : perhaps there’s some organic aspect of the Force that controls your ‘urge’ and action without your conscious effort…. Vader blocks Luke’s blow because the Force wills it and very much against his own intention, he does this automatically and without knowing he does it until it’s ‘too late’……. ?
Nat
Two reasons come to mind:
1) It’s Vader’s job and privilege to directly confront, challenge, and over throw his master. The one that does so takes the master’s place. At this time Luke is still an apprentice on the precipice of either becoming a Jedi or becoming a follower of the dark side … he is not yet a master Jedi or a master of the dark side. Vader is not about to allow someone who is not a Sith Lord (basically anyone other than himself) attack the Master of the Sith.
2) Followers of the dark side are characterized by a passion for excessive shows of strength in their conquests. When an apprentice chooses to challenge his master it is not about overthrowing the master only, it is about sending a message to the entire galaxy. The Sith Apprentices wants to engage the Master with the Master wielding his highest level of strength and then crush him decisively. Becoming the Lord of the Sith after an his Master dies at the hand of an untrained youthful confused Jedi apprentice will not set a favorable precedent for a new ruling order.
Additionally the Emperor is still in control at this point, and as we see later, Vader is at the beginning stages of his internal conflict of allegiances. The Emperor is also in the height of his Force Battle Meditation and fully expects and foresees Luke’s attack. The Emperor could have influenced Vader to block the attack. Later, once Vader becomes fully overcome by his passion to save his son, he is able to use that impromptu passion to momentarily overcome the will of the Emperor and defeat him.
At the beginning of ROTJ, the Emperor tells Vader that only together can they convert Luke to the Dark Side. So if Luke strikes down Palpatine, his journey to the Dark Side may in fact be incomplete… But when Luke’s transformation is finished, they could overthrow the Emperor together with his father. On the other hand, if Palpatine strikes back and kills Luke, Vader may not be powerful enough on his own to thwart the Dark Lord of the Sith – or at least that could be what Vader thinks before he hurls his master down into the reactor shaft.
So Lucas is still involved in the Star Wars Art books? That’s nice to hear.
By the way. Just realized something. For quite some time, I’ve been hoping for the prequels getting the same treatment as the originals considering the “Making of” books. I guess that won’t happen anytime soon now that the sequels are on their way (new films probably gets priority).
Would be epic to have a nine part Making of Star Wars book series in the bookshelf. (I can feel J.W. Rinzler sweating just thinking of all the work I just wished upon him)
Thanks for the updates on all the books. I’ve been pre-ordering everything Star Wars related on Amazon for the whole year. Making of Return of the Jedi must have just been added, as it wasn’t on my list several days ago, but it is now! Please keep posting updates, especially on the Star Wars Art book. I can’t wait to see what the focus of that one is going to be.
Also, hamsters do dream of analog visual effects. Because they have yet to invent the digital wheel, there is a strong preference amongst hamsterkind to maintain an anachronistic attachment to older forms of technology. This, despite there being digital water-dropper dispensers and hamster-mazes designed with CAD software. It’s quaint! Apparently, though, some are finally considering signing up for a squee-mail account.
You’re correct in saying that It’s Vader’s duty to thwart any challenge made to his master. But it could be that the time was not right for Vader to put his plan into action. Kind of like when he
stopped Boba Fett from firing on Chewie on Bespin. He was basically telling Luke in that action is the Emperor was still holding the cards. ( i think I made myself clear on this.
i beleive he protected him simply because as vader said in the empire strikes back “let us rule the galaxy as father and son” but they cant do that and overthrow sidious and rule as father and son if there not on equal sides of the force so i beleive vader wanted to transform him to the darkside first then rule together after, if vader would have just let him strike emporer his anger would have just gone away due to realeasing his hatred already after that then then vader would teach him the darkside of the force and they would be invincible.it was gonna work the only thing that went wrong was cause luke said no to turning to the darkside after taking bens advice in strictly to not give into hate so he didnt resulting in vaders plans not going into action. if luke would have said yes then they would have destroyed the emporer and vader would get a new arm and luke would be tought the darkside of the force……………..so i beleive he did it to make sure he could realease his anger on him so luke would turn then when they decided to be on the same side of using the darkside both vader and luke would strike down the emporer and they would rule the glaxy….but it didnt go as planned
I always thought the block was Vader’s way of asking Luke “How much do you want this?”
How far would Luke go? He proved he’d strike down an unarmed man, but would he still kill the Emperor if he had to kill his own father first? If he had to risk his own life against the man who had already taken his hand? Would Luke still want to kill the Emperor if Vader was the Emperor’s human shield?
Luke’s passion dies down and he shuts off his lightsaber, refusing to fight his father. But Vader still wants to know how far Luke will go, so he presents another question to his son. Will he kill his own father to save his twin sister?
See what I mean? This was Vader’s way of making Luke choose what path to take. And with every choice, Vader upped the ante for the next decision. Doing so gave Luke definition, which may be the greatest gift a father can give his son.
Can’t wait for summer 2015!
Lucas gave his answer in the Annotated Screenplay and novel. Vader was afraid that Luke would kill the Emperor and return to his friends without turning to the darkside. He wanted to train Luke with Palpatine before they killed Palpatine
If Luke struck down the emperor down in hatered he would have given in to the dark side. By stopping Luke, vader was preventing palpatine from gaining control of Luke’s mind the same way he did in revenge of the sith.
I believe Vader might very well have been doing it to protect Luke , and perhaps also to maintain his role as apprentice until such time that he could overthrow the emperor.
Vader may have thought , that by Luke killing the Emperor he would inevitably fall to the Darkside just as Vader as
anakin had, I believe every parent wants their child to never make the same mistakes the parent has, and although the Vader Luke relationship is surely twisted, Vader still sees Luke as part of himself and Padme and; Padme would surely never want Luke to murder anyone.
In my opinion, Vader’s still firmly on the Emperor’s side at this point.
Their plan (as we all know) is to drive Luke so far into his anger, fear and frustration that he turns to the Dark Side. The method is far more subtle than just letting him lash out one time in anger. If Luke had been allowed to strike down the Emperor in that one moment, in the aftermath, he could have easily dismissed it as a mistake, but one that served the greater Good.
BUT, Vader stops him. This does a bunch of things. First of all, Luke has acted to kill the ‘defenseless’ Emperor. He’s stepped over into anger. But now, he’s been stopped, which adds a measure of frustration and shock. He’s been stopped by the man claiming to be his father, which is a show of superiority over him (i.e. “No, I do not give you permission to kill him.”) which adds a lot of confusing emotion like doubt, fear and more anger. And worst of all (IMHO), is the Emperor, cackling at him beneath the crossed saber blades. The Emperor’s face says it all: “I own you. You did what I told you to. AND you failed. Because you are not my greatest servant.” And also, there is the realization that comes after acting rashly, the feeling of “What did I just do?”
Regret. Guilt. More anger.
I believe that was all part of the plan, so Vader stopping Luke from striking did much more damage to Luke’s serenity than if Luke had just been able to cut the Emperor down in that one moment of anger.
In that case, when did Vader start to turn? I’ve heard stories in real life of men who were bad guys – irresponsible, selfish and greedy, who changed their lives on the spot the moment they realized they they were about to become fathers. And here is Anakin’s firstborn son Luke, a young man who has survived everything the Empire has thrown at him for years, who has, merely hours ago, come to Vader of his own free will to tell him, “Yes, I accept that you’re my father, and out of love, I’ve come to save you.”
Clearly, Vader is proud of Luke, despite the fact that they stand on opposite sides of the war. On their meeting on Endor, he compliments him on his lightsaber, and how quickly his skills have come. He even proudly delivers that same lightsaber to the Emperor, as if to say, “Look what MY SON did today.”
Vader has long been told by the Emperor that Luke is his offspring, but only in the context that Luke is a piece on a chessboard to be captured and hopefully converted, but upon meeting his son in person, something must have stirred in that heart of his. There’s even a moment on Endor before he takes Luke to the Emperor where he almost apologizes for what he has become to Luke. “It is too late for me, my son.”
I feel that Vader is as close to being as spiritually and morally broken again as he was when Palpatine made him attack Windu. But in the face of that confusion, old habits and long years of following the Emperor’s commands make him habitually subservient in the presence of his master. Still, he must have felt a twinge of something (regret? remorse? that nagging feeling that you shouldn’t be doing what you’re doing?) once the battle with Luke has finally begun. He had to have entered that duel with at least a few reservations, the least of which would have been to defeat Luke with as little damage to him as possible.
But then, unexpectedly, one of Luke’s ‘weaknesses’ proves to be the exploit that cracks Vader’s mental armor.
Sister.
Luke’s thoughts betray not only the existence of his twin sister but exactly who she is – Princess Leia Organa: the brave Princess who stood up to him on the Tantive IV, who lied to Grand Moff Tarkin’s face to protect the Rebel base, who withstood the torture he himself delivered to her onboard the Death Star.
That same Princess and Rebel Leader who escaped his clutches time and time again, managed to escape Jabba the Hutt’s clutches and killed him with her bare hands, and was currently leading the troops against the Shield Bunker on Endor. WAS. HIS. DAUGHTER.
If Vader was proud of his son, how proud would he now be of his daughter?
From that point on, there’s no way he could have fully been concentrating on the fight. In truth, Luke takes the lead in the duel, forcing Vader back, back, and back again, until Vader is on his back, his hand severed (again) and beaten. He is now at his son’s mercy and that son stands on the brink of falling victim to the same fate as his father, in almost the same way. Certainly, the author of both events stands to one side observing them, goading Luke to strike the final blow.
Vader has seen this almost this same fight before, but from the other side, the winning side. He knows how this is supposed to end. I’m sure he must have closed his eyes inside that helmet and waited for the killing blow.
But the blow never comes. Because Luke does something that all parents are aching to see their children do.
The child succeeds where the parent failed.
In doing so, the progeny proves that whatever the parent has passed his genetic material into, what the parent has left in this universe as a continuing legacy, what will be left when he is gone, is stronger than what created it and will be greater than the parent was.
“I am a Jedi,” Luke says, tossing the weapon of destruction away so it can do no further harm. and then adds four words with a nod of his head, “Like my father before me.”
And that’s closure for Anakin Skywalker. His son has proven his strength to be greater but that victorious son still recognizes, acknowledges and respects his father, despite all their differences, and out of love for his father, gives him back with those four words what Palpatine ripped away from him so long ago.
His sense of who he is. His self-respect. Forgiveness. The feeling that something that came from him will make the universe shine just a little brighter.
I can only believe that despite all the pain Vader was in, Anakin Skywalker’s heart could not have been beating more proudly at that moment.
But then, his son began to suffer – suffer at the hands of the same creature that had made Anakin’s existence a living hell for almost 20 years. Suffer at the hands of a man to whom Vader was nothing more to than his best chained guard dog. Whatever greatness Luke was going to bring, was very quickly being snuffed out.
Unless Anakin Skywalker became a Jedi once more.
We all know how it ended, I won’t bore you with those details, but I will say simply this. Everyone has their own take on why Vader stopped Luke from killing the Emperor early on. Mr Lucas has clearly has stated his own view, and that’s fine. He is the creator and it’s his, but this is what the tale he created meant to me.
If you’re still reading this, thank you – I hope you enjoyed it. If you disagree, it’s just my opinion and not important to anyone but me and whoever decides it’s important to them.
Looking forward to Episode 7.
Hello Jedi Elvis, interesting you should put a lot of thought into your words. I agree with alot of what your saying about Return Of The Jedi. Anakin Skywalker was badly disfigured when he was defeated by Obi Wan Ben Kenobi and fell off into the lava fields. Though he is confined to a Space Battlesuit, he is not totally a puppet to Emperor Augustus Palpatine; The Emperor Palpatine did not completely rule his soul nor his complete emotions for some things even the Emperor could not understand completely about Anakin Skywalker. Why does Emperor Palpatine tell Anakin Skywalker that he killed his own wife and kills the children in her belly…..or he infers it. Why would Emperor Palpatine tell his supposed most trusted Apprentice this lie and not the truth? In The Empire Strikes Back V, Anakin Skywalker banks on Luke Skywalker being his own son, something that Palpatine does suspect and in Cloud City finally plucks it out of Vader’s mind after Vader had dueled with Luke Skywalker. Why in Empire Strikes back does Yoda torment Luke with the knowledge that Luke is Anakin Skywalker’s son……The Fact that Yoda knows Luke Skywalker is also another Chosen One is Yoda’s leash over Luke Skywalker and more importantly if Yoda cannot meld Luke to a Jedi Knight then Leia Organa can be molded to be the Chosen Champion if Luke Skywalker fails. But does Luke Skywalker fall, yes he looses a hand to Anakin Skywalker but gains the knowledge though Darth Vader living in Anakin Skywalker is not Anakin Skywalker himself but a mere machination keeping Anakin Skywalker alive.
Why does Anakin Skywalker allow the Millennium Falcon to escape with such little Imperial Forces chasing it as they do, Vader must know they will go to the Rebel Fleet to attack the Second Death Star, but I believe that Anakin Skywalker knows Emperor Palpatine’s flaw that Luke Skywalker will become a Jedi Master, something that Yoda found out when Luke came to Yoda’s planet. In Star Wars: A New Hope the dice was cast when the Storm Troopers came to the homestead of Luke Skywalker’s aunt and uncle and killed them, Luke would have already guessed from Obi Wan Ben Kenobi that Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker and this was a price that Luke paid when he walked the path that Obi Wan Ben Kenobi walked in revealing to Luke that Leia Organa might be his own sister even though the Droid R2D2 had the communication of Princess Leia, Ben Kenobi implied that information not in so many words that Yoda was also pulling the strings too. Why is Luke’s reaction so very strong that he must focus on dealing with Darth Vader, if the Force had not shown Luke Skywalker this path.
RINZLER! TUN TUN RINZLER! AAAAAAAAH
“Force” of habit.
The answer is simple, and it just speaks further to George Lucas’ way of conveying the symphony of themes that reverberate throughout the saga. Luke had already appealed to his father’s humanity when they had their one on one dialogue on the bridge, upon Luke’s surrender. “It is too late for me, son, ” was Vader’s reply to his son’s request for him to come with him and leave the madness of the Dark side behind. But upon Luke’s exit, Vader had a moment to contemplate his fate, and to ponder why his son would ask this of him so calmly. Perhaps he even thought of Padme, and how this was all done for her, but to no avail, as his master still never gave him the secret to eternal life.
Vader is conflicted. He is no longer the obsessed Sith seeking his son to replace the Emperor, so he can be the master, and Luke, the apprentice. When Luke draws his lightsaber and Vader blocks his blow, it’s the small part of Anakin that’s alive in him acting on instinct, saying “wait a minute….not so fast….I’m not sure about this anymore”. In their duel, Luke calls his father out on his conflict to further support this. Perhaps Anakin was starting to “See things before they happen”, and was already wrestling with the inevitable outcome, and was considering breaking the cycle of Sith killing each other to ultimately no gain.
Luke tells his father on Endor and on the Death Star that there’s still good in him and that he (Vader) is conflicted. At some point Anakin/Vader decided that he needed to protect his son but he didn’t know how to protect him. One of the answers was to turn Luke to the Dark Side and have Luke replace him or Palpatine. The other choice was to turn against the Emperor.
It is interesting to note that Anakin told Palpatine that he (Anakin) would do whatever Palpatine asked him to do in exchange for the knowledge that would save Padme. Even though Padme died there was nowhere for him to go. He had no allies and according to one source his suit needed regular maintenance so he couldn’t just vanish.
If anything Anakin was loyal to a fault and sadly a lot of hsi loyalty was to Palpatine.
Anyway I believe he blocked Luke’s lightsaber because he didn’t want the life he was living for his son. The life as a slave.
Lady Misty you bring up some good points, Yesss Anakin Skywalker stupidly gets seduced by Senator Palpatine’s false promises…..supposedly the Tetan Elite had born to them a man named Plagueis, apparently he was born to them from the Diathim Angels and he could manipulate the Midicholorians to both create life and protect only one he loved from dying using the Midicholorians within him or using them in a biogel liquid.
This is how Senator Palpatine turns Anakin Skywalker to his cause because the Senator might give him the secret though he never does and I think perhaps the Emperor Palpatine had the secret in part of the Spaarti Cloning Chambers on Wayland, luckily that secret was destroy by an New Republic mission by Han Solo and Luke Skywalker to Wayland to stop Joruus Cabyoth.
You should also know Lady Misty that “Starkiller” was really Galen Marek, the son of Junto Marek a Jedi Knight that lived at Kashyyyk amongst the Wookies and with his wife there had their son Galen Marek. Amazingly enough, Galen Marek was since he had been about 12yrs old tormented and abused by Anakin Skywalker to be turned into a Dark Lord Of The Sith to some day replace Anakin Skywalker-Darth Vader….unfortunately Galen Marek learns the truth when Anakin Skywalker tries to crush the Wookie rebellion on Kashyyyk and Galen remembers that Darth Vader murders his father. I had reciently bought the book “The Force Unleashed” and it was excellent reading, Galen Marek was about 22yrs old when he died, just 2yrs older than Luke Skywalker himself would be at Star Wars: A New Hope.
I think the whole point of the movies is the fact that anakin was the chosen one. Only he could bring the force back into balance meaning only he could kill the emperor. The movies are about the redemption of anakin and to have Luke kill the emperor would have defeated the purpose of anakin being the chosen one. If I’m making sense that is.
Vader simply doesnt want Luke to of struck down the Emperor because if he did Luke would of joined them its as simple as that. Vader wants Luke to have a clean record.
Really…..? Just whom was Emperor Palpatine-Senator Augustus Palpatine and Dark Sith Lord Darth Sidious? Obviously both are clones of previous Dark Sith Jedi but are both the same man. I think not; I think Darth Sidious is not the same man as is Senator-Dark Sith Emperor Augustus Palpatine.
Darth Sidious is Senator Palpatine’s Dark Sith Teacher as he was Lord Douku’s but Darth Sidious allows Senator Augustus Palpatine to become a Dark Sith Master when Senator Palpatine woos Anakin Skywalker to the Dark Side. In Star Wars: An New Hope, when does exactly Darth Vader-Anakin Skywalker realize that Leia Organa is his daughter? If she is using the Force to block Vader when he tortures her aboard the Death Star 1 he should know straightaway that she is his daughter, most normal humans cannot stand up to a Torture Droid certainly someone like Leia Organa could not and should not be able to resist such droids.
Yesss Anakin Skywalker was The Chosen One, or supposed to be; as was Feral Opress was 75 years before and was sacrificed by his own older brother Savage Opress on Iridonia. But I ask chosen for what? In info I have gotten on the Star Wars Fandom website it seems that “Force Angels” come to mothers whom are to have children that will be Darkside and Lightside Jedi; some Dark Angels are outcasts from a mysterious starsystem where the Lightside Angels exist on a certain planet there. The planet and the starsystem is touching on a nebulae that seems about to swallow the starsystem and planet. We get hints from Anakin’s own mother that she was “touched” by such a LightForce Angel……once long ago. Qui-Gon Jinn takes special interest in a private discussion with Anakin’s mother about how empowered Anakin is in the Lightside of the Force; in The Phantom Menace Qui-Gon Jinn takes a blood sample of Anakin Skywalker which proves to him that Anakin Skywalker’s mother Shimi Skywalker had an “relationship” with an Diathim Force Angel, their planet is in the Extrictarium Nebulae and is planet moon 625. Apparently Shimi Skywalker is an sister of The Dutchess Of Thrule. Though Shimi Skywalker chose to allow herself to become a slave to protect her son Anakin Skywalker from being hunted by Bounty Hunter Assassins that might have believed her son could become a Jedi Knight. Apparently these Force Angels roam the galaxcy meddling with humankind creating babies that are Force Sensitive by using their own Midicholorian particles to change Human DNA that made it higher with Midicholorian energy or “Force Powers”. On certain planets like Dathomir the Force Angels can roam more easily as alot of the Dathomirian witches have more of these Midicholorian particles in their bodies which gives them more “Force Powers”.
This might be a more sinister thought, but what if the emperor used the force to move Vader’s mechanical arms, akin to a puppet master controlling puppet strings, it might further the point he makes by telling Luke about his mastery over the rebel attack as well as the Galaxy. Sounds like nonsense, but I try to keep an open mind.
I would argue that Vader was just trying to stop his son from giving in to his hate knowing that, if he did, he would fall into the same trap as Anakin did may years earlier, thus giving in to the Emporor’s request without knowing it. Therfore, Vader realizes that the only way to save his son was to prevent him from killing the Emporor.
On a different note, the movie would have ended rather darkly had Luke killed Palpatine, so it’s better from a real-world perspective as well for Vader stop Luke.
The main reason, if you read ROTJ Novel, Vader thought Luke was not ready yet for the reponsibility of killing the Emperor. That he could not handle the power required to take on such a task. Vader himself wanted to be the one to strike down the Emperor and rule the galaxy with Luke at his side. Vader wanted to be the one to seize the Emperor’s power and then train Luke in the ways of the darkside…
I think that Vader stopped the blow because Luke was about to do it only out of anger and hate, and because of the good inside of Vader, he didn’t want that path for Luke.
Obi Wan said earlier in the movie that Luke had to face Darth Vader again. Obi Wan knew through the force that it was Luke’s destiny to face his father. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch for Vader and Palpatine to see that destiny as well. The Emperor goading Luke into “striking him down” was just a ruse to get Luke to take his lightsaber and activate it in order for he and his father to fight once more and fulfill their destinies.
Its simple. He is the chosen one. It is he who is to bring balance to the force not Luke.
I haven’t read all the comments so forgive me if I repeat what some one else has already said.
I don’t think the Emperor was ever in danger of a “death blow.”
He showed no sign of reacting to Luke’s strike. I believe it was a test by the Emperor for Luke to give into anger and also for Vader to test his loyalty. Also it would be cinematically anticlimactic if Luke had succeeded and there was no saber duel. And that is what the true reason is I think.