Luke a Jedi?

[frau kaleun]

Originally Posted by Falkirion

Going strictly by the movies, in my mind. He became a true jedi the moment he struck Vader down and let him live. Which is what most light siders will do.

When RotJ first came out and I saw it in the theater I didn't really "get" the significance of the ending, I mean, yeah, I'm sure I realized that Luke's the hero so whatever he did was the right thing and the Alliance wins and evil is defeated, wooooo! But on a deeper philosophical, spiritual level - I just couldn't appreciate it. In fact when the SEs went back out to the theaters and I saw them as a much older (and one would hope wiser) adult, I realized at some point that I didn't even remember exactly what happened with the Luke/Vader/Emperor confrontation or why that ended the way it did.

Not only did that make watching the movie far more fun and interesting (as did my ability to overlook the whole Ewok thing, which I simply could not do at age 17-18 when I guess I felt I had to work much harder at pretending to be "grown up," lol), but it meant that I was simply BLOWN AWAY by how that situation played out. It seemed clear to me that the Emperor was trying to do to Luke what he had probably done to Anakin Skywalker - manipulate him into doing something so heinous and, in his own mind, so unforgivable, that the Dark Side seemed like the only remaining option.

From the conversations Luke has with Vader it seems clear that Vader believes that, having done what he has done, there is no turning back. The path is set and must be followed, since redemption of any kind or magnitude is an impossibility. Luke's argument is that it is *never* too late to turn around and start walking the other way. Can you undo what you have done, can you ever make full reparations for the damage you have caused - no. But you can at least start moving in a better direction from this moment forward. The trick is, you have to believe that it's possible and Vader does not and no doubt the Emperor has done much to convince him of that. I have no doubt that he would have tried to convince Luke of that same thing, had Luke chosen to kill Vader. He would've used it as evidence of Luke's "corrupt" nature in an attempt to corrupt it even further.

The crucial moment is when Luke momentarily fails to control himself and takes off Vader's hand, obviously a bionic/robotic one, then looks at his own replacement for the hand that Vader took off of him in their first battle. And you can see him make the connection - that he is being manipulated into becoming more and more like Vader (as distinct from whatever's left of the once good Anakin Skywalker) by the same guy who no doubt once manipulated Anakin in much the same way. He is being auditioned for the part of Palpatine's new Sith apprentice, and homey don't play that.

Honestly I had tears in my eyes at the end of that scene, when Vader chose to become Anakin again and save Luke. It was like, well, if my son here can choose another option besides the crap ones the Emperor is offering us, then so can I.