Written by Mr. Mouseburger 26th Nov 2005
Kindly submitted by Forfit The Game
During the battle of Endor, Luke Skywalker realises his presence is a danger to the rebel's plans and so surrenders himself to the Empire and is taken to Darth Vader. Vader in turn brings Luke to the Death Star, which is orbiting the planet Endor, and before the Emperor who Vader hopes will turn Luke to the dark side of the Force.
The Emperor gives Luke the opportunity to strike him down, but when Luke takes the chance, Vader blocked the light sabre, and so begins a light sabre duel between father and son. During the fight Vader tells Luke that if he could not be turned then perhaps his sister could.
When Luke hears this, he becomes angry and charges at Vader with full force. The ferocity of the attack is something that even Vader is unprepared for, as blow after blow rains down onto his light sabre. Eventually he falls to his knees from the assault and in a final blow, Luke severs Vader's hand off.
With a break for breath, Luke is distracted by the Emperor walking towards him laughing with glee. He tells Luke to strike his father down and take his place, and they will rule the galaxy together. Luke looks at his father's severed arm and remembers his own severed hand, caused by his father. Realising what he has done, and that he is becoming just like his father, Luke throws away his light sabre and refuses to turn to the dark side. This makes the Emperor furious, and he uses the force to punish Luke with bolts of electricity coming from his hands.
Luke is writhing on the floor in agony, pleading to his father to help him. Vader, looking back at Luke and then at the Emperor, realises that he can't sit back and watch his son die, Vader lunges at the Emperor picking him up and, despite the electricity coursing through his body, he manages to walk him to the edge of the platform and throw him over the side into the core.
Vader is mortally wounded, and it is at this point that Luke gets up, without a scratch on him and helps his father get to one of the hangars so they can escape the disintegrating Death Star. As they get to the ship Vader asks Luke to remove his helmet, Luke is hesitant as it will kill him, but Vader persists, saying "Nothing can stop that now, for once let me look one you with my own eyes". Luke slowly takes off each part to the helmet, revealing a pale, scarred man that was Anakin Skywalker.
With his last words, Vader tells Luke that he was right about him all along, that he couldn't kill his own child, and with that Vader dies. Luke brings the body of Anakin with him as he flees the Death Star, and once he is safely on Endor, gives his father a traditional Jedi funeral.
I still don't see Vader's death as being all that honourable.
I'm pretty sure his total betrayal by the master he served loyally had a lot to do with his final act of defiance. Self-sacrifice? Well, OK - but, revenge undoubtedly had something to do with it too.
I also have a problem with the concept of someone being redeemed in the afterlife with such a simple act. Christianity holds to this dubious value system too - "kill women and children, destroy planets and perform medical experiments on ewoks throughout your life, but providing you recant with your final breaths then there will be a place in Jedi Heaven for you."
Pah!
OB
I disagree with the above poster immensely. Having seen the new trilogy (and read the novels), it seems fairly obvious that Vader had hated the Emperor and known that he had been duped by the Dark Side since he awoke inside his metallic prison in Ep. III. He had not the power to defeat the Emperor, but hated him - knowing he was actually evil from that point on. Vader sought to overthrow the Emperor in Ep. V, but couldn't "find the light" so to speak. At the end of Return of the Jedi, Vader saw his son fighting against what seemed impossible odds and with no victory in sight. Somehow, Luke awakened the good man inside his father again, and Vader killed the Emperor - not for glory, or honor, or for redemption - but because it was the right thing to do. Vader did not seek a reward, or a place in this new and better world, he just wanted to try to make up for the evil the two had done in their years. He requested death, and while never undoing the wrongs he had done, he ensured they would come to an end, fulfilling his prophecy and bringing balance to the force. Vader did not ask for a Jedi's funeral, it was his son's tribute to his father - a man guilty of terrible mistakes and misguided ideals. This death-scene is one of my favorites of all time.
I wish I shared your idealistic view of Vader, but I am a firm cynic when it comes to Star Wars, especially since the travesty that were episodes I-III.
Nobody can deny Annakin committed frequent and numerous atrocities, both before and after becoming Vader. He is an evil character, as defined by his actions. To romanticise about him being the victim of a manipulative Emperor is naive in the extreme.
Vader was quite willing and eager to carry out his master's bidding throughout the films, and clearly revelled in the abject terror his actions caused amongst his minions.
It was only when he lay near death, and witnessed the emperor sneering and encouraging Luke to kill him that he was moved to redeem himself.
As you can probably tell, I felt very let down by the new trilogy telling Vader's backstory. I was anticipating some truly cunning manipulation whereby a tool of justice was slowly and insidiously corrupted by Palpatine, but all we were given was a sulky teenager who was an obvious arse from puberty.
OB
IT'S A MOVIE!!!!!
Darth Vader is not real!!!
Yes, but they are simply debating your storytelling style, I see nothing wrong with that.
So many actors play Darth in this film. We have Prowse and Jones, and Sebastain Shaw and Hayden Christensen (in the SEs - yuck!). And that's not counting Vader's sabre double...
I was a junior in high school when this movie came out and for as much as I loved it, it had/has many disappointments. I did not mind it when Vader tosses the Emperor down the shaft. One of the biggest disappointments of the movie was the final reveal of his green egghead when Luke takes off his mask. ESB established that it was something horrible to see even for villains. I understand that George was trying to appeal to the masses, and toy corporations but every one was expecting to see the ultimate Dr. Phibes not Humpty Dumpty. I guess it was just a preview of things to come.