This is MJ. I'm an author. I'm an artist. I'm an analyzer. You can find all my work at MJMunoz.com
Welcome to my fully operational Star Wars analysis
join me on my fifth leg of
the journey towards Ahsoka. I'm talking about
The Empire Strikes Back
a lot of people's favorite Star Wars movie of all time
It's not my favorite Star Wars movie of all time
But it is good. It's a good movie, and I'm going to talk about it now
I
started off in Phantom Menace, and I've worked my way through the prequel trilogy and now I'm
at the
turning point of the sequel trilogy or the redemption of Anakin Skywalker, so I
I
like this movie a lot
something that came to my mind is
in order for so
so it's very interesting because we have a
Dark Lord of the Sith
tempting a
powerful young Jedi who has incredible force potential to join him and
end
the Civil War and the fighting that's going on and
It's
Really interesting because of course in Revenge of the Sith we get to see Anakin be presented with the choice to become
Darth Sidious his apprentice
and he took it and in order to do that he
betrayed the Jedi and
murdered a lot of people and
Helped get a Jedi Master who didn't like him very much and who he didn't like very much killed so
It's interesting that
Anakin's downfall came because he was trying to save the life of Padme and the unborn child
And he was warned about the
potential death of them by visions that he had
that just came to him at night while he was sleeping and you know visions in his dreams and
Luke while he's training on Dagobah and
Assumedly you know for a couple weeks or something like that
He's training on Dagobah and he's already passed failed this one test where he
confronts the dark side in that cave with Yoda or not with Yoda, but at the Yoda's insistence or guidance and
He's learning more about the force. He's becoming more in tune with it
He's you know advancing as a Jedi or advancing as far as his level of training is concerned
Of course, he's nowhere near where Anakin was at the same time or you know, he's years younger than Anakin. So
But still Anakin spent the time from when he was 10 to the time that he was
Luke's age 19
You know training as a Padawan under Obi-Wan and Yoda has been training Luke intensively for the last few weeks
So, you know the gap between them is huge
Chasm, it's an absolute chasm that separates them. However
Luke is as he's using the force
To you know train himself and practice being in touch with it in tune with the force
he gets these visions of
Leia and Han suffering and potentially dying he
Leaves Dagobah. He doesn't complete his training. He leaves early in order to
stop them from being killed by Vader and
by the Empire and
We don't know if he knows who is hurting them
directly or not, but he sees them suffering and he chooses to abandon his master's training and
Go in pursuit of saving them go on his own way in order to stop their suffering and
Yoda tells him
That he should let them die
He should stay there on Dagobah and continue his training and potentially let them die because Luke raises the question
What if they die and he says if you value what they are fighting for and everything that they've done you
Will Luke says and sacrifice Han and Leia?
He says if you value what they have worked for then yes, you will and I find that very interesting
I find that very challenging Luke obviously does the wrong thing
He doesn't fall to the dark side
I don't think he's tempted to fall to the dark side at this point
But he parallels Anakin very much and that again he leaves his master. He doesn't listen to what Yoda says he doesn't
accept the doom of these people that he cares for and instead he goes off on his own to
Save them now
Anakin or Vader offers
This is so so painful
Vader offers Luke what he offered Padme
years ago 20 years ago join me and
Together we can rule the galaxy. He tells him you he tells Padme
I can overthrow the Emperor and then you and I can rule the galaxy together and we can make things be the way we want them to be
Sidious also tempts Anakin by saying that he will bring peace
to the galaxy he will end the Clone Wars and
that
You know Anakin's convinced that he has brought peace justice
And security I think to his new Empire and
It's interesting because we do have these parallels the the galaxy is in a state of
Civil War right now because of the rebel Alliance fighting against the Empire
fighting to overthrow the Empire whereas we had the the CIS the
Confederation of Independent Systems fighting to have independence and autonomy and
Self-rule breaking away from the Galactic Republic. So it's interesting the way that there's these parallels
There's the Civil War there's the temptation to end the war because Vader says that he says we can end this
point he says we can end this pointless fighting and
I really feel like
Anakin is being woken up
Anakin is being woken up at this time
excuse me in this competition that he's having with Luke because
He Vader looks so disappointed when Luke chooses to jump to his death
Ostensibly as opposed to join him
It doesn't directly mirror what happened with Padme because she just said no, I can't do this and you know
I I know you're breaking my heart and all this stuff. You know, I can't follow you
She essentially says the same thing, but she's not you know, try to kill herself on Mustafar. He he does that for her
he does that for her with the force choke
but
it's interesting because
He
When he's holding up his hand offering to Luke and saying basically he's extending the hand to him come here
Take my hand and come with me and we'll overthrow the Emperor and we'll rule and we'll make things the way we want them to
Be it's very much the same plea
it the bones the heart the soul is Anakin even though the
The shell is Vader. So it's the same guy with the same wants and needs and the same longing for his family
And I mean really if you think about it
This is the son that he was trying to save all those years ago every youngling that he murdered he
traded their lives for Luke's and
That still has to be with him in some way and
Because it's fiction
And because I saw it the wrong way originally it's still it still feels
It's not okay. It's not okay what happened. It doesn't make it. Okay, but it makes the
It makes all the sacrifice and all the bloodshed and all the evil that he's done
Pointless it almost nullifies it
It's almost like the Greek tragedy type of thing on the path that you take to avoid your destiny. You will meet it
Had Anakin done nothing had he pulled back had he run away with Padme had he not fallen to the dark side and become Darth Vader
Wouldn't his children be alive today wouldn't his wife be alive because in spite of him becoming Darth Vader
I guess because of him becoming Darth Vader
Padme died. I
Don't think you know she died of a broken heart. Whatever. I don't think she would have died unless he had forced choked her and
maybe
Well, I don't know it's possible that the Emperor that Sidious did something to her as well and killed her from afar. We've seen
Vader in Empire Strikes Back kill somebody over the holo net like, you know
He's got a view screen pulled up because he's mad at somebody for making the wrong move and he kills him from a ship away
surely
Sidious is even more powerful in the dark side and he could be killing Padme from across the galaxy
Even though he's not that far. She was on I don't know how far Moose Far is
From but he was in route, you know, he could have killed her there
I also don't know where the meteor field or whatever was where anyway
The point is I'm sure if Lucas needed to be the case it could be clear clear cut
To with the audience at least that Sidious is the one that actually killed Padme the fact that their hurt
You know their children live that the twins live and go off somewhere else and it's hidden from Vader and
Sidious
It just makes it all the more tragic because
The children lived anyway in spite of him becoming Vader in spite of him
Attacking her in spite of Sidious attacking Padme and had they gone off somewhere else. Maybe Sidious would have killed
Her but Anakin would have known that it was the Sith and not the Jedi or I presume
And it would have been an entirely different story, but that's not the story we got we got the tragic fall
in failing of Anakin and
Because i'm so attached to and I like the character of Anakin so much
the whole
fall of him in Revenge of the Sith hurts and
seeing
The little echoes of Anakin within Vader of him
Leading his men from the front and getting into the fight and getting into the tie and going after the Death Star
The X-Wings as they're attacking the Death Star all of those things are so Anakin. He's trying to save people's lives
believe it or not, and
Then here he's trying to reach out to his son and he's trying to take him in and he's trying to overthrow the Emperor
Just like he did 20 years ago. The way of the Sith is treachery, but
it's also consistent and
The way of the Sith is treachery
but it's also consistent and
Gosh, I don't know. It's weird. It's really weird and it's uncomfortable and
It makes it hurt more and I I think that's good. I think it should stay tragic
um
You know, it's awful for Luke that
He clearly
Wants a connection like he clearly has affection for his
Dead father who he's never met who presumably was dead before he was born
I think that's the the lie that Anakin or that uh that the wars tell him
And if you want to say that Anakin was killed by Vader, then yeah, technically it's true, but still
But of course, it's only true from a certain point of view by the way
I think based on the films only it is canon that the certain point of view thing comes from Anakin telling Obi-Wan
telling Obi-Wan from my point of view the Jedi or even
And then he carries that through
It's kind of messed up. Anyway
But yeah, so I like that Luke
Likes this ghost of his father so much and
And you know Vader is like the ghost of Anakin the the evil, you know haunting nightmarish, you know poltergeist of Anakin and
Luke wants to fight against that and he he first wants revenge against Vader, which is not the Jedi way and
then when it turns out that
He is Vader that he is his father that he is Anakin that shocks and astonishes Luke and he
Doesn't know what to do. He doesn't know how to handle it. I don't know if he willingly leapt to his death because he was afraid that he might
Fall to the dark side just to get a chance to be reunited with his father or to be
with his father for the first time in his life and have that relationship or
if
If he was scared of Vader or if he really just had the moral
High ground
To say no, I will not fall to the dark side because he knew that you know
Vader killed Ben who honestly even though they spent such an extremely a dramatically short amount of time with each other
Ben was more of a father to Luke than Anakin ever was and
Wow, that's that hurts that hurts to say
um and maybe
I mean Owen was a father to Anakin as well and
At Vader's order at the order of the Empire the stormtroopers
murdered Luke's aunt and uncle who were his mother and father and
Then Vader himself with his own lightsaber
murdered
Ben or he tried to
and
now
That lightsaber has cut off Luke's hand and he's asking for him to join him. So
if Luke were to join Vader, he would be
sanctioning and agreeing with and
Align himself with the man that killed all the family that Luke had ever known and
The thing that makes it worse is that
he is his father
by blood at least and
I that's like
That's shocking. That's flabbergasting. That's never really occurred to me to think about it from Luke's perspective in that
Vader had taken all of Luke's family that he'd known up to that point and was a traitor
Was a traitor to the Jedi was a traitor to the ideals that Luke was a traitor to the
ideals that Luke had been learning about and the philosophy that he had been learning
And of course the philosophy doesn't matter unless it's the difference in philosophy causes you to murder people who are innocent
Uh versus defend people who are innocent
But yeah, that's I mean that that had to have been such a shocker and that's really wild
Anyway, I think a lot of people like the empire strikes back so much because of all the losses that the
Rebels take they're on the run. They're on the back foot
They do not have the advantage the empire has the advantage and is pressing and gaining more advantage as each minute of the film takes by
And that's definitely true. Yes
Luke is training under yoda. He is
You know being trained as a jedi, but
As vader so aptly says he is not a jedi yet
And he doesn't have the full training that he needs to be able to resist him either
You know spiritually emotionally or physically or you know in the force and
I think all that's rather interesting. We have the great boom the great potential for vader to bring
Luke into the fold as
A sith trainee or whatever the case may be
I don't know what role they would put him in but the emperor
Invites vader. Well, that's not true vader suggested the emperor that luke could be turned and he could become and and
And velpatina agrees that he could be a great asset
I find it interesting though in thinking about that scene again the emperor doesn't say who he would be an asset for
Would luke be his perfect replacement to throw over?
Vader who's more machine than man now whose force potential has been
Seemingly stripped from him
Also, he's you know 20 years older than luke so just would having a more youthful apprentice be better
I don't really know
As much as there are parallels between luke and anakin
Luke has had a much healthier upbringing and has had a more stable upbringing
But it's also been devoid of the force training so I guess you could say from the emperor's perspective from cityus's perspective
If luke has barely had any force training or barely had any jedi training
and
anakin had
Over a decade how much more so would it be easy to strip?
Down luke's defenses and bring him into
The fold and bring him into the dark side and cause him to be a sith
And again if he's younger if he's more able-bodied if he has more potential or equal potential wouldn't you want somebody who's?
Young and robust and has years ahead of him for you to train
as opposed to somebody who's
become deteriorated in many ways
And he's not a very good person
He's not somebody who's become deteriorated in many ways
So anyway that's that's an idea right there and maybe even folding in stuff from
The eu or the later the sequel trilogy maybe even
Luke would be an even better potential host for palpatine cityus to transfer himself into at some point
So that's kind of interesting
anyway getting back to all the losses that the
rebels take and
You know the disadvantage that they have over the empire
Uh, it is impressive. It does make the empire feel like a legitimate threat. They have a lot of narrow escapes
um
And vader takes out a bunch of his men
uh
And it certainly makes him feel like a threat and you know
It makes you it it raises the threat of vader to the point that you think well
How could luke defend himself against vader at all and that brings up another question, you know
Why doesn't vader just force choke luke and bring him into submission like that perhaps?
In a duel he wouldn't be able to for reasons of concentration perhaps luke has been trained to throw up
defenses and uh
He has things that will help him to repel dark side attacks of that nature and that's why
You know with the force guiding them jedi and sith uh duel like they do as opposed to just attacking each other with the force
similar to like what we saw with uh ducu and yoda and then later
uh cityus and yoda but they ended up going back and forth because they're at such a higher level um
Of kinship with the force and being able to use it so I don't know that's kind of interesting
But yeah, I mean this the story is absolutely tragic and the heights of it are great
Uh, you know the disadvantage that the rebels have is good. Uh, the budding romance between han and leah is interesting
I really like their dynamics. I like all their interactions
um I like
uh leah's distrust and discomfort with landau and the fact that he turns out to be a traitor to them
But then he's not really a traitor and that's all super interesting. Uh, but I think it's a conversation for another time
Um, I like how at the end, you know han's been taken off. He's in carbonite
Lando is strangely wearing his clothes, which doesn't make any sense, but whatever
Um, and he's going off to try to help you know track him down and free him from boba fet or bobafet as some people might call him
uh and
Gosh, that's interesting. But I find it more interesting that uh, luke and leah are in essentially their outfits from a new hope and
They've kind of recently started to get into the
outfits from a new hope and they've kind of reset and they're at safety and at you know face camp or whatever and
you know this journey is over but
The way they're looking out at that nebula or whatever and enjoying the vista
And then we get to see all those ships in the rebel fleet
um, you know, there still is hope despite the gains and the victories that the empire has had there's still a chance for
uh for the rebels to come out and to have a victory and to
You know come to the other side of this this very dark place that they're in
And you know come into the light and everything and that's that's cool. That's interesting
I like that as dark as it was it ends on a hopeful note and
I really like it
I really like it. I like that, you know luke is lost. Anyway, he says he'll go back and complete his training
But we'll talk about that another time
Um, I want to I didn't I think I forgot to mention this earlier and I wanted to really badly
So i'm gonna just say it real quick before I go
Uh at one point in bespin in the pits right before luke's knocked out onto that, uh
Walkway and then he's backed off into the corner where he gets his hand cut off
Vader at one point luke's walked through a hallway vader at one point
I think he has to be holding or suppressing his breath for some time
Which is potentially putting his life in danger
in order to
Be quiet so that he can stealthily attack luke and uh, i've heard it referred to as a jump scare
And it technically is it did surprise me too. Um
and it's cool because it the I think there's no music in the moment. It's very quiet and then
when vader attacks then his breathing kicks back in but it implies that he uh, you know suppressed his breathing in order to
Uh, you know trap luke like I said, so that's kind of a fun and interesting point and it's something I never thought about
Uh
I hadn't thought about too much before but if you think about the way vader has to operate
You know, it means that he he must have done that on purpose and that's kind of it's cool to think about
Um, you know vader anakin using even his you know suits
the reality of the way his suit works and the way, uh, you know, everybody can hear that breathing to his advantage in order to
make a surprise attack and
it shows like the desperation and the
The desperation the dedication and the like tactical cleverness that this guy uses
uh
On a daily basis you could say uh to get done what he needs to get done
So I appreciate that and I think that's cool and I don't know thinking about vader and looking at him
as
Anakin and now having luke know that
Even though he didn't know anakin's history before it just it just it just makes things more interesting more exciting. I think um
Maybe that's why I just liked the way vader and anakin were handled in
the sequel trilogy because he should have gotten a lot more
He should have had a lot more involvement and
Had a lot more exposure and a lot more, uh, you know weight in the story, but it didn't so anyway
Um, I don't really think I have anything else to say. I liked this movie. Oh
I I came up with a joking title for it. This could be star wars episode 5 the jedi conspiracy here the jedi conspiracy
is uh
The jedi conspiracy is oh we won and yoda keeping from
Luke that his father is anakin and then later that his you know sister is, you know
So that's kind of interesting kind of fun. So anyway, that concludes my coverage of
The empire strikes back and next i'll be talking about return of the jedi and then i'll talk about that asoka show and we'll see
If it's good together
Anyway until next time folks take care of this video
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