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. I'm talking about episode six of the
classic, the only, the real Star Wars saga. Of course, episode six would be Return of the Jedi.
You thought I was going to save revenge at Sith, didn't you? No, I don't play that way, okay? MJ
don't play that way. Anyway, so this is the last leg on my journey to Ahsoka, because I'm re-watching
the original saga in 2023 in preparation for Ahsoka, partly because Ahsoka takes place after,
well, it takes place after Return of the Jedi, somewhere in and around Mando, and I don't exactly
know where, because as far as I can tell, they are playing fast and loose with where things are.
Mando takes place five years post Return of the Jedi. I believe some of this Ahsoka show may take
place shortly after, like Rebels, the cartoon series, had a flash forward, sort of. Yeah,
had a flash forward to post Return of the Jedi, and I don't even know how far past Return of the
Jedi that was, but I believe some of the Ahsoka show happens during that time period, and then
it kind of maybe jumps around a little bit, so I'm not 100% sure. But regardless, it's in that era,
it's in that milieu, and it just, it'd been a long time since I sat down and watched the Star Wars
movies, and I thought, you know what, it's time. So I decided I'll do it as a journey to Ahsoka,
and then I'll get into talking about Ahsoka. But I don't want to talk about Ahsoka anymore,
because, you know, I'm all about that Sky Guy, Sky Guy 2.0. Snips can get out of here with that
nonsense for now. So, and if you're not a Star Wars, the Clone Wars fan, then you won't know what
I'm talking about, and if you are, then you're probably embarrassed of me and shaking your head
right now, and that's okay. I don't mind. I'm embarrassed of you too. So here we go. One thing
that really, I don't know how to talk about this movie, because I talked about the other movies all
in the context of starting from The Phantom Menace, and how the first three movies are the tragedy
of Darth Vader, or the fall of Anakin Skywalker, and the original trilogy is the redemption of
Anakin Skywalker, and through his children, of course, he does not do it on his own. That's for
darn sure. And I kind of don't want to talk about that. I might get back to that in a little bit,
but I just want to talk about some, I don't know, light, fluffy, like insubstantive,
insubstantive, is it the right word? Unsubstantial things that I noticed in this movie, and then I,
well, just haven't wanted to talk about, so I'll do that now. I love, I absolutely love the
cinematography and the establishing shots of these movies. Specifically, you know, Lucas created the
visual language of Star Wars, or you know, his DP did, or whatever. I don't know, I don't know,
but whatever it is, it started in A New Hope, continued in Empire, and perhaps was perfected in
Return of the Jedi, and then it just kept going, and it kept being consistent, and maybe there have
been things done over the years to add to it, or to improve it, but definitely the prequels echo,
and carry on. They reverberate, and they not only echo, they reverberate. Isn't that the same thing
twice? Yes, it is. Anyway, they echo and reverberate with this style, where it shows you,
where we get to see these grand spaces, we get to see these wide, distant, still shots, establishing
shots, if you will, but they're more than establishing shots, they're establishment shots,
they're what everything is based on. Because even though I love Star Wars as a story about characters,
and really a story about this family, so it's a very narrow focus, there's something absolutely
gorgeous in the way it's presented, and in the way it's, well, shot, and directed, and shown on screen,
and it gives, I think it gives a certain weight to these places that we go, that we have these big,
wide, relatively long, even though they are short, establishing scenes, and it's not that we, you know,
get to see a person moving through a hallway, and they're wearing Jedi robes, so we know we're in the
Jedi Temple. First we see the Jedi Temple. We see outside of Jabba's palace after Leia's been captured,
and you know, she's out of her, I can't remember the guy's name, but she's out of her disguise,
where she's speaking Ubi's. So she's out of that disguise, and she's, you know, captured with Jabba,
and you get this wide establishing shot with the silly, you know, toad thing eating a little critter,
and I really like all that stuff, and it doesn't stop Endor. We get to see the beauty of the
sanctuary mood of Endor, and just, it's just amazing. All these different shots of these places,
you really get to feel them, or at least I do. I feel something about these places based on, I believe,
the way that they're framed and shot and portrayed to us, and then we get into all the crazy, kooky,
you know, Star Wars, sci-fi, you know, Muppets and Puppets action, and I don't know, I just like it,
and maybe the, uh, the affection for those types of shots was nurtured in me as I watched this as a
kid. Maybe not, maybe it's just good filmmaking, and good filmmaking will always out, I don't know,
um, but I just wanted to remark on that, because it's something I kept thinking about. I thought
about it all through Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Empire, A New Hope,
and now Return of the Jedi, and I just, I had to say something about it. The next thing I want to say is,
as much as I appreciate the revolutions and the changes made in filmmaking, I find something
charming about a lot of the original effects in the original trilogy. In particular, I absolutely
love, and I find it to be, I don't want to say it's actually beautiful because it's gruesome,
but I do find it entertaining the way that the effect is done for the lightning, and I'm talking
specifically about when the Emperor, good old Sheev, Sidious, is, I like his recreating of Luke,
you get this, you know, hand-drawn, animated on cells, on the 35 millimeter cells, lightning
attacking the guy, and that's really cool. That's really neat how that effect is done. I also love
it in Gremlins too, when the Gremlins are getting electrocuted at the end there, and anyway, just,
I think animation is beautiful, I think animation is really special, and I don't quite know why it is,
but I think it is, and one of the things that's really neat, and that, you know, proves the
care and attention to detail went into this, is that at one point the lightning like dances across
Mark Hamill, you know, Luke Skywalker's teeth as he's getting electrocuted, and that's just
special, and not only does it look neat, but it's, like, it looks neat from an attached perspective.
It looks painful from an attached perspective, and really thinking about getting into the character
and the anguish that the actor is portraying, like, that's got to be its own special little
version of hell where you're being electrocuted, you know, lightning is consistently being
flowed through your body against your will, which I never knew of lightning ever being
flowed through someone's body with their will, but anyway, this is against their will, and
it's even going across your teeth and hurting you in that special way that you thought only a dentist
could do. So, it's just kind of interesting. It's a really interesting detail, and it shows, like,
the savagery and the brutality of the emperor of Sidious, and perhaps of the Sith themselves,
and it's interesting because while this is one man being made to suffer and one man being put
through pain, you could say that it is emblematic of the kind of pain and the sadistic joy, the
sadistic nature, and the callousness and disregard for decency and human life that characterizes
Sidious and everything that he does to the galaxy. And I did not mean to say this, but I spiked,
I set up the ball for myself, so I'm going to spike it now, and that's why I think people who say
that the Empire did nothing wrong or the Empire are the good guys are crazy, and they're crazy,
the Empire are the good guys are crazy! Anyway, so, yeah, I don't know, I like how evil Sidious is
because of what a threat it makes him and how serious of a threat it makes him and how
imperative it makes it that he is neutralized, that the Sith are put at bay.
Oh, I wanted to say something else, but I'll leave that for another time, getting into the
Revenge of the Sith, probably. So anyway, I liked all that. What else? From a story perspective,
seeing Luke get to the point where he has to be willing to confront Anakin, it's unclear if,
or to confront Vader, it sure seems as if Ben and Yoda are contented with the fact that they're
content with the idea that Luke has to kill Vader, that he has to kill Sidious, and I don't know if
they think that him killing Vader will power him up, level him up, so to speak, so that he will be
able to then kill Sidious, or if, I don't know, they're just kind of taking things on faith,
and they're taking it one Sith at a time. I live my life one Sith at a time.
One Sith slaying at a time, perhaps. Sorry. So, like, I wonder if that's their perspective.
It's a little unclear. I can see where the advice and the counsel that they're giving Luke is meant to
shore him up and prevent him from falling to the dark side, from himself becoming a Sith,
from being pulled into the treacherous Sith trap, and obviously that's a good thing. They don't want
the suffering to persist and to continue, but then, you know, they kind of have their contingency
plan. They don't know what Luke's going to do necessarily, but then they kind of have their
contingency plan that if he fails, then Leia can take over and carry on his training, and I suppose
had Luke died or fallen to the dark side, that then Yoda and Ben would have both appeared to her as
Force ghosts and taught her to be a Jedi, and given her the capability to kill or redeem her brother.
It's unclear from the film itself if, like, Luke is in absolute rebellion against Ben and Yoda by
going off to save Vader. He feels like he must face him, and Ben never tells him you have to kill Vader,
but he says you must confront him, so that's a little dodgy. It's a little bit of using a
technicality to get out of doing something, but Luke did confront Vader. He confronted Vader,
and he appealed to the Anakin within him, and ultimately that's what brought him into safety.
That's what, you know, pulled or awoken... that's what... that's what w... that's what woke up Anakin
from the shell of Darth Vader and got him to choose something else. To choose to give up his
own life for another, as opposed to take the lives of others to save his own, or to save the life of
somebody near him. I guess if you put it that way, he traded Sidious's life for Luke's life, which is
what he did with the younglings and Padme, but... mechanically it's the same, but I think morally
it's definitely different, and I think you can see the differences there. Although maybe there's a
little bit of a weakness in the way that was structured so that it could have been stronger,
but really, okay, here's what it is. Anakin gave up his own life as he knew when he fought against
Sidious that he would die, and there was something... I believe... I can't remember if it was in this
movie or if it was in Empire, but when Vader tells Luke, you don't understand the power of the dark
side, I must obey my master. I think... I kind of think that was in this way in the elevator scene
after the... he was armed only with this, which I love that line... that line delivery, it's so fun.
Anyway, but he tells him that, so like... this... this does work. It is the moral answer, the moral
repairing of his moral failing before. Anakin wanted to save Padme and their unborn child. In
order to do that, he murdered a bunch of people. At no risk to himself, I'll say, because he was so
powerful. Anakin, Vader, Vader turned his back on the Sith at his own risk. He, as Anakin, picked up
and threw the Emperor, even though he knew he would die, he knew his life would... not only would he
be forfeit, but he would be dead by the end of this scenario. And he did it all for the sake of
saving his son. And I think that's a really big deal, and it shows a growth, and it shows the
ascension from selfishness to selflessness that Vader didn't care anymore. If he died and he had
to lose and give up all his power, he loved his son and he wanted to save his life because in that
moment, him giving up his life could afford him that. And... like, would it have been more impactful
if he had saved some Joe Schmoe who he didn't know by killing the Emperor and, you know, ending his
own life? Probably, but that's not what we got here. You know, it's his son who compels him to that
act of selflessness. And I don't think it is accurate to say that parents' selflessness towards
their children is not valid because their children are known to them. And I think that's
a good thing to say about parents' selfishness, because they're not really selfless and deserving
of their love. Because you can still be a bad, neglectful parent and refuse to give your children
what they need in favor of giving yourself what you need or want, as the case often is, because
of your selfishness, ruling over the selflessness that you could show and express. So, anyway...
I really like that. I thoroughly enjoy the idea that Leia posed as a super deadly,
if pint-sized, bounty hunter and threatened to blow up herself and 3PO and R2 and Chewbacca
and, you know, Jabba and a bunch of other people if he didn't pay her the right price. Like, that was
a really cool move. That was very cool. Like, that whole Jabba's Palace sequence is, like, weird and
a little... honestly, looking back at it, it's a little too edgy, a little too dark for me in some ways.
Like, well, it's... yeah. I wish people were dressed more appropriately there. I'll say that for sure.
You know, the slave dancers are one thing. Slave dancers in, you know, practically no clothing at all.
That's another thing that I think, honestly, is awful. Especially if Lucas said that, you know,
Star Wars is for 12-year-olds. You're not supposed to say this. Well, I don't want my 12-year-old
seeing that. I personally would refrain from seeing that. Yeah. I don't know if that means
I'm never gonna watch this movie again because it's... this is my favorite Star Wars movie, but it's
just, uh, yeah. I can look away. Anyway, not good stuff there. So, a little strange. A little
strange. A little moralizing for me there, but that's okay. You can handle it. You're...
you're an adult. I know you can handle a difference of opinion. I know you can handle nuance, so
we're gonna be okay. Anyway, so that whole, like, you know, 30 to 45 minute beginning adventure where
they're saving Han is really cool. And it's interesting because, like, the opening crawl
doesn't really set us up for this is going to be the redemption of Anakin Skywalker. It's,
hey, these rebels are having a hard time. They are on the back foot still. They're having trouble,
and the Empire is about to make a big move, and these guys are in trouble. And then you get into
the movie, and there's the rescue of Han, and it's not that he's such a valuable asset that he helps
the Rebellion be where it needs to be, but he's pulled back into the adventure by his friends
saving him, and then you get to see their next big adventure. But in the meantime, you know, Luke
takes his little side trip, his detour, to Dagobah, and that puts him in the frame of mind of, you know,
he eventually is one day going to confront Vader. And it's just interesting how...
Just interesting how, you know, sensibly, like if this were a TV show or something,
this could have been, like, the end of an arc or the high point of an arc that sets up Luke
to have a confrontation with the big bad being Vader and the bigger bad being Sidious, you know,
years down the line. But, you know, in the story and universe and in the movie, it's not that far away,
you know, time-wise, whereas it, you know, it really could have been. They could have flashed
forward 10 years, because why not? We've done that before, right? So that's kind of interesting that,
you know, you have this little adventure, and it kind of ties things up, and it gives, like,
it gives the Rebels a victory, even though it's more, you know, Luke and his friends, it gives them
a victory, and things are tidy, and then it re... It's kind of like there's two movies, you know?
It reintroduces this big threat from the Empire, and it's almost like a redux of, you know, the
attack on Yavin IV, and, you know, the fight with the original Death Star, except people are in
different places and doing slightly different things, and you have the more direct, you know,
obviously you have the more direct confrontation between Vader and Sidious and Luke, and it's just,
it's kind of unexpected, like, it didn't have to be this way, you know, we could have never met the
Emperor. I know he's an Empire, but he's just hologramming that, and, you know, he could have
stayed that way for a long time, and there could have been the looming threat out there, but that's
not what we got. I like the parallel of how Luke is, you know, tempted, and I feel like he's giving
into the dark side a little bit in his fight with Vader. Like, I think he essentially uses and taps
into the dark side in order to overpower Vader and defeat him, and it's not until the Emperor is
clapping and laughing and telling him, like, great, you're using the dark side, this is exactly what
you need to do, my young apprentice, which this is not the first time he's called him his apprentice.
I think it's not until Luke throws his lightsaber that he rejects the light, the dark side, and he
embraces the force in its, you know, fullness, you could say, and he does the right thing, he does the
generative thing, he does the life-giving thing, which is, no, I'm not going to fight you, and kind
of, I'm going to have faith that my friends are going to kill you and my dad and me all on this ship,
and, you know, wipe out and end your evil, because that's not something I'm capable to do. All I'm,
you know, interesting, it's kind of like a very humble move, like, look, I'm going to go in there,
and I'm going to cause the distraction, I'm going to be the diversion, which will enable you to kill
them, because while I cannot take them on on my own 100%, I can serve as a distraction and as a
diversion, which will enable you, my friends, with all this great, you know, might of, I don't know,
a dozen rebel, you know, cruisers, cruiser class ships, plus all the fighters and stuff, and the
ground crew, to be able to take out these two men. So it's like, I'm this one man who knows enough
to be dangerous and who knows enough to be a distraction so that a whole army can take out
two guys, and that's, that's very interesting. Talk about selflessness and, you know, choosing
to put yourself at risk to save others, to save your friends, to save those you care about.
That's definitely what Luke's doing. I think that's the Jedi way, and I don't know, I think it's
really cool. I, you know, I like the story of redemption of Anakin, but it's not just about
him, and it's not just about his redemption, it's about the struggle that Luke has, to a lesser
extent that Leia has, with who they are and the power they have, and what they can do with it, or
what they will choose to do with it. So, I mean, you could say ultimately Star Wars is about
showing you, you know, what, and maybe showing you that your choices do matter, and showing you that,
you know, having the will to stand up and fight for what's right, and the will to do what's right,
do the right thing even if it hurts, is a good thing, and it's a, you know, really, you know,
it's a really good moral to have, and it's a good way to live even if it, you know, might end your
life quickly, which of course doesn't happen for heroes, but they're definitely at risk of it a
lot. So, I don't know, it's, like, it's very cool, but it's also, I think, instructive and
encouraging, and I like so much of it. Anyway, I'm a big fan. I really like these movies.
Oh, one last kind of fun, cool thing is I like how you, even though Vader's wearing a death mask,
which is what it's been referred to by several characters, probably even in, like, the novelization
of Return of the Jedi, New Hope, and Empire Strikes Back, you know, Vader's death mask,
it gets to be emotional. The way that he moves around his body and his head, the way he's looking
at different things, the way the lightning flashes onto his face as he's, or, you know, his mask,
as, you know, Luke's being electrocuted, all these different things, they really, they work together
in a really interesting way to make it feel like there is emotion coming through Vader, even though,
you know, there shouldn't be, and I think that's pretty interesting. I think it's a cool cinematic
trick, and yeah, I think it's neat. So, again, my verdict is Return of the Jedi is probably the
greatest Star Wars movie of all time, one of the greatest movies of all time. I really like it,
and now that I've watched all of this, I'm very happy with the state of Star Wars. Now,
I'm gonna watch Ahsoka, and I'll let you know how I'm feeling about the state of Star Wars.
Because honestly, I can't remember if I mentioned this in the first episode of this or not, but I
didn't watch Mando Season 3. I didn't watch Andor. How could you be interested in that show? Just the
premise of it doesn't make any sense to me, but whatever. I didn't watch Kenobi. I didn't watch
Bad Batch Season 2. I didn't watch Visions 1 or 2, or Tales of the Jedi. I watched one episode of
Tales of the Jedi, and it was really cool with Ahsoka and like her mom and dad and stuff. Anyway,
it was like a wolf sort of thing. That was kind of interesting. So, I'm a little dubious about
certain things, and I'm definitely not a Star Wars hater. I'm a Star Wars lover. I've been enjoying
the books, the EU books, recently, and I listened to one of the Lando and Luke books, and that was
interesting. I won't say much more about it now, but it was not the book I was looking for. Let
me say that. So, you know, I'm giving it a chance. I like Clone Wars. I like Rebels. I like Ahsoka's
appearances in Rebels, and what she did there. And I'm curious to see what Flony will do with her.
I like what he did in Mando Seasons 1 and 2. So, we'll see what happens. And I didn't stay away
from these things because of the reviews. I stayed away from these things because I'm trying to
do a lot of other stuff. Write other things, watch and review other stuff, and pursue my drawing and
my creative work, and get myself to be a published author. So, I only have so much time, but I thought,
you know what? I'm interested enough in the Ahsoka character and in seeing where this goes and how
they're going to tie together Thrawn and Ezra and all these things from Rebels. And it's this
continuation of, you know, Rebels is like a continuation of Clone Wars, and the show is like
a continuation of that, and I really love Clone Wars, so like, you know, where's that going to go?
So, we shall see what I think about this newfangled Ahsoka show, what Flony does with it,
and how I feel like it gels with these movies. Because I feel like these six movies are
fantastic, and that all of Star Wars should gel with them. I'm not saying it can't be different
from them at all, but it needs to gel with them. And we're going to see what I think about that
after I watch Ahsoka. I'll talk about it as a show first, and then I'll talk about how it blends in
with the rest of, with the rest, you know, with the Star Wars saga. So, anyway, until next time,
folks, this is MJ signing out. I hope you take care of yourselves, and yeah, that's it.
I hope you enjoyed that. Go to MJMunoz.com to leave any questions, comments, or other feedback
you might have. There you can find all of my analysis, art, and fiction. I cover books, tokusatsu,
comic books, anime, and more. Look around, you're sure to find something else that you'll enjoy as
well. This has been a Story Over Everything production.