History Awesome / TheEmpireStrikesBack

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLUTOGpJ2es first appearance]] of the ''Executor''. We see it eclipsing the light on multiple ''Star Destroyers! LIKE THAT BEHEMOTH FROM THE INTRO OF THE PREVIOUS FILM!'' Even its engine exhausts dwarf the escorting Destroyers. The same sequence debuts a new piece of music for ''Empire,'' [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic the Imperial March.]]

* The Battle of Hoth. The Rebel soldiers are about to be badly outnumbered and face the Empire's crushing might, the scary quadrupedal [[WalkingTank All Terrain Armored Transports]] (Imperial Walkers) above all, but they still bravely hold the line to buy time for the evacuation of Echo Base, and even inflict quite a bit of casualties to the Imperials. And the valiant pilots of the Rogue Squadron (including Luke Skywalker) do their darndest to provide aerial cover with their Snowspeeders.

** Luke single-handedly takes down another Imperial Walker, by himself, ''on foot''. At that, you'll understand why the Emperor is so concerned about the kid; as in, "If the boy can do that with barely a few days instruction from Obi-Wan Kenobi, what could he do once he is properly trained?"

** Upon finding out that the Snowspeeders' laser guns can't do anything against the shields of the [=AT-ATs=], Luke devices a tactic to bring them down using the Snowspeeders' towing cables to entangle their legs. ''On the spot''. He can't do it himself after his gunner gets killed, but Wedge Antilles manages to pull it off perfectly. And another Snowspeeder caps it off by shooting and destroying the downed AT-AT now that its shields are disabled.

* The Battle of Hoth. The Rebel soldiers are about to be badly outnumbered and face the Empire's crushing might, the scary quadrupedal [[WalkingTank All Terrain Armored Transports]] (Imperial Walkers) above all, but they still bravely hold the line to cover the evacuation of Echo Base, and even inflict quite a bit of casualties to the Imperials. And the valiant pilots of the Rogue Squadron (including Luke Skywalker) do their darndest to provide aerial cover with their Snowspeeders.

* The Battle of Hoth. The Rebel soldiers are about to be badly outnumbered and face the Empire's crushing might, the scary quadrupedal [[WalkingTank All Terrain Armored Transports]] (Imperial Walkers) above all, but they still bravely hold the line to cover the evacuation of Echo Base, and even inflict quite a bit of casualties to the Imperials. And the valiant pilots of the Rogue Squadron (including Luke Skywalker) do their darndest to provide aerial cover.

** Luke single-handedly takes down an Imperial Walker, by himself, ''on foot''. At that, you'll understand why the Emperor is so concerned about the kid; as in, "If the boy can do that with barely a few days instruction from Obi-Wan Kenobi, what could he do once he is properly trained?"

* The Battle of Hoth. The Rebel soldiers are about to be badly outnumbered and face the Empire's crushing might, the scary quadrupedal [[WalkingTank All Terrain Armored Transports]] (Imperial Walkers) above all, but they still bravely hold the line to cover the evacuation of Echo Base, and even inflict quite a bit of casualties to the Imperials. And the Rogue Squadron (including Luke Skywalker) do their darndest to provide aerial cover.

* The Battle of Hoth. The Rebel soldiers are about to be badly outnumbered and face the Empire's crushing might, the scary quadrupedal [[WalkingTank All Terrain Armored Transports]] (Imperial Walkers) above all, but they still bravely hold the line to cover the evacuation of Echo Base, and even inflict quite a bit of casualties to the Imperials.

* The Battle of Hoth. The Rebel soldiers are about to be badly outnumbered and face the Empire's crushing might, the scary [[WalkingTank All Terrain Armored Transports]] (Imperial Walkers) above all, but they still bravely hold the line to cover the evacuation of Echo Base, and even inflict quite a bit of casualties to the Imperials.

** Upon finding out that the Snowspeeders' laser guns can't do anything against the armor of the [=AT-ATs=], Luke devices a tactic to bring them down using the Snowspeeders' towing cables to entangle their legs. ''On the spot''. He can't do it himself after his gunner gets killed, but Wedge Antilles manages to pull it off perfectly. And another Snowspeeder caps it off by shooting and destroying the downed AT-AT now that its shields are disabled.

* The Battle of Hoth. The Rebel soldiers are about to be badly outnumbered and face the Empire's might, the scary [[WalkingTank All Terrain Armored Transports]] (Imperial Walkers) above all, but they still bravely hold the line to cover the evacuation of Echo Base, and even inflict quite a bit of casualties to the Imperials.

* During the battle on Hoth, Luke single-handedly takes down an Imperial Walker, by himself, ''on foot''. At that, you'll understand why the Emperor is so concerned about the kid; as in, "If the boy can do that with barely a few days instruction from Obi-Wan Kenobi, what could he do once he is properly trained?"
* During the battle, the Rebels manage to disable a Star Destroyer with the Ion Cannons, creating a gap in the Imperial blockade for the Rebel ships to escape through.
-->'''Rebel PA Announcer''': [[DangerDeadpan The first transport is away.]]
-->''Rebels at the base start cheering''
* Echo Base is falling, the Imperials are advancing almost unopposed, and the command center has been hit, but Leia is ''still'' there, calmly directing the defense to buy time for the evacuation. Han practically has to drag her out of there, and she still sticks around long enough to tell the crew there to send the final evacuation signal and to get to their transports.
* After the Battle of Hoth, the Millenium Falcon is making its escape from not one, not two, but ''three'' Star Destroyers, outmaneuvering the Star Destroyers with a twisting dive. The colossal ships can't readjust their positions in time, and so we're treated to the sight of two of the three Star Destroyers ''nearly colliding in space''. It's awesome.

** It also serves to [[CurbstompCushion soften the blow]] after the trouncing the heroes took throughout the film. It's a brilliant reversal of the first film's sequel hook. Instead of Darth Vader narrowly surviving and flying off to fight another day, now the heroes do. And [[BittersweetEnding despite the main party's struggles]], the Rebellion has clearly won the day simply by resisting the Empire's mission to stomp them out for good.

** It also serves to [[CurbstompCushion soften the blow]] after the trouncing the heroes took throughout the film. It's a brilliant reversal of the first film's sequel hook. Instead of Darth Vader narrowly surviving and flying off to fight another day, now the heroes do. And [[BittersweetEnding despite the main party's struggles]], the Rebellion has clearly won the day, foiling the Empire's mission to stomp them out for good.

--> '''Vader:''' The Force ''is'' with you, young Skywalker, but you are not a Jedi yet.

* The big reveal, is some of James Earl Jones's best vocal work.

** In the radio drama, Vader does acknowledge Ozzel, and his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech is extremely satisfying to those who have had to put up with similar levels of incompetence and/or stupidity from anyone else. Essentially, Vader is giving a voice to their frustrations.

** When you think about it, Luke actually makes a decent showing, especially for his low level of training. When Vader begins the fight, he's just barely even trying. Then Luke evades his trap, and even manages to cause him some degree of pain with the coolant (if his cry of rage is any indication), and Vader resorts to [[CombatPragmatist throwing things at Luke using The Force]]. ''Then'' Luke lands a hit on Vader's shoulder, causing Vader to cry out in pain ''AGAIN''. Only when he chops off Luke's hand is Luke finally driven to his knees. Sure, he'd probably have lost eventually anyway, but considering how far below his combat abilities are below Vader's, that's pretty impressive.

'''Yoda:''' For my ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is. Life creates it, makes it grow. Its energy surrounds us and binds us. Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter. You must feel the Force around you; here, between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere, yes. Even between the land and the ship.\\

** Yoda's second dialogue sounds even more awesome after you've seen what the Jedi (or any Force sensitives) are capable of in the Prequel Trilogy, the [[Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse Expanded Universe]], and even the [[Franchise/StarWarsLegends Legends]].
* Luke informs Yoda that he's just not strong enough in the Force to raise his starfighter from the swamp. Despite Yoda's words of encouragement (see above), Luke just tells him he wants [[AwesomeButImpractical "the impossible"]]. Yoda then raises the X-wing out of the swamp, accompanied by triumphant music and spirited beeping from R2-D2.

** To truly put this into perspective, normal Star Destroyers are approximately 1,600 meters long, or about 1 mile. Super Star Destroyers are 12 times longer than normal Star Destroyers, at ''19 miles'' long. The ''Executor'' is the length of Manhattan!

* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLUTOGpJ2es first appearance]] of the ''Executor''. We see it eclipsing the light on multiple ''Star Destroyers! LIKE THAT BEHEMOTH FROM THE INTRO OF THE PREVIOUS FILM!'' Even its engine exhausts dwarf the escorting Destroyers. The same sequence debuts a new piece of music for ''Empire,'' [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome the Imperial March.]]

* John Williams' music is its usual awesomeness, but two aspects of this score particularly stand out. Firstly, the Imperial March, which makes its debut in this film; rarely has music been quite so badass. The second is at the very end of the film: The Rebel fleet has fled the galaxy after the destruction of their main base, Luke is psychologically shaken by the confrontation with Vader and learning the man is ''his father'' (not to mention getting his hand lopped off) and Han has been frozen in a block of carbonite and taken off by a notorious bounty hunter to be sold to a wicked gangster. But as Lando speeds off to rescue his friend and Luke and Leia stare out at the stars, what music is blaring behind them all? [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Han and Leia's Love Theme]].

* [[YouHaveFailedMe "Apology accepted, Captain Needa."]] This was also ''Needa's'' CrowningMomentOfAwesome. Having just been outmaneuvered and out-bluffed by Solo, Needa is tasked with explaining his failure to Vader, and there's no question in anyone's mind how [[YouHaveFailedMe Lord Vader deals with setbacks]]. What does he do? He flies himself to the ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Executor_(Star_Wars) Executor]]'' to stand before Vader, take full responsibility, and fall on his sword, sparing his ship and crew from the Sith Lord's wrath. Vader's quoted line seems to imply that even he was mildly impressed by Needa's actions. Compare Needa's execution to Ozzel's, whom Vader pointedly refused to acknowledge ''while choking him to death''.

** To truly put this into perspective, normal Star Destroyers are approximately 1,600 meters long, or about 1 mile. Super Star Destroyers are 12 times longer than normal Star Destroyers. The ''Executor'' is a ship over half the length of Manhattan!