Line #91 Fridge/ReturnOfTheJedi


1	!!FridgeBrilliance:
2	* During the Battle of Endor, Lando refuses to retreat, insisting to Admiral Ackbar they give Han more time to get the shield generator down. Not only does it show great faith in his friend, remember Lando used to be ''a professional gambler''. Whereas Han doesn't care about the odds, Lando purposefully played them and bet big, knowing this attack could lead to total victory if they stuck it out.
3	* When Luke, Leia, and Han are sneaking onto Endor in the stolen Imperial shuttle, one of the Imperial officers says "It's an old code but it checks out" before letting them through the blockade. This seems like a foolish thing to do (why even update your codes if you'll continue to accept the old ones? It completely defeats the purpose) but it makes perfect sense. The Empire was trying to lure the Rebel fleet into an ambush so of course they wanted the Rebels to think that everything was going according to plan.
4	** An alternative explanation is that the Imperial officer means, "...an OLDER code." Because of the sheer size of the Empire and the Imperial military, it is likely slip-ups with keeping ships and forces updated with the latest code aren't all that uncommon -- so Imperials are used to giving leeway one or two codes back. It doesn't completely defeat purpose of the codes because it still means the enemy can't rely on ''too'' old codes.
5	** Furthermore, "...but it checks out." could imply that the officer means "yeah, it's an old code, but it makes sense that the rebels might use it.", coming back to the earlier point that the Empire wanted the Rebels to think all was going well.
6	** It has a real-world analog in the USA. Federal Reserve Notes are constantly updated to make them harder to counterfeit, but the old ones are still legal tender.
7	* Anakin's fatal flaw in the prequels was wrath. While a lot of love and many factors helped him turn to the light-while Luke giving into his anger was by no means a good thing, it gave Anakin a chance to see what he looked like in those fits of rage from a bystander-and it's not pretty. At all. Luke pulling back and rejecting giving in fully gave him hope that he too could fight his inner rage. And seeing his son take that kind of rage from Palpatine gave him the motivation to stand up to the emperor out of love and protectiveness towards Luke.
8	* As mentioned before, Obi-Wan's high ground moment isn't just in the literal sense, it's also referring to a ''moral'' high ground. Now notice the rematch between Luke and Vader, when the former jumps to the catwalk, or the "high ground", so to speak, Vader opts to ''throw'' the lightsaber instead. The guy didn't just learn from his experience on Mustafar, he is also, symbolically, trying to bring his son to a lower moral ground!
9	* Why did the Emperor's [[AgonyBeam Force Lightning]] ''kill'' Vader; when Luke soaked up a lot more and the ability seems like an inefficient weapon? The electricity destroyed most of the life support functions of Vader's suit. Pay attention to Vader after he dispatches Palpatine; he is barely able to move, and needs Luke's help to get to the hangar bay. Easy to write off as injuries due to taking the brunt of Palpatine's lightning attack. Episode 3, however, reveals that all of Vader's limbs are, at this point, mechanical...easy to short out due to an electrical overload by, say, Sith lightning? Vader needs help to move because he literally can't at that point. He also knows that he'll die even if his mask stays on because, again, the life support system has been blown to hell.
10	** Plus Vader is made up of electronic replacement parts and kept alive by his suit while Luke is young and healthy. Luke can probably take a lot more damage than whatever's left of Vader, and if Vader's life support system was compromised by the attack...
11	** It has been stated in various ''Star Wars'' publications, notably ''Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith - The Visual Dictionary'', that Vader cannot summon or deflect Force Lightning (as Yoda could for example) because of his cybernetic arms. This is presented as an explanation for why Vader, a very powerful Sith Lord, never uses this signature power, whereas Palpatine and Dooku do. Though not visually apparent onscreen, the novelization for ''Return of the Jedi'' had Luke partially deflecting Palpatine's Force Lighting, but it was too powerful for him to completely resist and he was being overwhelmed by it until Vader grabbed the Emperor.
12	** The fact that, as soon as the sound and fury of Palpatine's death subsides, his distinctive breathing is noticeably labored makes this rather obvious.
13	** There's also just the fact that the Emperor wanted to torture Luke and drag out his death, while he was desperately trying to kill Vader as fast as he could to avoid being thrown down that shaft. He probably was using full power against Vader, much less against Luke.
14	** The EU novel ''Truce at Bakura'', set immediately after ''Return of the Jedi'' (the Rebellion hasn't left Endor yet) shows that Luke had some lasting effects from the Force Lightning to deal with.
15	** Notice Vader is not just propping himself against the railing after he threw Palpatine down... he was ''climbing'' it. He was planning to throw himself to his own demise as well, until Luke pulls him away.
16	* In addition to the above, Vader's helmet has symbolic significance in that scene. Every other time we have seen Vader, his helmet is shiny and impeccably polished (for a prime example, see the scene near the beginning of the film where Palpatine arrives at the Death Star). Soon as Vader loses his hand and begins to see Palpatine torturing his son, the veneer is lost. Probably, the impeccable polish represents Vader's loyalty to the Empire, which prides itself on trim neatness and order, while the Rebels are the ones who are dirty and smudgy (their ships, their uniforms, their way of life in the original trilogy). Dirtiness represents good in the OT, so Vader's helmet gives away his intentions as he sees his son brutalized by his master -- he is about to abandon the Dark Side.
17	** Of particular note is the dust on his helmet's "eyebrows" when accentuated by the lightning; it gives the face a sort of haunted expression, the perfect representation of his inner turmoil.
18	** Even then, it could just be that Vader's old. If he was in his 20s at the time of 'Revenge Of The Sith', and 'A New Hope' takes place about 20 years later, then with a few years between each sequel, by the time of 'Return Of The Jedi' Vader is close to his mid 40s, and his injuries make him seem much older. As strong with the Force as he may be, he's still old and after going through so much in his life, he'll begin to wear down. He holds his own against Luke for most of the fight, until Luke's rage overtakes him and Vader just can't keep up anymore (which is also a nice bit of thematic mirroring to Anakin's duel with Dooku, where he battered down the older man's defenses through raw strength. The difference is that Luke, unlike his father, did ''not'' kill his defenseless opponent and thus take a flying leap towards the Dark Side).
19	* In many ways, Sidious' death is [[LaserGuidedKarma a karmic backlash from both sides of the Force.]] Darth Bane originally devised the Rule of Two for the Sith because he wanted each Sith to be stronger than their master, and specifically wanted to avoid the scenario where multiple weaker Sith teamed up to defeat their master. Yet Palpatine (at least in Legends) may have been weakened from fighting [[VideoGame/TheForceUnleashed at least one former apprentice]], and ends up being killed when Vader, his current apprentice, fights alongside Luke, who Sidious wants to make his next apprentice. In other words, Sidious' death shows ''exactly'' why Darth Bane declared that it was best that a Sith only have one apprentice at a time.
20	* In the scene where Luke loses his cool and snatches up his lightsaber to strike down Palpatine, Vader stops him at the last second by igniting his own saber and intercepting the blow. At first, this might be seen as only blind loyalty to his master. But now that the events of the prequel trilogy are known to us, that scene has a much deeper meaning: ''he didn't want his son to make the same mistake HE did'', in falling to the Dark Side!
21	* Towards the end of their duel, right before he finds out about Leia, Vader tells Luke to give himself to the Dark Side, as that is the only way he can save his friends. The reason why Vader goes for this tack - appealing to Luke's desire to save the ones he cares about - is because that is how Anakin fell to the Dark Side - he wanted to save Padmé and their unborn child. Vader thinks that is how his son can also be turned to the Dark Side.
22	* Also, in light of ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', the line "Let me look on you with my own eyes." is more meaningful since the LCD of Vader's lenses were red and black, the two dominant colors of Mustafar, where his life changed forever.
23	* A frequent point of ire among fans is that ''all'' the Imperial officers, including Admiral Piett, have the exact same rank insignia (that of commander). Interestingly, this has not been addressed by Lucasfilms as a goof, meaning there would be a reason for this. Now, the Death Star II is being constructed in total secrecy, so the chance of leaks must be minimal. In real-life militaries, officers often remove their insignia when going into dangerous areas to not identify themselves as high-profile targets. By giving all high-ranking officers the same insignia, any spies or snipers would have to memorize what Jerjerrod, Piett, or any other significant personnel look like and thus not just go by their rank insignia.
24	* After Yoda passes on and Luke is left pondering his next move, Obi-Wan's ghost pops up, for the first time in like a year. Luke greets him as "Obi-Wan", not "Ben", like he always did before. Luke is clearly and understandably upset that Kenobi, a person he trusted, blatantly and deliberately lied to him about his father's fate, and perhaps no longer trusts him as implicitly and unreservedly as he once did. Kenobi basically tried to manipulate Luke into slaying his own father by withholding pertinent facts and sharing only half-truths, and has the audacity to try to justify that by stating that this subterfuge was actually true, "from a certain point of view". Luke wasn't having any of it; he justifiably felt betrayed and misled. He no longer saw Kenobi as the kindly mentor who introduced him to the Force and a "larger world"; he now saw him as a bitter, defeated manipulator, who tried to exact vengeance upon his own betrayer and killer by twisting facts and pitting his murderer's son against him. And that's why Luke dropped the familiar "Ben" for the colder, more distant "Obi-Wan". "Ben" was a lie, too.
25	* The Rebels recruiting the Ewoks as allies and the RockBeatsLaser is a bone of contention. Once you see ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', however, it makes a lot more sense; the Empire has always run on FantasticRacism, dismissing anything that isn't human (and/or Sith species, depending on the era) as unfit for anything other than slave labor...in a galaxy with over ''twenty million'' [[TooDumbToLive known sentient species]]. Meanwhile, the Republic (and the Rebellion, which is a de facto Republic remnant) always prided itself on being inclusive to any sentient species willing to abide by its laws. The Republic once again exploited one of the Imperials' glaring blind spots by actually dealing with the locals instead of ignoring them and bulldozing their homes. And as any ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' player who's seen [[PintSizedPowerhouse Treek]] in action can tell you, those Ewoks are vicious and ''creative'' when they want to destroy something.
26	** Endor also has very large and dangerous predators (this isn't even EU, the Ewok films made after [=RotJ=] confirm it), which the Ewoks learned to defend themselves against. The same traps that keep an Ewok village safe from a marauding giant wolf lizard thing do a dandy job of smashing up chicken walkers. ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsForcesOfDestiny'' confirms this for canon as well. AT-ST-sized predators are a thing on Endor, so the Ewoks have plenty of experience in setting traps for them.
27	* For much of the first half of the Battle of Endor, the Rebellion and their Ewok allies are actually being curb-stomped ''severely'', both on the ground and in space. The entire fate of the Alliance is at stake, and things are ''not'' going well. And then on the Death Star, Luke finally begins to fight back, at which point the tide of the battle turns. This isn't coincidence: Luke's part of the Battle of Endor isn't just one of life-or-death, or of trying to redeem his father. It's the battle of Light and Dark itself. The moment he fights back against the Emperor, the ultimate representative of the Dark Side, is the moment that the Force is finally and fully with the Rebellion, helping to turn the tide of battle. The fall of the Empire was ultimately the will of the Force.
28	** Interestingly, the novelization of Revenge of the Sith says that the duel between Yoda and the Emperor is exactly that, the personification of the Light vs. the Dark. Yoda, as wise as he was, led the Jedi Order into complacency and arrogance, and he has no chance against the Sith, who have been adapting and evolving for a millennium. But the tables have turned in [=RotJ=]. Now Palpatine is the blind, arrogant one who tries the same tactics to turn Luke as he used on Anakin two decades ago. Luke is the humble farmboy who has proven himself capable of adapting by turning Vader back to the Light Side, indirectly bringing balance to the Force.
29	** According to Legends continuity (as in it may or may not apply to the new one, it hasn't been confirmed) there was a more direct reason: [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Nial_Declann Grand Admiral Nial Declann]] was using Battle Meditation to bolster Imperial forces. It's possible his Meditation was affected by the Emperor's distraction (since the fight was getting interesting) and it threw the fleet and ground troops into confusion which the Rebels capitalized on. When the Emperor died, Declann abandoned Battle Meditation to rush to his Lord's aid (and was promptly blown up along the way when the Death Star II exploded); Imperial cohesion totally crumbled and they routed, which is why those hundreds of remaining Star Destroyers don't just stomp the remaining Rebel fleet.
30	* Luke's lightsaber is modeled after Obi-Wan's, only with a green blade instead of blue. In ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'', Qui-Gon Jinn, the Jedi Master who instructed Obi-Wan and discovered Anakin, is also shown using a green lightsaber. So, Luke has a lightsaber based upon the two Jedi Masters in Anakin's life. And like Luke throughout this film, Qui-Gon fervently believes in Anakin's inner goodness as others are skeptical.
31	** [[{{Bookends}} And, chronologically, both]] ''[[{{Bookends}} Phantom Menace]]'' [[{{Bookends}} and]] ''[[{{Bookends}} Jedi]]'' [[{{Bookends}} culminate with a Sith lord being beaten by a Jedi using a green lightsaber]].
32	* Lando's entire strategy in attacking the Death Star is basically a huge gamble. When Lando realizes that the Imperial Navy is jamming their communications and the shield is still up, he has no way of knowing if Han is even alive. It's the biggest gamble in a notorious galactic gambler's life, and he's still all in, even as the house has the deck stacked entirely against him.
33	* How does Luke immediately realize who his "anonymous" sister is, once Obi-Wan explains how he has one? How is it when he tells Leia about it, he just confirms what she already suspected? Think long and hard about it: Remember Hoth, and all the silly incest jokes you loved to make about them? They probably both felt that the kiss was a little... ...weird.
34	** Plus, they've been close for four years at this point. Most likely they both have been sensing ''something'' about the other for a while, especially Luke with his honed Force abilities.
35	** The romance in the first two films and the sudden understanding of the revelation here can actually make a lot of sense if you think about it. Luke and Leia are both powerfully Force-Sensitive and twins. They ''had'' to have recognized something about each other when they finally first met. But they were both raised as only children, with no sibling bonds to hang this sudden powerful feeling on, the only way their 19-24 year old minds could process it was as a romantic attraction. Notably, the instant one of them is informed they have a sibling, they ''immediately'' know who that sibling is: once the nature of the relationship is given a label they can understand, everything else falls into place.
36	* I used to find the victory of the Ewoks over the Imperial forces on Endor to be fairly unrealistic. Midgets in teddy bear suits, right? This is where most people stop imagining. Take it one step further though: Here we have a primitive, barbaric race of miniaturized bears, their arms as muscular as their legs, their brains advanced enough to develop flight and ranged warfare at the very dawn of their civilization. With no training at all, a normal Ewok can commandeer an Imperial speeder bike and successfully evade trained troops. Not only did they capture a Rebel strike force, but that strike force would have been utterly annihilated if it didn't happen to include the only Jedi in the entire galaxy. The Ewoks devour their defeated. The greatest army the Emperor could assemble was not simply defeated by this culture of killer-bears... they were eaten. -- {{menace64}}
37	** Not to mention, while it might be a case of RealityIsUnrealistic, less technologically advanced cultures have often been able to take down better equipped enemies through sheer force of numbers and knowledge of the terrain. The Battle of Isandlwana had 10,000 to 15,000 Zulus armed mostly with spears and a few antique muskets take down a force of 2,000 British troops, even though the latter had rifles and artillery. The Zulus suffered fewer dead than the British did. It's particularly easy for this to happen if you underestimate the opposing force... say, because they're black, or merely primitive aliens.
38	** They knew how to hide, they knew the terrain, and they were used to hunting predators ten times their size. Plus, the Imperial weapons were all done by lowest-bidder contracts, leading to shoddy designs better for intimidation than anything, with a lot of serious design flaws. (See the Jedi Knight games where a Stormtrooper is complaining about the horrible design of his armor and blaster rifle) The Empire tends to favor style over substance, while the Ewok designs are crude, but very effective.
39	** In the film we see that the Ewoks have catapults and gliders, one's even holding a blaster. They are smart and HadToBeSharp. They were just at their bronze age. The Empire is lucky, a planet of Wookies would have handed the shield generator to the Rebels on a silver platter.
40	*** Not really: Kashyyyk, ''the'' planet of Wookies, is firmly in Imperial hands... Because the Empire knows better than underestimating ''them'', and has experimented their extremely effective technology when they conquered the place. Endor, on the other hand, was mostly unknown to them, and they underestimated the local primitives.
41	*** The reference is to the original story. . . when ''Star Wars'' was too big for one movie, so Lucas basically took the "first act" and made that into its own movie. In that original story, the final battle against the Empire and destruction of the Death Star (there was only one) would have taken place over the green moon of Endor, which was home to Wookiees, not Ewoks (but George liked Chewbacca the Wookiee too much to excise him from the film, so he was turned into Han's copilot). The intention was for the Wookiees to be the same kind of Stone Age society the Ewoks are, who would defeat the Empire with numbers and knowledge of the terrain. But being Wookiees, would be three times the size of Ewoks and possessed of all the strength and savagery Chewbacca is famous for. So the Empire still would have dismissed these "Stone Age primitives" as posing no ''real'' threat. . . dangerous if a small patrol gets snuck up on by them, sure, but certainly not capable of toppling the mighty Imperial war machine, no matter how big and strong they might be individually.
42	* In the beginning of ''Return of the Jedi'', Vader and Jerjerrod discuss the Emperor's impending arrival. Vader concludes the discussion with "I hope so, Commander, for your sake. The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am." Near the end of the movie, you see just what he means through their differing methods. Vader is the type who kills brutally, but swiftly, via his trademark force choke, and typically limits his psychological warfare to the opponent at hand and their abilities (or lack thereof). Palpatine prefers to slowly fry his quarry alive via force lightning and on the psychological side, gleefully rips apart everything his enemy believes in and prefers to hurt them through the people they care about.
43	** It also crosses into FridgeHorror when you consider that Vader is effectively less threatening Jerjerrod, but ''warning'' him. You can even [[OhCrap tell on Jerjerrod's face]] that he knows just how serious Vader is when the Sith lord says ''he's'' much more forgiving for failure by comparison.
44	* Throughout the entire movie, Luke keeps [[InsistentTerminology referring to himself]] as a Jedi Knight. Exactly nobody seems to take him seriously in this claim, including the only remaining Jedi Master, Yoda. Vader has been referring to Luke as a Jedi since ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', but the first character to ''address'' Luke as a Jedi is the [[BigBad Dark Lord of the Sith]] himself. "So be it... Jedi." He effectively knights Luke on the spot. And then tries to kill him with lightning.
45	* Darth Vader has an interesting choice of words when [[CombatCompliment complimenting Luke's skill during their duel]]. "Obi-Wan ''has'' taught you well." That's not the past tense, that's Present Perfect, implying that the teaching happened very recently (at this point, it's been about a year since Obi-Wan AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence). Darth Vader somehow figured out what Obi-Wan did, despite the fact that Yoda implied in ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' that this was a newly discovered thing. Perhaps Luke wasn't the only former student that Ghost!Obi-Wan paid visits to. Alternately, Vader looked at the evidence (no disembodied corpse, nowhere else that Obi-Wan could have gone), and worked from there to deduce what Obi-Wan had figured out how to do. It's also interesting that Vader didn't assume that someone else picked up Luke's training in Obi-Wan's absence.
46	** Correction: inaccurate timing. The Battle of Endor occurs 4 years after the Battle of Yavin.
47	*** Further correction: Present perfect only means that a past action has had a current effect. It makes no implication regarding the actual time period (for example, "Roman architecture has influenced modern construction" is also present perfect, with nearly two thousand years between the event and the impact).
48	** In ''[[WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars The Clone Wars]]'', Anakin caught sight of Qui-Gon's Force ghost on Mortis and saw The Father disappear like Obi-Wan did so of course he realized that Obi-Wan had a Force Ghost.
49	*** This is further expanded upon during the Yoda arc in ''The Clone Wars'', where Anakin briefly hears Qui-Gon speaking to Yoda through the Force. He and Yoda then proceed to have a conversation about Mortis, and the possibility of individuality surviving death. Anakin certainly seems taken with the idea. When Yoda returns from his journey, he doesn't reveal his discoveries to Anakin. But, at this point, it's very likely that Anakin knows he's being deceived. Or at the very least came to doubt Yoda's trustworthiness after he'd turned to the DarkSide.
50	* The title is a double entendre turning on the fact that "Jedi" is both singular and plural. It's both the return of the Jedi Order through Luke and the return of the Jedi known as Anakin Skywalker.
51	* Some fans and even Creator/CarrieFisher herself were critical of how passive Leia seemed in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' compared to the previous movies. They remarked on how she allowed herself to be chained to Jabba the Hutt without talking back as opposed like she did to Tarkin and Vader. It does seem like BadassDecay until you remember when Leia was insolent with Tarkin, Tarkin blew up her planet! With her loved ones Han and Luke and the rest of their friends all under Jabba's power, Leia possibly learned not to take the risk of being a bitch this time. She also managed to get her revenge later.
52	** Also, she was there as part of a larger plan to rescue Han. That Lando was already there in disguise, the droids had been snuck in as "gifts," and Luke had not yet come, all pointed to the assumption that Leia being able to get Han out on her own without a fight was a long shot that they were willing to try, but that they did not expect to succeed. So rather than get Jabba all riled up, Leia was humoring him in order to let his ego convince him that everything was under his control, since she knew that they would be moving on to the next stage of the plan.
53	* Why was the space battle at Endor over the Death Star when the ''Executor'' went down? Because the last time the Empire let Alliance fighters fly around the Death Star they lost it, so the Imperials moved their fleet over the Death Star to provide as much screening as possible, while the Alliance cruisers did the exact same thing to screen the kill team heading into the Death Star itself! In fact, it's even mentioned in the briefing: Once the shield was down, the cruisers were supposed to do exactly that: set up a perimeter while the fighters flew through.
54	** Becomes doubled brilliance once you realize that sure, the plan did not go exactly to detail, but the UnspokenPlanGuarantee is actually broken here as the plan more or less worked, they just ran into trouble on the way and adapted ThePlan as they went.
55	* While many fans felt Boba Fett went out like a chump, there was nothing ''he'' did that was inept or stupid. He just was the victim of very bad luck at the worst times during that battle.
56	** While he was on the same skiff as Han, Chewbacca, and Lando, why was Boba so interested instead in Luke? Because this was his only chance to kill a Jedi - a member of the same group that killed his own father, and made him blind to the rest of the battle around him, including Han.
57	* While not all fans are okay with it, having twenty-something Anakin be seen as a Force Ghost in the newer releases makes sense. That was the last time he was Anakin Skywalker before becoming Darth Vader. When he died, he became the man he was again; Anakin did truly die when Vader was born.
58	** Not only that, but Anakin appearing with the other Force Ghosts is a sign that he has been redeemed and is no long bound by the Dark Side. Not just to the audience, but to ''Luke''. Anakin is trying to show his son that he's free and he's alright. Of course he's going to choose a form he knows is whole. He's trying to give Luke closure, not traumatize him further.
59	* When the Rebels infiltrate Endor they find nothing strange in the guard force in space being just two Star Destroyers and the ''Executor''. ''Film/RogueOne'' shows why: at Scarif two Star Destroyers gave ''enormous'' trouble to a decently-sized Rebel fleet and the ''Devastator'' alone was enough to deal with the survivors after the first two ships were taken down, two Star Destroyers and the ''Executor'' are indeed a believable guard force.
60	** Two or three Star Destroyers and this particular shield configuration would have been a believable guard force, two Star Destroyers, the shield and the ''Executor'' would seem overkill... Except this was the Death Star and Darth Vader and the Emperor were on board. To anyone who doesn't know of Palpatine's plan, the first two ships and the shield were the normal guard force, with the ''Executor'' being an addition brought by the presence of the Empire's two highest-ranked members.
61	* While Luke Skywalker shares many similarities with his father, namely his HotBlooded temper and attachment to family, his personality has more in common with his mother's. Padmé, like Luke in this film, believed that there's still good in Anakin and both are level-headed enough to make choices that would keep their loved ones from harm even if it puts their own lives at risk. But Padmé wasn't simply the mother of Luke; she was the Queen/Senator of Naboo who stood against Palpatine's grab for power during the Clone Wars, often successfully (however temporarily) derailing the Sith Lord's plans due to her unbreakable dedication to peace. It was Padme's strong will that Luke inherited and it proved to be the key to the Jedi's victory.
62	** It also explains why Palpatine went from gleeful to downright pissed when Luke rejected the Dark Side. All this time, Palpatine was only seeing the Anakin side of Luke and thought he would be easy to corrupt just like his father. He forgot that Luke was also ''Padmé's'' son and that Padmé had been the biggest thorn in his side for years until her untimely death. When Luke declared himself to be a Jedi, Sidious realized that he was staring at Padmé giving one last "Fuck You" to his whole regime.
63	** Going further, while Luke has more in common with Padmé in terms of personality, being idealistic and generally calm, ''Leia'' is in fact just like Anakin was at her age; snarky, impulsive, aggressive, and always insisting on doing things her way. Can become FridgeHorror since it might all suggest that Vader was right and that Leia would turn to the Dark Side if tempted, unlike Luke...
64	** The above point gets somewhat confirmed during the Tatooine act. Luke, with his Jedi powers, can't peacefully or diplomatically budge Jabba to let his friends go, which is the way of the Light Side. He also keeps warning Jabba to end things peacefully, giving Jabba every possible chance to get away with his life, which is more in line with Padme's way of doing things. Leia, on the other hand, outright kills the Hutt once she has a decent chance to, and not only is this the way of Dark Side, it's since been confirmed that she actually ''tapped into'' the Dark Side to get enough strength to do the deed. Like father, like daughter.
65	*** For bonus points, she strangles Jabba, which is Vader/Anakin's preferred MO, albeit with the Force instead of a length of chain.
66	** Luke asking Leia about her memories of their birth mother before he goes up is also a kind of fridge heartwarming. Although he doesn't know it, he's channeling his mother's faith in Anakin's goodness ''and'' her defiance towards Palpatine throughout the scene on the Death Star. Although she's not physically present, Padme is still very much there in spirit.
67	* Yoda stated in the last movie that "a Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack." Luke is mostly the epitome of a MartialPacifist onboard the Death Star, only activating his lightsaber when he needs to and trying to reason with his father. The Sith keep trying to taunt him into falling to the Dark Side, but it's only by tossing his weapon away that the chain of events leading to Palpatine's death occurs.
68	** For bonus points, in the Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover, Yoda notes that Palpatine has trained to understand the Jedi arts, meaning that they would never have been able to defeat the modern Sith through combat. '''Only by acting as a Jedi was Luke able to overthrow the Sith.'''
69	* When Vader is unmasked, he's very pale and sickly looking. Having spent the majority of his adulthood in his suit which operated as a life support system and not being exposed to the sun much, it's understandable why he looks like that.
70	* In light of ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'' and its canonization of the [[GrandTheftMe "essence transfer"]] concept, Vader keeping Luke from striking the Emperor down is presented in a different light. In that movie, Palpatine reveals that he can possess anyone who strikes him down, a technique which has passed on from generations of Sith -- so Luke killing him would open him up to possession. The truth is that Vader isn't defending the Emperor from Luke, ''he's defending Luke from the Emperor''.
71	* It seems weird that the Rebels somehow manage to take down the mighty shields of the ''Executor''... But the novelization actually hints at it by mentioning that "Cargo ships loaded with charge were set on collision courses with fortress-vessels": the Rebels had brought fire ships (ships loaded with explosives to ram larger enemy ones) ''specifically'' to take down the ''Executor'', and while more than a few were shot down or used on other ships eventually enough got through that a pair of A-Wings were able to take down the bridge deflector shield generator, and the rest is history. It's even likely that the order to "Concentrate all fire on that Super Star Destroyer" was not for the cruisers but for the fire ships.
72	** In Legends this wouldn't be the first time this tactic is used: in ''VideoGame/XWingVsTieFighter''[='=]s campaign mode, the Rebel objective in the final battle is the destruction of the ''Vengeance'', a dreadnought of the same class, a goal achieved through fireships that bring down the shields and destroy the bridge before a final attack run from bombers. The only difference is that the ''Vengeance'' was brought down by ''Dreadnought''-class heavy cruisers, old but still useful mid-sized warships, that had been packed with whatever explosive the Airam could find for the occasion because their owners knew the ''Vengeance'' would certainly shoot them down in a normal battle... While Ackbar came to Endor with GR-75 medium transports, antiquated cargo ships the Rebellion mostly used because they managed to snag a ''lot'' of them when the manufacturer went bankrupt whose parts weren't manufactured anymore, with the express purpose of killing Vader's flagships by sacrificing antiques that would soon impossible to maintain anyway.
73	* In both Legends and the new EU, it is mentioned that Ackbar spent a few years as Tarkin's slave, and learned how to fight a space battle from him. This actually reflects Ackbar's tactics at Endor: the fire ships mentioned in the novelization are an attrition weapon that would leave the Imperials terrified and shaken, and when he decides to try and distract the Imperials from Lando's attack run he blows up the ''Executor'' to shatter their morale, both tactics that Tarkin, who made a point of scaring the enemy into submission, would have appreciated. Tarkin's influence would also connect to Ackbar's reaction to the ''Executor''[='=]s destruction: he'd have noticed he's fighting right as his slave master would have had.
74	* A deleted scene in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'' depicts General Veers dying when a Rebel pilot crashes his fighter into the cockpit of his Walker. As this happens before he can destroy the shield generators, it cannot be canon. In this film, a very similar scene is used when a rebel pilot crashes his fighter into the bridge of the Super Star Destroyer, causing it to crash onto the Death Star and explode. This is foremost Admiral Piett's death scene, as he was on the bridge, but presumably, Veers is somewhere on board the Super Star Destroyer at this time.
75	** In the TESB novelization, the kamikaze attack is launched just as he's lining up to blow the shield generator and impacts a few moments after that.
76	* A brief one for the Special Edition. The reason why they use Hayden Christensen's head instead of the original? ''Because that was what he looked like the last time he was truly a Jedi!''
77	* Yoda tells Luke that once he confronts Vader, then he will be a Jedi Knight. In Legends, a Jedi needed to complete a battery of five tests to be Knighted. The events onboard the second Death Star are actually a condensed version of his Trials!
78	** '''Trial of Skill:''' A test primarily of self-discipline and focus, with lightsaber skill attached as a matter of convenience. Luke is able to go toe-to-toe with a much more experienced swordsman and defeat him, while also retaining enough strength of will to control himself.
79	** '''Trial of Spirit:''' Also known as "facing the mirror." More than once, Luke chooses not to give in to the Dark Side despite severe provocation, and even pulls a Sith Lord back to the light.
80	** '''Trial of the Flesh:''' Testing a Jedi's ability to endure pain. Luke goes through both extreme physical (the Force lightning) and emotional pain (losing his father), and perseveres.
81	** '''Trial of Courage:''' Pretty self-explanatory. Luke willingly walks into the lion's den to face two Sith Lords, both much more powerful than himself.
82	** ''Trial of Insight:''' Testing a Jedi's mind. Luke realized that Anakin was still in there, and that he could be redeemed. Not to mention immediately realizing that Leia is his sister.
83
84	!!FridgeHorror:
85	* After Oola completes her dance to Lapti Nek, Jabba, obviously aroused, wants her to come to him. Now. Her terrified reaction implies what's to follow is not going to be at all pleasant.
86	* The Rancor Pit. You are eaten alive by a horrific, voracious monster, as Jabba's court watches and cheers.
87	** As the Gammorean Guard is devoured, his fellow Gammoreans find it hilarious. That's pretty cold.
88	* The Sarlaac Pit. From what we're told, you are digested ''without actually dying'' but being in agony the whole time. It's practically the same as being trapped in Hell.
89	** Note that this may have been mere folklore, or Jabba exaggerating to scare the condemned... Threepio certainly would have said what he was told to say. At least as far as the ''movies'' go, this could be the case. Legends canon like "A Barve Like That" and a Republic Heroic from ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' confirm Jabba wasn't kidding.
90	* EV-9D9, Jabba's Property Management Droid. Her "Maintenance Workshop" is essentially a torture chamber, and she seems to relish seeing fellow droids in pain.
91	* In an unused script for ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'', Palpatine reveals that he created Anakin by manipulating the Midi-chlorians to impregnate Shmi and create the ultimate apprentice, thereby making Darth Sidious Anakin's father. If this is canon, that means that during the climax in Return of the Jedi, Palpatine is [[ElectricTorture torturing his own grandson to death]].
92	* The Ewok trap Chewbacca triggers catches and hauls up smoothly and quickly at least 700 pounds of weight. ''What kind of meat-eating monster were the Ewoks trying to trap!?''
93	** What the hell kind of meat-eating monster were the Ewoks trying to '''''eat?!?!'''''
94	** And some fans still doubt the Ewoks' Badass cred.
95	** And what the hell was that thing they were trying to bait it with? Looked like the back half of a deer with its face on its rear.
96	** Legends actually answers all the questions with ''Film/StarWarsEwokAdventures'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Ewoks}}''. Endor is one dangerous place...
97	* The empty Stormtrooper helmets the Ewoks were using as drums at the end. Remember that those little furballs were going to ''[[ImAHumanitarian eat]]'' the heroes. It adds another layer if you've played ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' and talk to an [[CuteAndPsycho Ewok mercenary]] (the first of her kind to leave the planet). Ewoks see no problem in eating anything they kill that isn't another Ewok. [[DeliberateValuesDissonance Nature gave it to them]], [[BlueAndOrangeMorality and it would be wasteful not to tuck in.]]
98	** Somehow, I don't quite think the rebels are callous enough to let their enemies, most of whom just do mundane tasks like data entry, get eaten, especially when it's clear that they've won. They probably took much of the surviving bunker staff captive and as such forced them to give up their armor. Plus, there were plenty of helmets from dead troopers laying around.
99	** [[WesternAnimation/StarWarsForcesOfDestiny Forces of Destiny]] shows that the Ewoks ''were'' going to eat the Stormtroopers but the Rebellion namely Han and Leia traded them for ration sticks.
100	** Is the handy dress they had for Leia the leftover wrapper from a previous meal?
101	* The [[NoEndorHolocaust fate of the Ewoks]] in ''Franchise/StarWars'' isn't apparent until you apply rigorous physical analysis. It's bad for the fridge's motor to leave the door open that long.
102	** FridgeBrilliance saves it. While the Rebels destroyed the shield projector protecting the Death Star, they did not disable the shields protecting the moon itself, therefore, the shields did their job and protected the planet from what otherwise would have been total destruction.
103	** Well, while we're on fridge horror and Ewoks, consider that the Ewok captured our heroes with the original intent of eating them. Then the Ewoks assist our heroes, killing many imperial forces. Then they have a great feast at the end of the movie... a feast where they're using empty stormtrooper helmets as drums... Yum.
104	*** Not just eating the heroes, they were ok with roasting them ''alive'', too. So let's revisit the feast: Singing...dancing...music...the occasional Wilhelm scream, off in the distance..."Leek-laloo-lalalooo-laa"... 'buuurp'...
105	*** What did the Rebels eat during the feast? It's possible for Chewbacca to have a little barbecue stormtrooper. He is a carnivorous alien, but what did Luke, Leia, Han, and Lando eat? Did they have the salad or go native?
106	*** Most likely, they ate other meats. Ewoks don't eat other Ewoks, they'd understand humans not eating other humans.
107	** Another Ewok FridgeHorror thought: protocol droids aren't exactly rare, and some of them work for the Empire. If the Imperial troops stationed at Endor had gotten peckish for some local food, and brought one down to trade beads with the natives, they could've pulled a God Gambit on the little guys and turned them into cannon-fodder ''against'' the rebel party.
108	*** Well, clearly someone acted like the [[{{Franchise/Dune}} Bene Gesserit]] and made the Ewok religion worship protocol droids millennia ago just for that purpose.
109	*** Problem is, while they might have liked 3PO, they were also ''still completely ready to eat his companions'' up until Luke demonstrated his Jedi tricks. So if any of the Imperials had tried that before, well, there might already have been a few spare helmets around.
110	*** There obviously were many [=AT-ATs=] and [=AT-STs=] around as well. But the Ewoks would see these more as monstrous beings. Plus the Empire wouldn't have protocol droids down on Endor: it was a military establishment, so there was no need for diplomacy bots. Finally, Threepio is gold, which seems to be extremely rare for droids in the Star Wars Universe.
111	*** This does present the amusing possibility of an Imperial protocol droid indignantly refusing to go along with the plan because it's against their programming to impersonate a deity.
112	* Ewoks. They seem cute, but barbecue humans and now they have guns and vehicles?
113	* After Luke falls into the Rancor's pit, he picks up a rather fresh looking femur bone from an unidentifiable carcass with lots of tissues still on it. It wasn't there when Oola fell in, and it doesn't look too old. Did Luke use Oola's femur bone to pry open the rancor's jaws?
114	** No. It was too big to be Oola's femur.
115	* [[http://www.cracked.com/blog/star-wars-quest-lukes-balls-a-fan-theory/ This fan theory]] suggests that Vader and Palpatine were interested in Luke because he could father Force-sensitive children while Vader couldn't after his injuries on Mustafar. This holds up since Force-sensitive people are rare finds and Palpatine never cloned Vader[[note]]They aren't counting the non-canon Extended Universe[[/note]]. The article also points out that this puts a much ''darker'' spin on Leia's fate if she were captured.
116	** As another example of FridgeHorror by way of ShareTheMalePain, the theory also makes Vader an example of EunuchsAreEvil. By the way, if you're wondering how a eunuch could have such a deep voice, Vader actually used an artificial voicebox, since his throat had been burned too. Moreover, even if he hadn't needed his vocal cords replaced, he'd already gone through puberty by that point, so losing his balls wouldn't have changed his voice from Hayden Christensen back to Jake Lloyd.
117	* As an example of "wow, that was more messed up than I thought" (in the vein of some adults' reaction to ''Literature/{{Coraline}}'', ''Literature/TheButterBattleBook'', the "Hellfire" sequence in ''WesternAnimation/{{The Hunchback of Notre Dame\|Disney}}'', etc.)... Admit it, you never fully realized what Jabba did (or at least planned on doing) to Leia as a kid, did you?
118	** Or why Oola adamantly refused to get any closer to Jabba's throne, even knowing it risked pissing Jabba off and dropping her to the Rancor Pit.
119	* Vader can sense Luke through the Force. ''Every'' Rebel ship and base he goes to has had a huge target painted on it. Crosses over into [[FridgeBrilliance fridge brilliance]] territory as it reveals an additional motivation for Luke to surrender to his father; with Luke being his prisoner, Vader won't be able to sense the location of the Rebel strike team through him, nor would he be able to play a direct role in the coming battle as he did at the Battle of Yavin to devastating effect.
120	* A behind the scenes variant: According to his actor, Piett initially wasn't supposed to return for this film. It was only because of fan mail that he was brought back. This could imply that the intention was for Vader to have executed him off-screen (or for him to just be busy somewhere else in the galaxy).
121	* Ever wondered why the Death Star had turned to show the superlaser toward the Forest Moon by the time it exploded? The deleted scenes show it -- [[TakingYouWithMe Palpatine was just that petty]].
122	** This is also why the first explosion is over the superlaser: the superlaser was fully in its firing sequence, and the the effects of the destruction of the main reactor stopped it just in time.
123	* During Darth Vader's death scene, blaster fire can be heard in the background. The implication is that there were so few ships available on the Death Star that the Imperials that were trying to evacuate were willing to kill each other to board the remaining ones.
124	** Could those sounds actually be from the space battle outside? And if the Imperials knew the station was about to explode and were so desperate to get off, why didn't they swarm Luke and Vader and take their ship? Yeah, Vader's the dark lord who Force chokes everyone, but at that moment he does look rather incapacitated.
125	*** Well, look at it this way, depending on how much, if anything, the Imperials saw of the confrontation that led up to this moment. Imagine being an Imperial, for whom Vader and the Emperor are both TheDreaded. Now both of them (apparently) just got their asses handed to them and you’re seriously thinking of going after the guy who (for all you know) took them out?

Context Fridge / ReturnOfTheJedi