Page 57 - Star Wars Insider #177

LUKE SKYWALKER
03 02 01

Tatooine Dreamer
Tat ooi Like Father, One in a Million
Unlike Son

Redemption is the overarching theme
of Return of the Jedi: redemption of the
Jedi, redemption of evil, redemption
of those who have been terrible to us.
Darth Vader is one of those seemingly
irredeemable characters, a man who
has perpetrated mass violence across
the galaxy. Few in the audience would
have protested if Luke had slain Vader,
but Luke makes a different choice.
He turns off his lightsaber and casts it
aside. He refuses to bear the weapon
of the Jedi, because by brandishing
the blade he will continue the cycle of
violence that has plagued the galaxy.
Instead, he puts his faith in Anakin,
sensing that there is still good inside
the man who has done such great evil. Luke comes out of A New Hope with
And Luke is right—Vader turns on the a medal, friends, and a newfound
Emperor and brings his reign to an end. celebrity as a hero. He earned his
The most indelible image in all
The most But beyond this, Anakin’s redemption status by destroying the planet-

ar
t
e
S
of the Star Wars films is that of a reveals a deeper truth. For in order for killing Death Star battle station that
of th
oung Lu
y
young Luke watching the binary Luke to redeem his father, he must do had threatened the rebels and the
k
sunset on that very thing children often find it so rest of the galaxy. While his torpedo
sunset on Tatooine. Clouds pass

over the
over the pink-red orbs as they hard to do: forgive their own parents. shot down the Death Star’s reactor
p
descend toward the horizon. It
d e sc e nd t o shaft was “one in a million” as Han
is a somewhat alien image for the
is a some w Solo called it, that action was the
audience, yet it is also an eerily
audience, consequence of a more personal
familiar one. For how many of us
familiar o n choice. In what is perhaps the
have admired the beauty of the
have adm i pivotal moment in the entire Star
su
n
g
settin
setting sun? How many of us have Wars saga, Luke Skywalker, racing
had thoughts about our place in down the Death Star trench in his
had thou
g
this world
this world—in this universe—as we battered X-wing, pursued by Darth

contempla Vader in a TIE fighter, decides to do
contemplate nature? Perhaps most
telling is t the unimaginable. To the shock of
telling is the way Luke walks out
to his perc Princess Leia and the rebels, Luke
to his perch: head down, shoulder
slumped, feet kicking up dust. This
slumped, f turns off his starfi ghter’s targeting
is someone who goes to the sunset
is someon computer. Rather than rely on the
for refuge, feeling that no one
for refuge, instruments of precision, he listens
understan
understands him, especially his aunt to that voice in his head—and
and uncle
and uncle. Though he may be stuck follows his dreams. This is why Star
on a moist
on a moisture farm on Tatooine, his Wars resonates beyond the cinema
desires and dreams stretch to the
desires and screen, across the globe. Luke’s
horizon, and to the suns and stars
horizon, a decision offers the purest and
beyond. L simplest of messages, a message of
beyond. Luke knows he will never
be at peac
be at peace as a farmboy—he must hope: believe in yourself and good
become so
become something else. will follow as a result.
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