The Empire Strikes Back: Star Wars OG #2
Analyzer: Jubilee Anderson
Remember, this post includes spoilers!
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away….
When his old mentor’s ghost tells Luke to go to another planet to train under a Jedi Master named Yoda, Luke immediately obeys. At the same time, the Rebel base is attacked, and Luke’s friends are forced to flee. Will Luke finish his training in time to face the evil lord, Darth Vader, or will his friends be killed by Vader’s forces?
The Empire Strikes Back has themes of good vs. evil, loyalty, and romance.
My Thoughts
In the last post we talked about movie 1, A New Hope. Now I’m back to talk about the second movie.
I heard a lot of spoilers before watching this movie, sadly, including one of the best plot twists in movie history. When I finally watched it, it was exactly how I expected. I was so shocked at meeting Yoda, I wondered if Luke had really found the right guy! I was really sad for Han and Leia, and I loved Luke’s character arc especially during the last half of the movie.
I know I said this last time, but it’s true: George Lucas is a master storyteller!
Content Labels: Romantic tension between characters, including multiple instances of kissing.
Takeaways: The ending of this movie was suspenseful, with some loose ends not tied until the third movie. I really, really loved Luke and Vader’s character arcs and relationship as protagonist and villain. I loved the theme of fighting for what’s right and watching how Luke overcame his lies and fears to embrace this truth.
For Ye Writers!
Character Arcs
(Remember: this is a study of how Luke changes over the course of the movie. Also, lots of spoilers here! DON’T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED IT!!!)
To recap from the last movie, Luke wants to “be a Jedi like my father”, by which he means that he wants to be like his father. So Luke has a Goal: to become a Jedi; and a Want: to become the honorable man his father was, willing to sacrifice for good. Now he just needs to get there.
In this movie, Luke accepts the call to action to become a Jedi when Obi Wan tells him to train under Yoda. When Luke first meets Yoda, he treats him with disrespect and impatience. He thinks he has it all figured out. But overtime, he learns to respect Yoda.
One day, Yoda sends him to fight Darth Vader, and Luke cuts off Vader’s head. He realizes it was all just a vision, and he looks into Vader’s mask. Inside is a reflection of a face that looks like his. Luke realizes that he could turn to the dark side if he does not guard himself from temptation.
He is faced with himself again at the climax, but this time in a different way. After cutting off Luke’s hand, Darth Vader reveals that he is Luke’s father. Vader tempts Luke to join the dark side, but Luke has learned his lesson. He doesn’t give in, but instead throws himself into the pit.
At the beginning of the movie, Luke thought he knew how to be a Jedi and how to resist evil temptation. He was ignorant and stubborn. But in the end, he truly resists temptation and overcomes it. He actually knows this time and he’s willing to learn instead of ignorantly going on his way.
In a story there are three main characters necessary to the plot of a positive change arc: The protagonist is the changing character. In The Empire Strikes Back, this character is Luke. Darth Vader (villain) is the one stuck in the evil Luke is trying to avoid, and Obi Wan Kenobi (mentor) is a perfect example of an impact character, or one actively living the virtue Luke is trying to achieve.
You may be asking, what evil is Luke trying to avoid? It was difficult to pinpoint an exact vice, but I came down to two.
The first one was pride. There are several hints that this is the vice throughout the movie. At the beginning, Luke thinks he has it all figured out and can resist evil on his own. Long before that, in the first movie, Darth Vader force chokes a man for telling him there is something wrong with his ship. These are instances of pride, but there isn’t a clear indication of humility from either Obi Wan or Luke, although there are traces of it.
The second vice I thought of was hatred. Using the same instance of Darth Vader force choking the man in A New Hope, that certainly seems like an instance of hatred. There are other hints, like the way in which Darth became the dark lord, or in the third movie, when the Emperor tells Luke to give into his anger.
Over the course of the story, Luke must choose who he will follow; Vader, or Obi Wan? Pride or Humility? Hatred or Love?
Plot Structure
Like in the last post, this section describes the plot of The Empire Strikes Back according to the 3-Act Structure. You can look at the more in-depth plot of this movie here on K.M Weiland’s website.
Characteristic Moment: Luke is scouting out terrain. Han and Leia are in the Rebel base.
Inciting Event: Luke is attacked by a wild animal. Once he escapes, Obi Wan’s ghost tells Luke to train under a Jedi named Yoda.
Push Point: The Empire attacks the rebel base, forcing them to flee. Luke goes to Yoda’s planet while Han and Leia fly off in the Falcon
Pinch Point: Emperor Palpatine tells Darth Vader that Luke, son of Anakin, is the new enemy they must hunt down.
Midpoint: When Luke sees the vision of Darth Vader but then he touches it and sees himself.
Pinch Point: Luke sees Han and Leia being tortured in a vision and he goes to save them against his mentor’s warnings. Vader forces Lando to betray Han and Leia.
Lowpoint: Han is frozen in carbonite. Luke finds out that his father, the man he looked up to and wanted to be like, is Darth Vader.
Climax: Luke chooses not to accept his father’s offer to join the Dark Side and ends up hanging at the bottom of a building.
Resolution: Luke is rescued by Leia and they fly away to safety.
Closing
I hope this review/analyzation of The Empire Strikes Back has helped you see how plot, characters, and theme are tightly interwoven, and hopefully you can impliment some of these things in your own story. You can find the analyzations for movies 1 & 3 here and here.
When you watched The Empire Strikes Back, what did you think of the plot twist? I’d love to hear about it. Share with me here!