Part six of a great fantasy series

Rating: 10/10 (31 August 2007)

This is the sixth and final part of my essay on the themes and motifs of Star Wars.
The Star Wars saga ends with Return of the Jedi. While considered one of the weaker entries in the series overall, Episode VI has perhaps the best and most satisfying ending of the six.
The motif of nature versus technology occurs most visibly in this episode. The difference is highlighted through colors and image patterns - the Imperial forces are regimented and uniform, wearing black and white, while the rebel strike force and their Ewok allies are associated with more naturalistic earth tones (even the rebel capital ships in the space battle above are rounder and more natural in appearance than the triangular Imperial Star Destroyers). Ultimately the Imperials are defeated, despite their superior power and technology, by the clever and resourceful Ewoks wielding only stones, arrows and log traps. This scene has often been ridiculed as implausible, but it could be seen as an expedited version of the Vietnam War, which in the end had a very similar result and would have been heavy on George Lucas' mind as he wrote it.
Aside from this battle, the motifs developed throughout the series climax with the final showdown between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. The number two is an omnipresent force in this dynamic. There are two Sith, the only number of them that there can be. Palpatine wishes Luke to kill Vader and replace him, while Vader wishes his son to join him and overthrow Palpatine. Both know the other's motive and it speaks volumes about the treachery and rigid hierarchy of the Sith, that it can happen this way. Luke initially resists playing into this, but when Vader figures out that there are not one but two potential Jedi remaining (the other being Luke's sister Leia) Luke is angered and defeats Vader, severing his arm.
This is as close as Luke comes to the Dark Side, for thereafter he refuses to fight. Enraged, Palpatine attempts to destroy the apprentice he cannot have. But Luke is saved by Vader, who is redeemed by the love of his son and completes his prophesied destiny of destroying the Sith (being Palpatine and himself). Luke removes Vader's mask, revealing a battered human being. Obi-Wan had described Vader as "more machine now than man; twisted and evil," which may have indeed been the case. But there was some good in him, good that triumphed, if only in the very end, as Luke had believed it would.
So ends the tragedy of Darth Vader. At the very end of the story, Anakin Skywalker appears to Luke as a ghost, along with Yoda and Obi-Wan. While there is some debate whether his ghost appeared as an old man or as a young one yet unsullied by the Dark Side, there is no denying the power of this ending or this story. As bad as things may often seem for our world, we as human beings always have the power to make things right, if we can find the will to do so.
So ends my (over?)analysis of Star Wars. Thank you George Lucas for giving our world a great mythology to live by, one which we still need and without which there would be just a little less magic in our lives.