Luke’s interest in the Dark Side is
evident throughout the second and third films. While he obviously never goes to
the dark side, there are moments when you can see that he is internally
struggling with the temptation. He has felt a void of his father missing for
his whole life that it is natural for him to want that relationship in some way
with Darth Vader. Luke never gives up hope that Darth will break away from the
Dark Side because he says he can always see the “good” in Darth. Lucas says
that the third film is about revenge on the Dark Side and that anger is the
exact feeling that had a chance to pull Luke to the Dark side (Pfeiffer 133).
Luke’s biggest threat to falling
into the Dark Side was his anger towards Darth in the second film. While Luke
is training with Yoda you can see the anger inside of Luke that he has for
Darth Vader. Yoda notices this and tells him that anger could be his biggest
weakness to Darth. The strength of the Jedi is to not let anger get the best of
you.
In the third film you see Luke toy
with the temptation to fall into the Dark Side when the Emperor is telling him
to grab his light saber and strike him down. Luke doesn’t do it immediately but
finally uses to force to get his saber and try to kill the Emperor. Darth stops
him from killing the Emperor but he still let his anger get the best of him
since he took the Emperor’s bait. Luke knew he shouldn’t give in to the Emperor
but his anger made him make that knee jerk reaction to try and kill the
Emperor.
After Luke goes after the Emperor
he starts fighting with Darth. They go back and forth and you can see the
intensity in Luke’s face. He wants to kill Darth and he nearly does. After a
long battle, Luke finally gets Darth on the ground and he cuts his hand off.
This was Luke’s chance to kill Darth and get his ultimate revenge but he over
comes the temptation and doesn’t do it. Darth ultimately saves Luke and they
get to finally reunite for a moment as they have both fully been freed from the
Dark Side.
Luke’s intensity and young age
could have made it some what easy for the Emperor to pull him to the Dark Side
but his training with Obi Wan and Yoda ultimately saved him from falling into
the dark trap. Darth Vader is an example of a young powerful male succumbing to
the idea of even more power and freedom. Luke being able to see his father
basically being a slave to the Dark Side and the Emperor saved him from making
the same mistake.
Jonathan Lam
ReplyDeleteI actually disagree with the notion that Luke did not fall into the dark side. I believe he actually did fall into the dark side, but he only fell in four a temporary period of time. He succumbed to the dark side and then crawled back out of it into the light side. I say that he fell to the dark side because in the scene where Luke takes the lightsaber from the emperor's side to strike him down, he had one of three choices. Luke could have either left the lightsaber alone, reach for it but not take it, or take it. Each choice symbolizes Luke's toying with the dark side. The first choice means that Luke remained resolute and firm in his decision to remain in the light side. The second choice would have signified a personification of Luke's toying with the dark side. The third choice signifies Luke's actual falling to the dark side. He then proceeded to attack out of anger, eventually overcoming Darth Vader. However, Luke then saved himself from succumbing completely to the dark side when he noticed that both he and Darth Vader lost their right hand. This symbolized Luke pulling himself out of the dark side and coming back to the light side of the Force.