Okay, I’ve scanned a few SW threads and haven’t seen anything on this, but it’s been bugging me for a while. If this has been addressed elsewhere, please let me know.
Here’s my point of confusion:
In RotJ, when Luke is facing the emperor, the Emperor says[sup]*[/sup]:
The closest I’ve seen this addressed, without scouring every single SW thread, of which there are just a bunch, is:
Which I gather is referring to this:
Sure, Luke stands down for a while, he doesn’t want to become evil, like his father, right? But what happens? Vader pushes his button:
He does reach for his saber. He does attempt to strike the Emperor down. Vader stops him. The fight is on.
So, what’s the deal. The Emperor wanted Luke to give in to his hate.
He did. The Emperor wanted Luke to attack an “unarmed” opponent. He did (well, he tried to.) At what point would it have been enough? If Luke was to have struck down the Emperor, why would Vader have stopped him (unless it was his paternal instinct, trying to protect Luke, which I doubt)? If Luke only needed to give in to his hate, well, he did, the Emperor had then won. I say he passed the bar, Luke should be considered evil.
I’ve gotta ask: what’s the Straight Dope here, folks?
*****: all (non-Irishman) quotes from the IMDB.
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