Star Wars Insider – July 2019

STAR WARS INSIDER / 21

THE SKYWALKER SAGA

asked the actor to improvise.

George Lucas was skeptical of

Ford’s alternate take, so much

so that two versions—one with

the original line and one with

Ford’s more succinct reply—were

screened to test audiences. The

boisterous amusement to “I know”

convinced Lucas that Ford had

struck the right chord for this

bittersweet storytelling beat. For

all of the line’s smuggler swagger,

it effectively refl ects a mutual

admission of love that fi ts the

galactic fairy tale perfectly.

Spirit Journey

Vader’s goal in capturing Han and

Leia is to exploit a soft spot in

Luke Skywalker’s character—his

compassion—in order to bring

him under the Emperor’s control.

Both Sith understand the risk

that Luke might seek to continue

the training that he had already

received under Obi-Wan Kenobi.

For audiences in 1980, without

the benefi t of the prequels to

inform them, all they needed to

know at this point in The Empire

Strikes Back was that Vader and the

Emperor saw Luke as a threat.

And we had already witnessed

Luke’s burgeoning skills,

using the Force to retrieve his

lightsaber to free himself from

the wampa’s lair. A vision of

Kenobi, exhorting him to seek

out Jedi Master Yoda, sees Luke

set course for Dagobah after

the Rebel Alliance fl ees Hoth,

and it is there where his true

journey of the spirit begins—a

process whereby one must look

inward to discover who they

really are.

As Luke makes advances in

his training, Yoda delivers the

basic tenets of what it means

to be a Jedi, from challenging

Luke’s own identity as a rebel

commander—“Wars not make

one great”—to reinforcing

the persistence required to

constantly stay in the light:

“Do or do not; there is no

try.” The Force lore laid out

in The Empire Strikes Back

is the backbone of how we

understand the Jedi, and sets

the tone for everything that

follows in the saga.

Leia and Han trade the kind of barbed dialogue

they exchanged in A New Hope and again on

Hoth, as their love/hate relationship develops.

03

01 Children

responded

especially

well to new

character Yoda

(Frank Oz).

02 The blossoming

love between

Leia (Carrie

Fisher) and Han

(Harrison Ford)

added new

warmth and

depth to the

Star Wars saga.

03 Han Solo,

tragically

encased in

carbonite

moments after

admitting his

love for Leia.