10 Smartest Decisions In Star Wars History

7. Luke Throws His Lightsaber Away - Return Of The Jedi

Star Wars Return of the Jedi Luke Skywalker
Lucasfilm

Nailing down just one scene as Star Wars' best is a tricky task, but one that must surely be in the running has to be Luke Skywalker's final confrontation with Darth Vader and the Emperor in Return of the Jedi.

It's a wonderful duel, and it's also one unlike any other in the franchise, in that it's one you don't want Luke to win. Both he and his father are being manipulated by the Emperor, and there's a wonderfully haunting John Williams composition that adds to the unease of seeing father and son fight to the death.

The duel ends once Luke fully taps into the Dark Side and unleashes his anger on his father, but he realises his mistake once the Emperor begins to goad him into executing him. Luke throws away his lightsaber, affirming once again that he is a Jedi, just like his father, and willingly suffers Palpatine's attacks to galvanise Vader into finally embracing the Light Side he'd avoided for so long.

Had Luke resisted the Emperor with force, he would've likely perished. It's only with Vader's unexpected betrayal that Darth Sidious is confined to the second Death Star's reactor, and it's Luke's strength and courage that inspires him.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.