A New Hope

Special Edition Laserdisc Side 2 Chapter 29

While Luke and company have been fooling around in a trash compactor, Ben has made his way to a tractor beam control panel, conveniently located on a narrow ledge suspended above Star Wars’ first Mother Of All Holes (MOAH, tm). After turning off the tractor beam, thereby setting the stage for the Millennium Falcon’s escape, Ben walks down a nearby hall to meet Vader.

V: I’ve been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you I was but the learner; now I am the master.

B: Only a master of evil, Darth.

<Much swordfighting ensues>

V: Your powers are weak, old man.

B: You can’t win, Darth. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.

<More swordfighting>

V: You should not have come back.

<More swordfighting. Then we cut to Chewie and the others. Then back to the swordfight. Vader and Ben are now duelling just by the Millennium Falcon, in plain view of some Stormtroopers who leave their guardposts to watch the fight. Luke and all his companions see their chance, and they break for the Millennium Falcon. Luke sees Ben fighting Vader, and calls Ben’s name. Ben sees Luke watching, and then he smiles at Vader in apparent triumph. Vader’s face is inscrutable behind his mask. Knowing that Luke is watching, Ben raises his lightsaber and closes his eyes in a prayerful pose, and Vader cuts him down with a stroke through his torso. Ben’s robe and lightsaber fall to the floor, but Ben’s body has disappeared.>

L: Nooooooooooooooo! (tm)

<Vader prods Ben’s robe with his foot, but there’s no Ben there. Luke shoots at the stormtroopers, and one of them falls into a nearby MOAH. Then he shoots a blast door control panel, which shuts the door in Vader’s face. He appears doomed, but then he hears the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi>

B: Run, Luke, run.

<Luke boards the Millennium Falcon, and the heroes make their escape.>

1) Vader is confident he will defeat Ben because he believes he is more powerful.  Ben knows better. Ben enters this duel knowing its preordained outcome. He dies willingly, just as Darth Vader dies willingly at the end of Return of the Jedi (ROTJ). Oh yes, Vader does eventually die as willingly as Ben. Check my comments on the final scene.

2) I’ve often wondered about the word "Darth:" Is it a name or a title? Since all the Dark Lords seem to be named Darth (Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, etc.), I’ve assumed it’s a title, like "Captain," and that it is supposed to suggest "dark." But no, the proper title seems to be "Lord," as in "Lord Vader," which was used elsewhere in ANH by Tagge. And in their scene together, Ben uses "Darth" as a familiar name, almost like Sam, or Jerry. He speaks the name gently, as though he’s accustomed to using it with this fellow -- accustomed to saying "Darth," instead of "Anakin." Lucas may have changed his mind about the word after ANH, but I contend that in the first of the films, "Darth" is Vader’s first name.

3) Ben knows something Vader doesn’t -- he knows how to become even more powerful after death. In other words, Ben has somehow learned something better than the secret of eternal life: he’s learned how to die without actually going away. Quite a trick. And one that apparently not all Jedis can accomplish. Ben does it. So does Yoda. But the Emperor doesn’t, and neither does Darth Maul. And neither, apparently, do all those Jedis that we expect to die somewhere in Episodes II and III. But, interestingly, Vader does do it at the end of ROTJ. He doesn’t do it quite like Ben and Yoda -- his body doesn’t disappear. (No, it DOES NOT! Luke is NOT left holding a mask and a pile of robes! That’s Vader’s BODY on that funeral pyre! If you want to show a pile of robes on a funeral pyre, you show empty robes like those Ben left behind.) But he does turn into a blue ghost, and he gets the honor of standing beside Yoda and Ben at the end of ROTJ. What in the world could take place in Episodes II and III that would make the end of ROTJ satisfactory? I can’t think of a thing, unless, as Nesha Kovalick once pointed out on RASSM, Lucas is offering the Parable of the Prodigal Son as the model for the end of the six-film saga.

Also, notice that Ben is READY for his new status as a ghost. He dies, and within seconds he’s already chatting with Luke. For him, death is no worse than a hiccough.

4) Vader’s line, "You should not have come back," will likely resonate more when we have learned what happened when the two last parted.

5) It seems important to Ben that Luke should see him die. Is this important to the BS? I wish I knew.