Screenshot: Lucasfilm
Forty years ago this week, Star Wars ended. Well, it ended for a bit—as theatergoers sat down for the climactic battle in Return of the Jedi. Star Wars might have continued beyond it for many of those 40 years, but still, here’s 40 little things we love about the swansong of the original trilogy (in no particular order, just to be celebratory instead of nitpicky).
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Whether it’s the messy loose bun as Boushh, the braided high pony in Jabba’s Palace, her mission braids on Endor, or even her forest princess look when she lets her hair down in Bright Tree Village, there is not a moment in Jedi where Leia isn’t serving.
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He’s a Jedi, like his father before him (more on that later)—but also like Anakin Skywalker, Luke knows how to make a statement. The all-black look is iconic for a reason, but the statement? His iconic shiny booties. The Jedi Order could never!
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Sure, the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi isn’t 40 this week, but no matter which way you prefer your jizz bangers, Lapti Nek and Jedi Rock both rule.
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That guy had a real rough day even before fuzzballs murdered all his friends.
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It might be short lived, but Leia swooping in like the lead of a romance to dramatically reveal her identity as Boushh and kiss Han after freeing him from Carbonite is so dreamy.
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Long before we had the Jedi of the prequels pirouetting through the air like wizard acrobats, we had this as the fanciest move in the sacred Jedi texts, and honestly? More Jedi springboarding, please.
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We now know at this point Boba eventually claws his way out of being Sarlacc dinner, but still, what a comedy of errors for the supposedly meanest, baddest bounty hunter around. His little flail when Han sends him flying! The thunk against Jabba’s sail barge! His little roll to doom! What a goof.
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Happens to the best of us. It’s stressful going into battle to decide the fate of the known galaxy!
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Luke’s duel with Vader is an excellent set of sequences, showing how far Luke has come since Empire, but you know that boy is Darth Vader’s kiddo when, after being Force-goaded into the Dark Lord sensing that Luke has a sister he could turn to the Dark Side, Luke takes the proverbial gloves off and goes ham.
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First of all, big negotiation flex by Leia here. Second of all, C-3PO, you drama queen.
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Sure, it’s painful enough that it helps kill him. But still, there’s something awesome and horrifying about seeing Vader’s skull crackle and light up through the Emperor’s Force lightning as Anakin decides to switch sides.
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The Rancor fight is a compelling sequence all its own, but there’s something so very Star Wars in the idea that this creature we’ve already seen devour multiple people horrifically—and only brutally slain before he could do so to our main hero—elict such a bittersweet emotional denouement, as Malakili the Rancor Keeper rushes out to his dead ward, overcome with grief.
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A-Wings suck. A-Wings suck slightly less when, in the process of sucking, they luckily manage to take down a Super Star Destroyer.
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Say what you will about the merchandise-ification of Star Wars by adding “kiddie” teddie bears—actually don’t, that’s a stupid argument for a franchise that understood merchandizing from the very beginning and changed the game forever in the process—but there is still something so awesome about seeing adorable Ewoks just absolutely butcher Stormtroopers in a flurry of rocks, spears, and stone axes.
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This is already a fantastic sequence setting up Luke and Vader’s evolution since their last meeting—and one that is only made all the more resonant with the later context of the prequels, and seeing renowned tinkerer Anakin Skywalker examine his child’s handiwork. But it’s also just an excuse to gush about how cool Luke’s own saber is. The Obi-Wan influence in the design, the iconic green blade, it’s one of the best around.
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God bless you Crix Madine, for providing generations of action figures of politicians, diplomats, officers, and other general non-combatant Star Wars characters the gift of the ur-accessory when you can’t just give them a blaster. What is the stick for? Who knows, but Kenner and Hasbro certainly don’t mind it all these years later.
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We don’t really get to see B-Wings actually do much in their debut here, but even then, the shot of them lining up to lock S-Foils in attack position is such an an awesome mirror to the X-Wings doing so in A New Hope. A fantastic design and much better than some other Rebel starfighters introduced here.
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Once again, action figure makers were blessed for generations with R2's surprise way of getting his master his lightsaber from across the great pit of Carkoon: a spring loaded surprise-yeet.
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We’re talking about how the Rebel fleet can’t withstand firepower of that magnitude, of course. Nothing about the good Admiral finding himself ensared in some kind of ambush.
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Okay, okay, they’re Dressellians. But when you’ve got a prune for a face, Kenner’s gonna call you Prune Face when you inevitably get an action figure, and it’s gonna stuck. Sorry, Orrimaarko.
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Once again, the Special Editions aren’t 40 this year, but there is something completely hilarious about the extended version of the galaxy celebrating Palpatine’s death where we get to cut to Theed—the capital city of the former senator’s homeworld—and we loudly hear a random Gungan celebrating. Yeah, buddy, yousa free.
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The most powerful skull in all of Star Wars, so worthy the Expanded Universe simply had to give him a full backstory which, naturally, involved meeting Han Solo at some point.
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Warwick Davis’ proper debut in Return of the Jedi is a masterclass in making an instantly adorable character: there’s so much fun in this small moment, as we see Leia’s empathy in bonding with the wary Ewok, and then immediately teaming up the second they realize that they’re not a threat to each other. His little spear!
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Star Wars fans nitpick over the smallest flubbed detail (or, frankly, literally anything), but Luke’s iconic—perhaps even Force-assisted—kick when he’s fighting off Jabba’s goons on the Skiffs is the flub everyone loves. Well, that and the Stormtrooper that bonks his head on the door in A New Hope. But we’re not celebrating A New Hope today!
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We had glimpses of what could be under Vader’s mask in Empire, but there’s something still so potent about Luke tenderly removing his father’s mask to reveal the ravaged man beneath the horrifying visage. At this point, Vader is broken, on his path to redemption, and preparing to breathe his last and say goodbye to his son, and seeing his true self is still such a powerful climax to the film.
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A lot of the Endor ground battle is about watching Ewoks absolutely beat the snot out of the Empire in various ways, but victory has a price—and the one actual explicit on-screen Ewok death we get in Jedi is incredibly sad. Why won’t they just get up, dammit! Sniff.
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God telling his devout followers a mythological tale of good and evil is very Star Wars sci-fantasy even before you get to the fact that it’s C-3PO telling a bunch of Ewoks the plot of A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. What makes it even better is that, as a droid, and also a bitch with a flair for drama, he naturally accentuates his story telling by playing his Star Wars soundbank when needed.
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The trap is sprung on the Rebel fleet in an awesome, horrifying moment as the Death Star II’s laser lances through a cruiser, but one of the coolest shots in the whole sequence—which is non-stop cool shots in the franchise’s best space battle—is our perspective in the Falcon cockpit as a whole wing of TIE Interceptors and Fighters swarms over the Rebel squadrons. Short, sweet, and full of that iconic TIE shriek.
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The Emperor appeared in Empire, but the Emperor became the Emperor when Ian McDiarmid stepped in for Return of the Jedi, delivering a gloriously meaty, campy, and yet still menacing turn with relatively little screentime. A cackle so good they just kept him returning, somehow.
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Such a small line, with such weight. Little did Caroline Blakiston know that Mon Mothma’s lamenting the loss of many unseen alien lives to get the Death Star plans would result in one of Star Wars’ most fascinating side stories, and an alien species that, despite the fact we haven’t actually seen one in generations, became vital to the fabric of the old expanded universe. Singlehandedly responsible for giving us the complete, magnificent bastard that is Borsk Fey’lya.
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Wedge Antilles always rules, but there’s something so satisfying in it being his X-Wing that lands the killing blow on the Death Star 2, after he was forced to duck out of the original trench run assault in A New Hope.
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Star Wars loves it when the poetry rhymes, and taking Empire’s iconic romantic declaration and turning it into a sly moment for Han and Leia as the latter prepares to surprise the trooper sneaking up behind the former with her blaster is just delightful.
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Star Wars also loves it when there’s a little freak, and they rarely get as little or as freaky as Salacious B. Crumb.
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That’s what you get for looking over your shoulder in a high speed chase, sucker.
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We love it when #feminism is actually #chokeahornyslugtodeath, don’t we folks.
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Obi-Wan Kenobi is a very good liar. He’s a master of life after death and the will of the cosmic Force. He’s also a ghost that needs a sit down, and that’s just... very funny.
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After the whole “so you sold me out to the Empire and got me turned into a flash-freeze ready meal” situation left Han and Lando’s relationship, well, frosty, they immediately slide back into their friendly banter during the sail barge fight, as the still-blinded Han tries to get Lando to trust his aim to save the dangling space dandy from being nibbled on by the Sarlacc. It’s so funny.
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A lot of the moments on this list are very goofy or lighthearted, but it’s fitting that Vader gets many of Jedi’s most emotional moments—it is, essentially, the story of his redemption in death as much as it is the victory of the Rebellion. And there are few moments more somber than Luke slipping away from the joyous celebrations with the Ewoks to bid a spiritual farewell to his father, a bittersweet bond formed in the flames of Anakin’s funeral pyre.
Screenshot: Lucasfilm
We said this list is unordered, and by and large it is, but we saved this for last simply because it is the moment of Return of the Jedi. It’s arguably the moment of Star Wars. The ultimate rejection of evil, the faith Luke has in himself and in his father, the most triumphant blow against the Sith is not done with some grand act of Force wizardry or with the blade of a lightsaber—instead, we see the weapon tossed aside as Luke declares himself to be the ideal the Jedi should be: not fighting what they hate, but saving what they love.
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