The "Darth Vader's Sacrifice" Question

[Grand Admiral Thrawn]

Hey everyone,

Alright, here's a question that may or may not have been asked or answered. I didn't/don't have the time to rewind through the Senate's older stuff, so I thought "What the heck, might as well post/re-post it" --


The question is this: Was there a point to Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker sacrificing himself by destroying the Emperor and supposedly helping "end" the Empire?

Please note that I am not bashing or necessarily complaining, but more asking to hear all your perspectives on the situation.

My problem with it, although I am, for the most part, able to ignore it and just enjoy the story(ies), is that we have his triumphant sacrifice as he supposedly accomplishes 3 Things:

1) Saves his son

2) Redeems himself

and

3) Destroys the Emperor, bringing about the Empire's supposed "ruin"


But then come stories like Dark Empire, where the Emperor is still "alive" and so forth, not to mention that the Empire is still a threat... and we almost have a repeat--although actually this came first--of the Chewbacca/Anakin Solo scenario... Chewbacca dies, saving Anakin Solo... but then Anakin ends up dying himself, leaving us to wonder "Was there a point to Chewbacca's death?"

Again, please note I am not bashing or--- you get the picture. Simply putting this out there to hear your thoughts.

[Rebel Astromech Droid]

From a perspective that just deals with what is best for the story, I really don't think it makes sense for him to continue living after balance has been brought.

[Justin]

Well this is kind of an EU issue I guess. ALthough you could say "well the Death Star would have been destroyed by Lando and Wedge whether or not Vader killed the Emperor, so he would have died anyway."

[Tovor]

Was there a point to Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker sacrificing himself by destroying the Emperor and supposedly helping "end" the Empire?

Maybe it was a parallel to Luke's willingness to die both in ESB and ROTJ rather than turn to the dark side; that unless a true sacrifice was made by Anakin, we would not truly see how willing he was at that point to turn away from the dark side.

[bruciarsi]

Vaders sacrifice is worthwhile. Only number 3 destroying the empire really doesnt pan out. Hes redeems himself and saves his son who turns out to be 1 hell of a jedi.
As for chewie and anakin well i dont think the fact the other person dies later on really matters. Vader saves luke but eventually luke will die does that make a difference? No its the fact at that time chewie gave his life to save anakin and even if he only lived a minute later it doesnt take anything away from the gesture. Then there is also the obvious returning the favour side of it. So yeah i think both sacrifices were well worth it.

[thepepgal]

Both Vader and Chewie's death is for the greater good.

All points 1-3 are right. If Vader hadn't killed Palpatine then Palpatine may have got off the Death Star like Luke did. The Empire wouldn't have felt so defeated if they hadn't loss their leader. It also lead to the in-fighting for control of the Empire by the Grand Admirals.

Chewie died so Anakin Solo could live. Had Anakin died then he couldn't have destoryed the voxyn and therefore saving the jedi from distinction.

In some ways both Anakins died to ensure the jedi survived.

[Zedekk]

I thought the whole sacrifice was in order to bring balance to the force again? No one has mentioned this yet, however it is part and powerful of Anakin's destiny. I am of the opinion that bringing the force into balance was the point behind the sacrifice.

[lovelucas]

^^and that is the bottom line, fulfilling his destiny, bringing balance to the Force and the impetus is the love for his son.

[RollaFett]

Yeah, this is rather 'EU' heavy, sooo...consider it moved!

[nea200pl]

I'm probably just repeating what everyone else said but I also believe it was because Vader found love for his son and full fill his purpose.
If his death was necessary I don't think so, but if you look at it like his ultimate destiny there was no other way - you can't cheat fate. Besides, death after killing Emperor put him back to 'the path of light' and redeem his sins.
With regards to EU and 'resurrection' of Emperor, I found a lot of books just repeating old plots but with new cover/characters. Don't get me wrong - I think they are fantastic but still I was expecting something new/different.

[Master_Kinnon]

Yeah not to rehash what's been said, but Vader's sacrifice does bare some significance, especially when you put it in context of what could have happened if he hadn't.

That and it brought things full circle in terms of the films, which was an important resolution.