Since it’s the 30th anniversary of Star Wars, here are my ten favorite Star Wars moments, from all six of the films. I was in kindergarten when Star Wars came out, so I have an obvious bias towards the original trilogy.

1. Obi-Wan tells Luke about Anakin and gives Luke his father’s light saber.

This scene has a lot more meaning when you try to reconcile it with the prequels. Along with explaining the relationship between Anakin and Obi Wan, it also reveals Obi Wan to be a big liar, considering Anakin and Darth Vader two different people, protecting Luke from the truth – and which is the total opposite of how it was originally received. When the light saber is turned on for the first time with its iconic hum, it was a real “wow” moment.

2. The Death Star explodes.

You can’t go wrong ending Star Wars with a huge explosion. It also had the first cool space battle with the tense trench bomb runs.

3. Luke “kills” Darth Vader on Dagobah.

This was scary to us kids who couldn’t handle such heavy symbolism of Luke’s face beneath Darth Vader’s mask. What did it mean? Did Yoda orchestrate the whole thing?

4. Yoda flies the X-Wing out of the Dagobah swamp.

Yoda demonstrates that a muppet is the most powerful Jedi of all, while Luke is a complete newbie.

5. Han Solo gets put in the carbon freeze chamber in Cloud City.

Leia admits she loves Han who remains roguish until the end, and nobody had any idea how he would get out of this one.

6. Darth Vader tells Luke that he’s his father.

At the time, this ultimate plot twist was so shocking that most of us were positive Vader was lying. How could Luke’s dad be such a evil scum bag and chop his son’s hand off? We had to wait three years to find out if it was just a big put-on.

7. Darth Vader’s mask comes off.

The big reveal – what would be under that mask? E.T.? Mr. T? Nobody knew. There was a scary hint in The Empire Strikes Back when we catch a glimpse of Darth’s bald head in his clam shell boudoir.

8. Darth Maul.

In retrospect, he was the coolest Sith besides the Emperor. Way more scary than Dooku or even Anakin. Plus he had the dual-headed light saber and some smooth moves to match. Unfortunately, he died way too soon and didn’t talk much.

9. The start of the Clone Wars.

There’s a moment when all hell breaks loose, tons of Clone ships fly in, the Jedi do Braveheart and the cinematography changes to a zoomy, hand-held camera style. Added points for Yoda and Mace Windu wielding light sabers and Padme’s outfit.

10. The black breathing mask comes down, transforming Anakin into Darth Vader.

Pretty much the whole prequel trilogy was building to this moment: a scarred Anakin lies on a medical table and is transformed into Darth Vader. As the mask descends the camera switches to a first person point of view so it looks like the mask is coming down on us. Not sure if it made up for Jar Jar, but I got chills.

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