Strange coincidence that there’s a discussion about how good or bad ROTJ is, because I just saw it tonight with the music performed live to screen by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and it really hit me just how poor the film is compared to the previous two installments (which I saw with the Philharmonic as well just in the past couple weeks). Seeing them all so close together is probably a big part of why the iffiness of Jedi was so glaring tonight.

The sister reveal never really bugged me - the history behind Luke and Leia’s births and separation makes it understandable to me and not small-universe-ish at all. However, what DID hit me tonight is just how out of the blue a major plot thread of the film is: Luke believing there’s still good in Vader. There’s absolutely zero reason for the viewer to think that, let alone Luke after the hell Vader causesd in ESB, but then when talking with Obi-Wan on Dagobah, Luke suddenly says he thinks Vader still has good in him and can be saved. Where the heck did that come from?!