Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (junior reader) by Ryder Windham

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (junior reader) by Ryder Windham
     I have now finished the original trilogy junior reader adaptations released for the 40th anniversary of A New Hope. And I was most pleased. The ending of this one gets you right in the gut!
     Some ancient Sith history is brought up which is really exciting!! "For a thousand years, the Sith had maintained their order by never having more than two Sith Lords: a Master and a single apprentice. The few attempts to expand their number beyond two had always led to the Sith Lords conspiring to kill each other." I really hope we get some new books soon that go into this with more detail...or maybe even a movie?...or a trilogy???...
     An explanation is given for Obi-Wan's 'certain point of view': "Luke realized Ben really did think of Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader as two separate people." Makes perfect sense actually--Darth Vader was not the brother he had grown to love.
     So much more could have been done with the scene where Leia finds out she's Luke's sister and Darth Vader's daughter at that. She does recall Vader supervising her torture which must've been extremely difficult to think about, but I would have liked more feelings and thoughts from her!
     We get some decent thoughts and feelings from Vader when Luke first gets brought to him on Endor. Apparently he is "less certain of the future" when Luke brings up the possibility of there still being good in him. And he even thinks in response to Luke's saying "Let go of your hate," "If only I could...If only I could" before verbally responding, "It is too late for me, son." I love that we're getting conflict and emotion from Vader that isn't so staunchly Dark Side rules.
     I also wish there had been more emotion and feeling around Vader finding out he had a daughter. I've always thought that moment in the movie when he says, "Sister! So...you have a twin sister" is so incredibly powerful and this book did not do it justice. With this format, I would've loved to see deeper into what Vader was thinking and feeling in that moment because in the comic books when he discovers he has a son, he nearly shatters an entire Star Destroyer window.
     And then the gut punching happens. Luke is being pummeled with Dark Side Force lightning..."And then, in a moment, something changed. Perhaps he remembered something heard in his youth a long time ago: a prophecy of the Chosen One who would bring balance to the Force. Perhaps the vague outlines of someone named Shmi and a Jedi named Qui-Gon struggled to the surface of his consciousness. The most powerful, the most repressed thought of all could have emerged from the darkness: Padme...and her undying love for someone he once knew well. And despite all the terrible, unspeakable things he'd done in his life, he suddenly realized he could not stand by and allow the Emperor to kill their son. And in that moment, he was no longer Darth Vader. He was Anakin Skywalker." Ahhhhh!!!! I'm tearing up again as I type this and I've already read this paragraph three times. What a perfect mash-up of emotions, feelings, and canon connections. And the mention of Luke being "their" son--his and Padme's--not just his son is a heart-wrencher.
     And then the second gut puncher happens during the celebration on Endor. "Then a third apparition materialized beside them--a figure whom he instinctively knew was a younger Anakin Skywalker, from the days before his Jedi father's fall, his features unscarred and...happy." D'awww. I love this explanation for why it was young Anakin and not post-Darth Vader Anakin that appeared in the Special Edition. It rings so true for me.
     Trivia:
- Jabba is smoking from a naal-thorn burner.
- The droid who was branding the feet of the GNK droid in Jabba's palace was an 8D8 smelting droid.
- Rappertunie, the frog-like guy who plays the growdi (combo flute and water organ) is a Shawda Ubb.
- Boba Fett's suit contains wrist-rocket gauntlets, knee-pad rocket-dart launchers, spring-loaded boot spikes, and a turbo-projected grappling hook.
- Rystall, the red ungulate alien back-up singer, has a thing for Boba.
- The Rebel fleet rendezvous at Sullust before the attack on the second Death Star. (This was actually a question in Star Wars trivia.) I need to watch the movie more closely to try and catch a better glimpse of the volcanic planet.
- The Tydirium, the stolen Imperial shuttle the Rebels use to infiltrate Endor, was stolen from the Star Destroyer Shield Maiden by Nien Nunb himself!
     So overall, these books mostly provide a direct spot-on retelling of the original trilogy with a few gems of thoughts, feelings, and emotions thrown in. I wouldn't pass these books up by any means but expect mostly a rehashing of what you already know so well. The ending of this one was so fabulous though that it made up for the lacking I saw in other parts of this particular book. Check out my reviews of the other two books in the trilogy here:
Star Wars: A New Hope (junior reader) by Ryder Windham
Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (junior reader) by Ryder Windham
     If you're looking for actual retellings that give a whole new flair to the original trilogy, you should absolutely check out The Princess, the Scoundrel, and the Farm Boy, So You Want to Be a Jedi?, and Beware the Power of the Dark Side! because they are phenomenal!!