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Return of the Jedi



Concept painting by Ralph McQuarrie. A popular criticism of ROTJ is that the second Death Star was a weak idea, and that the movie would have somehow been better should the final confrontation between Luke/Vader/Palpatine have taken place on Coruscant as originally planned, etc. I've never bought this. Setting the confrontation on the Death Star, as opposed to a lava cave (as pictured) or palace throne room on a planet where there was no conflict, created palpable tension. The stakes couldn't have felt higher.