At the climaxes of both Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, a son has a violent confrontation with his father. In the lead-up to both confrontations, the son wrestles with his conflicted feelings towards his father, and this inner conflict is visually represented by a shot in which his face is half-lit and half-shadowed.
In the third act of Return of the Jedi, Luke Skywalker confronts his father, Darth Vader. The Emperor wants Luke to kill his father so that he will fall to the dark side. Luke is determined to resist the temptation, but as he struggles against his feelings of anger towards the father who wounded him, the left half of his face is bathed in a blue light:
In the third act of The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren confronts his father, Han Solo. Supreme Leader Snoke wants Kylo to kill his father so that he will fall to the dark side. Kylo is determined to fulfill the task and kill his father, but struggles against his feelings of love for the father who still cares for him. Kylo's emotional predicament in this scene reverses Luke's in Return of the Jedi, and this reversal is reflected in the film's visual language. Whereas the left half of Luke's face was bathed in a blue light, the right half of Kylo's face is bathed in a red light:
In some ways, Luke and Kylo have similar experiences of inner conflict during their fateful encounters with their fathers. On the one hand, they love their fathers; on the other hand, they are tempted and pressured to kill their fathers. However, they go into the confrontations with opposite motives and emerge with opposite results. Each son holds true to the position he was determined to hold at the outset: Luke restrains himself from killing Vader, confirming his opposition to the Emperor, while Kylo forces himself to kill Han, confirming his allegiance to Snoke.
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Characters: Darth Vader / Han Solo / Kylo Ren / Luke Skywalker
Films: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi / Episode VII: The Force Awakens
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Concepts: anger / duality / fathers / feelings / light and darkness / love / temptation
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