The Landing Party's
Star Wars PagesLuke Skywalker was raised on the planet of Tatooine by Owen and Beru Lars who he called Uncle and Aunt. He was the son of Anakin Skywalker and Queen Amidala of Naboo and the twin brother of Princess Leia Organa of Alderaan.
Seperated from his sister at birth, Luke had no memory of his mother as he was placed in the care of the Jedi Knight Obi Wan Kenobi. This measure was taken to protect him and his sister from discovery by Emperor Palpatine who would have seen them as a threat to him.
His father Anakin had been turned to the Dark Side of the Force by Palpatine and had assumed the identity of Darth Vader.
Luke was told by Owen Lars that his father was a navigator on a spice freighter. This remained his only knowledge of his family until the Lars family purchased a couple of droids. These droids, R2D2 and C3PO had escaped from the Tantive IV, a Rebel blockade runner, intercepted by an Imperial Star Destroyer. R2D2 had been programmed by his sister, a passenger aboard the Tantive IV, to seek out Kenobi to ask for help in delivering the plans to the Rebel Alliance.
Luke uncovered part of Leia's message to Kenobi by accident and was persuaded by R2D2 to remove a restraining bolt, claiming that it was interfering with his circuitry. The little astromech droid then set out to find Kenobi.
When Luke finally caught up with R2D2, they were attacked by a group of Tusken Raiders and Luke fainted. Kenobi suddenly appeared, scaring the Tusken Raiders by using the call of a Krayt Dragon. Luke, who knew the Jedi Knight as Ben Kenobi, told him about R2D2's quest.
At Kenobi's small dwelling in the Jundland Wastes, Kenobi finally told Luke the truth about his father as Kenobi saw it. He told Luke that his father had been betrayed and murdered by a young Jedi named Darth Vader. R2D2 finally got the chance to deliver his message. Kenobi then asked for Luke's help.
Unwilling at this point to join Kenobi in his mission to deliver the droids to Alderaan, Luke volunteered to take the elderly Jedi to the town of Anchorhead. During the trip to Anchorhead, they came across the burnt out wreckage of a Jawa Sandcrawler and Luke realised that his adoptive family were in danger. He arrived at his home to find the smoldering remains of Owen and Beru Lars.
With nothing left, Luke decided to join Kenobi and accepted Kenobi's previous offer to teach him about the Force.
The group travelled to Mos Eisley and hired the services of the Correllian smuggler Han Solo and his partner, Chewbacca the Wookiee. During the negotiations, Solo boasted that his ship, the Millenium Falcon had made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs and could outrun larger Correlian starships.
After leaving Mos Eisley in a hurry, the ship finally reached it's destinaation, only to find that it had been blown to bits. Discovering a tiny Imperial fighter, Solo set an intercept course beleiving that the fighter was heading for a small moon. The 'small moon' in question was the Imperial battle station known as the Death Star and crew of the Millenium Falcon were forced into hiding.
Kenobi set out to disable the massive battle station's tractor beam generator whilst Luke learned of his sister's capture. He devised a plan to rescue her using stolen Stormtrooper uniforms and Chewbaccaa as a prisoner in order to infiltrate the detention area.
The rescue and escape from the station was successfull with the unfortunate loss of Obi Wan Kenobi. The Jedi Knight had been intercepted by Darth Vader and sacrificed himself in order that the others might escape. The escape, however, was engineered by Darth Vader and the battle station's commander, Grand Moff Tarkin.
The Millenium Falcon headed for the Rebel Alliance base on the fourth moon of Yavin. There Luke met up with his childhood friend, Biggs Darklighter and also joined Red Squadron to attack the Death Star that had tracked them using a homing beacon secured aboard Solo's ship.
The desperate battle that followed saw the loss of many brave Rebel pilots, amongst the Luke's friend Biggs. The Death Star was finally destroyed by Luke who took the advice of Obi Wan Kenobi's spirit and used the Force to target a pair of proton torpedoes at the station's one vunerable spot, a small thermal exaust port. This resulted in a perfect hit which caused a chain reaction in the station, seconds before the station attempted to opened fire on the Rebel Base. The station exploded in a massive ball of flame.
The Rebel victory was short lived as they were forced to evacuate the Yavin Base and relocate to the planet Hoth. After finishing setting up a sensor net, Luke was surprised by a Wampaa snow creature who killed his Tauntan and knocked him unconcious. Escaping the creature Luke had a vision of Obi Wan Kenobi who told him to go the Dagobah system to be taught by Yoda, one of Kenobi's former Jedi Masters.
Darth Vader, obsessed with finding Luke, had dispatched thousands of probe droids throughout the galaxy. One of these droids finally located the Hoth Base forcing it to be evacuated. Luke led Rogue Squadron in a defensive effort against Imperial AT-AT and At-ST walkers to give the base time to evacuate.
On leaving Hoth, Luke set course for Dagobah and crash landed in a lake. There he came across a small creature who offered to take him to meet Yoda. Luke's impatience led to the creature finally stating, 'I cannot teach him, the boy has no paitience.', revealing it's true identity, the Jedi Master Yoda. Kenobi's spirit and Luke's determination eventually changed his mind and Luke set out on a greulling training session. Luke was to interrupt this training when he had a vision of the future where his friends were being tortured. Yoda and Obi Wan attempted to dissuade Luke from this course of action and gave him some advice were he to choose to face Dart Vader in battle.
On reaching the planet Bespine and it's floating Cloud City, Luke was allowed to land on the instructions of Darth Vader. Vader had set this up as a trap for Luke, to capture him and deliver him to Emperor Palpatine. Leia, Chewbacca and C3P0 were being led to Vader's shuttle whilst the carbon frozen body of Han Solo was taken to Slave 1, the vessel of the bounty hunter Boba Fett.
Luke was shepherded to the carbon freezing chamber where he was to face Vader in a lightsaber duel. In the battle that followed, Luke discovered that he was not quite ready to take on Vader losing his light saber and his hand in the process. Vader also revealed the truth to him, that he was Vader's son. On hearing this, Luke attempted suicide and jumped off a sensor pylon that he was holding onto and into an abyss. His fall was broken and he was eventually ejected into the air where he snagged on the arials un the underside of the floating city. Using the Force he called out to his sister Leia who had escaped in the Millenium Falcon with Chewbacca and Lando Calrissian.
Leia, sensing that her brother needed her help told Chewbacca to return to the city to pick Luke up. Once this was accomplished, they escaped into hyperspace to rendevous with a fleet of Rebel ships. There Luke was fitted with an artificial hand.
Some time later, Luke devised a rescue plan for Han Solo and sent R2D2 and C3P0 on a mission to attempt to bargain for the life of Solo. Knowing that this would be unsuccessfull, Luke placed his lightsaber within a compartment in R2D2's domed head. Seemingly captured and sentenced to death by Jabba the Hutt; Luke used his Jedi skills to free Solo, who had been thawed by Leia, Chewbacca and his sister. He also had the help of Lando Calrissian who had infiltrated Jabba's guards.
Leaving Tatooine the Millenium Falcon headed for Sullust where the Rebel fleet were gathering, whilst Luke set a course for Dagobah in his X-Wing to keep a promise to Yoda.
Yoda, who was sick and near death, confirmed Vader's story. He also told Luke that he was not yet a full Jedi Knight and would only acheive this rank after he faced his father in battle one more time. Finally Luke was told that there was another Skywalker with Yoda's dying breath. Luke watched as the 900 year old Jedi Master's body faded and he became one with the Force.
Luke told R2D2 that he could not go on alone whereupon the spirit of Obi Wan Kenobi appeared telling him that Yoda would always be with him. Obi Wan finally revealing the truth about Kenobi's failure to prevent Anakin, Luke's father from turning to the Dark Side of the Force.
Kenobi also told Luke that the other Yoda spoke of was Luke's twin sister. Luke, himself realised that his twin was Leia and Kenobi warned him that this information was dangerous and to conceal it as best he could. Luke finally left to join the Rebel fleet at Sullust.
At Sullust, it was revealed that the Empire had begun construction of a second Death Star and that a plan had been formed to attack and destroy it. Han Solo had been asked to lead an attack on the sheild generator located on the moon of Endor and promoted to General. Luke, Leia and Chewbacca volunteered to join Han as the commanders of the task force. Lando Clarissian, also made a General, volunteered to lead the fighter attack with Solo allowing Lando to use his ship, the Millenium Falcon.
On the moon of Endor, Leia was seperated from the rest of the Rebel force. Han, Chewbacca, C3P0, R2D2 and Luke set out to find her and were caught in an Ewok trap. They were taken to the Ewok's village where they met up with with Leia and freed by the Ewoks. Luke finally told Leia about their relationship and that of their father. He then left to surrender himself to Darth Vader whom he'd sensed was nearby.
Luke was taken to Vader where het told Luke that the name Anakin Skywalker had no longer any meaning for him. Luke told Vader that he could sense the conflict going on within his father. Vader in turn stated that Luke's Jedi skills were complete and that Emperor Palpatine was his new master. Luke was then taken to Vader's shuttle and transferred to the Death Star.
The Rebel fleet arriving in the Endor system to begin their attack were surprised to find that they were being jammed and realised that they'd walked into a trap. Down on the surface, the strike force were also captured by a legion of the Empire's best troops.
Luke was brought before Palpatine who revealed that the Death Star's weapons systems were fully operational and that he had personally allowed the Alliance to know the shield generator's location. He also instigated a lightsaber duel between Luke and Vader with the intention of having Luke kill his father and take his place. Luke was reluctant to fight his father and was only forced to do so as a matter of desperation. Luke became angered when Vader descovered the existance of his other child and vowed to turn her to the Dark Side of the Force if Luke would not. Furious Luke battled the older man until eventually, he cut off Vader's hand revealing that his father's hand was also artificial. Luke realised the Emperor's plan and refused to kill his father declaring that he was a Jedi like his father before him.
The Emperor, furious, unleashed his Dark Side powers on Luke, striking the young Jedi with Force lightning. Luke pleaded with his father for help. Vader, distressed at the thougt of losing his son, picked up the Emperor and threw him into a massive shaft ending Palpatine's rule and his life. This cost Vader dearly as he was fatally wounded in the process. Luke dragged his father to one of the station's docking bays where Vader told his son to remove his helmet so that he could look at himwith his own eyes. Luke, distressed complied and told the older man that he had to save him. His father stated that he already had and to tell his sister. With a contented smile, Anakin Skywalker died.
While this was going on, the Ewoks mounted an attack on the Imperial troops, rescuing the Rebel force. The Rebels eventually gained access to the Imperial base, destroying the deflector shield generator with explosives.
Also the Rebel attack fleet were puzzled when the Imperial fleet refused to engage them and they were attacked by fighter craft alone. Soon the reason became clear as the Death Star opened fire with it's super laser, obliterating a number of the Rebel's major warships. Lando persuaded the fleet commander, Admiral Ackbar to attack the Imperial fleet to try to give Han Solo's team time to complete their mission. When the sheild generator was destroyed, Lando led a number of Rebel fighters into the incomplete superstructure of the Death Star and destroyed it's main reactor from within.
Luke escaped the explosion of the battle station and returned to the surface with the body of his father. Luke set up a funeral pyre and creamated his father's corpse.
With the Empire in ruins Luke Skywalker became the first of a new breed of Jedi Knights.
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