Emperor's Throne Room

The throne room of Emperor Palpatine aboard the second Death Star was located at the pinnacle of a tower. A lofty locale, the throne room was designed for the sole purpose of intimidating those who entered it. Four years after the Battle of Yavin, as a decisive encounter raged both in space and on the surface of Endor, the Emperor's Throne Room hosted a fateful duel between Darth Vader and his estranged son Luke Skywalker.

Description
Contrary to the Emperor's personal quarters and offices, both on the battle station and back in the Imperial Palace on Coruscant, the second Death Star's throne room was devoid of ornaments and symbols of plush comfort. Its bleak, industrial design was meant to frighten all those would enter the chamber, be it prisoners, Imperial subjects, or even dignitaries. To approach the Emperor, visitors had to cross a narrow bridge that extended over a vast chasm. A mile below, the main reactor of the Death Star glowed an eerie blue color. Several sets of stairs had been placed in the room for no reason other than their own inconvenience. The throne itself was a simple, contoured swiveling chair set in front of a large circular viewport lined with a web-like framework and equipped with magnification scanners. The dais before the Emperor was flanked by viewscreens linked to the station's computers and communications systems. There was a holding room, in which visitors seeking admittance in the throne room waited for the authorization.

History
When the Emperor visited the Death Star shortly before his death during the Battle of Endor, the throne room had only just been finished. The ultimate confrontation between Jedi and the Sith took place in the throne room when Luke Skywalker, last heir of the Jedi ways, faced Palpatine and his apprentice Darth Vader. The Emperor taunted and tempted Skywalker, leading to duel Vader, who was in fact the young Jedi's estranged father. Although Skywalker managed to cripple Vader, he refused to succumb to the dark side. Enraged at the young man's denial, the Emperor unleashed deadly Force lightning into Skywalker. The Jedi's pleas for help awakened the good in Vader, who then chose to renounce his connection to the dark side, and turned against the Emperor. While he had suffered fatal injuries from the Emperor's lightning, Vader managed to hurl him into the reactor shaft, which killed the old tyrant in a blaze of blue energy.

Appearances

 * Return of the Jedi: Beware the Power of the Dark Side!
 * Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi
 * "The Levers of Power"&mdash;The Rise of the Empire