Duel on Death Star II

"One thing remains&mdash;Vader. You must confront Vader. Then, only then, a Jedi, will you be&hellip; and confront him, you will."

- Yoda to Luke Skywalker

The Duel on Death Star II was the final, climactic lightsaber duel between Luke Skywalker and his father, Darth Vader. It was the duel that redeemed Anakin Skywalker, and led to Galactic Emperor Palpatine's first death at the hands of the Chosen One, earning Luke Skywalker the title of Jedi Knight. It was an integral part of the Battle of Endor.

Prelude
"Welcome, young Skywalker. I have been expecting you. [&hellip;] I am looking forward to completing your training. In time, you will call me Master.''" "''You're gravely mistaken. You won't convert me as you did my father."

- Palpatine and Luke Skywalker



On the forest moon of Endor, Luke Skywalker turned himself in to Imperial troops. When questioned, he denied the fact that he was part of a team of Rebel commandos that had been sent to Endor to deactivate the shield protecting the orbiting Death Star. Vader took custody of Luke and dismissed the commander to search for the Rebel team. Luke tried to convince Vader to come with him and forsake the dark side, but Vader refused, believing that it was too late for him to escape what he had become.

Vader transported Luke to the second Death Star and led him into the Emperor's throne room. Palpatine immediately began trying to seduce him to the dark side of the Force, but Luke refused to give in, and also implied the imminent deaths of all onboard, including himself and Palpatine. Palpatine, knowing that Luke was referring to the Rebel Fleet's approaching attack on the Death Star, revealed to Luke that the entire battle was a trap that he had orchestrated to destroy the rebellion. Luke taunted the Emperor, telling him that his overconfidence was his weakness, to which the Emperor answered that Luke's greatest weakness was his faith in his friends, with Vader informing Luke of the futility of resistance.

Luke witnessed the arrival of the Rebel fleet in the system and the start of the space battle. It was then that Palpatine revealed another secret&mdash;the Death Star II was operational, and Luke watched helplessly as the battlestation fired its superlaser, destroying the Mon Calamari Star Cruiser Liberty. Luke refused to give in to his anger, but the Emperor continued to taunt him, telling Luke that all his friends and the entire rebellion would soon be destroyed.

The Duel
"Never! I'll never turn to the dark side. You have failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me.''"

- Luke Skywalker

Palpatine could feel Skywalker's anger, and tempted Luke with a challenge to strike him down and complete his journey to the dark side. His anger mounting, Luke suddenly summoned his lightsaber to his hand, and he struck out at the Emperor, only to have his attack blocked by Vader's own saber. As the battle began, Palpatine cackled in satisfaction.



Vader and Luke battled on the dais before the throne for quite a while, circling and trading numerous blows with no injury. Then, Luke unleashed an aggressive flurry of attacks, surprising his father and forcing him to give ground. As Vader retreated, he found himself with his back to the dais's main stairwell and Luke quickly took advantage of this, kicking Vader down the stairs. As Vader landed in a heap at the bottom of the stairs, Palpatine goaded the young Jedi to make further use of his aggression and hatred. Palpatine's words broke through Luke's anger and he deactivated his lightsaber, regaining his calm. Seeing this, Vader regained his feet and solemnly stated that Obi-Wan had taught Luke well. Luke responded with a refusal to continue fighting.

Vader quietly ascended the steps, pointing out Luke's lack of wisdom in lowering his defenses before attacking with a sudden overcut. Luke was able to ignite his saber just in time to block Vader's blow. As the two resumed fighting, Luke suddenly moved to the side and leapt into one of the data pods in the room. As Vader stabbed his blade into the gap between two consoles, Luke jumped up onto one of the ceiling walkways, out of Vader's reach. As Vader looked up, Luke attempted to convince the Sith Lord that there was conflict in him, but Vader denied this. Luke retorted with his belief that Vader would not kill him now, as he had not done so before on Cloud City. Vader responded by chastising Luke's underestimation of the dark side, and said that if he would not fight, then he would "meet his destiny."



Rather than attempt to leap onto the walkway himself, Vader hurled his lightsaber at Luke, who ducked to avoid the crimson blade. It severed the walkway's support struts, showering Luke with sparks and causing the walkway to collapse. As the gantry fell, Luke slid along it, landed on the floor, and scurried beneath the dais while Palpatine laughed in amusement. Vader curtly walked down the stairs and saw Luke retreat under the dais. Luke invited Vader to come after him, but Vader refused, believing that Luke's invitation was a trap. To prove that he intended only to speak with his father, Luke tossed his lightsaber out from beneath the dais, where it rolled to a stop at Vader's feet. Vader, mocking his son's foolishness in relinquishing his weapon, picked it up and went after Luke.

As Vader stalked the shadows beneath, searching for his son, he began to taunt Luke, telling him the only way to save his friends was to give in. Sensing Luke's thoughts, Vader learned that he had a daughter&mdash;Luke's twin sister, Princess Leia Organa&mdash;and suggested that he would turn her to the dark side if Luke would not be turned.

Outraged by this, Luke emerged from the shadows and used the Force to retrieve his weapon from Vader. Tapping into the dark side, he viciously attacked Vader, giving in to his rage and using it to fuel his attacks. Luke drove Vader back, his broad bladework showering them both in sparks in the confined space. Luke's assault on Vader was so intense that their lightsabers, both containing synthetic crystals, began to short out. As their battle moved out from under the dais and towards the elevator and reactor core shaft, Vader was driven to his knees as his son continued to hammer him with blows. Finally, Vader was knocked off his feet, and Luke's blade slashed through Vader's wrist, ending the duel. Vader collapsed to the floor, his respirator systems taxed to the point that they caused his breathing to come in short, ragged pants. As Vader's mechanical hand, still clutching his lightsaber, fell down the shaft, Luke held his father at bladepoint, but he then heard the triumphant laughter of Palpatine.



Pleased by Luke's display of dark power, the Dark Lord of the Sith approached him, urging him to finish off Vader and take his place as the Emperor's apprentice. Luke slowly looked down at his own artificial hand, then at the severed stump where Vader's right hand had been. Realizing what he was in danger of becoming, Luke threw his lightsaber away and declared himself a Jedi, like his father before him.

Luke's torture


"So be it ... Jedi. If you will not be turned, you will be destroyed! Young fool. Only now&mdash;at the end&mdash;do you understand. Your feeble skills are no match for the power of the dark side. You have paid the price for your lack of vision. Now, young Skywalker&hellip; you will die."

- Palpatine

Palpatine, enraged that his attempt to corrupt Luke had failed, raised his hands and unleashed a blast of Force lightning. Luke attempted to use Tutaminis to absorb the blast, but his lack of training in the technique coupled with Palpatine's power resulted in his failure. Luke crumpled to the ground, and Palpatine chose to torture the Jedi with a continuous barrage of low-intensity lightning, seeking to make him pay for his defiance. As Luke writhed in agony, Vader dragged himself to his feet and returned to Palpatine's side. Palpatine continued to mock Luke as he tortured him, and mentally noted Vader returning to his side. As Palpatine's barrage continued, Luke cried out to his father to help him, but the conflicted Sith Lord did nothing. As Palpatine prepared to kill Luke, the tiny part of Anakin Skywalker that remained in Vader broke through, unwilling to allow his son to die. He turned on the Emperor, seizing him from behind with his remaining arm. Palpatine, completely shocked at Vader's attack, continued to fire the now full-intensity lightning, striking both himself and Vader. The phenomenal power of the lightning caused irreparable damage to Anakin's cybernetics, but did nothing to stop him. Anakin carried the struggling Sith Lord over to the railing above the reactor shaft leading to the Death Star's core, and, with his last strength, hurled him into the abyss. Palpatine's body struck the reactor core shortly thereafter and exploded in a blast of energy.



Emperor Palpatine, Darth Sidious, had suffered his first death. Also, at the cost of his own life, Anakin Skywalker had redeemed himself and fulfilled his destiny.

Aftermath
"Now&hellip; go, my son. Leave me.''" "No. You're coming with me. I will not leave you here. I've got to save you." "''You already have, Luke. You were right. You were right about me. Tell your sister&hellip; you were right."

- Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker, before the former's death.



After the death of Palpatine, Luke dragged his dying father to a shuttle, in the deck of the hangar bay. On the ramp of the shuttle, Anakin requested that Luke remove his mask. Luke, urgently reminding his father that he would die without it, was informed by Anakin that it did not matter. Anakin, realizing the inevitability of his death, only wanted to look at his son without the ocular filters of his mask. Luke complied, slowly removing Anakin's mask to reveal his heavily scarred, deathly pale face. Smiling at his son, Anakin told Luke to escape and leave him behind. Luke refused, adamantly proclaiming that he needed to save his father. Anakin quietly comforted his son, telling him that he had already saved him, and asking him to tell Leia that he had been redeemed in the end. With that final request and a small smile, Anakin Skywalker passed away. Luke briefly mourned his father's death and flew with his body down to the surface of Endor via his deceased father's shuttle, ST-321, narrowly escaping a fireball caused by the late stages of the Death Star's destruction. There, Luke built a traditional Jedi funeral pyre and burned the armor that his father had occupied for the entire second half of his life; what little remained of Anakin's organic body had vanished.

The duel was later "adapted" into a Holothriller film called Luke Skywalker and the Jedi's Revenge, under the orders of Lord Cronal, the former Director of Imperial Intelligence as part of a means of manipulating the new-found free speech to promote Imperial values. Skywalker, after watching the holofilm, expressed disgust at the ending, which depicted Skywalker killing Darth Vader to avenge Emperor Palpatine, and also cited most of the film's historical inaccuracies.

Behind the scenes


According to Richard Marquand, George Lucas wanted this duel to be bigger than the Duel on Cloud City but changed his mind during the shooting, saying: "George is very blunt. He said, 'It's just a couple of guys banging sticks against each other. Don't worry about that. It is bigger because of what is going on in their heads. That is what makes it bigger.'"

The junior novelization of ROTJ, written with knowledge of the prequels, goes into Vader's head as he watches Palpatine torture Luke, and suggests that the thought of Padmé and her love broke through to him, and, knowing it was her son being tortured, that it was then that he was restored as Anakin Skywalker and turned on the Emperor. The Life and Legend of Obi-Wan Kenobi shows Obi-Wan watching the duel from the netherworld of the Force&mdash;once Luke refuses to kill Vader and the lightning attack begins, looking on in abject horror as Luke, and with him the hope of the Jedi, is destroyed by the Dark Lord of the Sith, Kenobi is hardly able to believe what he has seen when the Padawan he had given up on as hopelessly enthralled by the dark side reasserts himself and saves his son.

Lucas has stated that Anakin Skywalker's body did disappear in the same manner that Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda's bodies had at their deaths, and that only Vader's armor was burned on the funeral pyre.

Lawrence Kasdan says: "My sense of the relationship between Vader and the Emperor is that the Emperor is much more powerful than Vader and that Vader is very much intimidated by him. Vader has dignity, but the Emperor in Jedi really has all the power."

Bob Anderson was Vader's double in this duel as well as in the Duel on Cloud City. Mark Hamill, complaining for the fact that Anderson was not recognized after the work he had done, said: "Bob Anderson was the man who actually did Vader’s fighting. It was always supposed to be a secret, but I finally told George I didn’t think it was fair any more. Bob worked so bloody hard that he deserves some recognition. It’s ridiculous to preserve the myth that it’s all done by one man." Despite the stuntman substitution, Hamill was persuaded to pose for publicity photos with Prowse in the rehearsal hall. "I thought that was nonsense," he charges. "They had us pose in rehearsal clothes with our swords crossed. I had actually been rehearsing all morning with the "real" Darth Vader, and then Dave just came in for the photo session."

The Super Nintendo Entertainment System game Super Star Wars: Return of the Jedi featured the duel, although with one minor difference: Luke ends up dueling Emperor Palpatine instead of simply being tortured by him as it was in the movie, although the presence of Anakin Skywalker's ghost in the ending implies that Darth Vader managed to finish Palpatine off like in the movie.

In Star Wars Infinities: Return of the Jedi, Luke was captured by the Empire after leaving Dagobah and after he left two messages; one for to tell the truth to Leia that they are brother and sister and also that Darth Vader is their father, and another to the Rebel fleet not to rescue him. Leia goes to the Death Star to rescue him but was captured and brought to the Emperor. As the Battle of Endor begins, Palpatine orders Vader to kill Leia but Luke blocks Vader's strike and duels him. Luke swings an attack to Vader's legs but Vader jumps and kicks him in the face. Palpatine gives one last chance to join him or die. Leia attempts to intervene, but Palpatine subdues her with Force Lightning. Luke says he doesn't to fight anymore and ask Vader can he kill both of his children, and Vader and Palpatine are stunned by the revelation. Not swayed by Luke's proposal of trying to pull him from the dark side, Vader continues the fight. When Wedge Antilles and X-wings destroy the Death Star's reactor core, Palpatine escapes and Luke cuts Vader's right arm off. But the Dark Lord is still powerful enough to use the force with his left arm to summon his lightsaber and bring Luke down to his knees. Luke says he will not fight anymore, and says that if he wants to strike both him and Leia down, he should do so now and doesn't believe he will. Instead, Vader falls to his knees and begs forgiveness, causing him to turn from the dark side of the Force and become Anakin Skywalker once again.

In the non-canon Lego Star Wars 2, the duel between Luke and Vader was skipped entirely, with Emperor Palpatine immediately torturing Luke with Force lightning before Vader intervenes, with Vader and Luke then teaming up in the battle against Palpatine before Vader finishes Palpatine off just as he did in the movie.

Appearances

 * Star Wars Purge: Seconds to Die
 * Star Wars: X-wing Alliance
 * Shadows of the Empire novel
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi novel
 * Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi junior novel
 * Return of the Jedi (radio drama)
 * Star Wars: The Rise and Fall of Darth Vader
 * The Truce at Bakura
 * I, Jedi
 * Force Heretic III: Reunion
 * Betrayal
 * Exile
 * Revelation
 * Outcast
 * Abyss

Non-canonical appearances

 * ''Star Wars Infinities: Return of the Jedi
 * LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
 * LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga
 * Star Wars -Phantasmagoria-