Nathan's Ultimate Bio
on


Luke Skywalker

The following was taken from STAR WARS - The Essential Guide to Characters
by Andy Mangels

It is a great book and I recommend it to any STAR WARS fan


Hair Color
Blond

Eye Color
Blue

Height
1.72 meters

Homeworld
Tatooine

Political Affiliation
Rebel Alliance

Weapon of Choice
Lightsaber

Vehicle of Choice
Incom T-65B X-Wing fighter

First Appearance
Star Wars: A New Hope

Galactic history is full of heroic Jedi Knights, but perhaps none of them have been as influential as Luke Skywalker, a young Tatooine farmboy heir to a legacy of darkness and light.
In the time after the Clone Wars, the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi asked his brother and sister-in-law, Owen and Beru Lars of Tatooine, to raise Luke, the son of Kenobi's Jedi student Anakin Skywalker (alias Darth Vader).
Moisture farmers in the barren deserts of twin-sunned Tatooine, Owen and Beru raised Luke as if they were his aunt and uncle. When he asked about his father, they lied to him, telling him that his father had been a great pilot, and later on, a navigator on a spice freighter.
Ben watched over Luke from afar, hiding his own home in the barren and treacherous Jundland Wastes. Growing up, Luke only saw the "crazy hermit" - as his uncle had called Ben Kenobi - a few times, including one time when Luke and a friend crashed a skyhopper in Beggar's Canyon. Ben helped save them, but Owen ran him off the property, telling them never to return.
Luke had a significant aptitude for flying repulsorlift vehicles such as skyhoppers and landspeeders. He became good friends with another hotshot, Biggs Darklighter. Luke and Biggs developed a fast friendship. They raced their landspeeders and skyhoppers through Beggar's canyon in the Jundland Wastes. They both planned to enter the Imperial Space Academy together. They also planned to buy a spaceship after their graduation. Neither of them envisioned the galaxy of turmoil that existed beyond Tatooine.
While Luke saw his future in the stars, his uncle kept him firmly at work at the moisture farm. Season after season, he turned down Luke's request to apply to the Academy. Meanwhile, Biggs applied and was accepted into the Academy.
Out working with the moisture vaporators one day, Luke saw what he was sure to be a space battle above the planet. He went to Fixer's (another one of his friends) shop to tell him and some of his other friends about what he saw, and was surprised to see Biggs there. He was about to embark on his first mission aboard the merchant ship Rand Ecliptic, as its first mate, and had returned to Tatooine to see Luke and his family. In private, Biggs told Luke that he was going to join the Rebellion.
Luke was right about the space battle. When Uncle Owen bought two droids, R2-D2 and C-3PO, from the Jawas, even in his wildest dreams, Luke wouldn't be able to imagine the adventures that he was about to tumble into. Artoo carried a hologram of a beautiful princess, which eventually led Luke to Ben Kenobi. At Ben's house, Luke learned that his father had been a Jedi Knight, who had been betrayed and murdered by Darth Vader. Ben gave Luke his father's lightsaber.
After imperials murdered his aunt and uncle in their search for the droids, Luke believed that there was no purpose for him to stay on Tatooine, so he agreed to go with Ben to Alderaan and learn the ways of the Jedi, like his father before him. Luke, Ben, and the droids booked passage on the Millennium Falcon, a modified freighter piloted by Han Solo and his Wookiee first mate, Chewbacca.
As they headed toward Alderaan, Ben began teaching Luke the ways of the Force. But the training would not last long. The Falcon emerged from hyperspace where Alderaan should have been, only to find the planet destroyed and a massive space station - The Death Star - nearby. When the Falcon was drawn inside the station, the passengers stowed away in the smuggling holds.
Ben soon left the ship to disable the tractor beam and allow their escape. Although he warned Luke and Han to stay behind, they were soon engaged in an ill-planned attempt to rescue Princess Leia. The plan worked, but Ben was killed aboard the Death Star.
The Falcon went to the Rebel base on Yavin Four, where the technical readouts of the Death Star were analyzed. Fighter pilots for X-Wings and Y-Wings were chosen from the ranks. Luke passes flight-simulator tests and was awarded a T-65B X-Wing fighter, with Artoo-Detoo to fly as his onboard astromech droid.
Luke was reunited with his friend Biggs, also flying in the mission against the Death Star. Both were flying with the X-Wing Red Squadron. Unfortunately, Han decided not to join the mission, calling it a suicide run. Luke was sad to see the Corellian gambler go; he had grown to like him.
When Red Leader's first strike team was killed on their approach down the Death Star trench, Luke, Biggs, and Wedge Antilles started their run of destruction. Luke led, with the other two pilots as backup. Unfortunately, Darth Vader and two TIE fighters dogged the trio. First, Wedge's ship was hit and he had to abort, and then Bigg's X-Wing was destroyed in a blast from Vader's ship. Luke held back his sorrow over the loss of his friend and completed the run alone.
With the timely arrival of the Millennium Falcon, Luke's pursuers were scattered. He heard Ben's voice, telling him to use the Force. Shutting off his targeting computer and calmly reaching out with the Force, Luke fired his proton torpedo into the targeted thermal-exhaust port. His missile destroyed the Death Star.
As he zoomed away from the exploding space station, Luke heard Ben's voice again. "Remember, the Force will be with you. . .always."
Over the following three years, Luke would become an essential part of the Rebel Alliance, flying on many missions, both solo and with many others. He found traces of Jedi and Force-strong individuals, but Luke was still largely untrained himself. Meanwhile, Luke began to construct a new family. Artoo-Detoo was almost constantly at his side. He grew to love Han, Chewbacca, Threepio, and Leia.
Luke went with Leia and the droids on a diplomatic mission to Circarpous, but they were forced to make an unscheduled landing on the jungle planet of Mimban, where they were caught up in a search for the Force-powerful Kaiburr Crystal at the sacred Temple of Pomojema. At the temple, Luke and Leia faced Darth Vader, who had arrived to get the crystal as well. Luke used his lightsaber to drive Vader into a pit, then he used the power of the crystal to heal the wounds that Leia had recieved from Vader's attack.
Luke was instrumental in the discovery of the icy planet of Hoth, which would become the Rebel base after the evacuation of Yavin Four. He was promoted to commander by General Jan Dodonna, and later given leadership of the elite X-Wing Rogue Squadron. On the planet of Hoth, Luke and the Rogue Squadron learned how to handle snowspeeders, which were custom-modified Incom T-47 repulsorlift speeders. The training proved to be very helpful when Imperials attacked Hoth, launching AT-ATs--All Terrain Armored Transports, toward the Rebel's Echo Base. Luke helped repel the attack, but the base was overrun. Most of the Rebel forces had evacuated, but instead of meeting them at their secret rendezvous point, Luke had another mission.
Ben's spirit had appeared to Luke on Hoth, telling him to go to the Dagobah system, where he could train to be a Jedi under Yoda, the master who had taught Kenobi. Luke and Artoo went to the dense swamp planet, crashing the X-Wing into a watery bog. Shorty thereafter, Luke met a strange little green creature of an unknown species, who spoke in disjointed sentences. The creature promised to take him to Yoda, but Luke became impatient.
It was then that he found out that the diminutive little being was Yoda. The Jedi Master discussed Luke's future with the spirit of Kenobi, then commenced training Luke immediatly. He lectured him about the Force while Luke performed rigorous physical and phychological exercises, warning him against the easy path of anger and the lure of the dark side. One of Luke's most difficult tests was when Yoda told him to go into a tree that was full of dark-side energy. When Luke asked what was inside, the enigmatic Master replied, "Only what you take with you." Inside the tree, Luke dueled with an apparition that resembled Darth Vader - until the helmet cracked and revealed Luke's own face. He too could become part of the dark side.
Luke learned other valuble lessons when Yoda had him practice levitation using the Force. Luke despaired when he spotted his X-Wing sinking in the bog. Yoda ordered him to use the same powers to raise his ship, as he had on rocks and supplies. Luke said he'd try, but was cut off abruptly by Yoda. "No! Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try."
Finally, Yoda instructed Luke to open up his mind to the memory of old friends, and the possibilities of the future. Jarred by visions of Han Solo and Leia in pain on Cloud City, Luke decided to leave and to try to rescue his friends. Yoda and the spirit of Kenobi both warned Luke that the decision could destroy everything his friends had fought for, and that he was too susceptible to the dark side of the Force. Torn between his knowledge that Yoda and Ben were right, and the visions of his friends in danger, Luke left Dagobah, promising to return someday to finish his training.
Bespin's Cloud City was a trap; instead of finding his friends, he found Darth Vader. The two engaged in a huge lightsaber duel, and Vader finally drove Luke out onto a gantry above a reactor shaft. The Dark Lord of the Sith distracted Luke long enough to slice off his right hand. Still clutching the lightsaber, Luke's hand fell into the warm winds below. But the worst was yet to become, as Vader told him the truth of his past that Ben Kenobi had hidden from him: "I am your father," he said solemnly. "Search your feelings. You know it be true." Vader went on to tell Luke that they could overthrow the Emperor and rule the galaxy together as father and son. Luke didn't even reply. Looking sadly at the inhuman monster that his father had become, he calmly stepped off the platform and fell.
He was drawn into an exhaust pipe and emerged on the underside of the floating city, where he barely snagged an electronic weather vane to stop his fall. Using the Force, he called out weakly to Leia, who at that time was escaping the city aboard the Millenium Falcon. They turned back and rescued Luke as he was about ready to fall to his death. But as they flew away, Luke could feel the presence of Vader in his mind.
Back with the Rebel fleet, Luke recieved a new bionic hand, but while it and his lightsaber were replaceable, his innocence was not. Ben had lied to him, Vader had tempted him . . . Luke faced an uncertain future.
Soon afterward, Luke was back at work with the Rebel Alliance, planning with Leia, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian the best way to rescue Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt. By the end of the rescue, Luke helped destroy Jabba and save Han. Upon leaving Tatooine, Luke returned to Dagobah to finish his training, only to discover that Yoda was dying. The Jedi Master confirmed Luke's fears about Vader, and told him that to complete his Jedi training, Luke had to face Vader one final time. Luke then confronted the spirit of Ben Kenobi, and learned an even more shocking element of his past: Leia was his twin sister!
Torn by his feelings, Luke became moody and withdrawn. When the Alliance planned a mission to destroy the second Death Star above Yavin's forest moon of Endor, Luke chose not to fly with the Rogue Squadron. Instead, he accompanied a strike force to the moon's s surface, where they planned to destroy the electronic shield generator that protected the battle station.
On Endor, Luke finally faced up to his destiny. Quietly, in the Ewok village, he told Leia about his father . . . about their father. Luke could feel him nearby, waiting. He needed to go to Vader, not to destroy him, but to save him from the dark side. Luke surrendered himself to Vader's Imperial troops and met his father. He tried to reach the goodness that was Anakin Skywalker, hidden deep below the dark-side powers and the black armor, but the power of the dark side was too great.
On board the second Death Star, Emperor Palpatine provoked Luke about the fate of his friends until Luke attacked; Vader defended his Master. Father and son were soon locked on in deadly combat, but then Luke regained control of his anger and refused to fight. Searching his son's feelings, Vader sensed something he had never seen before: the secret of Luke's twin sister, Princess Leia. "If you will not turn to the dark side, then perhaps she will," Vader threatened. It was that thought that broke Luke's Jedi calm. He attacked his father again, hacking and stabbing with the lightsaber. He finally beat his father down, chopping off his right hand.
Turning his back on the crippled Dark Lord, Luke confronted the Emperor, "You've failed, Your Highness. I am a Jedi, like my father before me." Palpatine attacked Luke with blue Force lightning, knowing that the younger Skywalker would never join him. But as Palpatine prepared to deliver the killing bolts, Vader rose from behind, lifted his evil Master into the air, and threw him into the burning shaft of the power core. Vader tried to follow him into oblivion, but Luke stopped him.
Vader was dying, and he asked Luke to take his helmet off, so he could look at his son with his own eyes for the first time. As he struggled to breathe, he told Luke that he was right. He did have goodness in him. And then, repentant, he died.
Luke took Vader's armor to the moon of Endor and burned it in a funeral pyre. Later that night, as he slipped away from the Rebel/Ewok Celebration, he was surprised at a vision. For a few moments, he saw Obi-Wan Kenobi, Yoda, and Anakin Skywalker, all smiling at him. Kenobi and Yoda's pupil - and Skywalker's son - was, now and forever, a Jedi.
The day after the destruction of the second Death Star, Luke was part of the strike force that freed the planet Bakura from an invasion by the reptilian Ssi-ruuk. The following year, Luke was involved in Mon Mothma's short-lived private strike team, called the Senate Interplanetary Intelligence Network - SPIN. While on a mission, Luke met a young Jedi prince named Ken, as well as the crazed son of Emperor Palpatine, the pacifist Triclops. He also gained access to the Lost City of the Jedi, below the surface of Yavin Four, but the city was destroyed.
Luke's relationship with feisty women would strike again - literally - when he accompanied Hapan Prince Isolder to Dathomir, where they hoped to talk some sense into Han Solo. Whacked with a club by a Dathomirian witch named Teneniel Djo, Luke was amazed to find out that he was supposed to be her husband. Once he helped her Singing Mountain Clan defeat the evil Gethzrion and the Nightsisters, Luke was freed of his "obligation". Djo and Isolder would soon marry, and years later, their Force-attuned daughter would enter Luke's life.
Luke saw his earlier mentor for the final time in the Imperial Palace on Coruscant. Ben appeared to him as he slept, warning him that the pathways were closing for the fading Jedi. He assured Luke that he was a powerful Jedi, and a hope for the future. Obi-Wan then bid him goodbye, adding "I loved you as a son, and as a student, and as a friend. Until we meet again, may the Force be with you." Then as he disappeared forever, he told Luke not to think of himself as the last of the Jedi, but "the first of the new."
Shortly thereafter, Luke was caught up in the battle against Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn and his forces. He was also stalked by Mara Jade, a beautiful woman whose compulsion to kill him came from the long-dead Emperor. And finally, he began to train with - and then reject the teachings of - the mad Jedi clone Joruus C'Baoth. Using tissue from the hand Luke had lost on Bespin, Joruus had grown a clone of his own. Luke faced his clone, Luuke, in the throne room of the Emperor's Mount Tantiss facility on the planet Wayland. When Mara Jade killed Luuke, Luke joined with her and Leia to defeat and destroy C'Baoth.
Surviving Imperial forces drove the New Republic off Coruscant; its temporary headquaters were established on the fifth moon of Da Soocha in the Cyax system. Luke, Lando, and Wedge attacked Coruscant, but their ship crashed. Although the others escaped in the Millenium Falcon, Luke allowed himself and Artoo to be sucked up into a crackling blue force storm. It transported him to an Imperial dungeon ship, which in turn, took him to the planet Byss. There he was surprised to find the clone of Emperor Palpatine, alive and willing to teach him.
Like a few others in the history of the Jedi, Luke felt that he could learn about, and destroy, the dark side of the Force from within. As the training went on, Luke was sure he was staying with the light, but he was becoming corrupted. It wasn't until Leia confronted him, her lightsaber flashing, that he realized how much he had almost lost. Working together, Luke and Leia destroy the clone.
Later, Luke found a fallen Jedi named Kam Solusar and freed him from the dark side. Following the advice of the Jedi Holocron, Luke and Kam searched for other lost Jedi on the planet Ossus, the ancient center of the Jedi Culture. Luke found new students, Jem and Rayf Ysanna, as well as the ruins of a Jedi Library. Later, on New Alderaan, Jem was killed when Imperial Dark Siders attacked an Alliance settlement.
Realizing that the training he was giving Leia and a few of the other Force-powerful people he found was not enough, Luke petitioned the Provisional Council for permission to begin a Jedi Academy. He founded it in the Great Temple of Massassi on the jungle moon of Yavin Four. Luke's first class had twelve Jedi initiates, including the exotic-looking Tionne, the generational clone Dorsk 81, the Bespin gas prospector Streen, the angry Gantoris, the Dathomirian witch Kirani Ti, and Kam Solusar. Later, Kyp Durron, Nichos Marr, and the Mon Calamari Ambassador Cilghal would join the trainees. Later yet, he would be teaching Jaina and Jacen Solo, Chewbacca's nephew Lowbacca, and Tenel Ka.
Skywalker taught his students all aspects of the Force, as he had been taught by his Masters Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda: levitation, visualization of battles, sensing other living creatures, calming and healing, and many other Force exercises. He also allowed them access to Vodo-Siosk Baas's Jedi Holocron.
But the evil spirit of Dark Lord of the Sith Exar Kun was trapped on Yavin Four. Kun first tempted Gantoris, but the student turned on him and was killed. Later, Kyp Durron would be seduced by Kun's promises of power. The boy helped the Dark Lord attack Luke, leaving the Jedi Master's body unconscious.
Luke's spirit survived in the same netherworld Exar Kun's shade inhabited. Luke soon found out that Kun had become skilled at using the dark side of the Force to influence the living world. Over the following weeks, Kun used his powers to try to destroy Luke's body, but it was protected by the Jedi initiates, Leia, and her two Force-strong twin children, Jacen and Jaina.
Finally, the initiates lured Exar Kun to appear in the grand audience chamber where Luke's body lay in silence. Joined by Jacen and Jaina, they focused their will into a single entity of the Force, and Luke's spirit appeared to aid them, as did Vodo Siosk Baas's spirit. Their combined powers and energies extinguished Kun's dark light.
Shortly thereafter, a repentant Kyp Durron returned to face his punishment for the crime he had committed while in the thrall of the dark side. Luke was forgiving; he accepted Kyp back into Jedi training, and later traveled with him to the black-hole clusters known as the Maw to help destroy the Sun Crusher ship, and the threats of Imperial Admiral Daala.
Peace was in the galaxy for a brief, shining moment. Luke knew that he had set out on the right path; the Jedi he trained would be the hope of the future. But, even though he had an academy to run, he didn't stay on Yavin Four. One of his adventures found him taking Nichos Marr and scientist Cray Mingla to check out an inactive spaceship called the Eye of Palpatine. On the ship, Luke was surprised to discover that the essence of a Jedi woman named Callista, trapped inside the computer core, had kept the weapons system disabled for nearly thirty years.
In order to destroy the Eye, Nichos and Cray stayed behind, sacrificing themselves. Luke mourned not only their loss, but that Callista, whose dream presence and computer conversations he had fallen in love with. To his surprise, Cray reappeared in an escape pod, but he sooned discovered that it was not really Cray; Callista and Cray's essences had been exchanged before the Eye blew up.
Two years later, Luke was caught up in a search to find Han and Leia's missing children. They had been kidnapped by the dark Force user Hethrir, who planned to use them to revitalize the dark side. Luke was tempted by the doorways to the Force guarded by Waru, but the calls of his sister and her children helped return him from the brink of destruction.
Luke's twin niece and nephew, Jacen and Jaina, eventually arrived to train at his Jedi academy. By then, many cycles of students had come to train, and many more were yet to come.
Luke Skywalker has faced a destiny that was his before he was even born. In bringing back the ancient order of the Jedi, he has provided hope for the future, and a brightly shining beacon for the light side of the Force.
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