Luke Skywalker is only alive thanks to an Imperial misconception

The author Chris Snelgrove
| Published 14 seconds ago

Luke Skywalker accomplishes many amazing feats in Star Wars thanks to his mystical powers, but his most impressive achievements had nothing to do with the Force. We're talking, of course, about his ability to escape the second Death Star despite it still being crawling with Stormtroopers who could have easily killed him while he carried Darth Vader's body to the nearest shuttle bay. However, one fan theory may explain how Luke survived: simply put, all the Imperials would have left Luke alive because they believed he had just murdered both Vader and Emperor Palpatine.

Luke Skywalker is terrifying

As viewers, we know what happened near the end Return of the Jedi: After nearly giving in to his rage and destroying Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker drops his lightsaber and surrenders. Palpatine, on the other hand, begins to pelt the young Jedi with Force lightning, only to stop him Darth Vader throwing his boss down the shaft. Vader then dies from lightning passing through his body, but since none of the Emperors witnessed either the throne room confrontation or Vader's deathbed redemption, they would have concluded that Luke Skywalker is the most formidable enemy in the galaxy.

Think about it: For the Imperials aboard the Death Star, Luke walked into the throne room of Emperor Palpatine, their biggest boss and scariest guy. The film opens by showing how the very idea of ​​Palpatine being on the space station reduced Moff Jarrod to a quivering mess of anxiety and fear. The Imperials saw Luke walk into Palpatine's throne room in chains and come out alive and free… the only reasonable conclusion is that he somehow managed to kill or overpower Palpatine, and no rank-and-file Stormtrooper is going to want to fight the guy who successfully took on the Emperor.

At this point, skeptics will point out that not everyone aboard the Death Star was aware of Luke Skywalker's presence; in fact, it was a closely guarded secret. Therefore, very few Imperials would believe that the young warrior had done the impossible and escaped the clutches of the most powerful man in the galaxy. It would be impossible to miss another crucial detail: Luke Skywalker dragging what appears to be the corpse of Darth Vader.

Darth Vader's body

Palpatine was a very abstract threat to most Imperials, but Vader was quite tangible. This is a guy who commands starfighters and visits military bases, instantly killing even the highest-ranking officers who annoy him. He was the scourge of the entire Imperial service, the kind that anyone aboard the Death Star would dread to see. However, here comes some new beast who drags the Sith Lord's corpse to the shuttle bay like he's just carrying a big bag of garbage to the garbage collector.

That's not to belittle Luke Skywalker's abilities or his many accomplishments, but the lesson of the Star Wars prequels is that all it takes to kill even the most powerful Jedi is enough people firing blasters at the same time. Luke could easy was killed on the Death Star at any moment, but he survived because everyone thought he just killed the most powerful people in the galaxy. He's alive because of a simple misconception, though some would say it's just proof that the Force works in mysterious ways.