CT Luke has a higher murder count than Vader

https://games.yahoo.com/news/many-people-did-luke-skywalker-153505008.html

Interesting article. Luke committed mass murder. Vader's body counts.... pretty low actually!

 

That's not surprising, considering that Luke destroyed the Death Star. But Luke was doing it to save the Rebellion. Long has there been a debate about Tarkin not being justified in destroying Alderaan and Luke being justified in destroying the Death Star. I wouldn't call Luke bloodthirsty. That's a misnomer.

 

Well put.

 

Destroying the Death Star isn't mass murder any more than destroying a Super Star Destroyer is. The Death Star was a weapon of war, therefore it was a legitimate target.

 

What about all the civilian contractors?

 

Which ones? I must have missed that scene!

 

I could see that as a valid point if the Death Star was a simple military base. But like I said, it was a weapon of war, one which had already destroyed a planet.

 

Where in canon does it state there were civilians aboard the Death Star?

Even if so, as a legitimate military base, it was a legitimate target, just like shipyards would be in war (with civilians working there).

 

Who knows how many people(including co-workers mercilessly slaughtered for 'mistakes') Vader actually killed off-screen between ROTS and ANH? Wouldn't surprise me if it was higher than Luke's 'count'. Anyway what matters the most is the reason and circumstances behind the killings. From AOTC(murder of sand people) to ROTJ, Anakin/Vader's on-screen killings have ranged from hot-blood slaughter of innocent children, cold-blood murder of disarmed enemy, cold-blood slaughter of younglings to chilling disposing of incompetent Imperials left and right...None of which can be excused...Luke on the other hand has always killed in self-defence or as a way to bring down Imperials using a gigantic killing machine to destroy rebels. All of which can be excused. I wouldn't call Luke a murderer.

 

Soldiers who kill enemies in war are not murderers. There is a very distinct difference, legally, ethically, and morally. Luke chose to kill the smallest number of enemies he could in order to stop them from slaughtering millions, and he did so at the risk of his own life. He's not a murderer; he's a hero.

 

This argument falls apart when you consider that Vader blew up Alderaan. At a minimum, that's millions of innocent civilian lives (not a military target).

 

FTFY.

Also, if we're talking NuEU, I honestly don't think the Rebels were as good as they were saying...for a few reasons. That's irrelevant to me though, truthfully, I just go by the films.
But Lord Vader doesn't have as high of a body count on screen as Luke does, simple fact there. It doesn't really matter to me that they were "Imperial lives" and "Empire is evil", because honestly, I think the Civil War was ridiculous and that nobody needed to die. The Alliance can have their reasons, but that doesn't change my perspective.

I'm sure everyone expected this reply from me.

 

If you include the EU, Vader de-populated Prince Xisor's homeworld to contain to a bio-weapon outbreak.

Like Luke and the Death Star, there was a big picture.

 

This was a good thing, though, right? He razed the area but in doing so, saved the planet, IIRC.

 

You can't forget when Anakin blew up a droid control ship with at least a few dozen Neimodians on it,

massacred the Tusken Village (including women and children),

killed an unarmed Dooku,

helped kill Mace,

killed a bunch of youngling in the temple,

killed his pregnant wife (Yes, that's my head-canon, losing the will to live was beyond dumb.)

hunted down hundreds of fugitive jedi,

massacred the C.I.S. leadership,

assisted Tarkin in the destruction of Alderaan,

Killed dozens of rebel pilots,

Tortured Han, and his own daughter.

and throat hugged dozens of his own terrified allies... over things as trivial as spilled milk.

But by all means... Luke is the evil one. .

 

How else were the Alliance going to get rid of Palpatine's tyranny?

 

You know my answer to that one already. Rather, you should.

First, who said Luke was evil? They're just stating the facts that Luke killed more people. Because he did.

But he blew up a droid control ship, if we're going by the argument that all is fair in war, well...that was fair. Not evil. Killing the Tuskens: bad. Killed an unarmed Dooku: Eh, going by the Jedi and "he's too dangerous to be kept alive" regarding Palpatine, I'm going to say that one is debatable. Helped kill Mace: Mace was going to kill Palpatine instead of bringing him in for a fair trial. Anakin didn't kill him anyway. Palpatine did. Killed a bunch of younglings: going to ignore that for my own head canon. Hunted down hundreds of fugitive Jedi: Maybe, maybe not. Depends on your canon. Massacred the CIS Leadership: Again, it was war. He didn't need to kill them, but I'm not faulting him for it. Assisted Tarkin in the Destruction of Alderaan: He didn't stop it, but he definitely didn't assist it. Not like he pulled the trigger. Killed dozens of Rebel pilots: And the Rebel pilots killed dozens to millions of Imperials. Your point? Tortured Han and his own daughter: Point there. Throat hugged dozens of his own terrified allies: Putting my Ozzel bias aside for a moment, he did not throat hug dozens. And do I support the two people he did kill? No. But you can't exaggerate that he killed dozens.

 

I'm not going to justify Vader's killings of Dooku and the Separatist leaders. Dooku, despite being neutral-evil, more or less duped by Palpatine into becoming a villian, he was also an unarmed prisioner and Anakin would have had to be a fool to not see Palpatine's condescending evil smirk at Dooku right after he orders Anakin to kill him. The separatist council did not deserve to be killed in cold blood, hell they really didn't even deserve to be arrested since Palpatine was the one that instigated them into starting the clone wars to begin with.

As much as I dislike the youngling killings, I have a hard time ignoring it.

 

But we're talking about Anakin doing it. He didn't know most of this stuff. I don't think it's entirely correct to be blaming him for doing things that can be taken either way.

I'm not ignoring it, I've just developed a controversial theory that is better served in other threads.

 

It's a reference to a smartarsed discussion in Kevin Smith's Clerks - which, BTW, was about the second Death Star in ROTJ, not the one in SW/ANH.

Any 'civilian contractors' that may or may not have worked on the first Death Star would have been gone, DSI was finished when Luke blew it up. For the most part, only Imperial military personnel would have been on this BATTLE STATION. Fair game - and their deaths were casualties of war, not murder (as opposed to the population of Alderaan, which this very battle station blew to smithereens).