Luke Skywalker - Dark Lord, Darth...?

I've heard that Luke Skywalker once turned to the dark side and served the resurrected emperor in the Dark Horse graphic novel DARK EMPIRE.

Is this the only time Luke turned to the dark side, and did he ever take a 'Darth' title.

I'm not sure that he did, but if he didn't why not, and what title would you give him?

 

Luke did not take the "Darth" title during Dark Empire, mainly because when it was written, it had not yet been established that "Darth" was, in fact, a Sith title. At the time, there was no real explanation, other than that Anakin Skywalker took the name Darth Vader when he fell to the dark side. If Dark Empire had been written after 1999, Luke probably would have been "Darth (insert adjective or noun with an ominous connotation)". At the time, there was very little information on the Sith. Even Tales of the Jedi hadn't been written yet.

This is Luke's only real embrace of the dark side, so far.

I think Thrawn McEwok has some pet theories about Luke being the last Dark Lord, or something to that effect.

 

Wasn't there a DARK EMPIRE 2 and 3?
Did that have nothing to do with Luke's fall?

 

There was a Dark Empire II and Empire's End. Empire's End was originally supposed to be a full Dark Empire III, but it was instead condensed to a mere two issues, which led to it feeling a bit rushed. Luke is firmly back on the path of the Jedi in DEII and EE.

Though technically speaking, Palpatine never designated another heir to the Order of the Dark Lords after Lord Skywalker...

 

Nothing canon, but Darth Zoon would be fitting, even back when DE was written

 

Luke would never have taken a Darth Title because he never completely fell to the dark side. He never did anything really evil while with the Emperor. Even Leeland Chee in the Luke Omnibus says that Luke "nearly gave in to the dark side in DE". Although Luke pretended to join the Emperor and learned about the dark side, he was more like an undercover agent, trying to help the Alliance from behind enemy lines. He destroyed Imperial equipment and vehicles and sent the Alliance Imperial codes. Luke actually saved many Alliance lives.

It was even said in the endnotes that the more Luke learned about the dark side, the more he was "repulsed" by it. That doesn't exactly sound like a Sith, does it?

 

Indeed.

It's a very similar story to Ulic Qel-Droma, really. Just, where with Ulic the lure of the Krath did cause him to fall into darkness, with Luke he was able to hold back from completely falling -- thanks to Leia helping pull him back before it was too late.

Luke never really got past the candidate stage to full Sithdom.

 

I absolutely LOVE Dark Empire, for many reasons including Luke's story. The fact that he could go neck deep into the dark side but never get his hair wet really makes his character stronger.

Plus, he looks great with that vampire collar. XD

 

That always bugged me. Why would Palpatine trust him if Luke never showed any evidence that he had indeed fallen to the dark side? The Sith usually are a pretty exclusive club and you have to do some really ugly things to get a membership card. Palpatine could have just played along, trying to slowly lure Luke to the dark side. But in that case he surely would have had Luke do some nasty things to prove his (fake) evilness and lead him on his first steps towards Sithdom.

 

KamSolusar : That always bugged me. Why would Palpatine trust him if Luke never showed any evidence that he had indeed fallen to the dark side?

Palpatine *didn't* really trust him. Just as Luke pretended to be his apprentice, Palpatine pretended to trust Luke. Apparently, he was willing to take some losses because he thought that eventually he *would* be able to turn Luke into a dark Lord. Fortunately, he was wrong.

 

Darth Zoon?

 

Darth Darklighter.

 

I've always thought 'Skywalker' in and of itself would make for a great Sith name, especially for Luke in DE-in the OT, it's a name with positive, heroic connotations. When attached to a Sith Lord, it brings up the idea of a colossus astride the galaxy. Plus 'Lord Skywalker' just sounds awesome.

 

I swear we get this thread once every six months.

Edit: Dammit this thread reminded me of how much a Stover Dark Empire novel would rock.

 

Yeah, the threads do repeat cyclically, I swear. The DE thread that's up now? That's about the third one of those in the last year.

That being said...DE Luke-at least, the idea of him-is pretty badass. I like his no-silliness "Supreme Commander Skywalker" title, and you can see he's got the whole scaring-the-crap out of his subordinates thing down pat.

It's rather chillingly inspiring how he dips into the Dark Side and just comes out pretty much when he feels like it.

 

It shows how much people really want a novel of DE then doesn't it.
Someone should be taking note - MAKE IT HAPPEN!






What about Darth Sollus? (Dark Son)

 

Heh, how about Darth Starkiller?

Anyway, of course Palpatine knew from the start that Luke was just faking. Sure, Luke will sabotage his plan, and he'd probably lose the World Devestators, and maybe a couple of fleets, and a few battles... but who cares? The darkside is a very, very slippery slope, and Luke's not the first Jedi who has tried to defeat the darkside from within, only to lose his way (Ulic being the most obvious parallel, with DE's ties to TotJ). And a fallen Skywalker would be much worse for the galaxy then even a superweapon or two. Not to mention Palpatine still had a lot in reserve, like the Eclipse. Heck, his Force storms alone could wreck the Alliance Navy.

Although losing most of his clones was a bigger cost than Palpatine had anticipated in trying to corrupt/break Luke, and even then, Palpatine couldn't twist Luke into a Sith, not like he did with his father, he could only beat Luke into submission and obedience, and that's not quite as significant as corrupting Luke. Luke was still the apprentice, but part of the Sith culture is the scheming, and Luke was just a servant at that point, until Leia saved him.

Luke wouldn't take a real Sith title, but still, after the prequels, it might've been interesting if Palpatine had given Luke a Darth title when Luke had bowed after seemingly giving in to the inevitable. Of course, Luke wasn't going to stick around long enough to get a throne on Korriban or any of the other really big Sith stuff. And Luke hadn't reached the "point of no return", unlike Anakin did when he chopped off Mace Windu's arm (although that wasn't the point of no return, but it seemed like it from Anakin's POV), so probably wasn't time to give Luke a Darth title. Although, were Darth titles all that common back when DE was written? Nowadays we've got like hundreds of Darths, with dozens in certain time periods (Legacy, TOR), but can't remember. We didn't know about Darth Sidious since this was well before the prequels, but still.

I occasionally had this crazy idea, which is kind of related to this topic, that during the waning years of the GCW, when random darksiders keep popping up (Tremayne, Cronal, Brakiss, etc.), Luke could've tried pulling rank on them, as technically he could count as part of the Sith lineage, the apprentice to the master, and he did kill the master (sorta). I'm not saying Luke should go dark, or anything close, but for instance, at one point Jaina tried using Force lightning against Kyp, and Kyp shrugged it off easily, saying he had gone much farther down the dark path then. And while its never likely to happen in the current novels, if/when Luke confronts the Tribe, I thought it would be cool if the Tribe tries using some Sith techniques, and Luke could just laugh it off, as he's seen some really, really powerful Sith in his time (Palpatine and Exar Kun definitely), so next to them the Tribe is nothing. Sadly I doubt we'll ever get anywhere close to that powerful a Luke in the novels (or at least not until the last fifty pages of a series).

 

Starkiller is already taken by Vader's secret apprentice.

 

Other way round Dark Empire was first.

 

Luke was called starkiller in DE?

 

Ah, but Palpatine could give Luke that title as a way of mocking Vader's failed apprentice. And the Secret Apprentice has been called a dark mirror of what Luke could've been. And the name came from some early Star Wars scripts (I think?) and was originally Luke's, so its all circular anyway. Besides, I don't think TFU ever used the term Darth Starkiller, since the Secret Apprentice was always kind of a wuss for a Sith/darksider (not like he ever plotted against Vader), although I'm not entirely sure as I haven't kept up with all of TFU's details, as most of it is kind of stupid.

 

No. You're not following. My advice to you, read Dark Empire. Seriously. It just came out in a nice friendly hardcover omnibus format with DEI, DEII and EE and the Dark Empire Handbook.

 

I do actually own it. I've had it on my self for years, since the 90's... I just haven't got around to reading it. I think the artwork puts me off... not my style.

I want a novel dammit! lol

 

That's a really cool idea Nobody...

 

It would really take like half an hour to read the whole thing

Well worth it as it would clear a lot of these things up for you, and its a pretty fun read, even the nonsense that is DEII and EE