Luke's Destiny
In Return of the Jedi, three characters make competing claims about Luke Skywalker’s destiny, and Luke proves all three of them wrong.
When Obi-Wan Kenobi is counseling Luke on Dagobah, he says, “You cannot escape your destiny. You must face Darth Vader again.” Despite Luke’s protest – “I can’t kill my own father” – Obi-Wan claims it is Luke’s destiny to kill his father; if he does not, “Then the Emperor has already won.”
When Luke tries to abstain from dueling Darth Vader on the second Death Star, Vader attacks him with the words, “If you will not fight, you will meet your destiny.” Where Obi-Wan claimed it was Luke’s destiny to kill his father, Vader claims it is Luke’s destiny to be killed by his father.
Both Obi-Wan and Vader believe that Luke is locked into a kill-or-be-killed relationship with his father – but by buying into this belief, Luke would fall into the Emperor’s trap. “It is unavoidable,” says the Emperor. “It is your destiny. You, like your father, are now mine.” After Luke violently defeats Vader in the duel, the Emperor urges, “Now, fulfill your destiny and take your father’s place at my side.” The Emperor claims it is Luke’s destiny not only to kill his father but also, in so doing, to become like his father.
However, Luke proves Obi-Wan, Vader, and the Emperor wrong. It is not his destiny to defeat the Emperor by killing his father; instead, he can stop the Emperor from winning by choosing to love his father, and thus refusing to fall to the dark side as his father did.
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Characters: Darth Vader / Luke Skywalker / Obi-Wan Kenobi / Palpatine
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Concepts: destiny / fathers / victory and defeat
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