What if Luke Skywalker had turned to the darkside of the force?

[DarthkSithLady]

If luke skywalker killed his father darth vader on the second death star, what would have happened? Would he have really turned to the darkside of the force, consumed by his hatred and his anger? Suppose he did. Would he have still been on the rebel's side, or would he have defected and joined the galactic empire? Turning to the darkside and becoming a dark lord of the sith are not synomynous with each other. They are interconnected with each other, but not synomous; they are not the same thing. All Sith are darksiders, but not all darksiders are Sith. All Sith lords want political subjugation, ie, in other words, meaning a very brutal and tyrannical dictatorship, because of their religious teachings. If Luke had turned to the darkside, he would've possibly wanted to rule an empire for himself. Maybe, but maybe not. Assuming that luke would have seized the imperial throne for himself, rather than staying on the rebel good guy's side, there are a few possibilites

He either would have joined emperor darth sidious/palpatine, or he would have probably killed the emperor and actually become the emperor himself. Emperor Luke Skywalker/Darth Something. Because, the reason for that is-the darkside of the force gives you a desire, a lust, for more and more power. While not all darksiders will end up being dictators, if a person who has converted to the darkside of the force is in a situation where those types of things are right there and available to him, such as an imperial army willing to find a new leader, or an emperor who wants you to become his apprentice right hand man/2nd in command, his greed, and his strong desire and lust for power would obviously to motivate him to do that. I think that a combination of both theories would've been true. Luke would temporarily be the emperor's sith apprentice (his 4th one, actually), and after a certain amount of time, he would have overthrown darth sidious, but he would have worked

Now, regardless of whether or not Luke would've killed the emperor and taken the throne for himself or become the emperor's right hand man (taking his father anakin skywalker's place), i am very curious as to speculate on what type of a ruler and leader luke would have been? I guess that he would probably use the second death star to destroy many imperial planets, as it was fully operational by that time. He would've ruled a tyrannical dictatorship. As to what type of atrocities Emperor Luke would have commited, I cannot say for sure in detail-other than blowing up planets with the death star (the main evil thing, actually), he would've done very similar things like the imperial atrocities commited in the Expanded universe. But there are other, far more interesting things that I find about this hypothetical situation.

The rebels would have lost the war if luke turned to the darkside. Why am I saying that? Well, suppose when darth sidious says "now fullfill your destiny, and take your father's place at my side", luke actually kills darth vader, he gets a sith lord baptism/knighting ceremony, similar to anakin skywalker's knighting/baptism as darth vader in episode 3 ROTS, the Emperor, knowing that the shield on Endor was being penetrated by the rebels, escapes from the second death star, and when the death star explodes, both luke skywalker and darth sidious escape from it. Darth Vader actually was the one who defeated the Galactic Empire. He was an important tool for the rebels, ironically. If luke skywalker became a sith lord, the emperor wouldn't have been distracted by torturing him and zapping him with the sith darkside force lightning, and he would've escaped. With their leader dead, the empire lost. With their leader, they don't lose. Even if the death star explodes and all of the military officials and leaders of the empire die, as long as the emperor lives, one tool of the puzzlepiece is still there.

Maybe Im wrong and the emperor overstimated the power of the rebels, and he would've died on the death star anyway. I don't remember that paticular part of the movies. But that kind of cheapens the whole idea of "a new hope" or the "chosen one", because that means that lando/wedge kills the emperor and wins the war against the empire/the sith, not the force sensitive users. Luke and leia were the last hopes of the rebel alliance because they had the light force powers to defeat darth vader and the emperor, two force users. They were expected by obi wan kenobi and yoda to be the new "chosen one(s)". But they were wrong all along. Darth Vader was the "chosen one" the "a new hope" of the galaxy. My point is, the emperor not knowing about the death star exploding cheapens that concept. And if luke turned to the darkside, the galaxy and the rebels were doomed. If the emperor would've died anyway, then the rebels would've won anyway, and the importance of that moment would lose its entire meaning.

Also, Im curious as to if luke would've become a "darth (fill in sith lord name)". Feel free to speculate here! This is a speculation, hypothetical discussion.

[Mildoo]

No god! No. God. Please. No. No!!! No!!! Noooooo!!!

[Arctrooper4043]

No god! No. God. Please. No. No!!! No!!! Noooooo!!!

I guess you didn't get the unspoken memo. Sometimes the best thing to say is nothing at all.

[jpolli666]

man...it is interesting. Be a great Infinities tale. Or...maybe he caves into the dark side in the future in this new trilogy, and the new characters are the ones to repel him along with some others such as Leia, the Droids, etc. NOT likely, but compelling.

[sinkie]

As I grew older with the OT I came to realize that it would have been difficult to stomach a Luke-turns-bad given how he was portrayed up to that duel. And I am eternally grateful we didn't have to see that because I imagine it would have been about as believable as Anakin's in the PT...and would have made ROTJ an even worse film IMO.

They would have needed to kill Leia or something at least to have him go dark, even then, Luke was just too good of a guy IMO to ever really go dark without bringing in that horrible Sith eyes/possession angle making it much less about your quality of character and much more about some mystical force that can get you if you're not careful. Much less interesting, much less human, much less an empathetic fall.

[Leif_G]

I think if you examine the motivations for a 'Luke gone bad', there isn't much to base it on, and very little to fuel him as a Sith. With his father, the PT reveals a lot of troubling emotion surrounding the death of his father's mother, wife, and (presumably) his unborn child(ren). With Luke its more a matter of him lacking patience, and being too quick to run in. His burst of anger in the ROTJ duel is fueld by his devotion to his sister, and not by hate. Frankly, I think that if Luke had killed his father in the duel, he would felt regret almost immediately,and stubornly resisted the emperor. Since Vader wouldn't be around to help him, the emperor may have then killed him.

[Cornfedbigdaddy]

Luke would have had way more chicks and done lots of cocaine! He probably would had added a vibrating function to his robot hand!!!!

[notch_vader]

By the end of ROTJ you can see Luke is completely adrift. He saved the galaxy (for now) but in his personal life he lost everything. He saved his father but doesn't get a change to actually get to know him, he found his sister but lost a possible girlfriend, he lost his best friend to his sister and vice versa, he lost all of his mentors (Obi-Wan, Yoda, Anakin). When everyone is celebrating Luke is among the dead. On top of that he is the most powerful person (the only Jedi) in the galaxy. I know where this would take me....

[Toonimator]

Luke's not adrift. He 'lost' a potential girlfriend, but gained FAMILY. And his best bud is probably gonna BECOME family if he stays with Leia. And while he saved his father, had Vader lived he'd probably be imprisoned/executed for crimes against the galaxy, so Luke would lose him... but, no, Vader died, and because of whatever mysticism exists in the Force regarding light/dark, Anakin's spirit was saved by Yoda & Ben. So, perhaps, Luke HASN'T lost his father after all: now he's a spirit that can chat with Luke whenever Anakin wants, much like Ben on Dagobah.

So Luke has this weight, the burden of his father's legacy, as well as the burden of re-starting the Jedi... and emotional turmoil, too... so he feels a bit disconnected from the celebration. HE fought a very different 'final battle' than Han/Leia/Lando/etc, and that'll take its toll. But he triumphed. "Darth Vader's son" or not, the Alliance will hold him up as a hero, he'll have whatever resources needed to help in the quest to rebuild the Jedi, he'll have a sister to train (if she so wishes), and he'll have 3 Jedi spirit mentors. The EU quickly dismissed the spirits because they could easily become a crutch, making things too easy for Luke and basically being an open door to an era (PT/CW) that was pretty much forbidden for the post-ROTJ EU creators. The movies gave us no such indication that Ben or Yoda would have to 'move on' and be unable to contact Luke... more the opposite, when Ben tells Luke "Yoda will ALWAYS be with you". Not even a hint that the spirits were only a 'temporary' phase of their existence.

[Revanfan1]

That's one thing I wish the EU hadn't done...Ben Skywalker should be able to talk to his granddad.