A Look at Hasbro Toy Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back Collection 1: Luke Skywalker Bespin Duel Action Figure

Luke Skywalker: Bespin Duel

Luke SkywalkerAs Luke battles Darth Vader in Cloud City, he rebuffs Vader's attempts to make him submit to the dark side. Wounded by Vader, Luke heroically chooses to plummet to almost certain death rather than submit to the dark side. Managing to grab hold of a weathervane, he struggles to hang on until his Rebel friends can rescue him. - blurb from the action figure package.

Character Background: Luke Skywalker: Bespin Duel

Now that George Lucas has completed his six-film Star Wars saga set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away," we know now that the series' central character is Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader. But it was through Luke Skywalker's adventures as a Rebel pilot and Jedi-in-training that most of us got into Lucas' space fantasy as we watched him go from the earnest moisture farmer on Tatooine to Hero of the Rebellion and full-fledged Jedi Knight.

Luke, as seen in Episodes IV-VI, is the exact opposite of Darth Vader in the Classic Trilogy; where Vader was initially perceived as the personification of evil and the public face of the Galactic Empire, young Skywalker represents innocence, earnestness, and selflessness. Yes, in The Empire Strikes Back his character is more complex and shows hints that he, too, could follow in Vader's footsteps. In the Classic Trilogy's second act, he fails many of Jedi Master Yoda's tests because he is reckless, impatient, and often angry, traits he obviously inherited from Anakin Skywalker...and traits that could make him vulnerable to the dark side of the Force.

Indeed, Luke's impatience and recklessness nearly spells disaster not only for himself, but for the entire galaxy. In the third act of The Empire Strikes Back, Luke, haunted by Force visions in which Han and Leia are suffering, interrupts his Jedi training on Dagobah to rescue his friends. Little does he know that Vader - who as Anakin Skywalker had a similar experience in his late teens - is luring him into a trap on Cloud City. Strong in the Force but not able to control it, he takes Vader's bait and ends up in a fierce lightsaber duel that nearly costs Luke his life.