The Star Wars saga saw Emperor Palpatine turning Anakin Skywalker to the dark side, becoming the iconic Sith lord Darth Vader, but he failed to turn Luke Skywalker because he repeated this same plan. The history of the Star Wars universe is divided into three parts: the prequel trilogy, the original movies, and the sequel trilogy, and while they had different lead characters and addressed different topics, there’s one character who was present in all of them, one way or another: Sheev Palpatine, a.k.a. Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid).
The prequels focused on the Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) to the dark side of the Force as the young Jedi began having dreams about Pé Amidala’s (Natalie Portman) death, so he promised him a way to save her. Sadly, Anakin couldn’t save her, and he ended up fully turning to the dark side and having to use a special suit so he could survive, as he was severely injured after battling his master, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) in Mustafar.
In order to bring Anakin to the dark side, Palpatine had every step carefully planned, and the first one happened in the first act of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. At the beginning of the movie, Obi-Wan and Anakin went on a mission to rescue Palpatine, who was kidnapped by General Grievous. There, they battled Rule of Two). It was a good beginning in Palpatine’s plan to turn Anakin, which he eventually achieved, but this was also his biggest mistake when trying to bring Luke to the dark side.
In Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Palpatine attempted to turn Luke as he did with his father many years ago, and he used the same trick but with a different target. Palpatine began to taunt Luke, who grew angrier and was ready to strike the Emperor down, but was intercepted by his father, now Darth Vader, and engaged in a duel. Luke cut his father’s mechanical hand and Palpatine betrayed his apprentice by urging Luke to kill him and take his place to rule by the Emperor’s side, but Luke realized how dangerously close he was to becoming a slave to the dark side, so he threw his lightsaber away and refused to kill his father. Palpatine then attacked him and tried to kill him, but not only did he fail at that but also these actions led to the redemption of Anakin, and to the “death” of the Emperor. Palpatine’s first steps to turning Anakin and Luke to the dark side were the same, which was his biggest mistake when trying to recruit Luke. Of course, he wasn’t counting on Luke being strong and committed to his role as a Jedi, which shattered his plans.
Perhaps Palpatine could have succeeded in bringing Luke to the dark side of the Force in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi if he hadn’t recycled his plan thinking he would be just like his father – or Luke could have been stronger than everyone thought and thus able to resist no matter Palpatine’s plan, and that would have at least brought some variety to the Star Wars mix and the history of the Skywalker family.
