What If Luke Skywalker Accepted Darth Vader’s Offer To Rule The Galaxy?
This article is more than 2 years old
It’s one of the most iconic moments not only in science fiction, but movie history in general. (And I’m not going to put a spoiler warning for The Empire Strikes Back, if you haven’t seen it at this point, that’s on you, or your parents.) When Darth Vader reveals that he is in fact Luke Skywalker’s father and reaches out his hand to his son, whose hand he just lopped off, and says they can rule the galaxy together, Luke cries, screams, and chucks himself down what is essentially a garbage chute. Probably not the reaction Vader was hoping for, but what if this went down another way? What if Luke was like, “Sure, I’ll come run shit with you, dad”? That’s the basic idea behind this clever new web comic.
This brief comic strip comes from the fine folks over at Dorkly. It’s a pretty damn good time, and not a half bad way to spend a couple of minutes of your Christmas Eve. They have all kinds of fantastic nerdy comics and the like, but this has to be one of my favorites, just for the concept alone. It’s such a simple “What if,” but so genius at the same time. You also have to wonder how Vader would react. He didn’t really expect Luke to let it all slide, and say, “Sure, you just froze my bro in carbonite, cut off my hand, are a general evil, despotic bastard, not to mention an absentee father, but what the hell, I’ll team up with you.” Did he? I would be taken aback and startled too.
Read the comic for yourself below:
Admittedly, this loses me part of the way through, when Luke starts discussing benefits and health plans, but it starts off so damn good it doesn’t matter. Luke’s response is just about perfect, and I love the part about how the only two Jedi he’s ever met are “a dead desert hermit who lied to me and a muppet who lives in a swamp.” Again, it’s so simple but so spot on, and when you put it in perspective like this, it becomes clear that their side is indeed “losing for a reason.”
And if you haven’t watched it in a while and need a quick refresher, here’s how the scene actually plays out. Damn, this just makes me want to watch the original trilogy.
