Luke & Leia's Palpatine Fight is What Rise of Skywalker Should Have Been
In the Star Wars comic series Dark Empire, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia fought the reborn Emperor Palpatine, showing what Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker could have been. Dark Empire was the first Star Wars property to resurrect Palpatine after his Return of the Jedi death, and while it was relegated to the Legends alternate continuity in 2014, it inspired the current canon’s finale to the Skywalker Saga. Dark Empire featured several battles between Luke Skywalker and Palpatine, now in his prime thanks to cloned bodies, making for a more interesting action sequence than what was shown on Exegol.
In Dark Empire, Palpatine transfers his consciousness into clone bodies on his secret throne world of Byss, located in the treacherous Deep Core of the galaxy. In a risky gamble to defeat the reborn Emperor and his backup portion of the Empire, Luke Skywalker feigns falling to the dark side, a ruse that Palpatine is all too aware of and one he uses to try to genuinely corrupt Luke. Luke and Palpatine battle multiple times in Dark Empire, with their first confrontation being an easy victory for The Emperor, who inhabits a younger body and has far more experience and training than Skywalker.
Related: Luke's Greatest Triumph Originally Turned Leia into Star Wars' True Hero
In the sixth issue of Dark Empire, by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy, Luke gets another chance to duel the reborn Palpatine, only the Force bond between him and Leia significantly boosts his strength in the Force. Although Palpatine was more powerful in the dark side than either of them and possessed far superior dueling skills, Leia’s assistance allowed Luke to dismember Palpatine and the two blocked him from controlling his dark side-fueled storm, which
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