Luuke Skywalker

"Can something pure and noble be so easily twisted to evil and darkness? Can the New Republic become the New Empire? And, could it be that I might someday embrace the dark side&hellip; is that darkness within me?"

- Luke Skywalker, in a journal entry regarding his duel with Luuke Skywalker

Luuke Skywalker was a clone of Luke Skywalker, created by Joruus C'baoth after the true Skywalker refused to accept C'baoth's views of how the Force should be used and the place of the Jedi Knights in galactic society.

Biography
C'baoth, himself a clone of Jedi Master Jorus C'baoth, created Luuke from cell sample B-2332-54, which had been taken from the hand that Luke lost in his lightsaber duel with Darth Vader at Cloud City. Judging by his behavior in the Mount Tantiss duel, Luuke Skywalker had no personality, merely functioning as an extension of C'baoth's mind. Luuke was armed with Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber, the one that Luke had lost along with his hand.

The existence of Luuke Skywalker was revealed to Luke Skywalker and a former Emperor's Hand, Mara Jade, when they confronted C'baoth in the Emperor's throne room in the Imperial storehouse of Mount Tantiss. Facing Luuke, Luke found himself constantly on the defensive. A strange pressure in his mind resulting from the clone being in close proximity made Luke's reflexes sluggish and unable to think long enough to come up with a plan to defeat him.

This turned around however when his sister Leia was knocked down by the mad Jedi Master C'baoth and his defense changed to furious attack, driving the clone back to C'baoth to whom Luke made a deal: let Leia, Mara, Han and Karrde go and he would stay. C'baoth declined the offer and Luuke returned to the attack. Luke retreated ahead of him, apparently towards a wall against which he would be trapped. Triumphantly, Luuke swung Anakin's lightsaber, but Luke ducked under the blade, which struck not a wall, but a viewscreen which exploded into the clone's face. Mara Jade took this opportunity. Calling Leia's lightsaber to her hand during a moment of distraction from C'baoth, she charged. Off-balance, Luuke was unable to recover fast enough to answer Jade's attack. Staring into the face of the man Emperor Palpatine had commanded her to kill, she finally gave in and struck him down in a massive blow, fulfilling the Emperor's last command and silencing his voice that since Endor had plagued her day and night. After recovering his father's lightsaber from the dead clone, Luke gave it to Mara as a gift.

Post-mortem
Despite the victory over Thrawn and C'baoth, Luke's duel with Luuke would continue to haunt him.

Behind the scenes
The name "Luuke", besides being a variation on "Luke", happens to be a Roman/Western rendering of the Thai word ลูก (Luuk) - meaning "child" or "fruit."

Appearances

 * The Last Command
 * Children of the Jedi
 * Agents of Chaos I: Hero's Trial