Episode VI, Part III
I have already recounted the essentials of the tale of Han and Mina in the depths of Ton-Muund. Thus, I shall simply pass over the whole episode in brief:
Han was captured by the Sith, and found Mina already among their ranks, herself a prisoner in a drugged waking sleep. A young dark-skinned slave boy, Mace Windom, restored Mina to her wits through the application of fire. The liberated Rebels released the slaves of the Sith, and, having unleashed the planet's ancestral waters, began to conquer the Imperial capital from below.
--
Meanwhile, overhead, Akira Valorum piloted the Millennium Falcon in the space battle.
The Rebels were losing. Their ships were pinned between the defenses of Ton-Muund and the Imperial fleet, which had made a sudden, but not entirely unanticipated, appearance.
--
The Imperial ships were commanded by a newly minted Admiral, but one who was already a shrewd strategist and a skilled leader of men: a woman, in fact.
Let’s call her Admiral Heda Horus.
(This first name is a combination of Hedda Hopper, the famous gossip columnist of Old Hollywood, and Leda, mother of Helen of Troy in Greek mythology. Heda’s surname comes from Mara Horus, the Tarkin-style Imperial bureaucrat character in the 1974 first draft.)
TENNO
Heda Horus was, in fact, the officer who had recognized Luke and Leia on Alderaan earlier, and who had blown their cover. This was what had earned her a promotion to Admiral.
For Heda herself was a clone of Leia, made from DNA Vader had taken years ago on Alderaan. And she had grown up at the greatly accelerated rate natural to clones raised in laboratories.
/TENNO
TOMOE
Heda herself was an extremely intelligent woman, and thus a favorite of Darth Vader. She was, in fact, the officer who had recognized Luke and Leia on Alderaan earlier, and who had blown their cover.
Thanks to her brainpower, she rose high in rank, despite the racist tendencies inherent in the Imperial bureaucracy: for her features were what Tellurians would call Japanese.
In reality, Heda herself was a clone of Leia, made from DNA Vader had taken years ago on Alderaan. And she had grown up at the greatly accelerated rate natural to clones raised in laboratories.
Vader himself had asked the Emperor to promote her to Admiral, as a reward for her capture of Luke Starkiller. The Emperor, grudgingly, agreed.
/TOMOE
Now Heda was grown to womanhood, at least in body, and by virtue of her great intelligence, she commanded the Imperial battle fleet. She hated the Rebels, and her green eyes burned with fury when she saw them; for her idol was her mentor, Darth Vader.
And, childlike, she had eagerly absorbed his invective against the “seditious foe.”
Children do not know when their parents are lying.
Even to themselves.
--
And then, unexpectedly, Bail Whitsun’s fleet appeared too, and began fighting alongside the Rebel ships. He and his son Marcus (piloting his own silver starfighter) had come to rescue Mina.
But Bail’s capital ship was destroyed by the lasers of one Death Star, and the Rebel flagship, commanded by General Dodana, was blown up by the other. This was the first revelation of the ultimate surprise Vader and the Emperor had planned. And the shields had not yet been downed.
--
TENNO
On Condawn, Luke and his two mind-controlled elite Stormtroopers now did battle against both Leia and Vader.
Luke managed to hold them both off, quite adeptly, for Ben had trained him well in lightsaber combat. However, his elite Stormtroopers, though well trained by Vader himself, ultimately proved of little account when subjected to conflicting mental commands from three warriors at once.
During the duel, Luke knocked Ben Kenobi’s white lightsaber from Vader’s left hand, and it plunged into one of the ventilation shafts that cooled the throne room. But he shrank from pressing his advantage.
Leia tossed Vader her purple lightsaber, and she instead took up the blue sword of one of the fallen Stormtroopers. (This idea comes from the finale of Hamlet.)
--
If a spectator had been present, and had bothered to look into the magic mirror at this moment (as the combatants did not), he or she would have noticed something odd.
In the mirror, there were only two combatants; for Darth Vader stood aside, and the stormtroopers had retired after bringing in Luke, and were not present at the duel.
But instead of the two empty thrones on the dais, there was a wizened old man in a purple hooded robe, sitting on the sole chair in the center of the room. (Or was it a man? All that could be made out of his face, beneath the cowl, was a pair of glowing yellow eyes…)
To the left and right of the seated figure (and not counting Vader), there stood four other men—each one almost as ancient as the Sith Master—in robes of blue and red, and black and white. Six Sith, all told…. looking for a seventh to complete their ranks.
Thus, only Luke and Leia fought, one on one, and they each used a red blade. While the mirror version of Luke had short blond hair and no beard, Leia’s hair was shorn to a brown topknot, and she wore the brown robe of a Sith novitiate.
And in the throne room’s other mirror, the gong of summoning, the scene was different yet again. Now Luke and Leia had switched places. Leia’s brown hair was long, and it was Luke, the golden-haired Sith Lord in training, who wore a brown robe.
Both of them used two blades. Luke had in hand two blue lightsabers, but Leia’s were green. The hooded man on the throne, moreover, wore blue robes, and his deputy wore purple instead.
But in the third mirror, the polished floor, the scene was still more changed.
Though Leia was once again robed and tonsured as a Sith Knight, now both Luke and Leia looked quite Japanese in features. However, Luke’s beard from the ordinary world remained. Each of them wielded two lightsabers; one white, one purple.
--
Luke could, perhaps, have defeated both his foes. But he knew, as if by instinct, where the greater threat lay.
To stop Leia’s furious assaults, he slashed at her face, blinding her in her normal eye. But she could still see perfectly, thanks to the Force. And she kept fighting.
Next Luke cut off her left hand. To his great surprise, what was revealed was not the stump of a living arm, but rather the wires of a prosthesis hidden beneath synthflesh. This shocked Luke, but he had no time to ponder it. Leia was still on her feet.
So Luke struck at Leia’s leg, bringing her down and leaving her with a permanent limp. And at last he turned his full attention upon Darth Vader.
Ultimately, Luke cut off Vader’s right hand, with his red lightsaber still clutched in it. Thus he exposed the wires of the prosthesis beneath Vader’s glove. At this last revelation, Luke shrank back. He vowed inwardly that, come what may, he would not kill them. For at last he realized the peril of the path he now walked: that, simply by fighting them, he might someday himself end up like Vader and Leia.
He flung down his lightsabers, and turned to Leia, who now urged Luke to finish off his father, and join the Sith in earnest.
“Never,” he said.
“You’ve failed, Leia! I am a Jedi, like my father before me, and like his father before him.”
(That line actually comes nearly verbatim from Lawrence Kasdan’s first revision of the ROTJ script.)
Luke stretched out his left hand to Darth Vader, offering to forgive him and embrace him. And Lando Kadar, perceiving mercy for the first time in his life, lowered his lightsaber, and stood in silence, and considered taking the hand.
But Leia, still in the first flush of Sith madness, was enraged. And she lashed out at Luke, whom she now despised as a weakling, with her lightsaber.
/TENNO
TOMOE
On Condawn, Luke and his two mind-controlled elite Stormtroopers now did battle against both Leia and Vader.
Luke managed to hold them both off, quite adeptly, for Ben had trained him well in lightsaber combat. However, his elite Stormtroopers, though well trained by Vader himself, ultimately proved of little account when subjected to conflicting mental commands from three warriors at once.
During the duel, Luke knocked the red lightsaber from Vader’s left hand, and it plunged into one of the ventilation shafts that cooled the throne room. But he shrank from pressing his advantage.
Leia tossed Vader her golden lightsaber, and she instead took up the red sword of one of the fallen Stormtroopers. (This idea comes from the finale of Hamlet.)
--
If a spectator had been present, and had bothered to look into the magic mirror at this moment (as the combatants did not), he or she would have noticed something odd.
In the mirror, the stormtroopers had retired after bringing in Luke, and were not present at the duel.
But Luke and Leia together faced off against Darth Vader, and five other men in variously colored robes tailored for dueling: six of the seven Sith Lords, who had foolishly sought to increase their numbers by two.
While the mirror version of Luke had short dark hair, and was clean-shaven, Leia’s long red hair gleamed in the fiery light, and they both wore gray robes. All of the combatants, save Luke and Leia only, wielded just one lightsaber; and every blade was blue in color.
And instead of the two empty thrones on the dais in the real world, there sat on the sole chair a wizened old man in a white robe. (Or was it a man? Nothing could be made out of his face, beneath the cowl…)
And in the throne room’s second mirror, the gong of summoning, things were largely as they appeared in the first mirror…
Except that the seated figure wore a robe of endlessly changing and morphing colors; and although Luke was clean-shaven, as in the first mirror, now he and Leia both appeared quite Japanese in features. And all of the lightsabers were red.
But in the third mirror, the polished floor, things appeared for the most part as they would have to normal sight.
Only, this time, Luke and Leia were white-haired albinos, with strange golden eyes. And all of the lightsabers too were white in color.
--
Luke could, perhaps, have defeated both his foes. But he knew, as if by instinct, where the greater threat lay.
To stop Leia’s furious assaults, he slashed at her face, blinding her in her normal eye. But she could still see perfectly, thanks to the Force. And she kept fighting.
Next Luke cut off her left hand. To his great surprise, what was revealed was not the stump of a living arm, but rather the wires of a prosthesis hidden beneath synthflesh. This shocked Luke, but he had no time to ponder it. Leia was still on her feet.
So Luke struck at Leia’s leg, bringing her down and leaving her with a permanent limp. And at last he turned his full attention upon Darth Vader.
Ultimately, Luke cut off Vader’s right hand, still holding Ben Kenobi’s white lightsaber. Thus he exposed the wires of the prosthesis beneath Vader’s glove. At this last revelation, Luke vowed that, come what may, he would not kill them. For at last he realized the peril of the path he now walked: that, simply by fighting them, he might someday himself end up like Vader and Leia.
He flung down his lightsabers, and turned to Leia, who now urged Luke to finish off his father, and join the Sith in earnest.
“Never,” he said.
“You’ve failed, Leia! I am a Jedi, like my father before me, and like his father before him.”
(That line actually comes nearly verbatim from Lawrence Kasdan’s first revision of the ROTJ script.)
Luke stretched out his left hand to Darth Vader, offering to forgive him and embrace him. And Lando Kadar, perceiving mercy for the first time in his life, lowered his lightsaber, and stood in silence, and considered taking the hand.
But Leia, still in the first flush of Sith madness, was enraged. And she struck at Luke, whom she now despised as a weakling, with her lightsaber.
/TOMOE