Episode VI: The Good Jedi
Han had come back to the Rebels one year ago. Even as the Rebels lost more and more ground, he became ever more regretful of his foolishness in doubting the wisdom of the cause.
Upon his return, Han did not woo Leia, for she and Luke had, by common consent, not yet told him about the truth of the Skywalker dynasty. And Han thought that she preferred Luke in her heart.
And, deep down, she did—even with her current knowledge.
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In the Second Galaxy, Han Solo met with the powerful trade baron Bail Whitsun. Bail had two children, among whom Han himself had been fostered as a teenager. Now he asked for Bail’s help for the Rebel cause, by adding his massive fleet to their dwindling armada of warships.
Bail Whitsun was remarkable for his red hair and green eyes. If one had not known better, one would have assumed he was a clone of the Valorum lineage.
In fact, he was—but Bail rejected the clones’ taboo against sexual reproduction, seeing it as baseless and unnecessary. So he denied his fathers and refused his surname, taking on a new last name to honor the star of his chosen homeworld.
As an adopted son of sorts, Han Solo was one of the very few who were privileged enough to know his secret—which itself was one of the major reasons for Bail Whitsun’s extreme reclusiveness.
And Bail’s daughter, Mina, looked essentially like a young, female version of her father.
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As Han embarked on his journey to Acquis, events went on in the lenticular Galaxy Far Far Away we know so well.
On the Rebel base on the grass planet Ibbana, Ben Kenobi was dying at last.
Before he died, Ben Kenobi entrusted Luke with the last secret of the Jedi, one wrested at great cost from the Dwarves: how to build his own lightsaber.
Luke did this, and was pleased with the result.
For this was the symbol of the secret wisdom which Bunden Debannen had whispered in Ben’s ear, years ago: that a true Jedi, a Gray Jedi, goes his own way. He adheres neither to the strictly white nor the strictly black, but simply along the path that is best for the overall Pattern of the Force.
The only true rule of a Gray Jedi is this: “First, do no harm.” Even the Jedi of the Old Republic, in their own way, had forgotten this, and thus fallen into unwisdom.
Afterward, Ben gave to Luke his own second lightsaber, so he in turn could instruct Leia in the ways of the Force.
As a last request, Ben asked Luke to take his body to Utapau (Tatooine) and bury him there, for his home on Organa Major (what we now call Alderaan) had been destroyed by the first Death Star.
But Ben did not mention the true secret of the Kiber Crystals. Some things are best learned by doing, after all; and this truth Master Debannen had thought it best for Ben to learn on his own, in life or in death.
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Luke traveled to Utapau with Ben’s body, and was shocked by what he found there.
In the 1975 third draft of the first SW movie, Luke simply ran away from home. But now, in the third film, Luke would see that in his absence, the Lars homestead had been destroyed by the Empire. Owen and Beru had been slain, and their bodies left for the carrion birds.
For the first time in his life, Luke felt sorrow at having left Utapau behind.
He buried his aunt and uncle, and Ben Kenobi, in plots next to his mother’s grave. He vowed to come back one day, when he had time, to rebuild the family farm better than ever.
Then he returned to the Rebel base on Ibbana, and heard the message relayed from Han.
Luke and Leia knew what they had to do.
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Using a stolen Imperial shuttle and “borrowed” Imperial uniforms, they dressed up as officers and infiltrated once more the cloud city of Alderaan, the ancestral seat of Emperor Pestage. (If you haven’t figured this out yet, it’s basically a riff on the Padishah Emperor’s planet of Salusa Secundus from Dune, combined with King Vultan’s Sky City from Flash Gordon.)
To better disguise herself, Leia dressed as a male officer. She trimmed her long golden hair into the short flat-top haircut favored by Imperial officers, and wore gloves to conceal her crystalline right hand. She pretended that her hands had been burned in battle.
Leia also wore an eyepatch, to hide her bronze droid eye—that distinctive feature in Rebel propaganda posters.
Luke, however, did not have too much difficulty fitting in. He had already grown a beard in order to bolster his disguise on prior reconnaissance missions.
Luke and Leia successfully retrieved the codes from Alderaan, and copied them into R2-D2 for the Rebels’ use. But their disguises ultimately failed, for Leia’s wounds, and their familial resemblance, were too obvious to conceal entirely. A high-ranking Imperial captain recognized them.
A terrific firefight ensued. Leia was shot in her crystal hand, and it began to malfunction. She knew it would need a replacement, sooner or later.
In the end, Luke stayed behind, sacrificing himself to make sure Leia got away with the codes. He was captured, and taken to the prison cells out of which he had rescued Leia years ago.
Leia returned to the Rebels, where she met up with Han. They exchanged sorrows, and talked of the very possible defeat of the Rebellion in the coming battle. After all, the Rebels’ resources were already stretched thin, and Ibbana could not remain undiscovered forever. They had to strike now, or risk losing all.
Han (along with C-3PO and R2-D2) went to Ton-Muund, heading a secret commando mission, which sought to infiltrate the Imperial Palace from below.
And Leia, who still loved Luke, determined to save his life—by fair means or foul.
She took her lightsaber, and flew off in a starfighter (for she, too, was a good pilot at need).
None of the Rebel generals—not even her favorite general, the warrior priest Grand Mouff Tarkin—knew where Leia meant to go. Nor did they mind overly much, for she was a wise leader in their war councils, and they trusted her.