Luke Skywalker is the unwitting turning point of a massive saga, the son of a Jedi Knight and a queen. Luke is good-hearted and compassionate, though he inherited the impatience and recklessness of his father, Anakin Skywalker. He was viewed as a slacker on Tatooine, a young man with no enthusiasm for his work who enjoyed "wasting time" with his friends at Toshi Station. He owned a T-16 skyhopper which he raced at high speeds through narrow canyons and ravines, echoing what his father did years before.
Though much of his background is still shrouded in mystery, he was raised on Tatooine by Owen and Beru Lars. Luke chafed against the life of a moisture farmer, dreaming of becoming a space pilot and using his formidable piloting skills. However, Owen wants to keep the young man on Tatooine as long as possible.
Luke was present when two droids, C3-PO and R2-D2, were purchased from Jawa dealers. But as he was cleaning R-2, he accidently activated a message from Rebel Princess Leia Organa, who was asking for help from "General Obi-Wan Kenobi." Luke theorizes that she might be referring to "Old Ben Kenobi," but could not get the message to reactivate.
That evening, Luke was told by C3-PO that R2 was gone. The next morning, he and C3-PO set out across the Tatooine desert to find R2. They had only just found the astromech droid, when the savage Sand People attacked the three.
The Sand People were stripping Luke's speeder when they heard the scream of a krayt dragon. It was actually the deceptive call of Ben Kenobi, a desert hermit who helped repair C3-PO and brought Luke to his home. He revealed that he had known Luke's father, a powerful Jedi Knight, and gave Luke Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber.
Luke initially believed that he could not accompany Kenobi to Alderaan, to assist Princess Leia. But when he realized that stormtroopers were after the transmissions in R2's databanks, he went home to find it in ruins, his aunt and uncle horribly killed. With no ties left on Tatooine, he agreed to come — and to learn the ways of the Force from Obi-Wan Kenobi.
In Mos Eisley, Luke got into a nasty scuffle with a pair of murderous thugs — only to be rescued by Obi-Wan wielding his lightsaber. The old Jedi also found them an expert pilot, a Corellian named Han Solo who owns the Millennium Falcon. They managed to escape from Tatooine as stormtroopers attacked.
En route to Alderaan, Ben began to teach Luke the ways of the Force, the most basic skills and lessons. However, the lessons were cut short when Alderaan was discovered to have been destroyed by a massive space station capable of destroying planets. The ship was tractored inside the Death Star, and Luke and the others hid in special smuggling compartments.
Luke and Han disguised themselves as stormtroopers, after assaulting a pair who were investigating the interior of the ship. After taking control of a control room, R2 discovered that Princess Leia was being held captive there. Though Kenobi was gone, Luke convinced Han to follow him to free her (with money as incentive).
Pretending to use Chewie as a prisoner, Luke managed to infiltrate the prison cells, but before they could escape, stormtroopers arrived and began firing. The four of them leaped into a nearby garbage chute, where Luke was viciously attacked by a monstrous dianoga, a garbage squid. Han managed to free him just as the walls began to compact the garbage. Luke made a frenzied call to R2 and C3-PO, who managed to shut off the walls in time.
Luke came back to the Millennium Falcon just in time to see Ben Kenobi killed by the evil Darth Vader. Though he was miserable after Ben's death, Luke broke himself from his reverie as he and Han attacked a series of Imperial ships. He agreed to work for the Rebellion on the fourth moon of Yavin, and was one of the few who survived an attack on the Death Star. As he fired the shot that overloaded the Death Star's systems and caused it to explode, he heard Ben Kenobi's voice urging him to "trust his feelings." For his bravery, he was given a medal by Leia and held in high esteem in the Rebellion.
Stationed on the icy world of Hoth a few years later, Luke was attacked by a monstrous Wampa. Suspended upside down, Luke managed to free himself by using the Force to call his lightsaber to his hand, cutting himself out of the ice and injuring the Wampa. He staggered out into the snow and passed out. Later, he woke to a vision of Ben Kenobi telling him to go to Dagobah, to be taught by the Jedi Master Yoda.
Han arrived and kept Luke alive by pushing the young Jedi inside the carcass of his steed. Luke spent some time in a bacta tank to heal his injuries, and soon went into battle against Imperial Walkers, massive machines who could shoot and crush the Rebels. Luke's gunner, Dack, was killed in the attack, and Luke only narrowly survived. He pulled himself up on a cable, close to the Walker's belly, and managed to blow it up singlehandedly.
Not long after, Luke set off to the planet of Dagobah, where his ship became mired in the swamp. He was found by a strange, vaguely reptilian creature with odd speech patterns and a deliberately annoying manner. Luke came along with the creature, only realizing when he began to address Ben Kenobi that this was the legendary Yoda. Yoda was initially unwilling to train Luke as a Jedi, declaring that like his father, he was too old. However, he did so.
Luke endured grueling physical and psychological tests over the weeks that followed, quickly enhancing his usage of the Force. He had a disturbing experience in a Force-heavy cave, in which he battled with Darth Vader and beheaded him, only to see his own face inside the helmet. Later, he had a vision of his friends in pain and left Dagobah, despite Yoda's pleas for him not to leave in the middle of his training. Luke vowed to return.
Luke arrived on "Cloud City," only to find that Leia and Han were being taken off. He engaged in a mighty lightsaber battle with Darth Vader, who chased him across Cloud City and to a massive windswept chamber that led down to the gas giant below. As the two fought on a catwalk, Vader sliced off Luke's hand. He then offered to join forces with Luke to overthrow the Emperor.
Luke rejected Vader's offer, saying that he knows Vader killed his father. Vader replies, "No, I am your father." Luke is horrified, but clearly knows that Vader is speaking the truth. He then allows himself to fall down a series of shafts and chutes, ending up dangling over the gas giant on a weather vane.
Luke was rescued when, calling out to Leia, the Millennium Falcon turned back and he was taken in by Lando Calrissian, a friend of Han's. Luke's severed hand was replaced by an android one not long after.
Luke masterminded the victory against Jabba the Hutt, to rescue Han Solo. He was thrown into the pit of the Rancor, a hideous beast whom he killed with a falling door. Luke was subsequently sentenced, along with Han Solo and Chewbacca, to be thrown into the Sarlacc — a giant creature that digests its food over the course of a thousand years. However, R2 shot Luke's lightsaber to him, and the young Jedi set off a firefight that was won when Princess Leia destroyed Jabba's barge.
Luke returned to Dagobah, but Yoda was dying. Before the old Jedi died, he told Luke that there was another Skywalker.
Ben appeared to Luke, and revealed that not only is Vader Luke's father, but Leia is his twin sister. They were separated when they were young to keep them hidden away. Luke refuses to kill his father, believing that there is still good hidden away in him.
Luke accompanies his friends to the forest moon of Endor. After a high-speed chase with stormtroopers, Leia goes missing. While looking for her, Luke and the others accidently get caught up in a massive net in the trees, and after they fall, are captured by diminuative but dangerous Ewoks.
Believing C3-PO to be a god, they intend to sacrifice Han, Chewie, R2 and Luke in his honor. Luke uses the Force to impress the Ewoks into releasing them, believing that C3-PO's divine anger is being shown.
Luke was accepted, along with the others, as an honorary member of the tribe. He told Leia that he could sense Vader's presence near Endor, on a rebuilt Death Star. After revealing that Leia is his sister, he sets off toward an Imperial Base to turn himself in, in hopes of reaching whatever was left of Anakin Skywalker. Vader simply said that it was too late for him, and took Luke to see the Emperor.
The hideous Sith Emperor attempted to sway Luke to the Dark Side by showing him the Rebels and Imperials clashing in nearby space. Luke eventually stumbled in his emotional resolve, and attacked Vader with his lightsaber. Drawing on the Dark Side, he managed to physically defeat his father, and hack off his mechanical hand.
Luke realized what he was doing, and refused to kill Vader. He defiantly declared himself a Jedi to the Emperor. The ancient man, enraged, began attacking Luke with massive jolts of energy.
Luke's life was saved when the dying Vader hurled his evil master over the edge of a walkway, killing him. He desperately tried to save Vader, managing to drag him part of the way to a ship, but Vader died. His final request was that Luke remove his mask, and allow him to see his son with his natural eyes.
Luke returned to Endor and burned Vader's body on a pyre, as the Rebels and Ewoks celebrated the death of the Empire. He saw Yoda, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Anakin Skywalker in their ghostly forms, just before joining his sister and his friends in the Ewok village.
