Underachiever59
RotJ Luke gets a pretty bad rap. Lots of people use George's hype around the release of the Prequels to low-ball RotJ Luke (and the rest of the OT cast) pretty often. But Luke actually has plenty of impressive feats between the events of ANH and RotJ. From beating Vader's apprentice, Kharys, to outdueling a master swordsman like Orman Tagge, Luke has acquitted himself pretty well as a swordsman even outside of his duels with Vader.
But what I find really interesting are his Force feats. In several of the old Marvel comics from the 1977 run, many of which were canonized to Legends after being referenced in later material, Luke has some impressive showings. Staggering Vader with telepathy during his escape from The Wheel months after ANH, shaking off Kharys' Force stasis, even telepathically dominating an Imperial Officer remotely without so much as a comm to relay commands through.
However, hands down his most impressive Force feat came from Star Wars 1977 issue number 57, which detailed the Ugnaut revolution. Following the events of Empire Strikes Back, the Empire seized total control of Cloud City. Dissatisfied with Imperial rule, the Ugnaut workers planted bombs all across Cloud City, leading to a complete evacuation of non-Imperial personnel. The situation was ultimately resolved by Luke, who stretched out with his senses across the entire city, telekinetically removed the primers from every explosive, and detonated them all at once in a series of controlled explosions that made Cloud City begin rapidly losing altitude. The Imperials promptly fled, believing Cloud City to be doomed. However, Luke's detonations were so precise that the city's repair droids quickly stabilized the damage, saving Cloud City shortly after the Imperial retreat.
It's worth pointing out that Cloud City is over 10 miles in diameter. Luke located what appears to be at least 8 bombs and precisely manipulated all of them at once, across a ten mile diameter, with enough precision to damage Cloud City enough to trigger an Imperial retreat without actually dooming the mining platform. And he played it all off as a mere prank to Lando and Shara Brie afterwards. As if it was a casual feat. I'd say that's more than enough proof for RotJ-era Luke to earn his status as a Vader-level Force wielded.
But what I find really interesting are his Force feats. In several of the old Marvel comics from the 1977 run, many of which were canonized to Legends after being referenced in later material, Luke has some impressive showings. Staggering Vader with telepathy during his escape from The Wheel months after ANH, shaking off Kharys' Force stasis, even telepathically dominating an Imperial Officer remotely without so much as a comm to relay commands through.
However, hands down his most impressive Force feat came from Star Wars 1977 issue number 57, which detailed the Ugnaut revolution. Following the events of Empire Strikes Back, the Empire seized total control of Cloud City. Dissatisfied with Imperial rule, the Ugnaut workers planted bombs all across Cloud City, leading to a complete evacuation of non-Imperial personnel. The situation was ultimately resolved by Luke, who stretched out with his senses across the entire city, telekinetically removed the primers from every explosive, and detonated them all at once in a series of controlled explosions that made Cloud City begin rapidly losing altitude. The Imperials promptly fled, believing Cloud City to be doomed. However, Luke's detonations were so precise that the city's repair droids quickly stabilized the damage, saving Cloud City shortly after the Imperial retreat.
It's worth pointing out that Cloud City is over 10 miles in diameter. Luke located what appears to be at least 8 bombs and precisely manipulated all of them at once, across a ten mile diameter, with enough precision to damage Cloud City enough to trigger an Imperial retreat without actually dooming the mining platform. And he played it all off as a mere prank to Lando and Shara Brie afterwards. As if it was a casual feat. I'd say that's more than enough proof for RotJ-era Luke to earn his status as a Vader-level Force wielded.