The Empire Strikes Backreveals that Darth Vader’s obsession with Luke Skywalker became the Rebel Alliance’s greatest weapon. The efforts ofStar Wars’Rebel Allianceagainst the evil Empire are the main focus of the original trilogy, withThe Empire Strikes Backmarking the darkest point of the Galactic Civil War. Despite often being thebest-rankedStar Warsmovie, there is no denying thatThe Empire Strikes Backis not a particularly hopeful movie as the middle part of a three-movie story.
A big reason for this is the greater focus on the titular Empire, with the movie featuring more Darth Vader as he attempts to hunt down the Rebellion. The movie also features the first appearance of Emperor Palpatine in the franchise, at least whereStar Wars’release orderis concerned. With this Imperial focus being so strong inThe Empire Strikes Back, I observed something interesting about Darth Vader: his obsession with finding Luke Skywalker was so great that it actually became the Rebel Alliance’s best weapon against their enemies.
The Empire Strikes Back Proves How Focused Darth Vader Was On Finding Luke Skywalker
Vader Could Not Think About Anything Else
InThe Empire Strikes Back’s first act, the Imperials are focused on trying to find Luke Skywalker and the Rebels. To do so, they send thousands of probe droids out across the galaxy, with one of them reading life signals on Hoth. One scene shows an Imperial officer stating that they need hard proof rather than leads to the Rebellion’s whereabouts, with Vader immediately dismissing this and insisting,“That’s it. The Rebels are there.”
Vader did not wait for other probe droids to get readings, immediately issuing an all-out strike against Hoth to find Luke Skywalker. Later in the movie, Vader tells the Emperor that Luke Skywalker will either be turned to the dark side or killed, proving just how focusedStar Wars’Sith Lordtruly was on the offspring of Anakin Skywalker. While this makes sense for Vader, his tunnel vision proved to be part of the Empire’s eventual downfall.
Darth Vader’s Obsession With Luke Allowed Important Rebellion Members To Avoid Capture
Hoth Wasn’t The Only Planet Housing Rebels
When factoring in what we know from otherStar Warsmovies, likeReturn of the Jedi,it becomes clear that Vader’s obsession with Luke allowed important members of the Rebel Alliance to evade the Empire. After all, some of the Rebellion’s greatest leaders, like Mon Mothma and Admiral Ackbar, were not on Hoth at the beginning ofThe Empire Strikes Back, instead planning the Alliance’s future on other planets in the galaxy. Even characters like Hera Syndulla fromStar Wars Rebelswere elsewhere, proving how far the Rebellion stretched beyond Luke Skywalker.
To Darth Vader, though, Luke was the most important adversary the Empire faced. Although this is true to an extent, given Luke’s status as one of the only active Jedi in the galaxy at that time,Star Warsstories likeReturn of the Jediprove how important characters like Mon Mothma and Admiral Ackbar are. Without them, the Rebellion would not have been anywhere near as organized as it was, yet Vader was too focused on Luke to damage the Alliance in other ways.
We Now Know There Was So Much More To The Rebellion Than Just Luke Skywalker
Countless People Made The Empire’s Defeat Possible
To further prove that Darth Vader’s obsession with Luke harmed the Empire,Star Warshas always made it clear that Luke Skywalker could never have beaten the Empire alone. Shows likeAndorand movies likeRogue Oneprove as much, showcasing that the everyday fighters and leaders of the Rebellion are just as important as the likes of Luke, Leia, and Han.Vader did not realize this, which proved to be a big weapon for the Allianceas it allowed many of its leaders to go unseen.
Important aforementioned characters like Mon Mothma sacrificed so much for the Rebellion that was not known at the time of the original trilogy…
Be it the likes of Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso inRogue Oneor unseen figures like Luthen Rael,Star Warshas proved how much more to the Rebellion there is than the original trilogy highlighted. Moreover, important aforementioned characters like Mon Mothma sacrificed so much for the Rebellion that was not known at the time ofA New Hope. If Vader had focused on taking out these kinds of integral Rebellion figures inThe Empire Strikes Backrather than focusing singularly on the Skywalkers, maybe the Empire would have destabilized the Alliance enough to win the Galactic Civil War.
