[Star Wars Legends] Why did Luke Skywalker have such a hard time fighting his Clone?
I was recently reviewing material on the Thrawn Campaign as was puzzled by the Duel between Luke and Luuke Skywalker. By all information and ideas I could think of Luuke should not have been much problem for Luke. He had maybe a minute of time in touch with the Force before the duel, he was cloned from a younger and less experienced (though this should not matter, see below) Luke, and he would have had no muscle training.
As far as I could tell, clones don't have the knowledge the original does, that must be flash imprinted. While it's possible the Emperor had some lightsaber imprinting materials around, I find that unlikely. C'baoth might have taught him, though again, without access to the Force for most of Luuke's life I doubt they could really train much.
The only options I can think of are the Clone Presence distracting Luke too much to be as effective a fighter as he normally is, C'Baoth using his Battle Meditation to rig the fight, or Luke had not trained much in lightsaber dueling between the 2nd Death Star and Wayland.
Luke is noted as being a masterful lightsaber fighter during his time at the Jedi Academy, so maybe he picked up skills during his brief time under the Reborn Emperor. As for C'Baoth, I doubt he was using Battle Meditation to interfere with the fight, he wanted A Skywalker to win, it didn't seem to matter to him which. As for the Clone Presence, I can't think of any evidence one way or another. With multiple clones that aren't him he seems to be fine, at most slightly distracted, but it is noted as more intense during his duel with Luuke.
So, what was going on? Do we know?
Posted Oct 15, 2015, 8:29 AM UTC
It's a combination of things.
First: C'baoth had replaced Luuke's mind with his own, much like Palpatine had been doing. They established C'baoth using this with General Covell.
In the text during the fight between Luke and Luuke, there is a moment when Luke wonders if Luuke was merely an extension of C'baoth's mind, lending credence to this.
Second: It was known that cloned beings cause a resonance in the force. Hence the ysalamiri that block the force being required to clone in the Spaarti method.
This resonance in the force is even worse when you're force sensitive and near your own clone - described in the texts as a "buzzing, incessant pressure in the mind".
Third: The clone, Luuke, had all the capabilities of Luke. In terms of skill and such. We assume that any lack of skill of the "mindless" clone was more than made up for by being a living extension of C'baoth's will and experience.
From my understanding though it took time for C'baoth to replace minds. Again, there was MAYBE a minute from the ysalamiri being killed to the start of the duel.
The Resonance was what I was talking about with the Clone Presence.
But, if you already had experience with Luke's mind (See C'baoth vs Luke at Jomark), and you hadn't imprinted a flash-learning on the clone's mind, it should present little to no challenge to take over a shell.
It took time for someone that already had a personality and thoughts and such of its own. An empty vessel? Much quicker. Hence, the assumption that Luuke was merely an extension of C'baoth's will.
Good point, though if he had already taken over Luuke, why didn't he kill Luke since he already had a Skywalker under his control? And why didn't Luuke use Force Lightning or any other of C'Baoth's techniques? All he used was Lightsaber Throw.
Clone Madness aside I mean. Though that would be a decent answer.
My general thought is that C'baoth would have preferred having Luke over Luuke. An heir as opposed to a slave.
He'd be willing to settle for Luuke, but it'd be settling.
I have no idea on the lack of other force powers, though my instinct says he wanted to keep it limited to what Luke was capable of at the time.