The hand of Luke Skywalker lost to the gas giant of Bespin was replaced with a prosthetic appendage. Whereas Luke's father's bionic limbs signified his increasing distance from humanity, Luke's new hand only strengthened his resolve to resist his father's fate.

After racing away from his Jedi training on Dagobah to save his friends, Luke found himself locked in mortal combat with Darth Vader. The two fought through the underbelly of Bespin's Cloud City, finally ending up over a large reactor shaft. Beaten and wounded, Luke was pressed back by the Dark Lord. Suddenly, Vader's lightsabre sliced upwards, severing the young Jedi's right hand - sending it and Skywalker's lightsabre spinning into the abyss below. Though Luke eventually survived the duel, he was treated onboard the Rebel medical frigate Redemption, and fitted with a prosthetic hand.

Luke's prosthetic hand took advantage of the latest biomechanical technology to create a life-like appendage that worked just as well as the original. The frame of the hand was made up of artificial bones crossed with wires and connectors. The prosthetic replacement joined to Luke's living tissue via a complex synthenet neural interface, allowing the young Jedi to feel through his mechanical hand. Finally, a layer of synth-flesh covered the mechanisms within, making the hand appear completely organic on the outside.

The medical droid 2-1B fitted Luke's artificial hand, and tested its effectiveness once in place. When pricked with a small needle, each of Luke's mechanical fingers responded, and Luke registered the pain. He found he could clench his fist, waggle his fingers - wield a lightsabre - just as well as he had always done. Though Luke initially felt a throbbing sensation when he thought of the circumstances which had necessitated his replacement hand, 2-1B assured him it was only a phantom limb pain, and would soon ease.

Luke's hand was in perfect working order in time for his rescue of Han Solo from Jabba the Hutt. He was able to use his lightsabre in combat against the Hutt's guards, and the hand even stood up to a blaster bolt, continuing to function with little adjustment. However, the synth-flesh had been damaged, and Luke took to wearing a black glove over his hand afterwards. When Luke once again confronted Darth Vader, his artificial hand proved capable in combat against another lightsabre. In anger over Vader's goading, Luke cut off the Dark Lord's own right hand, and prepared to deliver the killing blow. But a look down at his prosthetic replacement reminded Luke of just how close he was to becoming like Vader. He refused to kill his father, and Luke eventually escaped the second Death Star.

His hand served Luke Skywalker well over the next decade, and did not hinder his status as a Jedi Master in the slightest - in fact, it lent him an air of mystery, and offered a reminder of his battles with the dark side. However, when Luke turned to the dark side in an attempt to defeat the Emperor from within, Luke replaced his prosthetic hand with an updated version. It was a symbol of how far he was falling to darkness, and it took the efforts of his sister, Leia, to bring him back. Though his first prosthetic hand was lost, it cropped up at least once more: in a bedtime story told to Anakin Solo by his father, in which the hand fought Vader's severed limb, and faced down the dreaded Emperor's foot�.

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Page created: 09 April 2004