Application for deerington

[neverjoinyou]

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Luke Skywalker
Canon: Star Wars
Canon Point: Between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi

In-Game Tattoo Placement: Inner left wrist
Current Health/Status: Fit, but missing his right hand, as it has recently been severed.
Age: 22
Species: Human

Content Warnings: Loss of limb

History: https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Luke_Skywalker

Personality: In the ongoing conflict of Luke's struggle against the Empire and his own dark side, several traits stand out as working with and against one another: compassion, loyalty, passion, and impulsiveness.

His reckless nature is apparent from the beginning, as well as observed by other characters. Luke disregards personal safety to the point of great bravery or stupidity, depending on who you might ask. He answers quickly, takes little care to filter himself from speaking his mind, and jumps into situations seemingly without thought. The one exception is his decision to go to Alderaan with Obi-Wan Kenobi, which he initially refuses, but it seems clear this is an internalized reaction of his uncle's and his upbringing, momentarily at war with his intense desire for adventure, as well as his loyalty, of which I will speak more later.

Luke has wanted to escape the insular life of Tatooine for as long as he can remember, and his nature chafes at the plodding, backwater life of a moisture farmer. In trying to keep him safe from Vader and the Emperor, Luke was kept isolated, not from friends but from a life elsewhere and the political situation. Once escaped, he has never looked back to that life, instead continuously seeking new challenges and taking on all that's put before him. Though sometimes frustrated at the discipline required to master the Force, he nevertheless demonstrates perseverance and fearlessness. The negative side of this restlessness is impatience, an unwillingness to look at the present and the current reality and a tendency to jump without looking, perhaps assuming (given his sheltered upbringing) that he'll land on his feet. This is also the reason for his frustration when he does not instantly grasp some aspect of his training.

This impulsiveness is but one aspect of his great passion. Luke is an emotional person, and while he is capable of calm (and later attains much more of it) he is rarely stoic. He expresses his grief and joy openly, though it means he's also capable of sulking and lashing out. Typically, however, Luke is warm and open, giving to his friends, and strongly led by emotion.

He is also strongly influenced by his idealism and compassion, a belief that good can triumph and, moreover, there is good in everyone. Once decided, though he's struggling with this decision at the canon point I've chosen, he never wavers in his belief that Darth Vader can be redeemed, and his default setting (despite the dark times) is to think the best of people. This is sometimes tempered by danger or by frustration, but overall Luke is an optimist. This can lead others to see him as naive, and while it's certainly true at the beginning of his adventures enough of it remains after his experience to suggest that it is not merely the result of ignorance, but rather an innate quality. This idealism is a strength, offering a certainty to his actions; he does not consider not helping in the rebel effort, not rescuing someone he barely knows, not attempting to redeem Vader. Combined with his fearlessness, it's a powerful motivator.

This belief in finding good in others is in somewhat direct conflict with the teachings of the Force as he knows them, which dictates that “once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.” However, neither Kenobi nor Yoda clearly states what the Dark Side, or evil, actually is. Luke is left to puzzle that out on his own, and he relies on his own instincts. In doing so, he does seem to enter a grey area as the old Jedi Order might see things. It’s less that he would argue that certain bad actions aren’t evil, and more that he would argue for a person’s chance to choose different ones.

His other primary motivation is loyalty. Loyalty to family, and to the friends who become his family (and, as he eventually learns, sometimes are). He initially refuses to leave Tatooine because his aunt and uncle need him, despite all the protests he's made to them against staying. His loyalty to Obi-Wan is quickly won, and his trust is absolute; while his affinity to Han Solo is a little more difficultly won (on both sides), once that respect is there friendship follows quickly. Leia, too, becomes a good friend, as does Yoda and even the droids C-3PO and R2-D2. This loyalty, combined with his bravery, means that Luke will do literally anything for his friends. Again, without question. If someone is in danger, he does not rest until they are safe, sometimes to the point of recklessness. He suspends his training with Yoda--not to be taken up again--when he senses Han and Leia are in trouble; nothing Yoda or Obi-Wan can say will dissuade him from his course, despite great personal danger as well as the potential to ruin all hopes for a victory over the Empire. Personal loyalty trumps political. It is familial loyalty which, combined with his optimism, insists on rehabilitating Vader. Luke cannot help but see good in him; and as his son, he will not back down from demonstrating this.

What all this adds up to is a person of great strength and vulnerability, sometimes in the same breath. His bravery is useful but dangerous, his compassion ultimately good but potentially naive, his emotions a motivation for good and ill, his loyalty blinding him to other duties. While it is his emotional nature and loyalty which leave him susceptible to the temptations of the dark side (in Return of the Jedi), those are also his primary motivations in joining the rebel force and wanting to make the galaxy a better place. There is, therefore, a conflict within Luke much like the fundamental conflict of the light and dark sides of the Force--the same qualities and abilities can be used for different things, motivated by different things, manifest differently. Luke must guard against giving in to the power the dark side would give him to defend his friends and loved ones, but without his passion and love he would be the lesser force for good, despite the Jedi teaching of removing personal emotions from the equation. Fitting, perhaps, for the nearly extinct Jedi order's last best hope.

Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping: At this point, Luke has had some training in the use of the Force though it is incomplete. The Force works two-fold: it augments his senses and guides him, and can be manipulated by him. It heightens his instincts, as demonstrated by his accuracy without the targeting computer when destroying the first Death Star. It gives him a growing facility with telekinesis, manipulating physical objects in space. To a limited degree, and under great duress, he has demonstrated telepathy, though possibly only with other Force-sensitive subjects like his sister, Leia. Shortly after the canon point I am using, he demonstrates some mind-control facility. The Force also augments his ability with a lightsaber, a technique he has little formal training in but great aptitude for. Luke is considered to have great potential with the Force, though as yet it is largely unrealized. However, given his lack of formal training and his rapid improvement, it should be assumed that he is able to train himself, to a certain extent. Not to mention what we’ve seen in later canon, he should be able to do a lot of other stuff too, given opportunity (healing, floating, controlling fire, basically whatever is needed by the narrative).

Warping: Luke's powers are still growing and developing as he learns more about them. Deerington will make them even more unstable/uncertain, in that he will start to feel intermittent difficulty with them or they may manifest when he doesn't expect them to. Any telepathic abilities will be at the discretion of all players involved and unpredictable. If at any point Luke tries to mind control anyone, he will suffer the same effects as the target.

Inventory:
Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber (lost on Bespin shortly before this point)
Flight suit/fatigues


Writing Samples:
Sample 1
[Video]

[Luke looks sad, but it's not the sort of overwhelming, immediate sadness you might see in one who has recently lost something or someone. It's more thoughtful than that, the slight smile on Luke's face not reaching his eyes at all.]

I never knew my father. Not really. But I miss him. Or maybe I miss the man I thought he was. No, that's not quite it--the idea I had in my head about who he must have been.

Tell me about your fathers.

Sample 2
Perhaps in the future, Luke would come to some understanding. Perhaps when he'd been through more himself, been tempted himself. Perhaps when some time had passed, and he'd gained perspective. The future was not yet now, however, and Luke still hated Vader. Hated him for his betrayal of everything he and the Force stood for. Hated him for murdering Ben. And hated him for leaving him all those years ago, for turning away from his son and family to serve the Emperor. Even now, with the kicked Wookie expression Anakin was giving him, Luke half expected an attack. His skin fairly buzzed with the need to be alert, to sharpen all his senses in readiness.

"Because," he snapped, "you ruined my life. You cut off my hand. You killed the greatest man I've ever known. You're the reason my friends and all the decent people of the Republic are in hiding. You're the reason I grew up not knowing who I was or what I could do. You. Changed. Everything."

Angrily, he spun and went to the edge of the balcony, turning in profile to Anakin and leaning his hands on the rail. He didn't like looking away, but he couldn't look any longer. The anger was rising within him, the hatred, and for the first time he knew just what Obi Wan had been afraid of. What Uncle Ben had known. What Yoda feared. The dark side was strong in him, he only had to reach out, he knew, and his father would be no match for him. Not now, before it all happened. Not now, while he was stunned and pathetically hurt by Luke's rejection. As if he could feel anything but!

Even so. He had to control himself. He had to stem the tide of anger. It wouldn't solve anything.

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Pepper
Player Age: 40
Player Contact: [Bad username or site: ”original_fine” @ plurk.com] or mydaroga@gmail.com

Other Characters In Game: N/A
In-Game Tag If Accepted: Luke Skywalker: Pepper
Permissions for Character: https://neverjoinyou.dreamwidth.org/4097.html
Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: It’s my JAM
What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: Identity questions, gender, time weirdness, good and evil and the ambiguity thereof
Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: Nope
Additional Information: None I can think of