Luke Hit Darth Vader with the Perfect Insult (But Doesn’t Know It)

Warning: contains spoilers for Star Wars #16!

During a recollection of their famous battle on Cloud City, Luke Skywalker deals Darth Vader the perfect insult, even though neither of them will ever know it. Taking place after the events of The Empire Strikes Back, Luke kills time in Star Wars #16 while traveling to the planet Jekara by telling his faithful droid R2-D2 about the traumatic experience. Luke reveals why he was so overwhelmed by Vader, but the comparison he chooses is the last one his Sith father would want.

When Luke faces Vader in The Empire Strikes Back, he’s too inexperienced and unprepared, losing a hand before learning that Darth Vader is his father. Marvel’s Star Wars comics pick up after the movie, and see Luke training hard so that he’ll be able to hold his own in the inevitable rematch with Vader. While Luke’s abilities are steadily growing, he knows he’s still no match for the Sith warrior, but the War of the Bounty Hunters is threatening to bring the two back together once again.

In Star Wars #16 by Charles Soule and Ramon Rosanas, Luke is seen traveling through hyperspace to the planet Jekara, hoping he makes it in time to help Princess Leia on her mission to reclaim Han’s imprisoned body. Luke kills time by talking to the loyal R2-D2, who also flew and worked alongside his father, and reveals his thoughts about his previous battle with Darth Vader. Having analyzed and obsessed over the series of events, Luke describes going up against Vader as like attempting to fight a storm, “like one of those ripping, tearing gravel storms back on Tatooine, the kind that could strip you down to your bones.“

Luke has no way of knowing it, but he’s comparing his father to something Anakin Skywalker famously loathed. In Star Wars: Episode II- Attack of the Clones, Anakin has been tasked with protecting his childhood crush Senator Amidala. Laying low on Padme’s home planet Naboo, she tells Anakin about her childhood visits at Varykino in the Lake Country, how she’d lay on the sand after swimming. Anakin admits he doesn’t like sand, “It’s coarse and rough and irritating – and it gets everywhere.” While this honesty ended up being another way for Anakin to court Padme despite the rules forbidding Jedi from relationships, this quote from the much-criticized prequel trilogy found a second life as a meme. Anakin’s hatred of sand has since been reinterpreted in game show questions, dating advice, and even an It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia-like title card making fun of him.

As Anakin’s dislike for sand was not made any better when he returned to Tatooine with Padme in a failed attempt to save his mother, Luke’s description ends up landing a blow that no lightsaber could match. Anakin already betrayed everything he was taught and believed in when he became Darth Vader, but it turns out that according to Luke (someone who even grew up on the same planet), the abilities he gained in exchange have no better comparison than a thing he’s loathed for his entire life.

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