To Yoda, everything was a total disaster. His fellow Jedi were either dead, running in fear, or about to spend the remainder of their lives in exile. The Republic they had sworn to protect was now ruled by a Dark Lord of the Sith, who had achieved this with the help of a former Jedi turned to the dark side. What hope the galaxy had lay in the form of two orphaned infants with no Jedi who could protect and train them in the ways of the Force.

Yet, in the midst of all this, an old friend returned from the netherworld of the Force to tell Yoda that all was not lost. Qui-Gon Jinn understood what the rest of the Jedi had not. Love is the answer to the darkness. The discipline a Jedi needs could be learned in a family. They could learn how to overcome darkness through love and compassion.

And so the foundation of a new Jedi Order began on different planets. On the desert sands of distant Tatooine, the boy was being raised by an aunt and uncle who barely knew his father, yet they loved this boy as their own, seeking to protect him from the cruel ironies of a galaxy gone wrong. On the peaceful world of Alderaan, the girl, separated from her twin brother at birth, was raised by adoptive parents who loved her as their own. Little did the girl realize that she was being raised to be the leader of something that her mother had started even before she was born.

For all of his ability to foresee the future, somehow Palpatine missed seeing two special orphans being raised by adoptive parents. But these orphans were protected by something far more powerful than the darkness. Love. Their mother risked her life in an effort to save their father from the darkness. When the time came for the twins to meet their destiny, they would each do so with something passed on from their mother. Leia had her mother's political saavy and memories of her mother. Luke, while having no memory of his mother, had something from her as well. Unconditional love for his father.

And so Palpatine's arrogance led to a fatal mistake. He believed that Luke's compassion for Darth Vader would be Luke's undoing. What Palpatine did not understand nor comprehend was that love was the very reason Luke existed in the first place. Luke became a powerful reminder of all that Anakin Skywalker once wanted to be as well as who he once was. Deep inside of Vader, the conflict grew. It had, in the end, always been there.

When the time for the final confrontation came, destiny called both to Luke and his father. Like his father before him, Luke was offered the choice to embrace the dark side, increase his power, and save his friends. All he had to do was to strike his father down and take his place at Palpatine's side. Instead, Luke threw his lightsaber aside. He would not kill his father, for that was not the way of the Jedi. And here is where Palpatine made his fatal misreading of everything. In that moment, Luke reminded his father of everything the Jedi believed in, love the most important of them. Luke told his father that the only way you can be a Jedi is to love others.

And so, Vader rose up and killed Palpatine, not out of lust for power, but of a desire to save his son from death. The bond between father and son was complete, as the son was willing to give his life in an echo of his mother's dying words. That love saved the galaxy. That love saved his friends. Had Luke struck Vader down, he would have killed his friends, like his father before him. Instead, he chose to love his father in spite of all that he had done. This love would redeem Vader from the darkness, and save the galaxy from Palpatine's tyranny.

And Luke Skywalker, the newest of the Jedi would rebuild the order, this time on a foundation of love, for he knew that the best way to defeat the dark side was through love and compassion, just as Qui-Gon had known long before the rise of the Sith. Love is the answer to the darkness.