Just a wishful doodle

I’ll just see myself out.

👺 sadly not immune to maul propaganda

I think something beautiful about Luke Skywalker being determined to save his father is that he only knew Darth Vader. He never met Anakin Skywalker, and he barely heard any stories about him. If Padme had lived to fight for Vader's soul, she would have been doing it in the memory of Anakin Skywalker. If Obi-Wan had done it, it would have been for the sake of the apprentice he loved. If Rex had done it, it would have been out of loyalty to his old general.

Luke didn't know any of those people. He didn't know Anakin, son of Shmi Skywalker. He didn't know Anakin of the Jedi Order. He didn't know Anakin of the GAR and 501st. He didn't know Anakin, husband of Padme Amidala. He didn't even know Anakin, father of unborn twins who he was eager to love and protect.

The only person Luke knew was Darth Vader, scourge of the galaxy and attack dog of the Emperor. A broken, ugly-hearted, pitiful killer who clumsily reached out to Luke, trying to force a family relationship on his terms, and hurt him in the process.

And Luke, largely without sacrificing his personal safety or moral compass (which is important; you can forgive someone without endangering yourself or others), forgave him. He forgave Darth Vader for the wrongs he did Luke personally and saw past all of it into the painful, twisted knot that was what remained of Vader's soul. He saw a man who wanted his son back. He saw a man who hated the Emperor. He saw a man who wanted to love him, even if he had lost sight of how.

Like Bilbo Baggins pitying Gollum, Luke pitied Vader.

And perhaps the most important part of it all was that Luke wasn't seeking a past version of Vader. He was a boy who, after having grown up thinking he was an orphan, discovered he actually had a father. He was a boy who desperately, desperately wanted that father to choose him. Because isn't that what every child wants, at the end of everything? To be chosen? To be held up as most important in their parent's life? The desire to save Darth Vader was an inherently childlike one on Luke's part, though that doesn't make the desire itself childish.

In the end, Luke was a redemptive force in Vader's life not because he believed in Anakin Skywalker but because he believed in Darth Vader, the only father he knew, and because he gave Vader someone to rescue, to put before himself.

And so the attack dog found his pup and finally went to his grave in peace.

echo voice: you are my coworker and to some extent my victim

watching the tbb arc in the clone wars directly after watching all of tbb is SO funny because in tbb they adopt a child and start acting like fathers and its very cute and my found family heart is warmed and in tcw they're just psychotic

I begin to understand why you speak of Artoo as though he’s a living creature

He could hear Anakin’s smile 🥲

I’ve been reading a bunch of Star Wars legends recently, and in Allegiance, there’s a scene where Mara Jade comes across Darth Vader researching Luke in the Emperor’s private library

However, all I could picture was the dark lord of the sith looking up his son on a public library computer.

Featuring a recreation of that mental image

like mother like daughter

why would jedi need robes if not to hide padawans under them

Luke says “I have to save you” and Anakin says “you already have” and I think it’s more than just a metaphor for how the return of his conscience mattered more than his life

Anakin remembers holding his mother as she died, and he remembers thinking “I have to save you” and not being able to because it was too late. He remembers what came after. He remembers kneeling at her grave and saying, “I wasn’t strong enough to save you. But I promise. I will not fail again.” He remembers what that determination not to fail turned into.

He knows Luke cares strongly about his family bonds, just like Anakin did. He knows this because Luke was determined to reach out to him, to see the good in him, to talk to the person whose name is Anakin rather than the slave to the emperor.

He knows he is going to die and he doesn’t want Luke to walk away feeling guilt and failure because of that loss. He doesn’t want Luke to feel as though he should have been strong enough to save him. Maybe it would have been a problem, maybe it wouldn’t have, but Anakin isn’t taking any chances. If his last act is to save his son, it won’t just be from death at the hands of the emperor, but from the horrible sense that he should have been able to do more to save his father, and the fear and need for control that Anakin knows can follow.

So Luke says “I have to save you.” And Anakin knows those words, he’s said them just as earnestly, and Luke is too pure of heart for what Anakin remembers that belief turning into inside of him, and he says, “you already have.” Not that he needs to let him go or that life isn’t what matters or that he needs to focus on saving himself or his friends, but that he has succeeded and therefore should feel no guilt in this loss.

And regardless of whether Luke becoming obsessive over saving those he cared about was actually in danger of becoming an issue, I think all of that is resting behind Anakin’s eyes as he says those words to his son before his death.

I DREW THE DISASTER LINEAGE AS PADAWANS!

heheheeh I spent HOURS on this

#THE TWIRL™

SOMEONE CALL 911 BECAUSE THIS GAME JUST MURDERED ME ALL OVER AGAIN Obi-Wan doesn’t want to fight him, but Anakin keeps continuing it, leaps up to attack him, striking the console where Obi-Wan was just a moment ago.  It blows him back and he lands on the floor–which would have been a perfect moment to attack him and end this fight!  But Obi-Wan just looks sadly at Anakin sprawled out on the floor and turns away, leaves the room, rather than finish it in that moment. Because this fight was specifically designed, as Nick Gillard has said, to be Obi-Wan trying to wear Anakin down, not to kill him.  That at this point he’s still trying to get Anakin to tire himself out so Obi-Wan can try to talk some reason into him or take him alive or what have you.  To just not kill him. And seeing it illustrated this way–a moment where Obi-Wan could have attacked him when he was distracted, but instead he turns away, knowing Anakin will of course get up and follow, just breaks my heart.

the only good stylization i made as semi realistic clone wars style … what