Luke’s hand, Darth Vader, and Story Core

I’ve been having deep writerly thoughts–or I think I have.  Maybe they’re just morbid.  But, they’re all centered on Star Wars, so bad can they be?  I mean, a series of movies with a man-eating hole,

Star Wars Tween post Sarlacc

a nasty ‘thing’ living in a garbage chute that’s going to squish you alive,

Star Wars Tween post garbage chute

and a bad guy who wants to fry you with lightning bolts, up close and personal,

Star Wars Tween post force lightning

can’t be that intense, right?

So this is what I’ve got–when Darth Vader cuts off Luke’s hand–and chose that moment to tell Luke that he, Darth Vader is Luke’s father, he illustrates a willingness to re-create his son in his own image.  Cyborg-style.

Darth Vader: “Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.

Luke Skywalker: “He told me enough! He told me you killed him!

Darth Vader: “No, I am your father.

―Vader and Luke, on Cloud City

Luke, by refusing him, clung to his own humanity and rejected the artificial state that symbolized Darth Vader’s cross to the dark side.

Darth Vader has an understandable familial desire to have his son stand beside him, but in true villain style, went about realizing that dream by cutting his son down and violating his rights as an individual.

Star Wars Tween post Darth Vater Daddy

Then, in the close of the original series (and I’m not even going to bother to say SPOILER HERE except, I just did), Darth Vader has his helmet removed, and joins his son.  Albeit as a force ghost.

Star Wars Tween post Darth Vater force ghost

And we see the story come full circle, twirling around the core character truths.  Don’t you love it when stories have a sense of internal logic?  I do.  In fact, it makes me want to throw my arms around Vader and give him a big hug!

Or, not. 😉

Many thanks to Wookieepedia for all the awesome Star Wars pics. And they even helped me remember that the above-mentioned man-eating pit is called a Sarlacc.  Just in case I ever come across one and wish to address it by the proper term. But, I’ll bet you already knew that. Right? 😉

Check out the other Tween the Weekends posts, and thanks for stopping by!

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9 Comments

  1. Reply

    Michelle, LOTR is an even bigger love than Star Wars! Just today I said something akin to ‘All those weeks with little to do, and now I have no time’, then realized I was paraphrasing Gandalf in the Two Towers and had to laugh!

    Lynn, glad you enjoyed! It was fun to write. 🙂

  2. Reply

    Suzanne – you had me at STAR WARS! I was one of those teens who rushed to see Star Wars over and over in the late 70s! I even have the original Star Wars poster hanging in my writing studio. Yeah, I’m a geek. Cheers for bringing back the memories!

  3. Reply

    Always happy too! My confession? At one point, I could quote the entire Empire Strikes back movie, line for line. We practiced during neighbohood campouts, and even made up a few lines of our own. Yeah, those were the days! lol

  4. Reply

    Sorry I missed this on Wednesday! There’s always room for Star Wars 😉 I was in 7th grade when the first one came out (showing my age here) and I remember fondly scraping up every penny I could come across just so I could get to the theater one more time to absorb the awesomeness that Mr. Lucas had created for us. I believe I went a total of 39 times that summer and I was at the low end compared to some of my friends. Amazing phenomena!

  5. Reply

    Ohmygosh that’s awesome! 39 times…I guess that tops me. 🙂 I was actually deemed to young to go when my older sister and her friends went to see…I think it was the Empire Strikes Back. And never got over being excluded. Haha!

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