This hit me like a ton of bricks. There’s another scene in this comic that really put it into perspective for me, it’s a Vader point of view scene, flashbacks of scenes from The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones where he was so afraid to lose his mother and then his wife that it was drawing a straight line to his fall to the dark side, which perfectly illustrated George Lucas’ commentary on Anakin’s story and why he fell.
Then I get to this page.
Another Vader point of view, the red boxes on black backgrounds that are inside his head. “My son. I sense your anguish. You still cannot bear the thought of losing your friends. Good. Now you’re ready… to learn what real fear is.”
OHHHHHH THAT SHIT HIT LIKE A BRICK TO THE FACE.
Anakin Skywalker, the core theme of his fall to the dark side, was his fear of losing his mother, losing his wife, losing his Master, losing his apprentice, losing his friends–he knows what that kind of gibbering fear is like and how deep it can cut.
No one knows better than Darth Vader how powerful a weapon he’s just been handed. He knows it because it’s the weapon that was turned on him to draw him to the dark side. Luke’s fears for Han and Leia–and Vader will use this exact same trick again in Return of the Jedi and it will scrape away at Luke’s resolve, when Vader threatens Leia, that’s when Luke bursts into angry attacks, Vader senses his fear and anger then too–Vader is going to do to Luke what Palpatine did to him.
This is why Obi-Wan and Yoda were wary on Dagobah–I recently rewatched that scene and their big point is that Luke’s not ready emotionally, that every step of the way he’s demonstrated he falls prey to his fears and defeatism, like in the cave when faced with the fearful vision of Vader, like when trying to lift the X-Wing out of the swamp. This is why Obi-Wan says, “Luke, I don’t want to lose you to the Emperor the way I lost Vader.”
Because that unmastered fear for your loved ones is the tool that took down Anakin and now he’s going to use that same tool on Luke–and that’s the theme of Star Wars, that you have to master your fear, that’s Luke Skywalker’s journey, that he wasn’t born perfectly in control of himself, that even good people can fall prey to fear.
There was a real chance it could happen, because Vader was an expert in knowing how to wield fear, no one knew better than him how deep that fear could cut.