I saw this and now I can’t stop thinking about the Skywalkers as legends, myths, really, because…
Darth Vader the death god, this is perfect. He doesn’t set out to create this persona, not really. He doesn’t really plan anything that pertains himself anymore, anyway, but… he is the most lethal person in the universe. He kills and tortures and destroys, and he knows no mercy. His black cloak and mask is easily recognizable among the white armor of the Stormtroopers, and they feel safer when he’s around. He can’t be killed, they say, can’t be touched by enemy fire. When you stay close enough to him, they can’t reach you, either. He can protect you from cruel and incompetent officers, he can punish them. You can feel his power in your bones, can feel it make you stronger. As long as you follow his orders, you are safe, but nobody can help you if you displease him. He is a god, after all. He does not know mercy.
Padme Amidala is much more of a local myth, really. Both the Rebellion and the Empire try to co-opt her for their own ends, but… she just wasn’t that important to the bigger picture, you know? She was a senator during the Clone Wars, and she gave some nice speeches, but soldiers don’t really care about senators. She was beautiful and clever, and she is remembered kindly, but the only place where she is really a legend is Naboo. There, she is not a senator, but the queen who freed them, the queen who made peace with the Gungans, the queen who fought. Her picture hangs in almost every house of Naboo, dressed in traditional robes, her make up and hair perfect. She doesn’t look like a person, not really, more like an idea. They say that one day, when the time is right, she will return for them, and save Naboo again. She is theirs, after all, their queen. The only one that matters, really.
Luke Skywalker, the boy who blew up the Death Star, a soldier and a trickster and a boy. The first legends start after the battle of Yavin, after he was one of three pilots who survived, after he destroyed the machine of death. He was just a nobody, a nineteen year old farmboy, and yet he was the only one who succeeded. He can’t be human, can he? Not really. He must be some sort of demigod, young and reckless but powerful, still. Stormtroopers fear him, because this boy… their blasters bolts don’t hit him half as often as they should. Sometimes they do, that’s how they know he’s not like Vader, who is untouched by violence, but… they know they are good shots. And yet, they can’t kill him. And the rebel soldiers know that, too. Nobody tells him that, and his friends don’t really believe the legends, because they know him to be an idealist and a dork and the guy who was freezing like hell on Hoth because he’s from the desert, but… the rebels who don’t know him? He’s their myth. And then Bespin happens, and he survives a fight with the god of death himself, actually survives, and how can you not think of him as a demigod, as a spirit, maybe? And they are proud of him, because he’s theirs. Stormtroopers though, they are terrified, because they know better than to expect mercy from gods.
Leia Organa, the Last Princess of Alderaan. They don’t call her queen until years later, don’t really remember that Winter exists, either. She’s a symbol, more so than she is ever a person, because Leia herself, Leia the person, she’s on the edge of breaking, she’s full of hate and grief and despair, and that’s not inspirational, is it? So she lets them believe it. But there are legends about her, legends about her standing and seeing her planet be destroyed, of her surviving, still and beautiful as a statue, but alive, powerful. The Princess most of the rebels know wears white, long, beautiful gowns, her hair in complicated braids. She speaks loudly, with a clear, strong voice. She stands, despite everything. She stands. And she survives. Soon, there are rumors. She can’t be killed, they say. She was a prisoner aboard the death star, she saw the destruction of her home planet, and yet, she lives, yet, she fights. If she’s not dead yet, can the Empire even touch her? Can she even bleed? Or is she made of ice? Or is it fire? For Leia Organa is a myth of duality. The white princess made of ice, and the passionate fighter with fire in her veins, a blaster always at hand and the best at inspiring troops before a desperate battle. Ice and Fire, that’s what Leia Organa is made of, not flesh and blood. She’s the only one who sort of realizes the myth that’s grown around her, and she uses it, sometimes. Not too much, because she can’t control it, but sometimes.
Just… the Skywalkers as terrifying legends.
