Any take on Luke as just a normal kid whining about freedom should probably account for the fact that he lives on a lawless desert planet controlled by gangsters who kept his father and grandmother as slaves
#like … every time i see a post about how much easier he has it than leia i’m #he absolutely does in some ways #but also leia’s family are wealthy and powerful while luke’s are eking out water from the air
This post is nearly ten years old and I still think about this, honestly. Luke has no consciousness of the dangers and pressures in Leia’s life when he’s playing with his toy starship; she’s already had to become what he can only vaguely dream of. But she’s also never had to consider “where is tomorrow’s food and water coming from” to anything like the degree that Luke, Owen, and Beru do every day. Luke and Leia both make sure they’re armed when they leave home because their environments are so dangerous, in completely different ways.
It really is possible to talk about the ways Leia has been forced to grow up and Luke has been allowed to remain functionally a boy, without dismissing pretty much everything we ever find out about Tatooine and the Skywalkers, or the drastic differences in their opportunities and access to material luxuries. I promise, she’s a good enough character to stand on her own without misrepresenting Luke’s circumstances to prop her up.
#luke simultaneously hates the empire AND is desperate to join the imperial academy because it’s his only way out. he can’t afford to leave#not in a danger sense in a material sense. he doesn’t have the resources or the money to ever leave that world—#a world in which his caring gruff uncle is his uncle (and very much not his father) because owen’s father bought luke’s grandmother#to free/marry her—shmi’s freedom and shmi’s marriage to cliegg are inextricably tied together. she’s described just as a good wife—#luke undoubtedly sees her grave (necessary bc she got abducted and tortured to death!) every day as he does his chores so they can. survive#i’m not saying anh luke is actually mature and overtly haunted bc of this—just that fandom seems a lot more comfortable#considering the ways in which luke is sheltered from basic realities of leia’s life than the ways the reverse is also true.#i actually think sw is not completely oblivious and careless about this either. leia’s class really does inform almost everything about her#it’s not super deep about it but it’s there. think of her first kneejerk reaction to chewbacca and how her reactions to han’s misogyny#often invoke class in some way—esp earlier on (and no it’s not just banter). like… i love her and this is actually part of why.#she’s not just strong female character™; her personality is actually informed by both the horrors and luxuries of the life she’s led
reblogging with amazing op’s tags by @anghraine
