For the Writing meme, from bring your heart back (to my island): From: "It was better that way. If as the years passed..." to "...even if he would, given the chance."
Ooooh, y’all are going after all of the angst today. :D First of all, I’ve never quite forgiven @persian-slipper for making me associate the Indigo Girls’ “Ghost” with TFA-era unrequited (or just unconsummated) Luke/Leia. That STILL hurts. ;)
It was better that way. If, as the years passed, people wondered why Luke Skywalker never married, well, it was easy enough to point to the old Jedi code. Easy to make a virtue out of vice. Easy to pretend that his heart was still his to give, and he just chose not to.
A little piece of his soul withered every time someone praised his dedication.
You ever write something that you wish you could take back after you wrote it, but you can’t because it’s right even if it hurts? Here we are again, on the Luke Skywalker Oh-Shit-I’m-In-Love-With-My-Sister Guilt Train.
He thinks Ben knew. As a child Ben was eerily perceptive. One afternoon, during one of the last times Luke had visited their home, as the two of them sat side by side in the study, Ben had asked, “Do you hate my dad?”
I couldn’t imagine that little Ben wouldn’t have picked up on all that pain flying around, even if he didn’t understand it.
“No!” Luke had laughed, because the idea was so inconceivable. Hating Han Solo for the situation made as much sense as hating the wind on Ahch-To for a sandstorm on Tatooine. “No, Ben. Han’s my best friend, my brother.”
“He makes you sad, though.”
Confession: I like that wind metaphor a little too much.
“Neither of them makes me sad.” He’d hugged the boy, who was often sad himself, and Luke didn’t know how to fix it. “You’re my family, all of you. That makes me happy.”
Luke had always tried not to make a habit of lying to children, but he’d discovered that it was sometimes necessary. The boy’s namesake would have appreciated the irony.
Poor Luke. Now he understands why Ben couldn’t always tell him the truth about things. Also, I hope get a glimpse, somewhere in canon, of the relationship that Luke and Ben had, because I can’t imagine that it wasn’t close, and it’s gonna rip my guts out.
Ben had let it drop, but Luke knew he wasn’t satisfied with the answer.
Luke still wonders what he could have said differently, that day or any other, to keep Ben firm in the light. He wonders if it’s too late to save him, and if he even would, given the chance.
I think ultimately, Luke would be in favor of trying to redeem Kylo Ren, because that’s in his nature, but I think it’s going to be much much much harder for him than believing in the good in Darth Vader was. I think he’s going to struggle with it, a LOT. Vader may have killed Ben Kenobi, but that’s nothing compared to the relationship Luke and Han shared. I have a hunch we’re going to see Luke struggle against taking the path to revenge in the coming movies.