Tumblr crosspost (16 February 2020)

[anghraine]

I love the Skywalkers, but every single one of them but Shmi is a walking yikes.

People will be like, "Well, MY Skywalker is pure and unproblematic" and it's just, nah, bro. Unless you're talking about Shmi, every single one of them—in-laws included—has had some moment of total fuckery. They are my eternal loves! But some of the posts about them I see are just ... uh, wow. And I have seen those posts about every one of them.

Comments

[sathari]

Yeah, and a related one--- I was talking elseweb with someone about this but I'd love to get your thoughts. Specifically, with the reaction people had to Ben|Kylo in general and specifically with Rey... I'm like, do you think a post-ROTJ redeemed!Anakin would still be chopping off his children's limbs and torturing them/their significant others? Like, the whole point of a redemption arc is behavior change, especially in your personal relationships. I mean, do people think a post-ROTJ Skywalker Family Reunion Dinner at which Anakin was present would end in torture and dismemberment like the one at Bespin did? Because I really don't think that was what we were all supposed to come out of the OT thinking.

[anghraine]

Hm, that reminds me of boring edgelord takes I've seen on how Anakin never really changed, he just switched loyalties again but would act in the same ways, or how even very evil people can have it in them to care about their own child/loved ones without it being redemptive ergo it's not a redemption arc, or he never really regretted anything he did, or blah blah blah. I always find those kinds of takes on him both smug and stunningly oblivious to what is a very straightforward redemption arc IMO. (I love it, but subtle it ain't.) He was redeemed, his last lines clearly marked a change in his sense of himself, he got a glowy blue ghost on good terms with Obi-Wan again, he smiled at Luke at the Rebellion victory ceremony—this is all very obvious stuff. I think that his conduct would clearly have been different, had he lived.

Now, I don't see him grovelling or being suddenly accommodating to everyone. It seems likely to me that he and Luke would nope out to recover / figure out where to go from there. But he's not what he was.

I think it's important to consider that he turns from the Dark Side of the Force, which manifestly screws with people's minds. I don't think Anakin would or could have ever become Vader if he weren't sensitive to the Force w/ all that entails, and I don't think he could continue on his path without continuing to accept the Dark Side, either. So once he's turned back, his state of mind and inclinations would be different from his as Vader (as indeed they seem to be in his last moments). I think this is an element that gets really overlooked wrt Force-sensitives generally, but would strongly affect his personality and behaviour if he'd lived.

[sathari]

THANK you for such a thoughtful and detailed reply! And... I did not know about the takes on Anakin you mentioned but it is making a certain category of fannish reaction to Ben|Kylo make more sense to me, albeit in the most depressing ways imaginable. (Ugh, I'll be over here writing gigabytes of redeemed!Ben drawerfic if anyone needs me for anything.)

[anghraine]

Heh, you're welcome!