“You were right about me. Tell your sister… you were right.” Those were the last words Anakin Skywalker, aka Darth Vader, ever said while he was alive. In his last moments, the former Padawan turned Jedi turned child murdering Lord of the Sith admits to his son, Luke, that there was good in him, as Luke had hoped — and wants to make sure his daughter, Leia, knows that too.
And now we know that Luke granted his father’s dying wish. Upcoming Star Wars novel The Princess and the Scoundrel by Beth Revis picks up after the events of Return of the Jedi. And while the title obviously suggests it’s going to focus more on the budding romance between Leia Organa and Han Solo, it also includes a conversation between Luke and Leia on Endor, a few hours after the big Ewok party celebrating the destruction of the Death Star. The official Star Wars website has the complete excerpt, but here’s the particularly important part.
He told me to tell you –” Luke started, but Leia’s head whipped up, eyes fierce as she glared at him.
“Don’t,” she warned.
“They were his last words. He wanted me to tell you –”
“I don’t care.”
“He was good,” Luke insisted. “There was still good in him, after all…”
My father was good, Leia thought, but in her mind she pictured Bail Organa, not Darth Vader. Thinking of Bail made her think of Breha, her mother. Of her home. Of everything she had lost.
So Luke told Leia that there was good in the evil Darth Vader, but Leia still struggled to think of him as her true father. This, of course, makes sense, especially after seeing Obi-Wan Kenobi where a young Leia had a very good relationship with her adopted parents.
The rest of the passage also mentions that her feelings about Vader might be complicated because he literally tortured her, which was implied in A New Hope. But, we’d imagine, over the course of the novel maybe she reaches some peace to know that her biological father wasn’t that guy. At least in the end.
Read the full passage over on the official Star Wars website. Beth Revis’ The Princess and the Scoundrel is out August 16.
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