IMAGE

Tsum-Tsum T-shirt, by Disney
WALLPAPER

Untitled
by Grant Gould (for StarWars.com)

FAN ART
by master--burglar
by master--burglar
FAN FICTION
Rush
by Love and Rock Music. (TCW) The first half of "Destroy Malevolence," as Anakin and Padmé make their way towards each other.

P/A SITE
The Anakin and Padmé Gallery

CALENDAR
Desktop Calendar // March/April 2015

 


THEIR LEGACY : LUKE & LEIA

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"...and though their love was tragic, the galaxy is a far better place for it,
since they became the parents of Luke and Leia."
--C-3P0, 'Star Wars: Connections' Featurette #2: The Skywalkers
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The Skywalkers

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Images
The twins, age 19. The twins, age 21. The twins, age 22.

It just makes sense, on a site devoted to Padmé and Anakin, to at least have something addressing a quite obvious and very important result of that love: their twin children. (Note: At this time I have chosen to, unless Episode IX is a drastic game-changer, ignore the sequel trilogy here. I have very mixed feelings about it thus far and besides, if it's not by George, it's all ultimately fanfiction anyway, IMO.)

Both twins play a significant role in the original trilogy-- both as shapers of the fate of the galaxy through their prominent roles in the Rebellion, and (in Luke's case) as the redeemer of the fallen father who for years was unaware of the existence of his offspring.  The two pairs share a sort of mutual dependence on each other-- it's from their existence that we first knew the man who became Vader had once likely known love, and those children obviously couldn't exist without those parents.

The story of their descendants in many ways parallels their own. Luke, like Anakin, was plucked from a seemingly nowhere existence on Tatooine by a Jedi Knight and immediately thrust into events occurring on a galactic scale, becoming heroes, and both eventually come face-to-face with the temptation of the Dark Side.  Padmé and Leia both grow up on beautiful planets to a life of royalty and politics, one day finding themselves forced to fight their way out of danger, help coming in the form of the boy escaping Tatooine, and both falling in love (all the while fighting it) with hotheaded flyboys.


In becoming a Jedi, Luke faced many of the choices his father did, the mutual moment of truth coming when a close loved one was threatened.  Both father and son charge off against better advice to aid their loved ones-- whereas Anakin at this point gave into his anger and took a step toward the darkness, Luke learned from his mistake.  (Poetically, this reckless charging into danger causes both father and son to lose limbs and gain artificial replacements - Anakin's greater fall resulting in much greater maiming.)  And just as their mother was for their father, Leia becomes the single great weakness for Luke in resisting the Dark Side... even though Luke triumphs eventually where Anakin initially failed, redeeming both of his parents.

Neither Anakin nor Padmé knew beforehand that they were having twins. Anakin was overwhelmed at first upon learning he was to be a father, almost immediately declaring it the happiest moment of his life. He and Padmé fantasized about raising their child on Naboo far away from scandal and prying eyes. One deleted moment from RotS (the very tail end of which is seen here) has them feeling their baby kick and discussing the gender, Padmé claiming she knows from motherly intuition that it's a boy and Anakin retorting that with a kick that strong, it has to be a girl. Of course, all this happy speculation's for naught, as Anakin unintentionally brings about the realization of his own nightmares of Padmé dying in childbirth - and his own turn to the Dark Side - in his desire to protect her from them.

After Anakin and Obi-Wan's fateful duel, Obi-Wan took the unconscious Padmé to the alien outpost of Polis Massa (where Yoda and Bail Organa were also in hiding). There it was revealed she was dying for unknown reasons - presumably a broken heart from the loss of the Republic and Anakin - and that she was carrying twins, who needed to be delivered quickly if they were to survive. Luke was born first, then Leia. Padmé managed to name both children and stroke her son's face before she died, her last breath imparting the words about his father that would be the same ones that Luke would utter upon taking on her failed quest to save Anakin: "There is good in him."

Upon Padmé's death, the twins were separated and whisked away to be raised on separate planets with no knowledge of their heritage, to protect them from the Sith. The Emperor would undoubtedly consider his apprentice's offspring a threat, and therefore Vader had no knowledge that his child had survived, let alone it was actually twins.   Leia was taken by Padmé's Senatorial colleague and friend Bail Organa to his home planet of Alderaan, who along with his wife had long wanted to adopt a baby girl. Obi-Wan took Luke to Tatooine, where the boy would be raised with Anakin's stepfamily and where Obi-Wan would live out his years watching over him.

The twins reunited nearly 20 years later when rebel leader Leia's distress signal with the plans for the Empire's Death Star reached Luke and spurred him onto his hero's journey, though neither was aware of their kinship yet. Vader and Leia were aware of one another as adversaries, though not that they had a blood connection, and Vader did not discover Luke until after the destruction of the first Death Star. Vader revealed his relationship to Luke during an intense duel at the planet Bespin, which was confirmed to Luke by the dying Jedi Master Yoda some months later, immediately after which Obi-Wan's spirit confirmed that Leia was Luke's twin. Luke revealed their relationship to Leia not long after, as he embarked on his attempt to save their father from the Dark Side. During their final confrontation Vader read Luke's mind and discovered Leia's true identity, prompting Luke to rage out against his father, an attack which ultimately led him to renounce the Dark Side once and for all. The Emperor immediately decided to kill Luke, and it was seeing his son suffering at the Emperor's rage that finally prompted Anakin to rise up and destroy his master. After his redemption, as he was dying in Luke's arms, he asked to see Luke with his own eyes just once. Anakin's last words were to tell Luke he was right about the good in Anakin - and to tell Leia that. The next to last shot in the original saga is Anakin, in spirit form, watching his two children celebrate the Empire's defeat.

Both twins inherited great Force-sensitivity from Anakin, but are each a mix of the physical and emotional traits of both parents.  Luke has his father's coloring and facial features of both parents; in the face Leia most resembles young Anakin, though with her mother's coloring. Aside from a streak of quick impatience and wanderlust, Luke shares his general temperament - most importantly the tendency toward compassion - with Padmé. Leia grew up a politician like her mother, but her own impatience, smart mouth, pride, and quick temper are very much Anakin's.  She is the only twin who consciously remembers her birth mother, giving us the only direct mention of Padmé in Episodes IV-VI.  And Luke proves her right, succeeding where she could not in his love and faith bringing Anakin back from the dark.