Darth Vader’s Other Kid

I was thinking about something over the weekend, when the congestion my cold left behind allowed me to think. (Wish it would let me talk. I have a couple videos to do.) We know that Darth Vader, when he was still Anakin Skywalker obviously, is the father of Luke Skywalker. We know that Leia Organa is Luke’s long-lost twin sister. Here’s something people seem to forget: that means that Leia is Darth Vader’s daughter!

While I’ve seen a few novels where the rest of the galaxy realizes this and are a bit concerned, I really don’t see this given a lot of attention in articles about Star Wars. And in a moment of just being silly I realized that Vader was already acting like a father to her. I’ll give you an example.

In the original movie, Vader has Leia arrested as “a Rebel traitor and a spy”. He takes her prisoner again in Empire Strikes Back when she comes in with Han, Chewbacca, and what’s left of C-3PO. Let me try that again.

"But daaaaaad. They're my friends." "Make new ones!" (Image via Wikipedia)

Vader sends Leia to her room for lying to him. Later he does it because he doesn’t like her friends and even tortures her boyfriend (which for Vader is more than looking the boy in the eyes and telling him not to touch his daughter). Vader also punished Leia by taking down her clubhouse (as well as the house she grew up in, her neighbors, her favorite soda shop, the local arcade, four quarters of the planet…) because she wouldn’t tell him the truth. Vader was a strict parent and he didn’t even know that was his daughter. (Good thing he never found out what she wore while visiting space gangsters.

Something else I thought of. Why was Leia even made Vader’s other kid? Why wasn’t Luke enough? This revelation really doesn’t add anything to the story, does it? It’s only brought up in the final movie. Leia never confronts Vader, she was never shown even having Anakin’s instinctual Force powers (for example the pod race many of us would rather forget) and outside of the “Expanded Universe” is never really addressed (and even then barely). It’s such a non factor in the Star Wars Universe.

The only possible reason I can think of is that it allowed Leia to pursue a relationship with Han while avoiding the messy love triangle, but again that’s based on a misconception. Ignore the comics and novels and just focus on the three movies. At any point was there ever any serious evidence that Luke and Leia were having unknown incest? The first movie? She gives him a kiss for luck and that’s all I remember. Was there a deleted scene of Luke and Leia kissing good-bye before he flew off after the Death Star 1.0? I don’t remember it. (Because it would have been deleted, but that’s besides the point.) In Empire, the scene we all joke about wasn’t Leia tongue-wrestling Luke because she wanted him but to end the teasing Han was giving her about Leia wanting Han. And of course after that it was all Leia and Han falling for each other.

"You're a better kisser than my brother." "Thanks, I...wait, what?" (Image via Wikipedia)

Now the comics and novels did have Luke/Leia as a couple, but that’s not supported by the movies. That could just be our expectations. We expect the hero to “get the girl” at the end of the movie, but the movie ends with Leia giving everybody (except the poor droids) medals and end scene. This was never addressed in the movies, outside of a bit at the end where Han, not knowing that Leia had found out she and the last Jedi were siblings, offered to get out of the way because Leia was worried about him when Death Star Mark 2 went boom. That’s pretty much it, so again, Luke and Leia as siblings: what was the point?