you inherit the sins, you inherit the flames
In the course of not sleeping, I've been thinking about Luke and Leia again, and that post floating around tumblr about how of course Leia was tempted by the dark side, and yes, of course, I don't think anyone is being serious when they suggest she's too pure/too good not to. In fact, I think the reason she wouldn't fall would be the exact opposite - she doesn't ever want to be what Vader was, and so for her it's not goodness, but strength of will (and, possibly, spite) that keeps her clinging to the light on the occasions when it would be so easy to reach for the darkness.
If Vader was the blunt instrument, the Emperor's iron fist, the hammer of the dark side, Leia is the anvil, the fixed point on which others break themselves. All that fear and anger that she’ll be like him, that she even could be like him - it's all compressed down deep into iron inside her, forged so well it won't shatter even under the extreme pressure she's felt her whole life. If those feelings had started out as carbon, they'd be diamonds by the time Leia got through with them.
Luke, for any and all darkness inside him, not only looks for the good in people and believes in them, but he's also very free and open in his emotions. He wears his heart on his sleeve because he never had to hide it, and that genuineness shines through, even after the teenage naivete has been worn away by war and loss and revelation. In opposition to what Yoda tells us, what we see about Luke is that yes, he's quick to anger, but he's also quick to forgive. His feelings roll openly across his face (and, one can speculate, through the Force) - he feels them and then they run their course. They don't control him, and they don’t fester the way they did for Anakin, not even the fear and anger that lead to the dark side. He feels fear, but he still runs into danger to help (and maybe a little for the adrenaline rush, and to save the people he cares about, but Luke also really cares about a lot of people); he feels anger, but it's tempered by mercy.
Leia, otoh, is a politician, and one who from a young age had to hide everything. Because it's not just politics as usual for her. She's also a rebel agent with a lot of knowledge of their operations and she had to sit in the senate and hide that from Palpatine and his lackeys, including Vader if he was ever present there. (And let's face it, you know Palpatine probably made him go sometimes, for a whole variety of unpleasant reasons.) And not only does she spend those formative years in sometimes active rebellion against the government, she then spends much of the rest of her life at war in one way or another. Cleaning up the remnants of the Empire, negotiating whatever treaties were necessary to reclaim some space for a new republic, knowing - always, always knowing - that the same darkness that clenched the galaxy in its fist for twenty years is inside her, like the heavy metals at the core of a star. She's always burning hot enough to resist the collapse, because she knows if she falls, like her father, she's got the gravitational pull to take the whole galaxy down with her.
In other news, I was describing "New Territory" to
laurificus last night and I was like, "It's creepy but they muddle through and make the best of it. But then there's the eventual knowledge that one lost one's virginity to Darth Vader, but that's not until years after the fact." We were both pretty amused by that. *hands* We make our own fun.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/820023.html.
people have commented there.
If Vader was the blunt instrument, the Emperor's iron fist, the hammer of the dark side, Leia is the anvil, the fixed point on which others break themselves. All that fear and anger that she’ll be like him, that she even could be like him - it's all compressed down deep into iron inside her, forged so well it won't shatter even under the extreme pressure she's felt her whole life. If those feelings had started out as carbon, they'd be diamonds by the time Leia got through with them.
Luke, for any and all darkness inside him, not only looks for the good in people and believes in them, but he's also very free and open in his emotions. He wears his heart on his sleeve because he never had to hide it, and that genuineness shines through, even after the teenage naivete has been worn away by war and loss and revelation. In opposition to what Yoda tells us, what we see about Luke is that yes, he's quick to anger, but he's also quick to forgive. His feelings roll openly across his face (and, one can speculate, through the Force) - he feels them and then they run their course. They don't control him, and they don’t fester the way they did for Anakin, not even the fear and anger that lead to the dark side. He feels fear, but he still runs into danger to help (and maybe a little for the adrenaline rush, and to save the people he cares about, but Luke also really cares about a lot of people); he feels anger, but it's tempered by mercy.
Leia, otoh, is a politician, and one who from a young age had to hide everything. Because it's not just politics as usual for her. She's also a rebel agent with a lot of knowledge of their operations and she had to sit in the senate and hide that from Palpatine and his lackeys, including Vader if he was ever present there. (And let's face it, you know Palpatine probably made him go sometimes, for a whole variety of unpleasant reasons.) And not only does she spend those formative years in sometimes active rebellion against the government, she then spends much of the rest of her life at war in one way or another. Cleaning up the remnants of the Empire, negotiating whatever treaties were necessary to reclaim some space for a new republic, knowing - always, always knowing - that the same darkness that clenched the galaxy in its fist for twenty years is inside her, like the heavy metals at the core of a star. She's always burning hot enough to resist the collapse, because she knows if she falls, like her father, she's got the gravitational pull to take the whole galaxy down with her.
In other news, I was describing "New Territory" to
laurificus last night and I was like, "It's creepy but they muddle through and make the best of it. But then there's the eventual knowledge that one lost one's virginity to Darth Vader, but that's not until years after the fact." We were both pretty amused by that. *hands* We make our own fun.
***
This entry at DW: http://musesfool.dreamwidth.org/820023.html.
people have commented there.