I cannot tell you how many times I have seen the original Star Wars Trilogy. It has to be well over a hundred times. I love these movies. I am watching them again as I write this article. (delayed posting for Monday)
I haven’t seen the prequels nearly as often as the originals (with good reason). But I have seen them enough to know them well. Yet, I caught something new that runs through the six movies. I developed a new theory why Darth Vader saved Luke Skywalker.
We learn through the prequels that Anakin, aka Darth Vader, has Mommy issues. This is made very clear in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. We see Anakin fearful to leave his mother’s side in Phantom. In his defense, he was only a nine year old and a slave at the time. By the beginning of Attack of the Clones, Anakin’s dreams are dominated with his mother and her pain. By the end of the movie, he finds his mother but only to have her die because he didn’t come to find her early enough.
These Mommy issues appear to dominate his relationship with his secret wife, Senator Padme Amidala. He constantly is in fear for her life and her pain. This drives him to embrace the dark side in an attempt to save her. His issues lead him to forgo all rationality and kill his friends and the little children at the Jedi Academy. Mommy issues drives many people a bit crazy but this is the extreme example.
Still Anakin could have been saved. Padme attempted to bring him back around. It just might have worked but this same fear and issues led to a fit of his rage that ultimately killed his wife. This memory along with his other Mommy issues led him to fully embrace the Dark Side and become the evil Darth Vader for decades.
But that is not the end of the story. By the time Vader realizes his unborn son lived, he was determined to hunt him down and turn him to the dark side. Vader nearly killed Luke on Bespin during their lightsaber dual. By the end of Return of the Jedi, Darth Vader is willing to hand over his son, Luke, to the Emperor. He fights Luke again in another lightsaber dual. Vader appeared ready for either Luke to convert or to die at the hands of the Emperor. But then something changed.
Darth Vader was able to read Luke’s thoughts. He learned that Luke has a sister, Princess Leia. This meant that Anakin wasn’t only the father of Luke but he had a daughter. In my mind, this was the big revelation of the weekend Star Wars watching.
I theorize that Anakin’s Mommy issues were then projected onto his daughter. He had to save his Daughter, who would also either be killed by the Empire or be converted by the Emperor to be a Sith. The only way to save his daughter from the same fate as his mother and wife was to slay the Emperor. We know that Darth Vader did act and slay the Emperor at the cost of his own life. Luke was therefore saved by Vader’s Mommy issues.
What do you think of my theory? Do you think that Vader’s Mommy’s issues saved Luke or do you think that I am reading too much into this after having a marathon of Star Wars movies? Leave a comment and let us know.
Stay Geeky My Friends!
