With Star Wars launching into the new Legacy of Vader comic series exploring Kylo Ren’s character arc in-between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, we are taking a look at some other notable moments from his life that the films didn’t explore. Today, we’re looking at a pivotal moment in New Republic politics – when the dark truth of Princess Leia’s family was revealed to the whole galaxy.
The reveal at the end of The Empire Strikes Back, that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father, is widely regarded as one of the biggest twists in movie history. But have you ever considered how much of a shock it would have been within the Star Wars universe as well, that the heroic Luke and Leia were actually children of the evil Vader?
That was a significant focus of one of the best books published in the new Star Wars canon, Bloodline by Claudia Gray. The book, set six years prior to The Force Awakens, is all about Leia – showing how she comes to the point of needing to form the Resistance to counter the rising threat of the First Order. After Mon Mothma retired as Chancellor due to illness, the New Republic devolved into political infighting. At one point, it was proposed that the office of First Senator would replace the Chancellor, and Leia Organa was one of the leading candidates for it. Members of a rival political party discovered the secret that she was Vader’s daughter, however, and broadcast it to the entire Senate – and, therefore, the entire galaxy. The scandal effectively ended Leia’s political career, leading to her resigning from the Senate and forming the Resistance.
Notably, the book makes a big deal of the fact that Leia had not even told her son about it. Consider a few excerpts on this subject:
“One day she would have to reveal all this to her son. The truth of Vader’s identity had shattered her; she could not imagine what it might mean to Ben. At least Luke could tell Ben the most important part – that Vader had, in the end, been redeemed. Anakin Skywalker had returned; the dark side had been defeated by the light.”
“No. Impossible. Nobody had ever known this besides her, Luke, and Han; she wasn’t even sure whether Han had told Chewie. They hadn’t even told Ben yet.”
“She needed to explain to Ben that they’d kept from telling him because they’d wanted to find the right moment. She realized now that she’d been fooling herself. Luke, too. There could be no good time to learn news this devastating”
“I hadn’t even told my son. Now he has to find out in the most horrible, public way imaginable, all because of you. … What I kept from Ben, I did for his own good – or what I hoped was his own good. Now we’ll never know.”
Immediately after the news is revealed to the galaxy, Leia recorded a holomessage to send to Ben explaining all of this, though she had not heard from him in a while since he was with Luke somewhere in the galaxy in a place where communication was difficult. We don’t know Ben’s reaction to this, but it is curious that Leia leaving the Senate and Ben turning to the dark side happened in the very same year. Given the fact that the book repeatedly mentions how Leia had not yet told Ben about Vader, and the fact that The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson consulted on the book, it’s fair to wonder how this might have played a role in his descent into darkness.
Ben was, of course, a child who grew up with immense pressure to live up to his family legacy. He was the son of some of the galaxy’s biggest heroes, the nephew of a legendary Jedi, and a person incredibly strong in the Force. Furthermore, we know that Kylo Ren would come to really look up to Darth Vader, even speaking to Vader’s charred mask at times to give him strength to maintain his dark path. Him learning that this darkness was in his family history, and that Vader was actually his grandfather, had to have rocked him – and it seems very likely that this played at least some role in his falling to the dark side.
This is even more strongly hinted at in the reference book Ultimate Star Wars: New Edition, which states this:
“Leia does not tell him that his grandfather, Anakin Skywalker, became Darth Vader. She intends to address the painful truth when Ben is much older. Regrettably, Ben learns the truth, and is confronted with the reality that his whole family has deceived him about their lineage and connection to the dark side of the Force.”
We can understand the impulse that Leia and her family had behind not telling Ben right away. It’s a hard enough truth to process that Vader was Anakin Skywalker, and it’s a huge weight to put upon a child that his grandfather was one of the most evil men in the galaxy who committed unspeakable evil. He had enough pressure on him with his family connections as it was. So, on the one hand, their intentions were understandable, but especially in hindsight, they were unfortunate. It seems that it contributed to his instability, but, curiously, they would make a similar decision with Rey years later.
Ben Solo was the grandson of Darth Vader. That’s a reality that would shape the rest of his life.
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