#force connection

His face is a bit sad. Why is so sad to see the woman he started to fall in love with? It’s simple:

Luke almost hurt Ben when he felt darkness. He wanted to hurt what he didn’t get. So when he felt that in Rey, when he saw Rey doing something that he didn’t like (holding Ben’s hand) Ben was scared he was gonna try to hurt her. He’s very focused, he’s making sure she’s okay. I don’t even know if he’s doing it on purpose, I just know he must’ve been scared for her when Luke caught them.

As many have said, his hand is still out. That’s not to say he thinks Rey is a helpless weaning, he knows she can kick ass hence why he doesn’t have a more aggressive reaction, but he at the mindset of “if he was willing to kill me, imagine what he’ll do for her”

So I’m writing a Star Wars AU that follows what might have happened if Vader accidentally discovered Luke and Leia were alive, and it relies somewhat heavily on the idea that Vader would recognize Leia in the Force were they to meet.

But here’s the thing: you may be wondering, but Vader didn’t recognize her in ANH, and of course, the real explanation for this is that they weren’t planning on making them related at this point. (Luke being Vader’s son wasn’t even planned yet, and Luke and Leia being siblings wasn’t planned until after ESB, so that explains the twincest. So they weren’t even a little bit connected.) But there’s one small line in ANH I like to interpret a certain way that adds a lot of depth that was definitely not intended, but is very interesting. I also have a take on Luke and Leia’s relationship that I think is kind of widely accepted to justify the twincest, but I take it a little further too. Anyway, here is my take on the Skywalker Force connections in the Original Trilogy.

Disclaimer: I’m sure others have already come to this conclusion before. I just wanted to share my own take.

Luke and Vader

This one is pretty obvious--between ANH and ESB, Sidious and Vader figure out Luke’s identity, and Vader becomes obsessed with tracking down and converting his son. But considering how obsessed he is with finding Luke, it does seem strange he doesn’t even seem aware Leia is his daughter until ROTJ. So what is my explanation for this?

Leia and Vader

Vader has one line in ANH that clearly had one intended meaning, but I choose to interpret another way because it adds an interesting dynamic.

Vader and Leia interact with each other quite a bit in ANH--it stands to reason that Vader should have sensed something about Leia that seemed familiar. And arguably, he does. Tarkin orders Leia terminated, but shortly thereafter they find out Han and Luke are probably trying to get the plans to the princess, and Vader says the following.

“She may be of some use to us yet.”

Vader has no reason, in the context of just this movie, to protect Leia, and there’s really no reason to keep her alive even if Han and Luke are trying to save her--the smart thing to do is kill her and trap Han and Luke so they can get the plans from them, since the plans are already with them. But, this line can make more sense if you interpret it like this:

Vader senses something familiar about Leia, and wants to know more about her. He doesn’t want to be obvious about this, or give away that he might care about her safety, so he subtly suggests not to kill her once he’s presented the opportunity.

However, eventually the strange connection is forgotten when Vader discovers Luke is his son--after all, he had no reason to believe Padme was pregnant with twins, and thinks the one connection he had with Padme has already been found. He doesn’t put the puzzle pieces together until ROTJ, some time after this line and prior to his death.

It’s only too bad Leia and Anakin could never reconcile like he did with his son.

Luke and Leia

This is quite obviously the most...awkward of relations between the OT Skywalker family. To say the least.

However, to explain it away, I think most of the fandom has accepted that what happened is Luke and Leia shared some kind of Force Bond or connection, but since neither of them were trained in the Force, they confused that connection with romantic feelings for one another. Evidence of this can be seen when Leia senses Luke’s pain on Cloud City after his duel with Vader--the connection between Luke and Leia is oddly reminiscent of Luke and Vader’s connection for the rest of the movie as they sense one another after the revelation. This codes the end of ESB with a sibling, platonic love, rather than a romantic one, which I think fits so much better when we consider what just happened with Leia and Han.

This also makes sense of Leia’s line in response to Luke telling her they’re siblings in ROTJ.

Rather than this being even more twincest awkwardness, how I’ve always read this line is that Leia is saying she always knew they had some kind of connection, and now that she knows they’re twins, it all makes so much sense, even more than if they had a romance.

I also have a headcanon about Luke that’s half a joke and half just me looking for ace representation in media, so I’ll share that here too. I know it’s a joke in the fandom that after learning Leia was his sister, sex was forever ruined for Luke and that’s why he remained a single hermit for the rest of his life. But my headcanon takes it in a different direction.

Basically, my personal (totally not supported by canon) interpretation is that Luke was always ace--but when he sensed a connection to Leia, his brain immediately went “oh this must be what sexual attraction feels like, I’ll go with that” because internalized misogyny, thinking he has to be attracted to women to be a real man or whatever. But once he realized Leia was his sister, he accepted that he was ace, and lived happily as a single man for the rest of his life, at peace with his sexuality.

No one knows - 0004 : Ritual