"He told me you killed him..." Luke scrambles to turn away from his attacker, disgusted, angry.
"No..I...am your father." Darth Vader breathes heavily, with a pause.
Luke is shocked beyond belief...never..."NOOOOOOO" he screams, his heart believing it to be true.
(scene in personal description; Ep V: The Empire Strikes Back)
What if...Darth Vader was YOUR father?
In six days, Disney releases its much anticipated streaming service, and all of its old and loved content with the debut of new ones sure to garner much of the same feelings. One of those is Marvel’s What If…? series that takes a new spin on classic story lines. Some may prove to be great re-imaginings so I thought, “Wouldn’t it be fun to ask that same question but with some Star Wars themed elements?” Thus, the question posed in the title of this was born (along with some help from a family member who thought it would be a good time as well).
When the iconic scene in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back rolled where young Luke Skywalker battles the villainous Darth Vader, he finds that he was indeed the son of the dark lord. Countless jokes and theories have been made about this subject thereon out. Some take a humorous route, from what it would be like parking using the Death Star, to having to always avoid going to the beach. I figured I would take a fun twist to this as well, with some usual serious topics. So I have split this into six parts: three on the pros of having Darth Vader as your father, and three cons. First off let us go in natural order of this style of thinking for many people and touch on the positives.
The first positive from this is being the child of one of the most powerful men in the entire galaxy in which you live. Second only to the Emperor himself, Darth Vader kneels to no one or anything when it comes to amounting respect, and often more important in an empire, fear. This would mean that you by bloodlines, would command a degree of respect as well, an extension of your father’s power. From receiving invitations to all the diplomatic functions and parties with other influential beings, you would find yourself in the moving and shaking of running an empire and using such authority to its best uses, and have sway in numerous political agendas. If not, then you can amass so much power that when you throw a fit about not having enough people at your birthday party, people actually listen to you.
Plus number two: you have an opportunity to learn from someone who leads an entire galaxy of beings firsthand, with no filters or newsbites. You can see how things get done on such a large scale at real speed and see the real time consequences of the actions. Not to mention that when you retain the ability to do whatever you see fit to meet a goal, how you obtain that perk from the Emperor. Albeit always finding a way regardless of the cost, or simply learning the tips and tricks of helping to run planet system after planet system with an iron fist.
The third pro of being the offspring of a Sith Lord is that most likely you will obtain some nature of Force using abilities. If you would ever want to train you could do what Darth Vader asked Luke and rule the entire galaxy with no limits except what you place on yourself. And oh yeah, you get a lightsaber. On to the cons!
The first con of being the child of a Sith Lord, is that you are in fact a child of a Sith Lord. This means hard lessons taught to you about gaining power or toughening up through emotional induced trauma. After some years of hard life lessons that hard way, you quite possibly would develop zero emotional growth outside of rage and the thirst to be and more powerful. As it would be, you could lose close friends and loved ones by being so single minded. On the bright side, you could all have them work for you.
Con number two is simple: you could be likened to your father in that everything you do or accomplish will be attributed to being raised by him. That could be true, but hardly any credit would be solely yours for the taking, constantly living in his shadow and being only seen as “Darth Vader’s offspring.” Time and time again, it would be viewed that no matter how hard you worked, you could never do it alone or grow your own presence, stemming from someone so recognizable across the galaxy. Living with the legacy of someone with that much pull possibly would be hard, regardless of how much you achieved.
The third and final con of having Darth Vader as your father would be this: at some point the path of the darkside and all that previously occurred is that you would eventually face off against him one way or another. It is the destiny of two people that share the same thirst for power and control to find the other in their way, needing everything for themselves. The path that you both were set on and had chosen for your own, would lead to this ultimate showdown, much align with the original duel between Luke and his own father.
These points of emphasis on both why it would be a good thing, or bad, to have Darth Vader as your own father are just many that I am sure we could come up with at any given point. For each person would find other great opportunities in that circumstance, whereas others would find it stressful and disheartening. One could ask what my opinion would be and the answer is quite simple: I would find benefits in either spot. The upside is that we won’t have to make this hard choice, but it was already decided that Luke would have to wrestle with that fact. The question I leave is this, how would you react? Would it be like Luke and struggle with the rights and wrongs? Or would you embrace the opportunity to rule at your father’s side?
- Chandler
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