Today’s “background” while working is Return of the Jedi (where “background” means I stop everything I’m doing to watch certain scenes).
The Emperor seriously is an idiot. I mean, he ALMOST has Luke. If he hadn’t started cackling every time Luke started to lose control and going “good, good!” he would’ve won. Hey dumbass, if you manipulate someone into doing something they don’t want to do, you don’t POINT OUT that they’re doing it.
Jeez.
It’s been so long since Palpatine had to manipulate someone like that he’s forgotten how. He’s also assuming Luke is like his father at that age: desperate for validation and stuck in a cycle of aggression, guilt, and repression. As this is totally not the case, he fails in his conversion effort big time.
Holy shit, you’re right. He’s doing exactly what he did with Anakin.
HOLY SHIT.
*skywalker feelings increase*
OH MY GOD!
This also gives me Uncle Owen and Obi Wan feelings because if Anakin was easily manipulated by Palpatine because it was the first time he truly received emotional validation from a father figure, that means that Luke had good emotional support from his father figures and ahshfkenf help
IT GOT
WORSEBETTER.*skywalker feelings in overload*
Really, it chaps my Cheerios when people forget the role Owen and Beru played in Luke’s life. Like, we only see them on-screen for a little while (and not in the most positive light, since Luke is being a rebellious teenager and they are being the mean parents), but they were the ones who raised Luke, who loved him, who watched him take his first steps and say his first words. Owen taught him to fly a Skyhopper and Beru taught him to fix vaporaters. You wouldn’t have Luke Skywalker, stand-up guy, without Owen and Beru Lars, adoptive parents.
I mean, the thing is, it’s clear when you watch ANH as an adult that Owen and Beru love Luke and want what is best for him, and that although they disagree about what is best for Luke, they are coming from a place of love and caring.
Luke is a huffy, unhappy teenager, chafing against restrictions, but no matter how “mean” Owen is, it’s perfectly obvious that Luke isn’t abused in any way. He feels free to complain and sulk and ostentatiously demonstrate about how UNFAIR it all is, without fear of reprisal. He has his own vehicle and considerable freedom as long as he finishes his chores. Owen and Beru have obvious affection for him and for each other.
And the way Luke’s face shutters and changes when he sees the homestead destroyed and their bodies, the way that devastation clearly strikes to the heart of him but produces a calm, determined grief? That prefigures his calm before his fall on Bespin, and it also ultimately stands in opposition to Anakin’s rageful, vicious, undisciplined response to grief.
Obi-Wan knows it, when Luke comes back to say he’ll go with him to Alderaan, that Luke is not his father.
And that’s down to Owen and Beru and how they raised Luke. They weren’t perfect – Owen is frustrated with Luke a bunch! – but unlike Anakin, raised a slave, made an orphan by violence, always susceptible to his own rage and loss, Luke had a bedrock.
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