The Lady Vader, Chief of State
Nov. 21st, 2007 02:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
4thofelevenBeen re-reading old Star Wars novels, and a thought struck me - when did it become common knowledge that Leia is Vader's daughter?
It's not something that's ever formally mentioned, which is a shame, because it would be interesting to see how the galaxy reacted. Still, there's enough hints that one can roughly pin down the time frame of when the truth got out.
It's reasonable to assume that the information that Luke and Leia are siblings got out fairly early - they've got no reason to hide it, though I can't remember any mentions in the early novels that make it explicit that its common knowledge. On the other hand their father's identity would not be common knowledge; Leia is pretty adamant about keeping that detail quiet in The Truce at Bakura, and there's no reason to assume that Luke or Han would start blabbing about it against her wishes. Still, it clearly wasn't kept secret forever, since her relation to Vader is well known by the time of The Black Fleet Crisis.
I'm betting it came out about the same time as The Jedi Academy trilogy. That Leia named her third child Anakin implies she's come to terms with her ancestry by then. Meanwhile, in I, Jedi, Luke tells his students - who were apparently unaware - that Vader was his father; presumably he had Leia's permission to do so. I suppose it's possible he was just so caught up in the excitement of founding the new Jedi order that he temporarily forgot he was supposed to keep that detail a secret... anyway, it doesn't matter. Once he let that slip, there's no way of keeping it quiet again.
Anyway, this raises - to me - an interesting issue. Did the galaxy learn that Leia is the daughter of Darth Vader before or after she was named Chief of State? I think it has to be shortly afterward. The news that Darth Vader had children, and that one is now a member of the Republic senate would be huge news, and if it was already well known that Luke is her brother - well, then Luke's students would have to be pretty dim not to have put one and one together already if the news about Leia had already come out.
So here's a political scandal for you; shortly after Mon Mothma is poisoned by an Imperial agent, and with Kyp Durron's rampages seemingly demonstrating that the Republic is either unable or unwilling to punish those who commit genocide with superweapons, its suddenly revealed that the Republic's new Chief of State is none other that the daughter of Darth Vader!
There's got to be a story in how the New Republic dealt with that public relations nightmare...
It's not something that's ever formally mentioned, which is a shame, because it would be interesting to see how the galaxy reacted. Still, there's enough hints that one can roughly pin down the time frame of when the truth got out.
It's reasonable to assume that the information that Luke and Leia are siblings got out fairly early - they've got no reason to hide it, though I can't remember any mentions in the early novels that make it explicit that its common knowledge. On the other hand their father's identity would not be common knowledge; Leia is pretty adamant about keeping that detail quiet in The Truce at Bakura, and there's no reason to assume that Luke or Han would start blabbing about it against her wishes. Still, it clearly wasn't kept secret forever, since her relation to Vader is well known by the time of The Black Fleet Crisis.
I'm betting it came out about the same time as The Jedi Academy trilogy. That Leia named her third child Anakin implies she's come to terms with her ancestry by then. Meanwhile, in I, Jedi, Luke tells his students - who were apparently unaware - that Vader was his father; presumably he had Leia's permission to do so. I suppose it's possible he was just so caught up in the excitement of founding the new Jedi order that he temporarily forgot he was supposed to keep that detail a secret... anyway, it doesn't matter. Once he let that slip, there's no way of keeping it quiet again.
Anyway, this raises - to me - an interesting issue. Did the galaxy learn that Leia is the daughter of Darth Vader before or after she was named Chief of State? I think it has to be shortly afterward. The news that Darth Vader had children, and that one is now a member of the Republic senate would be huge news, and if it was already well known that Luke is her brother - well, then Luke's students would have to be pretty dim not to have put one and one together already if the news about Leia had already come out.
So here's a political scandal for you; shortly after Mon Mothma is poisoned by an Imperial agent, and with Kyp Durron's rampages seemingly demonstrating that the Republic is either unable or unwilling to punish those who commit genocide with superweapons, its suddenly revealed that the Republic's new Chief of State is none other that the daughter of Darth Vader!
There's got to be a story in how the New Republic dealt with that public relations nightmare...
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no subject
on 2007-11-21 02:21 pm (UTC)I haven't read the books, and don't know how true the movies are to the books, but in the episode, the Empire Strikes back, when Luke is under Yoda's training, one begins to get the hint of sibling and parental connection between DV, LS, & PL.
I thought it interesting to note that in the Phantom Menace, Palpatine drops too many clues as to his true identity, that he is Darth Sidious. This isn't overtly revealed until the last episode.
And whilst, afaik, it isn't made clear in any of the films, in the last episode hints are dropped (when Anakins mother is dying) that Darth Sidious in fact seeded Anakin's mother (virgin birth?) with enough mediclorins (spelling) to conceive Anakin.
no subject
on 2007-11-24 10:51 pm (UTC)I like your version, though.