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Anakin Skywalker has one grandson. Darth Vader has another. Born of his two daughters, one who knew one each of his selves.
But patterns continue.
Leia Organa never knew Anakin Skywalker. All she knew was Darth Vader, who had tortured her, hurt her brother, kidnapped her love. He had stood by and committed countless horrors.
All Vader had ever done was hurt her, hurt those she cared about, but Bail Organa had always been there for her.
(Luke doesn’t understand. He hadn’t any father other than the metallic black monster known as Vader.)
She already has a father who loved her, who she’d loved .
And Vader had aided in killing him, in blowing up Her entire world.
She will never forgive him.
She will never call Anakin.
Or father.
When she has a son, she names him Ben Chewbacca Bail Organa.
And he is the son of a woman who will never see Anakin Skywalker as her father, but was still conceived by him.
Kylo Ren will be Darth Vader’s grandson.
But he will only accept the worst parts of the legacy. The parts that Leia could see.
(Family patterns continue in the saddest ways.)
Ahsoka Tano knew Vader for moments, and she had still tried to rescue him. All she’d really known was her Master, Anakin Skywalker.
Even after everything, he’d been like both her brother and her father to her.
And he’d reached past death to try and right his wrong in trying to kill her.
He’d saved her again.
(For a certain value of save. She is immortal, after all, but… would she, the Light, even be able to be remade if she died in a Sith Temple?)
Ahsoka sees him returned to himself.
She sees her Master, Anakin Skywalker.
When she has a son, she names him Anakin Larte-Tano.
Anakin Larte-Tano will be Anakin Skywalker’s grandson.
He will accept the full legacy. Light. Dark. Balance. The Force. Leading troopers to freedom. And, unlike his grandfather, he won’t falter.
(He got only the best pieces of the pattern. And perhaps also some of the worst.)
Ben Solo is 16 when he first meets Snoke. The truth of his mother is well known, by that point, but something about Darth Vader, something about the Dark Side in its worst form… there’s something there that Ben is called by, wants to find.
Because Darth Vader, in almost all the stories told, is powerful .
And Snoke has lessons, and skills, and Ben is entranced.
He embraces their secret lessons, using skills Luke had taught him to hide his changing allegiance, and his slow and deliberate Fall.
(He has no true care for his grandfather, for even Darth Vader would find him disgusting, but that truth matters little to him, as Snoke blocks Anakin Skywalker’s Ghost from ever reaching him.)
Was he manipulated? Yes. But he is willing.
And he smiles in the Dark.
Anakin Larte-Tano is only 2 when he’s taken from his family and rebranded FN-2187. Bounty hunters who used to be imperials, or so everyone thought at the time. He won’t remember this. He will only have a vague recollection of the love and joy of his family.
He will grow up to fight and die for the people who now own him. Control him.
He questions, perhaps more than he should. And he carefully protects his squad mates.
But he’s too good.
He’s the son and grandson of leaders and freed slaves. He’s born to excel here.
Except for one thing. Because this is a different story, in its own ways.
He tries too hard. FN-2187 has no name and no real friends.
But that won’t stop him from being a good person.
(Not that he thinks of it like that.)
Kylo Ren is 23 when he officially switches sides. The Jedi who agree with him becomes his Knights of Ren, and those who don’t are killed.
He burns the New Jedi Temple to the ground.
Kylo Ren made his choices on purpose, urged on by an imagined legacy of a broken man. He was not just afraid for his life when he saw Ben Solo’s uncle standing over him.
He was afraid that he would never gain the power he sought.
He commits and stands by all sorts of horrors. Without mercy. Without regret.
He bows low before Snoke and plans his way to the very top.
He uses and abuses everyone who had loved someone who may never have existed.
And, when he sees his chance, he takes it.
Kylo Ren looked at Vader’s wish to have a family back only at its most simple. As if all Vader wanted was power.
Kylo Ren is Darth Vader’s grandson, and he understands none of his idol’s story.
(Eventually, he will have to fall.)
Finn is 22 when he runs until he finds people to fight for and pushes himself into a true hero without even meaning to (but isn’t that the only way to be. When he returns to the side he was born to as someone completely different.
As Finn.
He’s afraid. Of course he is. He’s afraid that he’ll lose his new found identity, or, even worse, he’s afraid that he might lose his new friends.
And he tries to run but he always comes back.
And perhaps it’s destiny but mostly it’s choice.
And he quickly makes the right choice. To stay. To fight.
He becomes an inspiration. To the stormtroopers, his legacy, in a way, from his father. To the Galaxy, seeing this man who left the First Order androse to fight it.
He becomes a soldier again, for something he wants to fight for.
He becomes a master at intelligence. He excelled as a trooper and knows every way the system works, and he will use that.
He trains with Rey, to fight the battle only they can win.
Finn is Anakin Skywalker’s grandson. He know where he came from. He knows where he’s going.
Darth Vader’s grandson and Anakin Skywalker’s grandson will fight.
And we already know who wins in the end.