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He is not the first to be free in his family. He is, however, the first freeborn in his family.
His name came from a woman he never met, a woman who died long before he was born.
His name came from a father who died when he was young, a father who had the weight of destiny heavy on his shoulders.
Skywalker.
His aunt is the first to tell him of his history — his uncle thinks it should be hidden, mumbled words about ending up like his father. But his aunt understands. His aunt is a Whitesun . His aunt knows the importance of his name.
Skywalker.
Luke is six when he learns of his history.
He learns of a grandmother who was kind, who always helped others when she could. His grandmother was strong in ways that Tatooine should have long crushed. Her name was Shmi Skywalker, and she is the first to bear the weight of the Skywalker name.
She is not freed until she’s well into adulthood.
He learns of a father, a father who wasn’t a pilot yet — he wasn’t even a man yet. He learns of his father before him, a boy born a slave who longed to fly away from the suns and heat of the desert planet. He learns of a boy who was kind and stubborn and who loved with all his heart. He was Anakin Skywalker, and the Skywalker legacy was quick to hang over his head.
He was freed when he was nine.
Luke asks his aunt about this later, of his father and grandmother, freed at different times. She smiles at him and says that Shmi Skywalker’s love for her son knew no bounds — that she loved her son so much she knew she had to let him be free, even if it was without her.
When he asks how this made his father feel, her smile grew sad and told him not to worry, it worked out in the end.
He didn’t ask again after that, not until years later, when he stood over a grave with the ghost of a man he was barely getting to know at his side.
Luke is a Skywalker.
He is a freeborn. The first in his family.
He was not born with chips given to his ancestors, he was not born with the shackles that came with his name.
He was only left with the legacy of the name.
He goes into town with his aunt at times, connecting with the others who were like him, like his ancestors. The Enslaved, the Freed and the Freeborns, the ones who smile at him and tell him stories about his family.
He learns a language made for them, a language for all the slaves and ex–slaves of Tatooine. A language for all the Whitesuns and Darklighters and Skywalkers alike to use — a language written in safety and love and fear.
He is a freeborn, the first in his family, and he bears the Skywalker name with pride.
His aunt and uncle smile at him, and even if his uncle doesn’t fully understand, Luke knows the man is proud of the legacy his mother left with Luke.
He also knows that his uncle still frowns at every comment about leaving, about flying away far from Tatooine and seeing more . A distant memory of his own brother long gone.
But he is every part of the Skywalker legacy.
He is Luke Skywalker, kind like his grandmother, and one day, he would be a pilot like his father before him.
He is a freeborn, and he is a Skywalker.
When he gets old enough, he begins to spend the off season working with Biggs and a few friends out in Mos Eisley at a garage.
Peli Motto works them hard but with every story a new customer tells, he finds it’s worth it.
He and Biggs start planning what they would do once they got off the planet, of flying together at the academy, of being out amongst the stars.
They laugh at customers together, they work together, and they share knowing grins at each side comment made in a language only they know. They work well together, two freeborns who dream bigger than anyone in this crime ridden planet.
Later, when Biggs is gone— really gone this time— he gets his hand on Biggs favorite fruit, cutting it open and crying out a prayer in a hushed language no one else had known. He holds his own funeral for his friend, following the traditions of the two Freeborns.
He does not have Biggs' body, he does not have anything but a necklace made when the two were younger, a necklace filled with history and love and legacies of the Enslaved and the Freed and the Freeborns. He buries it, sending another prayer up to the gods.
Later, he will make another japor snippet, a symbol of remembrance and mourning carved into it, a way to keep his friend close to his heart.
But he is a Skywalker, and his legacy is not yet over.
And so he stays with the rebellion, and he stays with his family friends, and he is eager to help and to share his stories.
He teaches Leia, Han, and Chewie of his history, smiling as he tells them the stories of his people, the history shared with all the Darklighters and Loneozners and Marstraps and Whitesuns and Skywalkers from Tatooine.
He tells them stories, stories of Depur and Ekkreth and Ar-Amu and many more. He sings them songs, songs telling of secret trails to freedom and of hope for the enslaved.
He stays and he teaches and he fights.
But most of all, he chooses.
He chooses to stay, and he chooses to help, and if Leia asks him and Han to go out on missions, he chooses to go.
He is a freeborn, and he does not take his freedom lightly, for he has always been proud of his name.
When he eventually leaves Hoth to train in Dagobah, he wonders if this is really his own choice.
But destiny has taken him here, and so he stays and he trains.
The word Master feels strange in his mouth at first, because he is a Freeborn, and his now depur is kind — or at least kinder than expected — and because he has never known what it was like to have a Master.
Later, when he asks Yoda of this, the old Jedi smiles at him and explains. He is not Luke's depur, no, he is a Master Jedi because he is a teacher, he is trained in the force and knows of the lessons of the Jedi.
He is not a Master Jedi because he owns anyone, nor because he is above anyone.
He is a master Jedi because he teaches, and he knows, and he is wise in ways Luke still doesn’t comprehend.
And at this Luke just smiles, because he understands. He is not Depur, a master — no, Master Yoda is a Grandfather, he is the one who guides, he is the one who ensures the safety of his students.
From there, the word does not feel heavy on his tongue, not until he feels something in the force, until he feels his family’s friends’ lives in danger, and Yoda and Ben deny him his right to go.
But he is a Freeborn, and he is a Skywalker, and he is not meant to be denied his freedom, his life of being able to choose.
So he takes off a japor snippet, the one carved in Ben's honor, and leaves it on a nearby stump.
He tells them of its importance, of its way to tell of one’s life or to offer protection, and says that if they cannot trust him to come back for his training, to at least trust that he will be back for his japor snippet.
And because he is a Skywalker, and destiny has always had its way with the Skywalkers, he meets his father.
He cannot deny the truth, because as much as he tries, he is a freeborn, and he was raised to wear his name with pride.
And the truth is that Vader is his father.
But that cannot be true, because his father was never Vader, his father was Anakin Skywalker — and Anakin Skywalker was freed at age nine.
Darth Vader is not yet free.
Later, when he is away from cloud city and away from the pain of getting his new hand installed, he makes a new choice.
His name is Luke Skywalker, and he has always been proud of the name he was given by his grandmother.
Ekkreth the sky-walker was the one who would free the slaves, tricking Depur and bringing hope to those enslaved.
It was not by choice that his family was named Skywalker, and he knows it is up to him to uphold the destiny that was given to him.
A year later, when he faces his father again, he reminds him of who he is.
Anakin Skywalker was a slave, and he was freed when he was nine. Anakin Skywalker does not have a Depur, and is free to choose.
He tells him, “Dukkra ba dukkra.”
Freedom or death.
And when he stands in front of Lord Sidious, of the Depur responsible for his father forgetting , Luke remembers the stories of Ekkreth.
The sky-walker and the trickster.
He keeps his face calm, and he fights the call of the dark side, because he is a Skywalker and a Freeborn, and his ancestors gave up everything for him to be free.
He stares at Sidious, and he knows in every atom in his body that this will end in one way.
Dukkra ba dukkra.
“I am a Jedi, like my father before me.”
When the lightning comes, all he can do is cry in pain as he feels himself burning, as he feels the life from him draining.
He thinks of his family, not just the ones lost, but of the ones he made in the rebellion. He thinks of Leia and Han and Chewie, his family in blood and by choice, and he wishes that at the very least, that they will get a body to bury.
He thinks of his father, and so when he is offered a moment of peace, he calls out to him again.
Dukkra ba dukkra.
The second time the lightning comes, the second time he starts to cry in agony, he hears the cry of his father, and suddenly the pain is gone.
He watches in awe at his father, his father who is Free as he was all those years ago. His father, who is once again gaining his freedom from Depur.
Because the two of them are Skywalkers, one Freed and one Freeborn, and their destiny was set by a woman who had the courage to give them their name.
Skywalker.
Now, as he meditates, facing out into a forest, he smiles at a familiar presence forming at his side.
“Hello, father.”
“Lukka.”
And the two Skywalkers stay there in silence, because nothing else needs to be said, because they are both Skywalkers, the Freed and the Freeborn, allowed to choose and free from any depur.