101 Star Wars Variations 96: The Skywalkers

The death of a marriage is a saga unto itself, and its ramifications can lead to unexpected results.

For instance, the day the Skywalkers broke up.  These days, you'll hear a lot of confusing things about them.  You may even believe that they were brother and sister rather than husband and wife.  Perhaps it's easier to go back to the beginning.

Or rather, the end.

Luke and Leia broke up sometime after the destruction of the Death Star.  Some say it was the pressure of becoming galactic heroes.  By the time they were living on Hoth their relationship had become frigid indeed, and they left going separate ways.  It's easy to assume that Han Solo came between them, the one-time smuggler becoming a friend to one and a lover to the other, but either way someone who couldn't be shared.  Much like their lives.

As the gulf between them widened, the Rebellion had some explaining to do.  It was victory that complicated things.  Suddenly there was nowhere to hide, not from the troops of the Empire, nor the glare of the media on countless worlds.  Once they'd been inseparable but now it was difficult finding them in the same room.

So an explanation had to be made.  It was more like damage control.  The Rebellion couldn't withstand bad publicity.  Fortunately, an observer in the media made the mistake and identified them as siblings for the first time.  Absurd, yes, for anyone who knew the truth, but there was plenty of supporting evidence, or so the interpretation could be.  Luke spent an increasing amount of time on the desert world of Tatooine, a place he'd often visited as a child, while Leia continued life as a celebrity, a role she'd basked in since her days as a princess of Alderaan, a title she'd abandoned when she wanted a common touch to more readily reach the masses.

It was like a splinter of the mind, convincing certain contemporaries that they'd never been lovers, but the more exposure the cause of the Rebellion received, the easier it was to forget, and the more amicable their relationship became again.

Suddenly there was room for other lies.  I'm sure you've heard about Luke's Jedi career?  The last remnants of their earlier days lingered in the form of a romantic destiny one or both of them shared, and a personal score against the Empire's dread warrior Darth Vader, who of course in this version of the saga was their father.  The things people will believe...

So much has been said about the Skywalkers, or rather Skywalker and Organa, as they were known once and again.  Truth and lies.  Wonders never cease.

But that was a long time ago.