Treachery among Sith is well documented in the Star Wars universe, but I want to spend a moment on the significance of this truth as it pertains to Anakin and Luke's relationship. There are other questions I want to raise in future entries about the deceptive and treacherous nature of the Sith, but for now I am interested in the part it plays in the Skywalker drama.

After viewing Revenge of the Sith for a third time, I was compelled to watch Return of the Jedi; to refresh my memory on the subtleties of Anakin's redemption. I was so intent on those scenes alone that I skipped through the rest of the movie.

There are so many possible things that could have been going through Anakin's mind; I suppose it is up to individual interpretation to determine his thought process, but I want to consider treachery as a contributing factor for his decision to save his son and himself.

Certainly Luke reminded Anakin of Padme and, consequently, a time when he was happy. And if that wasn't enough, Luke loved Anakin regardless of what he had become. Like Obi-Wan, he would consider Anakin dead before accepting Darth Vader to be his true nature.

I also think Anakin saw in Luke the Jedi he could have been. He witnessed Palpatine playing the same game that won him over to the dark side, yet Luke wasn't falling for it. And furthermore, in Sith fashion, Anakin found himself in the same position that his predecessor was. Palpatine, like a thousand generations of Sith lords before him, only cared about himself.

But his son truly cared for him. As Padme and Obi-Wan had. Just as it had been an easy decision to make by becoming Darth Sidious' apprentice, I think it was a fairly easy one to end his life; to fulfill his true destiny as the chosen one. As Palpatine says in the Revenge of the Sith novelization, he didn't believe in the will of the Force. He believed people created their own destiny. In that way, too, are the Sith unnatural.