Kenobi: "That boy was our last hope."
Yoda: "No, there is another."
The Empire Strikes Back


In my ongoing attempt to over-analyze the Star Wars movies, I've made another discovery I wish to share with the PLB. While working on 'something' recently, I was struck by a scene in The Empire Strikes Back that made me wonder just how much thought George & Co. put in their movies. I mean this in a good way.

However, before I begin, I'd like to speak about childbirth. (pause) Yes, childbirth. While my wife and I don't have any children, I am not entirely ignorant of the 'process'. Whether witnessed in the form of Padme's birthing scene, a Lifetime movie, or something much more realistic - like in a hospital, giving birth appears to be a very arduous process for everyone involved: mom, dad, and baby. Even though it often ends in the arrival of a beautiful child to two loving parents, I don't think anyone can say it's not a phase of life fraught with strong emotions and concerns. It must be even more trying for those whose children arrive under even more desperate circumstances. As a childless man, I can only imagine the emotions and feelings that must impact the individuals who must care for these 'younglings', as well as the feelings of the younglings themselves. Arriving into a world covered in blood, screaming for love, without knowledge of the world into which you've entered, it truly is a fight to survive in my mind.

Now, come with me to Cloud City where a young man stands on a platform fighting against evil disguised in dark armor and waving a blood-red light sword. Despite his best efforts, he is forced to his knees, bleeding and scarred. The young man believes he stands on the verge of death, when, in fact, he stands on the verge of life. Like a newborn baby, it's a life he has little choice in. Trying desperately to hang onto the life he's known up until now, he will be pushed into being - he has no choice in the matter. Except it's not mom doing the pushing, it's dad. As Luke curls in agony before Darth Vader, amidst a vast empty space, he hears those fateful words: I am your father!

And with that, Luke falls. He falls down a shaft (a birth canal?), where he is ejected out of Cloud City (a mechanical belly), where his life hangs from an antenna (an umbilical cord?) clinging to life. Bloody and barely breathing, the orphan known as Luke Skywalker is born. The life of 'young Luke' is gone. The gifted pilot, the hero of the rebellion, the young Jedi of promise, is dead. The world he knew is gone - and he can never return to it. It is here a true newborn is brought forth. Born into pain and confusion, Luke's new life hangs by the slenderest of threads. The life-cord, or lifeless cord, must be cut. He must be retrieved if any 'hope' is to survive.

As Luke clings to life just below the belly of Cloud City, 'another hero' arrives. Of course, the hero this time is a woman. The father has abandoned his child, but the mother has not. Though Luke's true mother is long dead, his sister - the mother's advocate - returns to rescue this new child. Receiving Luke into another protective womb, a place of acceptance, friends, and love, Leia saves her brother - the true Luke Skywalker. For it is from here that Luke becomes a man: choosing his destiny and to what he holds true. No longer tied to fantasies or aging teachers, Luke must learn to make his way in a new world - the real world. Although we can only speculate (as I have elsewhere) what those first few critical days, and the ones after, must have been like, I think it's safe to say that it was 'love' that kept the 'hope' of Luke alive. Since his true father had revealed himself that day, I'd like to believe mom did too. You want to know why Leia had feelings of her mother and Luke didn't? Honestly, there can be only one reason: for one moment, Leia was Padme.

Good night, children.

(Note: this blog is full but I have opened a continuation titled: Luke Skywalker...RISE! You are welcome to post your comments there.)