Why Leia takes after her father, while Luke is his mother's son.



When comparing one Skywalker generation with the next, it's easy to find similarities between mother and daughter, father and son. Looks-wise, both Padme and Leia are short, dark-haired and dark-eyed, and apparently share a genetic disposition for bunned hairstyles. Both Anakin and Luke are blond and blue-eyed (though Luke clearly got his mother's height). The two sets of Skywalkers also chose the same career paths, with the women opting to pursue politics at young ages, and the men joining the ranks of the Jedi.


Without discounting those and other similarities, it's worth pointing out that there are significant connections between the twins and their parents that cross gender lines. This is a subject that's come up before more than once on my fourms (here and here, for example) because it's an interesting way to explore the Skywalker family dynamic.

Even looking at appearances, beyond the hair and eye coloring, Leia looks more similar to Anakin and Luke is closer to Padme in terms of facial structures and features (Anakin/Leia have more rounded faces -- especially TPM Anakin and ANH Leia -- while Padme and Luke have more delicate features).

And careers? It's very different being a Senator and a Jedi during the OT compared to the prequel era. Leia is a leader in an underground Rebellion and her "formal" political duties cease to exist by the time of ANH (the Senate is disbanded and Alderaan is detroyed). Luke is a Jedi without an Order and is trained in a very unconvential way. Would Leia have been as well-suited to a life of formalized politics as Padme was? Would Padme have flourished in a life on the run with a rag-tag Alliance? We all know that Anakin couldn't avoid a fall as Luke was able to, and it's arguable that Luke might have done better within the strict structure of the prequel-era order than Anakin did.

That's all related to some important characteristics in personality and nature that Anakin-Leia and Padme-Luke share. It's hard to imagine Luke and Padme giving off the same level of snark that Anakin and Leia sometimes do (i.e., "Somebody get this walking carpet out of my way" "General Greivous -- you're shorter than I expected"). It's also difficult to picture Anakin or Leia using non-aggressive ways to win a battle (such as Padme choosing to beg and humble herself before the Gungans in TPM, or Luke choosing not to fight/kill Vader in ROTJ). Anakin and Leia are also more impatient than Luke or Padme (Anakin is "always on the move" while Leia takes over her own rescue in ANH and initiates the speeder bike chase in ROTJ, while Luke barely catches up with her, among other examples). Luke and Padme clearly share a compassionate nature, which is what allows Vader to be saved, as they both believe he's capable of and worthy of redemption, despite evidence seemingly to the contrary and the differing opinions of others. There's little evidence of a generally forgiving nature in Anakin or Leia, though they are both kind and caring.

None of this is absolute, of course, but now that we've seen the prequels, I love looking at the ways these related characters were developed. Luke and Leia are a very interesting mix of their parents.



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