#naturally all my spiciest takes will stay locked in my drafts forever

[vashti-lives]

The problem with AUs where Vader has a change of heart sooner and survives his fight with the emperor is that I’m never going to believe his change of heart is real or meaningful unless he allows himself to be put on trial and judged for like… the massive amount of genocide he has committed. Justice requires him to acknowledge the harm he has done and offer whatever restitution he can.

And like irl I am DEEPLY anti death penalty but within the framework of gffa like… from the perspective of a normal person what else can you do with him? He’s an evil space wizard who can access magic powers and all the people who would have known how to deal with that are dead because… he killed them… maybe Luke says oh no he’s good now he’ll behave himself in prison but how can most people believe that? Particularly because you know if Vader goes on trial his real identity will be revealed and thus his relationship with Luke.

So while I theoretically enjoy a good Luke & Vader bonding story unless it’s very very AU I don’t really think there’s an ending for them that’s more satisfying than what we got in canon.