#short version: luke is perfectly prepared to kill a fuckton of imperials without looking for any good in them

[anghraine]

I’ve been thinking about why “Luke could even see the good in Vader” bothers me, although it seems basically true on the face of it.

I think it’s because the phrasing roots what happens in Luke’s character, with Anakin only relevant as a metric of just how far Luke’s (alleged) optimism goes. Anakin’s almost an afterthought here; the suggestion is that Luke can see the good in almost anyone, even Vader. And ... not really?

He says over and over in ROTJ that he won’t kill Anakin because a) Anakin is his father and b) he, Luke, can sense the good in him through the Force. He’s not sensing it through basic optimism about people in general; he’s sensing Anakin’s true self through their very real psychic bond.

And that’s lost when it’s reduced to Luke being so forgiving and sunny and optimistic that his goodness can even encompass Vader—Luke’s polar opposite in this formulation, rather than the father he loves, and intensely identifies with throughout the entirety of the OT. His high point as a character lies not in disassociating himself from Anakin, but in embracing his legacy even as he makes a different choice.

There is a lot more going on than Anakin as simply the marker of how far Luke’s good nature can take him. And personally, I don’t think it’s that Luke can even see the good in as faulty a person as Anakin. It’s that Luke can particularly see the good in Anakin, through their personal connection as people, as Jedi, and as father and son.