Saga Is the Skywalker legacy simply a trail of destruction?

I have never been part of the segment that espouses the old order had it coming, Empire was in the right, Luke should let the order die because Jedi are just too dangerous type of thinking. I am all in favor of Jedi, the Force, and the Skywalkers as standing for order and justice in the galaxy.

However! I am not so in love with that conception of the Skywalker family that I place it above what is shown to happen in the films. And as I look back and try to integrate TFA with the six Lucas films, I can't escape the feeling that what is shown to happen in the films portrays the Skywalkers as more like angels of death than a positive force.

Three galactic governments have fallen in Star Wars. The first, the Separatists, got the coup de grace when Anakin killed their leaders and shut down their armies. That action also paved the way for the fall of the Republic and its transformation into the Empire. That Empire became a dead letter, running on momentum, when Vader and the Emperor were killed. The Skywalkers didn't kill every soldier, sign every law, but they were intimately involved in all three.

Seven planets have been destroyed in Star Wars. Vader was on board the Death Star when it destroyed the first; Ren was on Starkiller Base when it destroyed two through five; General Leia Organa gave the order to destroy the seventh. No, they didn't push the button themselves, but they had a role.

Three superweapons have been destroyed in Star Wars (I'm counting SKB as both). A Skywalker destroyed the first, played a major role in the destruction of the second, and ordered the attack on the third. Actually, among canon Star Wars characters, Leia may well be second or third all-time in how many people she has ordered killed, depending on how many people were on Starkiller Base vs. Alderaan.

Geonosis is probably the still the biggest slaughter of Jedi all at once, but Anakin is no slouch. Between the temple massacre and decades of Jedi purging, surely he's killed more Force wielders than any other single man in the galaxy. On the other hand, three Sith Lords have been killed in Star Wars, and Skywalkers got them all! (And one of them may actually get Maul too one of these days and make it four for four!)

Are the Skywalkers just a wrecking ball crashing through galactic history? An ultimate weapon, wielded now against good, now against evil? Are they really a positive force in any sense, or just a powerful, destructive force?

 

No. Anakin and Kylo did what they did because they made bad choices and were manipulated by masters of the dark side. Luke and Leia aren't evil because they are involved in the wars. Nor angels of death. They fought for freedom and in war, people die. It is an unfortunate by-product of being unable to resolve conflicts peacefully.

 

I'm reminded of JRR Tolkien's The Silmarillion, specifically the Tale of Turin Turambar. He wasn't an evil man, he tried to do the right thing, but there was a curse on his family and almost every decision he made ended up hurting good people. Skywalker is GFFA's Turin, from a certain point of view. Tragically, Turin never got the happy ending that the Skywalker plan did at the end of RotJ. And I'm betting on everything being happily resolved in favor of the Skywalkers again at the end of ep IX, so I guess the Skywalkers are Turin+happy ending.

 

Here is a picture I came across a couple of days ago:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pi38jS6XrpA/T16bZZE1OVI/AAAAAAAAAxE/fEfhJI93TBo/s1600/skywalkers.jpg

 

I kinda agree with you rdhight when it comes to Palpatine manipulating Anaking and then Darth Vader. Anakin was indeed used by Palpatine in the NT, and Leia is also threatened to be used by Vader in ROTJ, HOWEVER, now with TFA no one seems to be used or manipulated by anyone as a sort of weapon... although Snoke uses Kylo the same way Sidious used Vader... ok now I think I agree with you on this point

but when it comes to Leia I think that as a general she has her duties and decisions to make. In a war it's impossible not to make casualties and she needs to make this sort of strategic decisions that Vader nor Luke never had to take as they were not the brain of anything. As far as we know she was never used, she has a very strong will and beliefs and values so I would say she's even more resistant to temptations (and therefore being "used as a weapon") than her father and son, but of course we cannot know for sure how she'd perform if she was in Luke's place in the OT

so I would say that there is a very strong opposition between men and women in the Skywalker family:

• Shmi as being a good mother and letting go of her son X no father
• Anakin as ambitious, a way too self-confident and seduced by the Dark Side X Padme who believes in the democracy, has values and stuff
• Luke who was naive, good person who was able to redeem his father but later failed with Kylo and abandoned everyone and everything X Leia who lost her son and husband but continued to fight for the galaxy like she always did (pretty much why I love this character)
• and now Kylo who's not self confident as his grandfather but (maybe for that) was seduced by Snoke and used as weapon X maybe Rey, but that's just a maybe

okay I hope this was an answer to your question

 

KitFisto21 nice dichotomy, hopefully the next generation flips it.

pretty sure more than 1000 jedi died in operation Knightfall/Order 66. If you count children way more died in the temple than Geonosis (if you believe the numbers in the books).

 

KitFisto21

Woah, interesting observation! I never noticed that.

 

I think that the Skywalker bloodline allows them to be incredible, genius force-users. However, just like there is a fine line between genius and crazy, I believe that the Skywalker clan be incredibly dark or light side talented. Because they are unpredictable as to which side they align themselves with, I believe that self sacrifice of those with Skywalker blood will be required in Episode IX to finally put and keep the Force in balance.

 

This is why I believe Rey is not related to any OT character as she will finally being balance to the force in Episode 9. Just a crazy hunch, IMO.

 

anakin already balanced the force.

 

Being super powered and mental instability running in the same family is certainly not a good thing. They seem to be one extreme or the other. You could argue the good Luke and Leia did only balanced ( maybe not even that much) what Vader did. And now there is Kylo.I never understood why the force created someone who turned out to be so unbalanced. I don't buy for a second Anakin ended up as he did ONLY because of being manipulated or making bad decisions. I think considering how he and Kylo turned out that there's also something genetic with the family line. If Rey is Luke's then we have 3/5 being good. So it's a little better as she seems to have the heart of gold that Luke and Leia has.

 

The family is in good condition once Anakin throws Palpatine in the core. The Empire is finally wounded and its a happy ending.

 

nothing genetic about it.