Why didn't Luke have more children?

Besides the obvious, Mara's dead and the writer's didn't want him to, why didn't Luke have more children?

I mean if Anakin was the Force incarnate and Luke has tremendous power because of it, you would think he would have had more children so they could go on to protect the universe. It seems that if your name is Skywalker, the best thing you can do for the galaxy is reproduce.

-b

 

Meh. I wish he hadn't had any.

 

Perhaps because Skywalker's have a tendency to go to the dark side, he and Mara decided to only have Ben and concentrate on preventing his fall.

 

Because when parents go through troubled pregnancies...they tend to think twice about doing it again.

 

How could you?!?!? Then we wouldn't have Cade!

 

Meh. Celibate heroes are lame. Luke should have been a virile mountain of virility. (kidding)

Still, it's probably that Mara and Luke were in their mid-forties when they had Ben, right after Mara recovered from that Vong disease, and by the time they really had some quiet time where they weren't kicking ass in battle, they were already in their fifties. Contrast this with the Solos. Leia had two children when she was twenty-eight and another a year later. Granted they lost both sons, but still, Leia was having children much earlier and thus had more children. Also, Luke might've had a larger family if the authors didn't screw around with his love life, making him go from Gaeriel Captison to Mara Jade (kinda) to Callista to Akanah and back to Mara, he'd probably have ended up married sooner and we wouldn't have nonsense like his part of the Callista or Black Fleet Trilogies.

In fact, if Luke had kissed Mara in that very last scene in the Last Command, when he gave her Anakin's lightsaber, we could have avoided all of this.

^Also, Cade is lamer than lame. His badass bounty hunter routine is getting old really fast. He's pretty much a manchild - he has no responsibilities and he knows and revels in it.

 

Han and Leia started with three, but now are down to 1. It?s the danger in literature where multiple authors handle characters, for Sibling to be degraded to Back-up siblings.

Writers get kill crazy when they have siblings, Dragon Lance it?s the same thing. Ironically I don't think Kirks brother was ever killed...Just forgotten.

If Luke had Bob and Sara, some writer might go "What if Bob went dark" and then get a story line green lighted around it and there goes Bob. Sara gets killed in a lynch pin novel, a good heroic death. Bam Ben is the sole survivor anyway.

It?s a flimsy excuse, that and Luke and Mara were how old when they had Ben? I know its Star Wars, but on Earth teens are too young, the forties are too close to too old.

 

In my opinion, Luke and Mara should have had at least two children. At the end of VotF, Luke and Mara saw "children" in their shared vision, and Mother Rell saw "children" in Luke's future too.

I heard a long time ago that the original plan was for Luke and Mara to already have "children" when VP began, but that the author lobbied against that because he felt he had too many characters already and didn't know what to do with young children during a major war. His request was granted.

Then Kathy Tyers came along and asked if Luke and Mara were going to have children. She was told that they weren't sure, but "maybe" they would have one at the end of the NJO. She requested to be allowed to give them a child, and her request was granted. Thus, we at least got Ben.

I would have liked to see Luke and Mara have a daughter too. I always thought it would be interesting if one of Luke's two or more children wasn't Force sensitive.

 

"Darling, I love you, you are my life and my light. If you ever do this to me again, I will vape you where you stand."
?Mara jesting with Luke about pregnancy.

Yeah, I know Mara was just kidding, but as Jedimarine pointed out, parents often think twice after going through a troubled pregnancy/birth. Not all the time, or else I would not have younger siblings (wait... they were a mistake, but you get my point).

But I think it was also because Luke and Mara were busy saving the galaxy.

I'm kinda glad Luke only had one, so the authors couldn't do the same thing they did to Leia and Han, we all know they would have killed off any siblings Ben had.

Now Ben on the other hand... I kinda want him to breed like a rabbit so that the authors can have their whole little killing frenzy, and we still have a couple of Skywalkers left to read about and not just one.

 

Well that's clear enough for me.

I'm an only child. It happens. Plus it's a gamble. Too much power. Nat has it right.

 

one full sibling and two half sibling myself.

 

I don't think there's ever been anything to confirm that rumour. Salvatore states here that he didn't want to include Mara because he thought there were too many protagonists, but was told "Too bad. You have to include her", and I think the children rumour was somehow born out of that.

As much as I'd like to see more Skywalker and Solo children, I agree that this would probably be the inevitable result. Legacy is a perfect example of how to give multiple Skywalker children completely different yet sill interesting and not the generic "one goes dark and the other has to kill him/her" stories, but I can't see the Del Rey/FOTJ planning team being that creative.

As for the original question, I suspect it's because the Del Rey/FOTJ planning team has zero interest in developing any sort of next generation beyond the solitary Ben, and will keep making the Big Three the focus until they're 200 years old. Despite... wait for it... despite not having any idea what to do with Han & Leia!!!

 

Eh. The NJO is itself a perfect example of siblings coming out with interesting yet different storylines, and while I have little trust in whoever's responsible for the way things are currently going, if they get the bad influences out and go back to letting people like Luceno drive the story, I think it's quite possible that we might get a set of sane, heroic siblings.

Which should not be too much to fricking ask.

 

True. In other words, no big loss.

Seriously, I enjoy Legacy in spite of him. Talk about a whining selfish brat. And I thought Anakin Skywalker was unbearable in Episodes 2 and 3.


About Luke - maybe he's not interested in sex that much or is too shy, considering how long he's been a virgin? And even after that he's not exactly pictured as interested in dating babes and engaging in carnal pleasures.
Beside Mara, how many women has he slept with, I wonder? Yes, I know, it could be said it happened off-panel, but none of his other relationships has struck me as a sensual one.

Now Han and Leia - that's something else entirely. The moment I read TTT and DE, I totally bought the idea they could have three kids, considering how they were depicted in the OT.

 

Random observation: All of the Skywalker (by surname) children, for whom we know the origin story, have been unplanned pregnancies.

Shmi didn't know how she got pregnant; Anakin and Padme had a secret marriage and were obviously not planning babies; Mara stated in Balance Point that she had "taken all precautions" against pregnancy (I'm assuming that means contraception) in light of her illness; and Morrigan told Kol that having a kid was never part of her career plan before she abandoned him and Cade.

IU: The Force makes Skywalker babies when it needs them? But it can only make boys.


[/random]

 

We wouldn't have Cade Skywalker. We could still have Cade Solo.

@ Falorwindrider:
I actually agree with you, more or less. Yes, I'd have preferred "the Son" to have remained without children of his own (much as "the Father" had no father of his own). Yes, I'd have preferred for there to have been only two legendary "Skywalkers" in Anakin and Luke -- even though the bloodline would be continued with the Solos through "the Other". Yes, I think "Uncle Luke" is considerably more fitting than "Daddy Luke". But, even so, I think that Luke -- if he was going to have a kid/kids, as he did -- should have had them earlier.

I mean, I don't HATE that Luke's become a father, or anything. I just think it would have been more interesting had he not... or if his sole issue had been some Mordred type figure, born via a bed trick. (Sans the incest)

Still, given how things went, it wouldn't have hurt them to give Luke and Mara a daughter, too.

Hopefully Ben will spawn many children from his mid-to-late twenties onwards.

We need a pair of male Skywalker twins, and some Skywalker girls.

No, I'd call that a good observation.

 

Wife died. I think they would have had more children otherwise (what better way to perk up a series gone flat?) Now he may remarry and while the chance of more kids is slim, it isn't necessarily an impossible idea. It is true that the continuity issues would arise, but what else is new? I could see him having another son and of course he would be named Anakin after both... He's getting up there in age, but in terms of SW, it isn't that old. No more girls - we have enough females ruling the roost in Star Wars right now. The males are completely sidelined or dead and it is very boring...except one...we have Ben (in terms of a Jedi youngun) and that's it. To be honest, it is Han that needs to have another son - at present - he has been excised from Star Wars in terms of progeny.

 

I don't mind that Ben is an only child. I've really grown to like Ben and I'm glad that the focus is just on him and not other siblings. On the other hand I hope Ben has a couple of kids before he turns forty and at least one of Ben's kids must be a girl.

 

The Real Jacen is still out there. /denial

 

Because Del Rey can't handle multiple character arcs? They have enough trouble keeping Ben, Jacen, and Jania all straight and different in LOTF.

 

It's been so long since I real New Jedi Order, but was there ever a time when Luke was captured by the Vong (post-Agents of Chaos, since I assume if Mara knew she was pregnant in Balance Point, that conception happened a bit earlier)?

Perhaps the Vong, as part of torture and mutilation, gave him The Snip?

Or tortured him like Le Chiffre tortured Jame Bond in Casino Royale, reducing his meiotic cells to a bloody pulp, for which Cilghal could do nothing?

 

I do not believe Luke was ever captured by the Yuuzahn Vong.

Jacen was captured twice, Anakin went undercover as a slave, you might be mixing what happened with those two with Luke. But I am pretty sure he was never captured.

I am also sure a vasectomy is reversible

 

Eh, Ben being a Mordred character? Two Legendary Skywalkers? Comparison to Anakin's immaculate conception? Too many cliches! Cannot...compute...

Also, if Luke had a daughter, Ben would have invariably died, because killing males is more acceptable. Luke's daughter would have been characterized as a too-pure-for-this-sinful-galaxy type of white knight (though through her actions, she'd seem like a total b****) and Ben would fall to the dark side or be killed in a sacrificial move. Judging from how Jaina will probably live a long, long life despite being the least interesting and most annoying Solo child, while her far more interesting and (initially) personable brothers get either killed in their prime or their character is derailed and then killed, I'd say this isn't without precedent. Among the main characters, Mara really is the only subversion, as she underwent positive character development, but hey! She died too! Just like a whole slew of Zahn characters! It is rather unfortunate that, to be edgy, the authors think that male characters need to be scummy vermin who die horribly and female characters need to be war-like to the point of sociopathy.

Also, I'm not really a fan of the Solo family any longer. I'd much rather Jaina die childless at this point. Plus, having a bunch of Solos running around really isn't as impressive as a single, unbroken Skywalker bloodline.

 

Aye. I miss the NJO more every day.

 

Clearly, the man was dry. But it would be entirely inappropriate for any piece of literature to cover the subject of his dehydrated meatballs. WHY CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE HIM ALONE.