The thing about Natasha is that she is Russian. So she knows all about the deep longing of the romantic Russian soul. She thinks it's utter crap. Yuri Zhivago was an idiot. There's nothing the least bit romantic about a dying swan and your lover throwing himself into a lake. Anna Arkadyevna throws herself in front of a train because Vronsky is sleeping around. The Wall coming down, perestroika, and glastnost were all very romantic too. What the romantic idealists didn't understand was that the cut off the head but the body remained and another head just grew in its place. All those romantic Russian souls end up dead and Natasha is a survivor.
As for Leia, she wracks her brain for months after Endor. She hopes that maybe when Vader interrogated and tortured her on the Death Star, when he stood and watched Tarkin give the order that destroyed Alderaan, that maybe, there was some hint of goodness, restraint or concern. There's nothing that can redeem him or his actions. Luke (says) he had those moments with the man their father was. Leia resents that, too. It's just one more way in which Luke was given what she was not -- training, a name, heritage. Yes, she had privilege and love, but in the end, Kenobi and that Jedi Master didn't train her. She didn't have a secret Jedi guard. Kenobi didn't give her their father's lightsaber.
Eventually Leia does her research. It is difficult because Palpatine destroyed so much. Anakin Skywalker was famous and people she knows now, people like Mon Mothma, knew of him then. Leia is not certain she likes the man she learns of. He sounds brilliant, impulsive and arrogant.
Han will tell her sometimes, when they are alone, when she is angry about the latest political stupidity or ignorant diplomat, that it's the Vader in her. That her husband can say this of the creature who tortured him speaks to Han's goodness. She might, with enough time, maybe acknowledge, as Luke does, that he died a redeemed man. The wrongs to herself she might forgive; but Leia can never forgive for what Vader did to Han or for standing by as Alderaan died.
no subject
As for Leia, she wracks her brain for months after Endor. She hopes that maybe when Vader interrogated and tortured her on the Death Star, when he stood and watched Tarkin give the order that destroyed Alderaan, that maybe, there was some hint of goodness, restraint or concern. There's nothing that can redeem him or his actions. Luke (says) he had those moments with the man their father was. Leia resents that, too. It's just one more way in which Luke was given what she was not -- training, a name, heritage. Yes, she had privilege and love, but in the end, Kenobi and that Jedi Master didn't train her. She didn't have a secret Jedi guard. Kenobi didn't give her their father's lightsaber.
Eventually Leia does her research. It is difficult because Palpatine destroyed so much. Anakin Skywalker was famous and people she knows now, people like Mon Mothma, knew of him then. Leia is not certain she likes the man she learns of. He sounds brilliant, impulsive and arrogant.
Han will tell her sometimes, when they are alone, when she is angry about the latest political stupidity or ignorant diplomat, that it's the Vader in her. That her husband can say this of the creature who tortured him speaks to Han's goodness. She might, with enough time, maybe acknowledge, as Luke does, that he died a redeemed man. The wrongs to herself she might forgive; but Leia can never forgive for what Vader did to Han or for standing by as Alderaan died.