The grueling life as a slave on Tatooine was
only made bearable to young Anakin Skywalker by
spending his meager free time with his friends Kitster and Wald, as the three shared their
love of podracing and dreams of one day leaving
the desert planet. So how did Kitster, Wald, and the other inhabitants
of Tatooine who knew Anakin as a child react when told that he grew up to become
the dreaded Darth Vader, enforcer of the Galactic Empire? In the book Tatooine Ghost; Leia, Han, Chewbacca,
and C-3PO visit Tatooine a couple years after the Battle of Endor in search of an
old Alderaanian painting rumored to be auctioned on
the remote desert world. Acquiring the painting was important for the
now formed New Republic, as it contained encrypted codes used by the
former Rebel Alliance as a means of covertly communicating with their implemented spies
within the Galactic Empire while they were still a
small fighting force. Believing the painting was destroyed along
with Alderaan due to it being in transit to the planet
prior to its destruction, it was soon discovered that it had not made its way in time of the
world’s demise and instead ended up in the black market. Hoping to not have the encrypted codes still
contained within the painting to fall within Imperial
hands and expose the identities of the Rebel spies within the crippled, but still dangerous
Galactic Empire, the four made haste to obtain it before anyone else. While on Tatooine, Leia and Han disguised
themselves as aliens in order to not alert any
unwanted attention and began their quest of getting the painting. During the auction the painting
was being sold at, Leia overheard one of the items being auctioned contained a hologram
of a young Anakin Skywalker after he made history
of being the first Human to win a pod race on
Tatooine. Hearing the name of her father confused Leia,
not understanding why such an item existed in
the first place, let alone was kept for so long. As at this time, very little was known about
Anakin Skywalker’s past before he became a Jedi,
with it not entirely known if he was even born on
Tatooine as some had suggested. Nonetheless, the hologram sparked Leia’s
interest which led her to meet Wald and a few other
people who had known her father as a child. When the subject matter was brought up, Wald
spoke highly of Anakin, stating how he had given hope to him and all the other children
of Tatooine of leaving the planet and achieving
their dreams like he had. Upon learning that Anakin was a slave, Leia
became conflicted, believing him being a slave painted her father as a victim and downplayed
the fact that he was once one of the greatest oppressors in the galaxy. When Leia told Wald that the kid he was friends
with and looked up to grew up to become Darth Vader, the Rodian
got offended, refusing to believe her. To him, it was
unthinkable that his childhood friend who was so joyous, hopeful and inspirational could
ever grow up to commit the heinous crimes of Darth
Vader. The two got into a heated argument as a
result, which ended with neither being convinced of the others’ claims. At this point, Leia still had not forgiven
her father like Luke, unable to let go of his actions that
led to so much pain and destruction across the galaxy, let alone torturing the man she
loved: Han Solo. Wald wasn’t the only one to speak highly
of Anakin, as nearly everyone who Leia came across
that knew of the boy who had done the impossible of winning the podrace saw him as a hero,
especially the slaves who became motivated of earning their freedom like Skywalker had. Seeing her father being viewed as a hero made
Leia sick to her stomach, still not believing Vader was the touching child everyone claimed
him to be. Eventually the four Rebels came across Anakin’s
childhood best friend, Kitster. Kitster had
learned of the fate of the Jedi Order following the end of the Clone Wars, initially believing
Anakin had died during the purge when news of it first broke out. But unlike everyone else who
knew of the boy, Kitster discovered what Anakin had done when he returned to Tatootine as
a Jedi Padawan prior to the outbreak of the
Clone Wars. How he had massacred an entire
Tusken village in rage, killing everyone, including the women and children. But he also knew why his friend had done it,
knowing the Tuskens had kidnapped his mother and tortured her to death. To Kitster, he believed Anakin must have regretted
his actions that day, as he always had an extreme, emotional
reaction to injustices he saw. And unlike everyone
else they had met, Kitster acknowledged the fact that Anakin had become Darth Vader,
believing the great pain he felt as a slave and losing his mother explained why he became
such a monster. Despite this acknowledgement however, Kitster
still believed there was always good within Anakin, even when he was Vader, and
that he must have always regretted the slaughter of the Tusken village as it was his first
step toward his eventual dark path. Upon hearing such an honest and reflective
response from Kitster, as well as seeing holograms of Anakin with his mother from earlier, Leia
was finally able to forgive her father and let go of the
hate she contained for him her whole life.
