After sacrificing himself to save his son and returning back to the light side, the
redeemed Anakin Skywalker was able to spend the last few moments of his life with Luke,
showing him who he really was before his fall to the dark side.
But he never got to do the same with his daughter Leia, only discovering her to be his daughter
shortly before his death.
But Anakin did become a force ghost, and because Leia was force sensitive he was able to contact
her through that means instead.
So he did just that, appearing as a force spirit to Leia shortly after the battle of
Endor while she was on a diplomatic mission to negotiate a treaty with an Imperial governor.
She first saw Anakin’s spirit as she was entering her private living quarters, initially
seeing a tall man with long hair in her room and being confused with why he was there.
Then she noticed that he was somewhat transparent, and that he looked exactly what Luke described
Obi Wan looked like to him whenever he saw him reappear as a force spirit.
That was when she understood that she was looking upon a force ghost.
She then asked who he was and what he was doing there in her room.
The force spirit turned and told her not to fear him, revealing to her that he was her
father, Anakin Skywalker.
Upon hearing those words, Leia whispered Vader to herself and had a chill go down her spine
and her hatred for him began to rise up.
Noticing Leia’s anger start to swell within her, Anakin told her that he was forgiven
and that he wished to make amends with her, and that she must be careful with her anger
as that could lead to the dark side.
Leia ignored his comments and simply told him that she wanted him to leave her at once.
Anakin told her to wait, explaining to her that he was no longer the man she used to
fear, but rather a stranger asking to be forgiven and hoping to be given a second chance.
Leia then got angry and yelled at him, telling him that he can't ever restore Alderaan, her
home, or bring back Bail Organa, who she told him she would always consider to be her true
father.
That he can’t ever bring back all the people he killed or remove all the suffering he caused
in the galaxy.
Anakin paused, telling her that he strengthened the Rebellion with what he did.
He then walked back on his comments, going on to say that he may never be able to come
back to her as a force spirit and that this may be the last time she’ll ever be able
to see him.
“Good”, was all Leia said in response to hearing that she may never see him again.
Anakin then pleaded her to forgive him, as Luke had done after he was saved.
But Leia didn’t want to hear it, telling him that she was not Luke and that the galaxy
had only played a cruel, dark trick on her by making her related to her former enemy
Darth Vader.
Anakin continued to ask for forgiveness, to which Leia finally responded that she could
almost forgive him for torturing her on the Death Star all those years ago or even causing
harm onto other people as that drove them to the Rebel Alliance, but she that would
never forgive him for torturing Han Solo back on Cloud City.
She then told him to never come back and stormed out of her room, running across Han in the
process.
She told him that she saw Vader back in her room and how he was trying to ask her for
forgiveness.
Han laughed at what he heard, probably not even believing that she saw him in the first
place.
He then saw how distressed she was and told her that although Vader was her father, he
was very skilled in what he did.
And that because she was related to him, she too would have those same strengths as he
did, but that she can use them for good instead of evil.
After that confrontation with Anakin’s force spirit, Leia never saw him again.
She did however eventually come to forgive him a year later, after she came across her
biological grandmother’s diary, where Shmi had written all the good things Anakin had
done while as a child and who he was as a person.
After reading that diary and better understanding how different Anakin was from Vader, Leia
finally was able to forgive him.