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.