Deer Country Inbox

[ezra_of_lothal]

"I'm Ezra Bridger and this is my communicator thing. Leave a message!"

Comments

[faithfulson]

I don't mind answering questions, so no need to feel awkward.

I didn't really know that much. My uncle never really wanted to talk about him, but eventually he told me he was a navigator on a spice freighter and died on a run -- I think he thought it would dissuade me for wanting to know more. He was very wrong; it just made me hope that he wasn't really dead, and would someday come and sweep me away from Tatooine.

It wasn't until I met Obi-Wan that I even found out he was a Jedi, though I didn't know he was still alive until Vader told me himself.

[ezra_of_lothal]

That all tracks. Thanks.

I'm sorry you had to wade through all that to get to the truth. But at the same time, I don't know what a good answer is to how to broach that sort of thing.

How I fumbled things telling you about your mom was about the mildest way I've screwed that sort of thing up.

[faithfulson]

Part of me wishes they had been honest. I can understand Owen not wanting to, because how can you tell the child you're raising something like that? I can understand where Ben was coming from too, but I still wonder if anything would have changed, or if I would have tried to help my father sooner.

[ And, just maybe, his father would have lived. ]

[ezra_of_lothal]

I'm not trying to excuse Ben, at all, but the version I met who was from maybe a few months into the Empire? I never cornered him on exactly how long, but it couldn't have more than a year.

Ben was already talking sometimes like Anakin was dead, when there were other people around who remembered him and knew the truth. Like it was the only way he knew how to live with it all. I tried to, I guess you could say - gently puncture that thought process because I don't think it was actually good for him, either.

I definitely see how, more alone, he could pretty much convince himself that was close enough to true.

[faithfulson]

[ Luke's response is long in coming, but... ]

When I got R2, he told me he was the property of Obi-Wan Kenobi. I asked my uncle about him, and he told me that he "died around the same time as my father."

Comparing the Ben that I knew and the Obi-Wan that's here, I can't help but feel like that's true.

[ezra_of_lothal]

I usually say 'Ben' to distinguish the version here from the older ones. But mostly I've actually always called him Obi-wan.

That said, knowing the things I know, I can see how it would easy for him to convince himself that Obi-wan Kenobi died the last time he'd seen Anakin. Again, especially if there wasn't anyone to talk to about this stuff.

It's all complicated. But I like to think wrestling with this stuff together is better than the alternative.

[faithfulson]

I do as well.

[ There's a moment where it looks like Luke is typing and stopping multiple times -- things he wants to say, things he wishes he knew, but he can't put it into words. Instead he just settles with: ]

I hope here they'll come to trust others enough to say something if things start going bad again.

[ezra_of_lothal]

I really really hope so too.