The Skywalker Bloodline in Legends Continuity

Star Wars took the world by storm when it first came to cinemas in 1977 and has ingrained itself as one of the most recognizable IP's in the history of moviemaking. The story of Star Wars spans many years in a galaxy far, far away, and is mostly focused on a particular family: the Skywalkers. The first protagonist: Luke Skywalker, has become an iconic character in cinema and was the face of Star Wars for a long time. Though his cinematic journey ended with Return of the Jedi in 1983, there were several books, comics and video games since that featured him in an alternative canon universe called the Expanded Universe. When Disney acquired the rights to Lucasfilm in 2012, they declared that the Expanded Universe would stop being written about and that the new books which would be made would all fit into the main canon continuity, and rebranded the Expanded Universe to Legends. However, there were many interesting developments that took place in the Legends universe that fans would have loved to see adapted in Disney's Star Wars sequel trilogy, with one of them being Luke's marriage and descendants. This article will explore that family tree.

Shmi Skywalker

The mother of the chosen one. She is the oldest Skywalker we see in the saga. We know very little about her past as per Legends continuity, only that she was brought in from another planet when Gardulla the Hutt bought her and Anakin, who was about 3 years old at the time, and whose conception even she could not explain. She suddenly became pregnant and gave birth to him. Even though he came to her suddenly, she still raised him as best she could, teaching him the values of life. They lived together as slaves until the Jedi Qui-Gon Jinn managed to find a way to free Anakin, but unfortunately leave her behind as a slave. She died ten years after the fact, in Anakin's arms, having been kidnapped by tusken raiders and tortured for weeks, only holding out long enough for her to be able to see what became of her son.

Anakin Skywalker

We then have Anakin Skywalker: the Chosen One of Jedi Prophecy, destined to bring balance to the Force and destroy the Sith. George Lucas said that Star Wars is the story of the rise and fall of Darth Vader, which was basically Anakin's downfall and his resurgence, and it was told through two film trilogies. One of the causes of his descent to the dark side was the pregnancy of his wife, whom he married in secret because Jedi were not allowed to get married. When he saw visions of her death during childbirth, he looked for a power that would help him control life and death, leading him to the dark side, destroying everything he had come to know and care for...including his wife. Luckily, his children survived, as Padmé Amidala-Skywalker gave birth to them just before dying.

Luke Skywalker

Luke Skywalker: the hero of Star Wars. He was the original hero of the Star Wars saga before we came to realize that it was actually Anakin who was the hero...not that Luke never did anything. After all, it was only because of him that the chosen one managed to fulfil his destiny. Luke was the first of the twins to be born, and grew up with his step uncle Owen Lars and his wife Beru on their home planet of Tatooine. Owen tried to keep Luke's Jedi heritage a secret from Luke and keep him out of the same troubles that claimed his step-brother's life. He likely did not know what truly happened to Anakin. That part was never made clear. Luke grew powerful in the Force over time, once he started on his journey, and managed to defeat both Vader and Darth Sidious, not through might and skill, but by the power of love; the love Anakin had for his son. That was where the journey ended for Luke on screen.

Leia Organa

Don't worry about the surname. She is very much a Skywalker. She was one of Anakin's twin children, sister of Luke. She was born a minute or two after Luke, and was the one who remembered Padmé the most out of the two. Leia grew up as a Senator's daughter on Alderaan, under the care of Bail Organa. She was a princess of the planet, and grew up with the tough air of authority and power in words. She was even able to keep up with tough guys like Han Solo, and even took charge of the mission to rescue her. She had that fiery spirit. While she never exhibited any Force powers in the original trilogy, (yes, she didn't use the Force in Empire. Luke was the one who reached out to her using the Force and told her where he is) she eventually learned how to use the Force in the Expanded Universe and became a Jedi. Her main actions on screen during the original trilogy were leading military forces, and her final action was being part of the strike team that had to destroy the shield generator of the second Death Star on the forest moon of Endor.

Jacen Solo

Anakin was not the only one blessed with twins in the Skywalker bloodline. When Leia and Han got married, they had three children. One of them was Jacen Solo, a very complex and layered character. He grew up to be a fine Jedi Knight, but was plagued with visions of the future which caused him to make very questionable decisions. Eventually, he turned to the dark side and took on the name Darth Caedus, as he saw that it was the only way for the galaxy to be saved, and ended up killing his aunt: Mara Jade Skywalker. His twin sister Jaina was the one who put an end to his reign of terror by killing him. He had a daughter called Allana and a grandchild called Aina, who was seen alive over 100 years after the Battle of Yavin.

Jaina Solo

She was Jacen's twin sister, who also grew up to be a fine Jedi in her time. She inherited her father's great piloting skills. It seemed that she took more from her father than Jacen, and Jacen took more from his maternal side. It was an interesting parallel. Jaina was horrified to find out what her brother had done, and made the hard choice to kill him when it was very clear that there was no saving him. It was not an easy decision to make for her, and it haunted her in her remaining days. She eventually grew in power and influence in the new Jedi Order, becoming a member of the Jedi High Council and eventually marrying Jagged Fel.

Anakin Solo

As the name implies, he was named after Leia's father. For a long time, Leia hated her father, and even after he visited her as a Force ghost, asking her for her forgiveness, and she refused. It was only after she came across Shmi Skywalker's diary, which contained some information about Anakin's childhood and her thoughts on him, that Leia came to forgive her father for all he had done. She then saw that naming her youngest son after him would probably endear him to her and in a way, redeem his name in the eyes of the galaxy. He had a very exciting life from infancy, as Palpatine tried to possess the infant Anakin and destroy him, taking his body and Force potential. Fortunately, Palpatine was stopped. However, Anakin was still the shortest lived of the three Solo children, as he was the first to die, having been overwhelmed by Yuuzhan Vong forces at the age of 17.

Ben Skywalker

He was the son of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. Ben Skywalker had a relatively tame life when compared to the other Skywalkers. He was raised under the protection and good graces of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade. Despite all the dangers he faced, he managed to stay safe and make a good enough story for himself. His story was never told until the point of his death, but the existence of Skywalkers 132 years after the Battle of Yavin show that he at least had children and likely got married at some point.

Kol Skywalker

Kol Skywalker was an exceptional Jedi. He took his role as grandmaster of the Jedi Order very seriously, and was always ready to solve the issues of the galaxy that the Jedi could help in. He was the youngest of two siblings, but was the one who continued the legacy of the Skywalker family in restoring the Jedi Order. He focused on diplomacy but was not afraid of going to extremes like violence if the situation called for it. Unfortunately, a lot of his work was sabotaged by his enemies and his legacy was tarnished in life, and the truth only came out when he was long dead, having died when an army of Sith attacked his Jedi Order on the planet Ossus. He was survived by his son and his brother.

Nat Skywalker

Nat Skywalker is the oldest sibling among the two children of who was likely to be Ben Skywalker. He learned the ways of the Force but ultimately left the Jedi Order to start a family and live off the grid. He came to know about the demise of his brother during an attack on the Jedi Order by the Sith Order called the One Sith, and presumed that his nephew Cade was killed as well. His story was not completed, as the time that the stories were being made, Disney acquired Lucasfilm and stopped production of Expanded Universe stories.

Cade Skywalker

He was the last of the Skywalker line to be expanded on in the Expanded Universe. He was the son of Kol Skywalker and Morrigan Corde. He grew up as a Jedi, not knowing much about his mother, as she left Kol and a young Cade in order to return to where her true allegiance lied: the fledging New Galactic Empire. She worked in intelligence, and in one of her missions, met and fell in love with Kol. They married and had Cade. Cade, having grown up with his father as a Jedi, was present during the One Sith's attack on the Jedi Order on Ossus. He survived the attack and witnessed his father dying at the hands of the attackers. He saw his master Wolf Sazen about to die as well, and used the power that Anakin Skywalker had sought: the power to stop people from dying. He had to channel the dark side for the power, and it worked. He then abandoned the Jedi way and became a bounty hunter, taking drugs and cutting himself off from the Force before he was brought back into the war between the Jedi and the Sith to fight once more, and continue the legacy of the Skywalker family in restoring the light of the Jedi in the galaxy. Unfortunately, his story was not told to the end, as Lucasfilm was acquired by Disney and Expanded Universe stories were stopped from being written.

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