Abstract

Fatherly love should be evident in caring for the health and good of one's children, seeking to safeguard them from harm and to encourage their integrity. However, in Star Wars, Darth Vader promises his son's survival only on the condition that Luke Skywalker will serve his own monstrous, tyrannical master. Utilizing a philosophy of love and goodness to show how the parent–child relationship may be lost or regained, this chapter examines the transition in Anakin's life from a natural love of others to a distorted, toxic caricature of love. The drama and trauma displayed in Star Wars allow us to recognize how an admirable love can lose its value, and in fact can become what motivates people to outrageously wicked acts. The chapter highlights that the good of the love in such relationships needs to be tempered by humility and wisdom.