Hello and thanks for reading.

For the record, this story isn't my version of what I think happened in ROTJ. I'm not trying to rewrite canon. But as it is, the sequel trilogy destroys much of the meaning of ROTJ, along with savaging Luke Skywalker's character. So I wanted to do a retcon version that shows how I might reconceptualize the story in this new canon context.

One of the difficulties with writing a story like this is that the reader already knows what's going to happen. The plot really isn't the point of a fic like this—the characterization is what matters. The challenge is no longer sustaining the reader's attention for 'what will happen next?' so much as it is providing satisfactory answers for 'why did that happen?' As you are reading, it's really important to realize that while you the reader may know what will happen next, the characters do not. Hopefully the characters are written well enough that you will feel their anticipation and unease along the way.

I have tried to be clear all along that this story would follow the ROTJ ending. There was never going to be a happy ending to this tale. I'm sorry for those of you who were hoping for a different result in the throne room. The ending was already written for me by George Lucas (with some JJ Abrams gloss), so fault him if you don't like how this turned out. I'm sure someone else—probably a far better author than I—will write a great fic with Luke and Vader killing Palpatine and ruling the galaxy happily ever after.

Did you finish the story frustrated? With a sense of futility? Well, that's one of the main points of the story. It's also the trap that Lucasfilm can't see a way out of. We have the same conflicts, same worlds, same characters, and same plot resolutions repeated again and again. These constant callbacks to the past are bogging down the Star Wars universe. In many ways, Twilight of the Gods is my protest fic. I am so ready to move on to new tales, new heroes, and new themes. I'm Darth Vader wanting to turn the page on history, while Lucasfilm is Luke Skywalker trying to recreate magic of the past.

My apologies for the Marvel style episode 9 after credit scene. I couldn't resist. I really hate everything about the ending scene of TROS. Burying lightsabers—what's that supposed to mean? Going back to the planet where so much tragedy has occurred as some sort of homecoming—how does that make any sense? And how is it relevant to a woman who has absolutely no connection to that planet in her own experience? The "I'm Rey Skywalker" ending was manipulative, forced nostalgia at its worst. It capped off a thoroughly uninspired movie. Seriously, everything bad about TROS sort of culminated in that scene.

The story of the Skywalkers turns out to be especially depressing in canon. Star Wars has its share of darker, more adult undercurrents, but TROS presents a very bleak resolution for the entire Skywalker clan. That family is even more tragic than we realized. And, sadly, more cliché. Like the Vader sacrifice in ROTJ? We got it again from Luke at Crait and then Leia does some strange shit that kills her to redeem her son. We get it—Skywalkers die for others. But what is the meaning of all that sacrifice? It's hard to tell. The Chosen One apparently dies to save his son, but not to balance the Force. Luke dies to save his sister and her cause—that at least makes sense. But why does Leia die for her son? I mean, why does it even matter if Kylo is redeemed because he's mostly superfluous to the ending of the sequel trilogy. He exists to revive Rey, I guess. Anyhow, you get the point—if you're a Skywalker, your whole life is fighting, suffering, and death. Fun, huh?

Like all my Sith characters, Darth Vader is far more complex and relatable than he wants to appear. Far more vulnerable as well. This story attempts to fill in the blanks and to amplify the character without ruining him. So if you think Vader is at times out of character because he's more than what you see on the screen, that's precisely the point. Hey, I love the towering, laconic bad guy from the films like you do. I don't want to take away from the awesome warlord with the penchant for choking and one-liners. But that's the public Vader. Vader the private man is more than that in my mind.

How to show that? Here, it's mostly through the original character of Astral. By now, I have a whole catalog of Sith love interests who exist on the edge of canon, caught up in the official sequence of events and influencing it. I like to write women in Star Wars, and I tend to write them as ordinary. I like to see how average people respond to the conflicts of the Force. I'm not very interested in the trope of a radicalized victim (the Rose Tico character from TLJ, for example) who finds strength and voice in violence. I prefer my characters to be moderate or apolitical. Until, of course, they get drawn into the fight by their Sith. That's partly because I don't want a character to rival the arc of my Sith Lord. It's also because I am interested in how ordinary people respond to extraordinary events. How they make the fight their own. That's not to say that my female characters are unaccomplished, but that they are often quite clearly the weaker partner on paper when it comes to combat scenarios. But still . . . they exert influence.

Astral is akin to Mon Mothma in my mind. A composed, somewhat soft-spoken woman who nonetheless commands authority. She means business even if she's not in your face waving a gun all the time.

Astral exists here in the shadow of her predecessor. In his mind, Vader can't stop comparing Astral to Padme. Padme sets the standard for all things-good and bad-and Vader has never shaken that mindset. It's the trap of being the second spouse. You never get the chance to make a first impression on any particular issue. You are always in context.

In my mind, the Sith are either hot or cold. The hot Sith are the emo types who feed off anger and destruction (even self-destruction). Think raging Achilles as your archetype. These men are driven by insecurities and tormented by painful episodes they can't seem to transcend. No amount of power or achievement will satisfy. Set them off and look out! Think Kylo Ren, probably Maul, and my version of Vitiate. Vader belongs in this category too since despite all his outwardly cold demeanor and casual executions, he's a hot mess under the mask. It's mostly because he's conflicted and he knows he shouldn't be doing what he's doing even if he can't or won't stop himself.

The cold Sith are the calculating types. Sidious and Plagueis fit this category. My version of Darth Malgus fits in this category. Lord Bane from my next story will also be a cold Sith. These are men who are governed more by strategy than by emotion. They have a lot more impulse control than their hot Sith counterparts. They are able to compartmentalize and detach themselves from their actions. It makes them conniving and subtle. More Odysseus than Achilles, if you will. Piss off a cold Sith and he will get his revenge. But it might not be by swinging his sword. Darth Malgus does it by simply walking away at the end of DARKER.

But back to Darth Vader. My Dark Side bae is one part Napoleon, one part Willy Loman, and one part Jesus. We all know the hero's journey mythos that Star Wars (and so many other stories) retell, right? Well, I wanted to ask what happens if you get stalled on the hero's journey? What if the journey is not what you expect? What does it mean to be the wunderkind who fails? How does that feel? Why would Vader endure and what might he want now? How has his perspective changed and how did it stay the same? More than anything, this is a story about missed opportunities—both the regrets and missteps of Vader's past (Padme!) and the frustrations of his present (namely, Luke). It's about how hard it is to change, whether that means changing your own perspective or convincing someone else to change theirs. Father and son never reach any real understanding in my version of the relationship. But they try.

I hope you enjoyed this story. Vader is a pretty daunting character to write, in my mind. But I did my best.