Okay so I’m not entirely sure why it just struck me so hard, but after seeing siths-pretentious‘s most recent art (with Bail and Leia and Vader), I very suddenly (and very horribly) realized just how absolutely terrifying it would have been for Bail to raise Leia.
Here is this little girl, innocent and bright and kind and loving, and yet he knows better than almost anyone in the entire galaxy the potential for darkness that she has–the poison in her blood that, with only one wrong move on his part (or hers)–one misstep, one accident–could devour her and the galaxy both. (And he can probably see it, sometimes–see the anger flashing in her eyes, hear the fire in her words, feel the power in her presence–and he knows what lurks beneath, what coiling serpents of temptation bite at her heels, even if she herself does not (cannot) understand them.)
But even more, Bail (and Breha, and even all of Alderaan) were living on a knife’s edge. One wrong move, one misstep, one accident, and everything would come unraveled. Bail Organa would have known full well the consequences if it was ever discovered that he had harbored and kept hidden a child of Anakin Skywalker–or, at least, he would know full well that the consequences would almost certainly be agonizing, and most definitely fatal. And not only for him, but for his wife as well, and for his planet (because that would be all the excuse the Empire would need to remove the Royal Family and institute Imperial rule on Alderaan). And as for Leia, were that to ever happen…
Yet Bail takes her without hesitation, saying, “She will be loved with us.” And she is. She is loved, and she is cherished; she is Bail’s daughter in every regard but blood. And I don’t think he ever regretted that choice.
Bail Organa was a man who danced with demons. He danced with demons, and paid homage to their dark lord, but all the while held close a secret that would prove the damnation of one or the other–himself, if the secret was discovered; the dark lord on his dark throne, if all he hoped for came to fruition. (And yet, that was not why he skirted torment and death–he did so for the child he protected; for the little girl he loved; for his daughter.)