On this day every year fatherhood is acknowledged across the galaxy. This begs the question…who is the best Star Wars father? And for that matter who is the worst?
Let’s dive into this.
Best fathers: Some of these characters aren’t major but they showed what great dads they can be.
-Bail Organa: Possibly the best father there was in Star Wars. Bail was a great man and treated his adopted daughter Leia like the princess she was.
-Cleigg Lars: A bit rough around the edges but Cleigg was a good family man and husband, much like Owen was later on to Luke.
-Uncle Owen: Owen didn’t have any kids of his own but he and Aunt Beru raised Luke to be a good kid. He was afraid of Luke becoming like his father Anakin, so much so that he overprotected him..causing Luke to feel somewhat rebellious.
-Anakin: Anakin was never really a father to Luke and Leia for obvious reasons but when it counted in the end he returned to being the true Anakin and saving his son.
-Han Solo: Some may say he was a bad father but I’m not putting that on Han. He and Leia seem to have neglected Ben, especially when sending him off to “Jedi camp” with Uncle Luke. Han may have his regrets but in the end it was his sacrifice that saved his son and the galaxy.
-Jango Fett: Jango is low key one of the best dads in Star Wars. He took one of his clones for himself to raise and the two had a loyal bond of causing destruction and laughing about it in the ol Slave I. Boba was devastated when his father was beheaded by Mace Windu on Geonosis, which began his tour of vengeance.
-Galen Erso: Stardust! A tragic father/daughter story. Galen always cared so much for Jyn and protected her the best that he could. Both of their great sacrifices led to Rebellion victory.
-Din Djarin: A great adoptive father. He busted into a remnant Empire hideout, shot the place up, and hightailed it out of there with the adorable Baby Yoda. You won’t find a more protecting dad than Din. He even gave in and let him play with the ball on the lever of the cockpit!
Worst Fathers: There is certainly a lot of shitty parenting done in Star Wars, after all the saga is just one big family drama.
-Emperor Palpatine: After TRoS he definitely earned the title of ‘worst father and grandfather in the galaxy’. Now by father we mean he cloned himself, threw his clone/son into the wild, waited for him to have an offspring, then killed him and tried to steal the force sensitive grandchild…classic.
-Darth Vader: Anakin was in the “good father” category because of his redemption but Vader falls here for sure. He unknowingly had his daughter tortured to get information out of her and tried to recruit his son to be a terrible person. I suppose he didn’t really ever want to kill his son but well…he did chop his hand off.
-Jabba the Hutt: So Jabba is actually a pretty good father but he nicknamed his son “Pedunkee Mufkin” which translates to Punky Muffin. That’s a crime by itself and therefor he falls into this category.
-Admiral Ackbar: The guy was a hero and a legend of the Rebellion/Resistance but he was a terrible father as we found out in the Allegiance comics (which kind of stunk honestly). We learn that Aftab aka Junior aka the son of the late Admiral didn’t know his dad at all. Ackbar met his son once when he was born and then pretty much abandoned him. Sad stuff but it seems he was still a motivation to Junior as he followed in his dad’s footsteps to help General Organa in a time of need.
