The Inquisitor Reva, aka the Third Sister, owes her design to several existing Star Wars characters. What does she have in common with the “celebrities” like Darth Vader or Kylo Ren? And what sets her apart in the line of default villains in black armour?
Reva as Kylo Ren
When Reva is introduced, it cannot be denied that she resembles Kylo Ren: she is angry and impatient and her emotions are pretty much in turmoil. She is also the “junior” of the group, not trusted by the other Inquisitors in a similar manner that general Hux holds resentment for Kylo Ren.
The bad anger management as well as impatience are the hallmarks of any Dark Side user. Anakin Skywalker had a similar impatient, angry streak. But I would argue that in Kylo’s and Reva’s case, these are much more closely related. Also, Anakin had these problems – and arguably some of it was just normal teenage hotheadedness – while he was still a Jedi, whereas Kylo and Reva exercised this streak already as Dark Side users. And it was very much one of their defining characteristics.
Fear, Anger, Hatred?
If we look at the famous Dark Side triad fear-anger-hatred, Reva definitely fell victim to all of these. The fear of Anakin Skywalker had remained with her her whole life, as well as the anger at her own inability to save fellow younglings. These emotions mirrored the same development in Anakin, who tipped over with his fear of helplessness in the face of Padmé’s anticipated death.
But as for Reva, we can conclude based on her behaviour that her most constant companion was her hatred for Anakin/Vader. Her fear of him and her anger had eventually transformed into something she had been carrying with her for a decade. And that is certainly a big deal!
Become What You Swore To Destroy
Reva’s hatred eventually projected onto Luke as Anakin’s offspring. And here lies the important difference. Anakin once became the one very thing he had sworn to destroy. Reva was very close to doing the same. Had she killed Luke, she would have done exactly the same thing that she hated Anakin for.
The scene could not have been clearer. The important part is that Reva realised what was happening. Seeing the parallel between herself and Vader was perhaps not as self-evident as it may seem to us. If one had been obsessed with taking revenge on one person for ten years, one could easily not see even such an obvious parallel, simply because the goal would be more important to her than anything. Just like Anakin did not care about anything when he marched into the Jedi Temple and killed younglings.
This is, incidentally, one small way in which Obi-Wan Kenobi corrected our perception of Revenge of the Sith. Thanks to having seen Reva’s story, we are now also better able to understand Anakin’s character development. Not only can we evaluate Reva’s experiences by comparing them against Anakin as the base model, but also vice versa.
(To be continued!)
