Anakin Skywalker's Destiny

Anakin Skywalker is perhaps the most interesting character I have ever seen in literature. He is one of the few main characters to actually join evil, something that both intrigues and devastates me.

“But why did he turn to the Dark Side?” This is something that I’ve always wondered. Obviously this is what Revenge of The Sith explained, but-because of what others have said and from my own observation-I believe that Anakin’s fall was not just because of Revenge of The Sith. No. This was something that built up for years-ever since he was a child.

When I first watched Revenge of The Sith (and bear in mind I was 8 or not much older), I just assumed Anakin’s fear of loss was his reason for falling into darkness. But it’s obviously much more deeper than that, now that I think about it. And so, this article is to answer one simple question: 

“Why did Anakin make the decisions that he did?”

I’m starting to believe that Anakin’s background as a slave had something to do with this. Slaves are treated poorly and not as people even-they’re treated as property. It’s possible he saw his mother getting beaten, had fear of being separated from her...I think this is where the fear comes into play.

And I think, because he was a slave and saw the way they were treated, Anakin wanted to help them. This would explain why he’s so driven to save people; he felt helpless as a slave, not being able to do anything. So I think this is why he wanted to become a Jedi.

And then once Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had found him, his hopes were up. Qui-Gon thought Anakin was the Chosen One, so he promised to train Anakin and set his mother free (his latter attempts failed, but at least he tried.) Anakin did promise himself that he’d free his mother, and for once his life was looking to turn from bad to good.

But when he met with the Council, they disapproved of Anakin. They were afraid that his future was clouded with fear (which is ironic, considering they want to suppress fear.) They also though he was too old, had too many attachments... they made so many assumptions on Anakin without getting to know him beforehand that this was the start of their strained relationship that we later see in the films (as well as the Expanded Universe novels). 

Once Qui-Gon was killed, Obi-Wan promised to train Anakin-but it was more of a promise to Qui-Gon than it was that he wanted to train Anakin. I believe this strained their relationship-Obi-Wan didn’t want to train Anakin, so he didn’t treat him like a friend. 

Why? Well, I think Obi-Wan was very immersed in the Council, sharing their beliefs that Anakin should not be trained. Also (I gathered this from an excellent fanfiction I read), it’s possible that Obi-Wan had a little bit of jealously towards Anakin-Qui-Gon had taken an immediate interest in him, whereas it took him awhile to take Obi-Wan on as an apprentice (this is more explained in the expanded universe). 

So, because of all of this, Anakin felt rejected by Obi-Wan and the Council. No one particularly wanted him there, especially the Council, so he felt like no one liked him. And that must have hurt, especially for someone so young.

The Jedi also don’t believe in having emotion such as anger and fear and grief-all emotions Anakin had attributed prior to his training. Whenever he expressed any of these emotions, the Jedi would always warn him that anger and fear were paths to the dark side or something of that sort. This was what needed to be done, ultimately, but Anakin’s emotional unstableness contended with the Jedi’s appear of lack of sympathy (to Anakin) didn’t help. This built in some immediate distrust between Anakin and the Council. Thus, I think this is why he disrespected them and was prone to rebel/ignore them.

Because of the feeling of loneliness and thoughts of “No one understands me”, Anakin sought Palpatine as a friend to confide to. Of course he was very unaware (as was everyone else) of the older man’s true intentions, but Anakin just saw him as a kind man who actually understood him. He actually listened to his concerns and sympathized with him (admittedly it was fake, but he didn’t know that at the time.)

The only problem with this was (because Palpatine was really a Sith) he encouraged Anakin to release all of his emotions and let them guide them. He was also feeding his ego, telling him that he was destined for greatness and the Jedi were holding him back. We all know this is absolutely right-you can’t let your emotions control you. But Anakin was starting to ignore their advice since they had come across as un-sympathetic in his mind-which, indadvertedly, also caused him to shift further away from them.

And that is why he was so disrespectful in Attack of The Clones. If you notice, too, Obi-Wan is constantly scolding Anakin and telling him off. Anakin was angry that Obi-Wan and the Jedi didn’t seem to believe or trust in him, so he was just getting more and more frustrated with them.

Later on, as we see, Anakin started having visions of his mother being tortured.  He didn’t feel like anyone would understand him, so he just held in these fears to himself. Of course some things are too much for one person to handle, so later on he went to see his mother. Unfortunately, he found she had been tortured to death and just made it to see her die in his arms. Of course this devastated him, and at first you can see all the grief and pain and suffering he’s experiencing...until it all turns into anger, rage, and hate.

He hated how he couldn’t save his mother when he had promised to. He hated how the Tusken Raiders had killed her. He hated how the Jedi didn’t allow attachments so he couldn’t have checked on her. All of the hate started to consume him, and I think it filled him up with everything he needed to kill the entire camp.

Of course, he starts to feel remorse for his actions-this is completely justified, as what he did was absolutely horrifying. However, since he didn’t confide in any Jedi he was eventually able to overlook this, I believe. Later on we see him confessing to Padme and insisting that he’ll find a way to stop people from dying (this is very important, as I strongly believe it has a major impact in ROTS).

Speaking of Padme, we all know that she and Anakin fell in love and broke the Code by getting married. Once again this was because Anakin had little respect for the Code due to his upbringing and started to choose his emotions over his duty. I’m not saying he shouldn’t have gotten married (that is my biggest pet-peeve with the old Code-”Attachment is forbidden”), but he broke the rules and didn’t show remorse for his actions again. I understand that he was in love-believe me, I do-but the fact that he showed no guilt for even just lying to the Jedi showed how he was losing respect for them

This is when things go really bad. Afterwards (near the end of the movie), Anakin gets his hand cut off because of his own reckless actions and refusal to listen to Obi-Wan’s advice (“You take him slowly on the left and I’ll take him slowly on the right...”) His losing respect for his master and the Jedi was starting to become his undoing-first his mother and now his arm-that’s pretty painful.

Unfortunately, things just started getting worse as time progressed. During the Clone Wars (bear with me, as I have not seen much of the television series or books), I think Anakin began to bottle up his emotions because he realized his outbursts was getting him into trouble. This actually makes things worse. As everyone knows, bottling things up is not a good way to deal with problems. But-tragically for Anakin-he felt no one would understand him and this was the only way to deal with his problems.

As we see, though, he gains a closer friendship with Obi-Wan to the point where they consider each other brothers. I think Obi-Wan was starting to mature (and Anakin, in a way-besides, he still had guilt for his actions), so this is probably why. Unfortunately for Anakin, Obi-Wan was also very loyal to the Code, so he never developed a personal relationship with him (or at least didn’t make it known). He never made it clear to Anakin that he could come to him with his problems, and the fact that Anakin was already keeping to himself didn’t help at all.

So he kept going to Palpatine instead, who continued to feed his ego, feed him lies, tell him that the Jedi wree corrupt, etc...it was getting really bad, but in Anakin’s mind having someone to confide to was making him feel better.

Later on, we’re led to the terribly tragic events that take place in Revenge of The Sith. By now Anakin is very good friends with Palpatine, and-while still very good friends with his former master-Obi-Wan’s loyalty to the Council has made their relationship not as close as it can be. Unfortunately, this means Anakin is even more influenced by Palpatine, because he’s the only person he feels he can confide into. And-as we have seen-this leads to his ultimate downfall.

The chain of events in this film start when Obi-Wan and Anakin fight Dooku, who is holding the Chancellor “captive” (it’s really a setup, as we find out later). Obi-Wan gets knocked unconscious during the battle, and Anakin is too vulnerable (due to his emotions) to suppress Dooku’s manipulations (“I sense great fear in you, Skywalker. You have anger, you have hate-but you don’t use them) and just loses it. 

He let all of his emotions fill him-rage for what Dooku had did to his arm, how he had joined the Separatists and killed millions of Jedi-and this caused him to get revenge by un-arming him-literally, by severing both his arms. And Palpatine urged him to give into vengeance by killing Dooku, and-despite having hesitations-he did so. Anakin feels immediately regret for his actions, but Palpatine reminds him of what he apparently told him about the Sand People, insinuating that revenge is a good thing.

STRIKE NUMBER ONE!
Anakin still has his moral compass, though, and (despite Palpatine’s protests) manages to help the unconscious Obi-Wan out of the ship and land it safely on Corausant (I don’t know how to spell it). Things seem fine and all, but Anakin hasn’t confessed his crime to Obi-Wan even though he really should have-but, of course, he doesn’t feel like he would understand. 

So everything seems fairly smooth, especially when Anakin reunites with his secret wife and discovers of her pregnancy. Of course he’s filled with joy-he’s going to a be a father, who wouldn’t be happy?

But things swoop quickly downhill from there. Anakin has a vision of Padme dying in childbirth, which makes him extremely scared beyond words. “It was the same thing that happened before his mother died”, he’s probably thinking, “so why wouldn’t it happened again?” 

I must refer back to Anakin’s promise to prevent death in AOTC; Anakin’s filled with fiery determinedness to make sure this does not happen-he just can’t stand the pain of losing someone else close to him.

STRIKE NUMBER TWO!

Padme suggests that Anakin inform Obi-Wan of his vision for help, but Anakin refuses this offer. He probably figures that he won’t understand, but I think he was mainly afraid that Obi-Wan would tell the Council if he found out about his marriage. He’s still in the mindset that he pretty much can’t go to the Jedi for consoling.

But Anakin’s vision was deeply troubling him, so he went to Yoda for some help (despite being very vague about who was in the vision, simply saying that it was about someone close to him). Yoda wisely tells him that he had to let go of his fear of losing people-Anakin was obviously dissatisfied with this answer, probably feeling as if Yoda was telling him to embrace death (which he kind of was...) 

This led to Anakin feeling even more worried than before-was there no way to prevent death? Why didn’t Yoda care about death? No one seemed to worry about death like he did. They seemed to accept it readily-heck, even welcome death as far as Anakin was concerned. He probably doesn’t think about it every moment, as he has other things to do (the war), but it obviously weighs heavily in his bad

Later, Palpatine comes and tells Anakin he wants him to represent him on the Council. Anakin is obviously honored-he’s always wanted to be on the Council, probably to prove his worth to them-but he knows they won’t readily accept him. Still, at Palpatine’s urging (and probably his own longing), he suggests this to the Jedi.

The Jedi aren’t pleased with this-it’s obvious that they don’t trust the Chancellor and know Anakin is very close to him-but they decide to let Anakin be on the Council anyway. But they won’t let him get the rank of Jedi Master.

STRIKE NUMBER THREE!!!

This really ticked Anakin off...he was outraged! He even said it was unfair. I guess they didn’t think he was mature/qualified enough, which led Anakin back to the “They’re holding me back!” theory. He was VERY frustrated with them, angry that they hadn’t recognize his power and given him what he wanted. Wasn’t he the Chosen One? Wasn’t he supposed to bring balance to the Force?

If so, then why were they “holding him back”?

That’s not the worst of it for Anakin, though. The Jedi ask him to spy on the Chancellor. They obviously don’t trust him, which must have infuriated Anakin. Palpatine was his friend and the Jedi weren’t trusting him? How could they ask him to do something so horrible?

STRIKE NUMBER FOUR!

This may have been the icing of the cake (well, not completely...we’re not done with his transformation to Vader just yet...) In Anakin’s mind, this was proving that the Jedi didn’t trust him. And of course, Palpatine confirmed these suspicions.

Representing Palpatine on the Council made Anakin even closer to the Sith in disguise. Sometime during the film, he tells Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis (don’t know if I spelled it right), who was said to be able to stop people from dying.

Of course this held Anakin’s interest-why wouldn’t he want to discover this power? Because of all the fear and distrusts he’s been building up, he doesn’t think for once that the fact that a Sith could do this is the least bit alarming. All he can think about is how there’s a possible way to stop death, a way to save Padme...

STRIKE NUMBER FIVE!

This is Anakin’s main drivel for turning to the Dark Side. Throughout the film, he’s gripping with the thought of preventing death. In the meanwhile, the Jedi continue to push Anakin away from him; and being around Palpatine is just making him hate them more and more. The older man insists that the Jedi don’t trust him and recognize his greatness-once again, he’s feeding on his anger and fear and that he’s more powerful than them.

Sometime later in the film, Anakin has the vision again, except he sees Obi-Wan with Padme this time. Now, this is purley what I have gathered from Wookiepedia (I believe George Lucas even said so himself)-this is NOT what the movie said. They merely implied it, and I was acting starting to think so before I even read on this to confirm my suspicions.

I think Anakin was under the impression that Obi-Wan was having an affair with his wife. This makes perfect sense-he’s already losing trust in the Jedi, he’s getting paranoid because of that...so if his best friend were to betray him like that, it would devastate him. This just shows how much Anakin is starting to give into his fear.

Anakin also got mad when the Jedi sent Obi-Wan after Grevious alone-without him. They were separating him from his best friend! His mentor, his brother...Of course he’s probably a bit wary of him, considering his vision, but it hasn’t happened yet, not to mention they’ve been friends for so long. Basically, I think, he doesn’t want to jump to conclusions because of their relationship being so good.

With Obi-Wan gone, he isn’t able to guide Palpatine away from Anakin. By now he’s only surrounded by a few people he believes care about him-his wife and the Chancellor. But Anakin can’t go to Padme for his concerns about his visions-she could try to help, but considering the vision is about her it wouldn’t do too much good. So of course, he turns to Palpatine.

Palpatine starts to lure Anakin even further into darkness. Eventually, once he realizes his plan is working, Palpatine reveals himself as the Sith Lord to Anakin. Anakin seems outraged and informs the Jedi, but I think this was because he felt it his duty to do so. He didn’t necessary want to stop his old friend.

Anakin starts really grappling with this as the Jedi confront the Sith. He’s conflicted-who does he stay loyal to, the Sith or the Jedi? Unfortunately, because of past events, it’s not a hard choice for the young Jedi. In his mind it probably went something like this:

The Jedi:

The Jedi have taken him away from his mother and they didn’t seem to trust him. They also weren’t willing to discuss emotions as they believed it led to the Dark Side and basically told Anakin to “get over his feelings”, so to speak. Any feelings of fear, anger, love...just get rid of them. And generally, they didn’t like him. Because of that, they wouldn’t let him reach what he believed to be his full potential-this really happened when they put him on the Council but refused to make him a Master. Some were even afraid that his future was clouded by darkness and-given his great anger and power-could be a dangerous threat.

The Sith

Palpatine was always there to confront Anakin. He listened to his concerns, gave him advice, and even offered to help him in the situation standing in ROTS. He genuinely seemed to like the boy and care for him, almost like a father would do for a son-if not that, he was at least a very good friend.. He also shared his concerns of the Jedi distrusting him and told him the exact opposite of what they said: it was okay to show emotions-in fact, you should embrace them. It’s okay to give into revenge-it’s only natural. It’s okay to be fearful, especially of death-and there’s even a way to prevent it! He even made him believe that he was more powerful than the Jedi and the reason they held him back was because they were afraid of his strength. 

So I think this is why Anakin went rushing in after Palpatine. He saw his old friend “struggling” (I strongly believe it was an act), and even when he insisted to Mace to let him stand trial, the Jedi refused.

He was going to kill him.

Anakin was becoming desperate now-he didn’t want to fight Mace, but how could he just let his old friend die? And weren’t Jedi supposed to let their adversaries stand trial first? It looked to him as if Mace was disobeying the Code!

“He’s too dangerous to live!” was what Mace insisted. But Anakin didn’t believe him. As he said so himself, he “needed” Palpatine to find the cure to death. I don’t think he was as trustful as him after learning of his duplicity. He might’ve been, but I think he was mainly feeling desperation. Desperation to stop death was all that was on his mind.

STRIKE NUMBER SIX!

He was desperate to save Padme. He had to stop her death. He didn’t think he could move on, go through what he went through with his mother again. He just couldn’t stand the thought.

So, with all of those thoughts floating in Anakin’s head, he made his decision-he sliced off Mace’s arm in an attempt to stop him from ending Palpatine’s life.

Palpatine, by now, knows that he’s got Anakin fully wrapped around his finger, so he kills the former Jedi. Anakin is horrified by his actions (“What have I done?”) How could he do such at thing?

But, as Palpatine said, there was no turning back now. Anakin fully believed this. And because of that, as well as his strong desire to prevent death, he made the ultimate, tragic decision.

He turned to the dark side. 

And from thereon all heck breaks loose. Anakin is just so desperate to prevent death that he does whatever Palpatine wants him to do. He’s convinced as well that the Jedi have turned against him, thus executing Order 66. He mercilessly kills all the Jedi, even the younglings, fully embracing his role as Darth Vader. 

I think that Anakin believes that, in return, Palpatine will show him the way to immortality. But I don’t think he planned to, not that it matters-Anakin believes that it was the only way to save Padme, so what other choice did he have? That’s probably what he was thinking?

After going to Mustafar to kill the Trade Federation, Anakin discovers that Padme has followed him. He’s confused as to why she’s her, and then she tearfully explains that Obi-Wan revealed of his fall to the dark side.

Now, Anakin is probably filled with anger against his former master by now, mainly because of jealously. He’s become so immersed in fear that he’s afraid his wife is being disloyal to him with his best friend. That double-stings, right?

Anakin starts getting angry with Padme, not understanding why she can’t accept what he’s done and why she’s listening to his former master. He thinks Obi-Wan is trying to turn Padme “against him”, so to speak, just as he felt the Jedi have. He also insists that he did this all to save Padme, and he just can’t understand why she doesn’t see that way.

Then, of course, Anakin sees that Obi-Wan snuck on Padme’s ship. Now he’s really convinced that they have both betrayed him-he’s filled with anger, fear, distrust...He just loses it and starts to physically harm his wife, the one he insisted he was doing all the terrible things for...

I think Anakin just snapped again and felt betrayed. In his mind everyone is turning against him-the Jedi, his best friend, his wife. It’s a horrible state of mind to be in, and it’s all because he’s let the fear consume him that he’s become so paranoid. He feels as if he can’t trust anyone now.

So afterwards Anakin confronts Obi-Wan, accusing him of turning Padme against him (probably thinking that she would side with the Jedi and was possibly in a relationship with Obi-Wan.) They don’t duel at first, and I believe this is because they have had such a long and strong relationship that they don’t want to.

But, thanks to Palpatine’s manipulations, Anakin is convinced he must destroy all the Jedi. He does, though, kind of offers Obi-Wan a choice (“If you’re not with me, then you’re my enemy.”) But Obi-Wan realizes that all hope is lost (for now) for Anakin and proceeds to duel with him.

During the fight Anakin just lets all of his rage, fear, distrust...he lets it all consume him. It turns into hate. Anakin hates the Jedi. He hates Obi-Wan. He even hates Padme, even a little, at this point. He hates everyone, he hates everyone for betraying him. He did what he thought was the right thing and it seems as if everyone is against him!

Once Obi-Wan defeats Anakin, he’s barely Anakin anymore. He’s let his hatred get to him, and he claims he hates Obi-Wan. It’s a really heartbreaking moment, but Anakin is currently lost into the darkness to even think strait.

Afterwards (near the end) Palpatine saves Anakin and gives him the Vader armor. He asks the Sith if Padme’s alright, to which he replies, “It seems that in your anger, you killed her.”

Anakin is completely lost by now.

He lets out all of his anger and starts to destroy the objects around him with the Force. How could he have failed? Hadn’t he tried everything? Why couldn’t he prevent death? 

But the worst thing for Anakin, I believe, was that he knew he had ended Padme. That must have hurt him terribly, to think he had caused her death when he was only trying to prevent it.

He failed.

And so, this is how the tragic hero turns into one of the most notorious villains in literature. I have gathered this from what people said happened in the novel-Anakin gave up. He realized he hadn’t saved Padme and thought that there was no turning back from his actions. There was nothing left for him in his life-it seemed as if everyone who cared for him was gone. His spirit just died, making him become heartless. This is a path that continues on from much of his life.

And then, years later, he is finally redeemed. Bear in mind that I have not focused on the Original Trilogy as much, but I think that Anakin was desperate for someone to show him that he could be redeemed. He wanted someone to believe in him, because everyone else he trusted seemed to have left his life completely.

And then, when Luke-his son, his own flesh and blood-wanted to save him, he felt rejoiced. Of course this takes a long time for him to realize, but I think it’s because he’s clung to the dark side for so long. Eventually, though, he’s able to overlook this and finally fulfill his destiny as the Chosen One-to bring balance to the Force.

And that is, in my opinion, why Anakin turned to the dark side and how he was redeemed. As you can see, it was never a simple issue-it all started when he was young, and then it gradually made its way up towards the events in ROTS. And later on (In Return of The Jedi), he finally redeemed himself. 

Of course, this is PURELY my opinion, based on what I have gathered/observed myself, so I understand if anyone disagrees with my assessments. But it’s just something that has been swirling in my head for weeks, and I just felt like I had to get it out. 

I really do believe that George Lucas was trying to teach us a message through Anakin’s character-if you let fear consume you, you will fall into darkness. It’s chilling how relevant it is to real life, but it’s also very compelling. It really makes you think about fear, anger, grief, hatred...it is so interesting. I think we could all learn something from a simple movie. He’s also showing you that no one is truly evil-letting fear overtake you can cause you to make irrational decisions that ultimately become your undoing. 

And this is one of the biggest reason I love Star Wars-not only is it extremely entertaining, but it also teaches you life lessons! That’s why I prefer the prequels over the Original Trilogy (story wise, though; the OT was better-paced than the PT). That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy the OT, because I did :)