Musings on Anakin's arc in SW (no spoilers)

[dangermousie]

This is inspired by elvensapphire quote about power of love in SW Universe.

And that left me to wonder. Yeah, it's powerful. But *IS* the power of love such a good thing in SW? Yeah, it’s Vader’s love for Luke and Luke’s love for Anakin that results in the Emperor being a smear on the bottom of his reactor shaft. Love saves the world, hooray. But the world wouldn’t have needed saving in the first place, if it wasn’t for Anakin’s love for Padme. (Though of course we then get into the discussion how this brief period of darkness was needed to finish Sith once and for all and to restart the Jedi on a different track, so Anakin’s fall was a good thing too, but that is a bit too much into the “playthings of fate” theory that I find unappealing, as there was one heck of a collateral damage).

Yeah, Vader saves Luke because Palpatine is trying to kill him. But there was never any question in the Prequels that if the choice came down to Palpatine or Padme, the Chancellor would have been redecorating his office with his own blood in 2 seconds flat. It would have been true in AotC, in RotS, and every day in between when Vader puts on his armor for the first time and when he dies. The whole trick was that Palpatine (who had NO interest in Padme except as means to manipulate Anakin as she was not a Force-adept) made Anakin believe that siding with him would be for Padme’s benefit (I am being vague so as to keep this non-spoiler).

But Anakin at the end of RotJ is pretty much the same Anakin at he is all throughout the Prequels. He has no great change. So no, Anakin does not learn any lessons about the power of love. He knew that already. In fact, it takes some time to bring him back to his former “humanized” state and decide to save Luke. But he was already in such a state in the Prequels and fell. He does not learn resignation to the Force (more than he already had), because he asks Luke to remove his Mask even though he knows that will make him die. He was always OK with his own dying. He just wants his loved ones to be safe. Which is what he wanted in the Prequels. Which is what makes him act at the end of RotJ. He also doesn’t have a realization that the Sith are Evil and cost him everything he’s ever loved. That’s a realization he’s made a long time ago.

If there is one thing he learns is the power of forgiveness and redemption. He learns that it’s possible to be loved, possible to go back from the Sith. Luke knows who he is and believes he can be redeemed. Luke loves him. It must be powerful to have, after 20+ years, someone who cares about you at last, a person who knows what you’ve done and yet loves you and believes you can turn back. I am sure a big chunk of Palpy’s mindfuck was that “Once a Sith, Forever a Sith” That there is NO turning back. And of course, it’s not like Vader could have disappeared, what with the distinctive outfit.

But he wouldn’t have needed that realization if he hadn’t fallen in the first place. And surely, Padme offered unconditional love. So this brings us around full circle: Anakin at the end is pretty much the same as at the beginning. Due to concatenation of circumstances, what damns him in one instant, saves him in another. So the flaw was not really in his personality (as it was the same traits that were his damnation and salvation). And this brings me to his mishandling by the Jedi. If the Jedi explained that “It’s OK to feel feelings. Even dark ones. But here is how you control them” as opposed to “Jedis don’t have them and you are a freak for feeling them” attitude they had, he would have been equipped to deal with his emotions. If the Jedi were fine with love and marriage, when he felt worries regarding Padme, he would have had a support network and knew he could look there for help, as opposed to thinking Palpatine was his only choice. Yeah, Anakin screwed up. Big time. So did the Jedi. And both redeem themselves at the end. But Anakin does not need to change to do so at the end. Jedi do.

And this brings me to Palpatine tangent. How dumb is it to offer Luke his Daddy’s place when Vader is within hearing Yeah, he has contempt for Vader, and it is the way of the Sith to be treacherous and evil. But isn’t he worried that if Luke won’t take up the bait, he will end up with an even more disgruntled second in command? Yeah, Anakin was loyal to a fault. Palpatine might think he retains it as a Sith (though considering Vader’s offers to Luke, that is false). But as Anakin’s interesting break with the Jedi shows, he’s got his limits. And that little “kill him” bit would certainly trigger them…

Comments

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I personally always came to the conclusion that Anakin loved TOO much to A.) be a good Jedi by their standards at that point and B.) to act rationally when he was confronted with loved ones being threatened. His mother said that he'd do anything for anyone and it was obvious that he was extremely trusting even from a young age. Anakin has a big heart, a lot of fairly sweet innocence and an overly healthy bit of pride about himself. All of these things, when separate and in moderation aren't bad, but he's automatically thrown into a situation where people who are a lot smarter than he is are going to use those strengths to bring him down.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Big Brother Elmo *shudder*

he's automatically thrown into a situation where people who are a lot smarter than he is are going to use those strengths to bring him down.

Of course. And Palpatine is very clever to take the best qualities of anyone (Anakin, Padme, Jedi etc) and twist them to bring them down so they'd be usable. After all, if he manipulates them to use their best qualities/capabilities for his purposes, he knows they will give 110% to the task. And of course, he also must get one heck of a pleasure in twisting good to serve evil.

With Palpatine in the picture, the kid did not stand a chance. Especially since he has the subtlety of a brick and political savvy of a two year old. And he is horrible at reading people, which leads him to take everything anyone says at face value. If there was no Palpatine, even if he'd gotten thrown out of the Jedi (e.g. for marriage), he'd just settle with Padme having an adrenaline-junkie life of racing pods or similar.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

His fear that he would let down his mother and Obi Wan by getting himself kicked out of the Jedi is part of what I think drove him to keep it secret as long as he did and then it was Padme who misguidedly stopped him from announcing he was married thinking he wouldn't be happy. I personally think he would have been happy anywhere as long as he had Padme and his kids. Unfortunately his misjudgement of what I think Obi Wan's reaction would have been put him in a position where he had no one to help him when he was faced with people who were infinately smarter than he was and much more ruthless.

And there comes the theme of crime and punishment.
The list of crimes:
Anakin- bull headed, proud, married against orders, eventually adds to that list astronomically when he does the big no no and becomes a Sith
Jedi Council- stuffy, arrogant, inflexible, too rigid
Padme- marries someone she knows she shouldn't and won't let him be honest
Obi Wan- too harsh with his padawan, lets him get away with too much

List of punishment:
Anakin- spends 20 years a broken, twisted man working for evil who eventually dies for his crimes (redeemed but still dead)
Jedi Council- wiped out
Padme- dies
Obi Wan- let's Anakin kill him after 20 years in self imposed exile.

Everyone pays for their sins in SW, even if the punishment is harsh for the crime (Padme), but then that's within Greek tragedy.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I personally think he would have been happy anywhere as long as he had Padme and his kids.

Yes. In fact, he would have been a damn sight happier if he didn't try to do the insane balancing act with both Padme and Jedi parts of his life.

Could he have quit during the war though? I guess he could have quit being a Jedi, but I can't imagine him sitting on his hands while a huge war rages in the Galaxy. And if he'd quit, he'd still be drawn to Palpatine's orbit because Palpatine would be after him and because he'd have those nightmares about Padme.

No time like the war to tell the Jedi though. This is as much as they will ever need him.

Unfortunately his misjudgement of what I think Obi Wan's reaction would have been put him in a position where he had no one to help him

Yes. And I am sure Palpy realized this (in fact, the novelization shows he helped) and seized his chance.

Of course, the Jedi council putting him with Palpatine was the crowning touch. Unless they sicced Yoda on him, any Jedi would have been mental toast.

And there comes the theme of crime and punishment

Yikes! I never thought of it, but you are absolutely right. I think the punishment is disproportionate in all respects, that is if you view that part of Anakin's punishment (since he was not a sociopath) for bullheadedness and arrogance and lack of faith was to become a Sith, but that's what makes it a tragedy.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

At any other time in any other place with any other people, I think Anakin could have been completely happy and carefree and have lived a relatively normal existance, but that's not the case and he's put in the worst possible place with some of the worst possible people at the worst possible time. He was fated to go bad. He was fated to fall. And when you look at it like that, it's extremely unfair. If Anakin was meant to bring balance to the Force, the Force is a cruel mistress. It would mean that he was born merely to destroy those around himself and clean the slate with the Jedi. Just like the Greek gods, the Star Wars gods are extremely cruel in their treatment of a boy who tried his hardest. The punishment doesn't fit the crime mainly because he was fated to DO the crime. It's like punishing someone for doing something you forced them into. It's very Greek and very sad.

As for those who live until New Hope, Anakin is able to redeem himself through his son. Obi Wan is able to redeem himself through successfully protecting Luke and then sacrificing himself. Yoda, the last left from the Jedi Council, redeems himself and through him the Old Order Jedi by successfully training Luke. The cycle of crime, punishment and redemption goes full circle in the SW trilogies.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

It's like punishing someone for doing something you forced them into. It's very Greek and very sad.

Exactly. Anakin had a stacked deck and couldn't have won. The Force created him precisely to go bad and destroy a lot of people he cared for in the process. That's quite an amount of misery to pay for rebalancing.

And leaving aside the Anakin, Padme, Obi-Wan and the Jedi, the Force, by its desire to balance caused quite a lot of collateral damage to people unconnected: the people who died in Palpy's wars were part of bringing the balance, but surely that is inexpressibly harsh.

At least it is an unsentient force of universal pull and order. Better than if it was manipulated by sentient, Greek-God-like beings.

Btw, it's scary how much Anakin in your icon looks like Luke. For a moment I thought it was.

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I can't get over how much Hayden looks like Mark Hamill in this movie. There are certain shots that I've seen that are incredibly striking in their similarity.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am very very pleased about the resemblance. But then Leia doesn't really look like either Padme or Anakin. Hmmmm....

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

I think the difference between Anakin in the prequels and in ROTJ is, aside from Anakin for the first time teaching Luke to let things go ("you'll die"..."nothing can stop that now" as opposed to "I'll learn to stop people from dying!!"), that the ol' Anakin finally realizes he 1) can make choices and 2) is free to act upon those choices. I'm sure Palpie feeds him the once-a-Sith-always-a-Sith line often. I wouldn't be surprised if in ROTS, Palpie tells him, "Hey buddy, you've already done this and that...there's no turning back now, dude." But on the other hand, the Jedi had to have told him the same thing as well. Yoda tells Luke the dark side would forever dominate his destiny. Yoda and Obi-Wan have completely given up on Vader. Luke proved that theory wrong.

Another thing is the difference between the kind of love Anakin goes to all lengths to protect versus the sort of love that saves the galaxy. Anakin's love is possessive in the sense that once he loves someone, he cannot bear losing that person. The love of his mother was all he really had as a child and perhaps the only thing upon which he could rely. Making things worse is his god complex. He's known his entire life he's special, even before he became a Jedi. If he has the powers of the divine at his disposal, why not use any means necessary to save those he loves?

Anakin's love for Luke is of course crucial, but what's really at work here is the "compassion = unconditional love" Anakin talks about in AOTC. And that's Luke's love for Anakin. Anakin has of course an interest in Luke as his son and as the offspring of his beloved Padmé. He couldn't bear seeing his wife die all over again (I've figured since AOTC that Luke is Padmé's avatar). But Luke had never known his father, except for his evil side, yet Luke loves him anyway. That took a great leap of faith as well as a tremendous capacity for forgiveness. It's the sort of compassion that the Jedi preached but didn't really practice, except for Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan tried but not even he could see the good still in Anakin.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

That was really thought-provoking. I agree, that Luke is a much better Jedi and is an "improved" version of Anakin. His love is unconditional. I was always impressed by his ability to try to save Vader even though he's known little good of him. I wonder if it's because any idolization he had of his dead heroic father transferred in some way.

With my post above, I was just thinking of Anakin's arc as opposed to Luke's. Because it would be rather harsh that the greatest thing Anakin ever did was to give birth to a better version of a Jedi. Though Luke does prove that ability to never give up and to love unconditionally is important. So Anakin learns that through him, I suppose.

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, I'm finally getting back to this post. I'm sorry it's taken so long! I really like how you wrote this. Is love such a good thing in the SW universe? I actually think in some ways, it's two-fold, light and dark. Anakin almost loves too deeply. His love for his mother and for Padme lead hims straight into the embrace of the darkness. His love for Obi-Wan, which is very strong, but always a bit tainted, gets poisoned and turned into blind hatred. It always makes me sad that this never really gets amended for them, but Vader has to kill Obi-Wan to move the story along. (I suppose at the end, seeing them joined together, their bond is reforged.) And yet, Anakin's love also causes the light. He and Padme's love creates Luke and Leia, and if he hadn't broken with Jedi tradition and married her, he still *might* have fallen to the Dark Side, and then there would not have been any redemption. His love for Luke, and more importantly, Luke's love for his father, is what saves him in the end. Their love saves the galaxy - and their love is a direct result of Anakin and Padme's love. I suppose the lesson is that it all depends on the path you take. Whether your love for others is used for salvation or damnation depends on how you handle it. Even stars burn out, but love can reignite them. It has to, because in the end, nothing else can.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

True. Ultimately, one needs love in one's life. It can cause tragic downfalls, but also has seeds of its own redemption. Proud uncaring Anakin could have fallen, as you say. But a proud, caring deeply Anakin could be redeemed. If he did not care, he would be a sociopath like Dooku or Palpatine and thus could never be redeemed.

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

Exactly. The ones who never have any love for anything but themselves cannot be redeemed, not matter what fandom you're looking at. (See, for example, Saruman or Voldemort.) Dooku's sole purpose is to be Anakin's first murder (which is absolutely chilling), Palpatine is so evil and such a sociopath I don't even think he can be classified as human. Ian McDiarmid said, "He's the great political manipulator of all time. I imagine he's evil from birth, which is a terrible thing to imagine." But Anakin's life, even though it begins harsh, begins in goodness and he grows up surrounded by people who care for him and love him, and thus his life ends with someone who loves him.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Dooku's sole purpose is to be Anakin's first murder (which is absolutely chilling)

Yes, that moment of Dooku's realization in the book is the first really scary look at how Palpatine truly operates and it is damning beyond words. And when Anakin does not want to kill him but is pushed into it by Palpy. Oh, good God. So wrenching. And of course, Obi-Wan is conveniently for Palpy out cold, so cannot intervene. What Anakin needs is a helping hand. What he gets instead is a hand shoving him into the abyss he hangs in front of.

Re: Palpatine. Agreed. That is why he can never be truly punished. He cannot undergo emotional torture (like the one Anakin undergoes) because he really has no feelings and emotions. Ugh. hate, hate, HATE him. More than Sauron and Voldemort combined.

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

Palpatine is one of the most vile and manipulative villains...GAH! I despise him. *nods* Yes, more than Sauron and Voldemort combined.

If only Obi-Wan had been conscious...but that of course would ruin the story. There are two times when Anakin needs him most in ROTS, and both of those times he can't help him. (The second being when he goes to the Temple after he discovers Palpatine's true identity and Obi-Wan is out of reach in the trap on Utapau. All he has then is Mace, who granted is a heck of a Jedi Master, but was never exactly kind to Anakin.) Anakin needs help so badly, but it isn't there. What he gets instead is a hand shoving him into the abyss he hangs in front of. Exactly. Wrenchingly tragic. Though it does bother me that Anakin cannot realize what Palpatine is doing to him in the Dooku scene. "Give into your hatred, blah blah blah," - what normal, good-natured politician would give that advice? If Obi-Wan had heard the exchange, he would have figured out the Sith element fairly quickly. But Anakin is enraged and suffering from severe shock, and all that comes through to him is that boiling instinct to kill the enemy.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, I despise Palpatine more than Voldy and Sauron combined because he did manage to ruin something and someone who was good and "pure" and twist all his best qualities (his passionate loyalty, his amazing power of love, his naivete, his strength as a Jedi) to entrap him as his own personal slave and ruin everything he treasured in this life. He took someone who was so strong and so good and ruined him. There is such a thrill of victory over Jedi in this. There is no credit in ruining a weak-minded evil guy, but an honest passionate boy who is the Chosen One? Thar must be a Sith treat for the ages. Voldy and Sauron never manage to corrupt Frodo and Harry, and they never really try. I can just imagine the glee Palpatine had that is WAS the Chosen One he made into his lackey, that the man who treasured love and freedom above everything else lost both while he thought he was securing them. I bet he really gets a kick out of the fact that "Anakin killed Padme" (as far as he knows) when he started the whole thing to protect her. Ugh, there are no words about how much I hate him. I wonder when Anakin realizes just how little Palpatine cares for him and how utterly insignificant he is to Palpatine. Even at the end of RotS he thinks "the shadow understands and forgives." In fact, the shadow cackles madly about this.

I think it was hard for Anakin to think through the fog, as you put. And of course, he is blindingly loyal and blind to the faults of those he loves (and that, alas, includes Palpatine). He is incapable of percieving that they are evil and that is his downfall. At least, until he is Vader. He has a breaking point where he can percieve all sorts of flaws, false ones, on Musafar, but by then he "sees" a personal betrayal of him by Padme, and the urging by Palpy he never percieves as directed against him. He doesn't seem much concerned with abstract morals of those he loves as he views them as betraying only when they go against emotional bonds. In his view, Dooku captured and mistreated Palps and it is natural that Palps wants revenge. That might make him weak etc, but not necessarily evil (if you think about it, if Palpy was who he pretended to be, a simple politician, he might still want Dooku dead because he is his opponent. of course he'd never know which buttons to push on Anakin, but that's another story).

That scene with Mace is beyond heart-breaking. Mace never "gets" Anakin. He never expends the energy, and that of course results in his missing Anakin's breaking point. This point of the story always makes me go into a mad set of "what ifs." The fact that Anakin struggles so hard, tries so hard. Even when he thinks Palpatine is the only means of saving Padme (poor PTSD, sleep-deprived guy), he tells Mace about the Sith. And it is all for naught. Argh. The ruin of someone so splendid, despite his best efforts is horrifying.

Because he cannot bear to be lonely, he ends up utterly alone. Because he is afraid, he ends up as Vader with no fear, because there is no one left to fear for, and nothing to live for either. He cannot even die if he wants, courtesy of the mechanical suit. This is the most absolute slavery one can imagine. And to be also confronted with "it's all my fault" every day. Good Lord.

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

It's so awful what Palpatine does to Anakin. He manages to twist every good quality about him into an evil one, manages to turn a strong, compassionate, if somewhat arrogant (at times) man into little more than a ruined minion used to do his evil bidding. And you're so right. It would have been different had he not been so important, but the prophesized Chosen One? How utterly wonderful for the Sith. How I hate them. Sauron never knows anything concrete about Frodo (forget the fact that Sauron doesn't really have a physical form), and his interest is not in corrupting him, his interest is in getting his precious Ring back. In fact, the only thing that corrupts Frodo is the inanimate Ring itself, because the Ring is Power, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. (As in the Anakin/Palpy scene: "Is it possible to learn this power?" "Well, clearly, not from a Jedi." *shivers*) And, so far as we know, Voldemort's sole interest is to kill Harry, not turn him to the side of the Death Eaters, so he never expends the energy to corrupt him. But Palpatine plots and plans and calculates it from the time Anakin is nine years old, so that when he reaches the level of maturity where Palpatine knows he will either be able to turn him or potentially be killed by him, he's pretty much guaranteed that either way, he will turn to the Dark Side. (Because if Anakin had murdered Palpatine when he could have, that in and of itself might have thrown him over the edge.) And then, as you put it, he gets to cackle over the fact that Anakin has lost everything he wanted to preserve and that he, the Emperor and Sith Lord, is all Anakin has left. And, as far as he knows at the end of ROTS, is all Anakin will *ever* have again. Little does he know...

As Anakin, he's blind to faults in the people he loves, like you said, and as Vader he sees faults that aren't even there. Both of which are terrible personality flaws to have. His loyalty and enduring love are wonderful qualities, but he takes them to an extreme that ends up playing a major part in his downfall.

You're right about Anakin assuming Palpatine would want revenge against Dooku, I never thought of it that way. But the fact that he knows how to tap into Anakin's "dark side" and pull out all that anger and hatred should have been a big red warning flag to Anakin, had he been more perceptive regarding people's faults and hidden secrets. And since he can't talk to Obi-Wan about what happened when Dooku was killed, he further dooms himself.

That scene with Mace is beyond heart-breaking. Oh my goodness, I know. That's another one where I'm curious to see how the pathos comes through on screen. I don't think Mace even ever bothers to try and understand Anakin, which is terribly unfortunate for many reasons. From the moment Anakin was brought to the Jedi Temple, Mace was rather callous towards him, and by the time he realizes he needs to understand Anakin and get him to see reason, it's too late for everyone involved. *nods* The "what ifs" here are terrible. Anakin falters, but he struggles so hard to remain good, to remain a Jedi. I was shocked that he immediately went to the Temple to tell them that Palpatine is the Sith Lord, that was one of the biggest surprises for me in the novel. He really does fight all those dark impulses, but his concern with "saving Padme" (which of course Palpatine never cares one bit about) eats away at everything else. And yes, horrifyingly, it is all for nothing. Nothing but decades of pain and regret and living with the Shadow always over one shoulder.

Because he cannot bear to be lonely, he ends up utterly alone. Because he is afraid, he ends up as Vader with no fear, because there is no one left to fear for, and nothing to live for either. He cannot even die if he wants, courtesy of the mechanical suit. This is the most absolute slavery one can imagine. Well, and so sadly, put. He is a slave to the suit, to Palpatine, to the Empire, to himself, and he goes so long without hope of liberation, I can't imagine what it feels like for him when he finally realizes that a glimmer of salvation still burns in the galaxy.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, and yes. I need to think about this more, but for now just re:that anger and hatred should have been a big red warning flag to Anakin, had he been more perceptive regarding people's faults and hidden secrets. Yes, he is very VERY bad at reading people and recognizing lies. If you think about it, why should he be? His mother never lied to him, and the Jedi never did either. He has never been manipulated (to his knowledge). That makes him forthright, honest, amazing, and very easy to dupe.

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

It also makes it all the more tragic when he goes into a fit of rage and thinks Obi-Wan (I just typed Ewan there...oops! hehe) and Padme, who have always been honest and loving towards him, have betrayed him. His (to quote how you put it, because it's lovely) forthright, honest, amazing nature gets twisted against him and he doesn't even know who's betraying him and who would love him no matter what.

Yet, even after every horrible thing that Anakin does, Padme dies insisting there's still good in him. I may need more than one box of tissue in the movie.