Anakin Skywalker is a fictional character in the Star Wars universe. In the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Anakin is a Jedi Padawan, and later a Jedi Knight. As revealed in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, he is the father of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher).
Jedi Powers (On Scale): 22 BBY: 65 (Approx.), 19 BBY: 75, 0 BBY-4ABY: 82 (Sith Lord)
Template:Spoiler In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, after he falls to the dark side of the Force, Anakin becomes known by the Sith name Darth Vader. In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Anakin (as Vader) is the central and iconic villain. Ultimately, he is a modern tragic hero, swayed to the dark side by his fear of loss, hubris and the machinations of Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid), the series' main villain.
History
Childhood and Discovery of Anakin Skywalker
Anakin first appears as a selfless nine-year-old boy (played by Jake Lloyd]. He and his mother are slaves in the service of Watto, a curmudgeonly junk dealer. A child prodigy, Anakin excels at engineering; even at his young age, he can build or repair nearly anything, evidenced by the creation of his own protocol droid, C-3PO (Anthony Daniels), and podracer, each from salvaged parts. He is also a remarkable pilot with quick reflexes.
Anakin is found on Tatooine by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), who is convinced that he is the Chosen One foretold by the Jedi prophecy to bring balance to the Force. His mother, Shmi (Pernilla August), says that he has no father, and that she simply became pregnant with him. Qui-Gon discovers that Anakin has the highest known number of midi-chlorians, a measure of Force-aptitude, and theorizes that the boy is a creation of the Force itself. He attributes Anakin's piloting talent to the Force, which he thinks allows Anakin "to see things before they happen." Anakin forms a strong bond with Queen Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman), whom Qui-Gon and his padawan apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), are guarding.
After winning Anakin's freedom, Qui-Gon brings the boy to Coruscant and requests that the Jedi Council allow him to train Anakin. This request is denied, as the Council thinks that Anakin's future is clouded by the fear and anger he exhibits from his days as a slave and his separation from his mother. Ultimately, Anakin helps to win the final battle against the Trade Federation in the Battle of Naboo. A dying Qui-Gon, slain in a fearsome duel with Darth Maul (Ray Park), urges Obi-Wan to train Anakin, and the Council reluctantly approves. Palpatine, newly-elected as the Republic's Supreme Chancellor, befriends the boy, promising to "watch his career with great interest."
Prelude to War
Ten years after gaining his freedom, 19-year-old Anakin (now played by Hayden Christensen), is now a young adult and Obi-Wan's apprentice. Because his natural abilities place him far above his peers, he has developed into an arrogant loner during his years of Jedi training. His relationship with his master is complicated; although he says Obi-Wan is like a father to him, he believes his teacher is holding him back and chafes against Kenobi's authority. Frustrated, Anakin turns to another teacher for advice: Palpatine, who feeds the young Padawan's fragile ego with assurances that he will one day be the greatest Jedi in the galaxy.
Anakin is assigned to guard Padmé, who is now a senator of her home planet, Naboo. His childhood fascination with her has now become a powerful infatuation, and the two ultimately fall in love, despite her many reservations; Jedi are forbidden to form emotional attachments. In conversation, he reveals his affection for her, as well as his distrust of the political process and the need he perceives for there to be one strong leader.
While guarding Padmé, Anakin senses that his mother is in danger. Upon returning to Tatooine, he finds his mother in a camp of Tusken Raiders, but arrives too late and she dies in his arms. Seized by a blind rage, he slaughters the entire tribe, even the women and children. Jedi Master Yoda (Frank Oz) and the deceased Qui-Gon feel Anakin's Force presence turn "dark" and fear that this marks the beginning of the end for Obi-Wan's young apprentice. Padmé is clearly troubled by what he has done, but being in love with him, she is not truly repulsed, and instead tries to soothe him with sympathy.
Anakin and Padmé learn that Obi-Wan has been taken hostage by the Geonosian-engineered droid forces of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a faction of star systems that want to secede from the Republic. They rush to his rescue — where they are also captured. Faced with their impending demise in a gladiatorial arena, they profess their love to one another. Escaping the fray with the help of a cadre of Jedi and the clone army, Anakin engages Separatist leader and fallen Jedi Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) in a lightsaber battle, but is easily defeated by the older, more experienced warrior, who severs his lower right arm. Back on Coruscant, his arm is replaced with a mechanical prosthetic, and he marries Padmé in a secret ceremony, with only C-3PO and his counterpart, R2-D2 (Kenny Baker), there to witness.
Clone Wars
During the events of Star Wars: Clone Wars, Anakin was made a full fledged Jedi Knight despite the Jedi Council's reservations. During the next three years of fighting in the Clone Wars, Anakin becomes a legend throughout the galaxy, renowned as "The Hero With No Fear." Among his most noted moments were a battle with Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress, in which left him with a scar on his right temple, and the liberation of the Nelvaanians from the Techno Union. During that time, he goes on a spiritual journey which gave him a cryptic glimpse of his future. The ordeal cost Anakin his prosthetic arm, though he later created a modified version with help from R2-D2.
A Hero Falls
After liberating Nelvaan, Anakin and Obi-Wan return from the Outer Rim Sieges to rescue a kidnapped Palpatine during the Battle of Coruscant. They board The Invisible Hand, flagship of the Separatist fleet and its cyborg leader, General Grievous (Matthew Wood). Tracking the captive Chancellor to the Hand's observation deck, they duel with Count Dooku. While Obi-Wan is incapacitated, Anakin faces the Sith Lord alone. Following a short duel, Anakin outmaneuvers Dooku and neatly sears off both of his hands. Palpatine then commands Anakin to behead the shocked Count. Anakin gives in to his anger and complies, but instantly regrets it, as killing a defenseless prisoner is not the Jedi way. Palpatine, however, reassures Anakin that Dooku "was too dangerous to be kept alive". After rescuing the Chancellor, Anakin finds that the flagship is in critical condition, and, with some help from Obi-Wan, barely manages to land it safely on an airstrip.
Back on Coruscant, Padmé tells him she is pregnant. Anakin is initially thrilled, but that night has a horrible nightmare of Padmé dying in childbirth. He is immediately afraid this vision will come true, as it is eerily similar to the one he had of his mother just before she died.
Palpatine, who by now has amassed near-dictatorial power in the Senate, makes Anakin his representative on the Jedi Council. The suspicious Council accepts Anakin, but denies him the rank of Jedi Master, and orders him to spy on Palpatine. Angered by the perceived snub and instructions to commit treason, Anakin loses all faith in the Council. Ultimately, the Chancellor offers him the chance to learn the dark side of the Force, which he claims holds the power to prevent death. Anakin realizes that Palpatine is the Sith Lord Darth Sidious that the Council had been hunting for since the beginning of the war, and reports Palpatine's secret to Jedi Master Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson). As Windu goes to confront Palpatine, Anakin broods over an inescapable thought: without Palpatine, he will lose the chance to save his wife.
Anakin arrives to find Windu holding his lightsaber on a disarmed and seemingly helpless Palpatine. Windu declares the Dark Lord under arrest, but Palpatine defiantly unleashes a torrent of Force lightning at Windu. The Jedi Master deflects the lightning with his lightsaber back to its source, horribly scarring Palpatine's face. The attack continues unabated until Palpatine suddenly tires, giving Windu a chance to strike a deathblow — when Anakin suddenly appears. Palpatine cowers, begging Anakin to save him. Anakin pleads with Windu to spare Palpatine's life; Windu refuses, insisting that Palpatine is too dangerous to be kept alive. Windu then brings his lightsaber back to strike at the Sith Lord, but Anakin intervenes, cutting off Windu's right hand. As Windu screams in agony, Palpatine springs to life and hurls another torrent of lightning at the Jedi Master, electrocuting him and throwing him out the window to his death. Anakin then submits to the dark side and is renamed Darth Vader.
Vader's first task as a Sith Lord is to assault the Jedi Temple and to kill everyone inside. He does this without question, slaughtering venerable Jedi and children alike. Anakin is then sent to Mustafar to assassinate the Separatist leaders. After completing this task, he is met by Padmé, who pleads with him to flee Palpatine's grasp with her. He refuses, saying that the two of them can overthrow Palpatine and rule the galaxy together. Obi-Wan, who had hidden himself on Padmé's ship, suddenly emerges and confronts Vader. Suspecting betrayal and consumed by the hateful energies of the dark side, Vader uses the Force to choke Padmé, leaving her unconscious on the landing platform. The former partners and friends engage in a ferocious lightsaber duel throughout the mining complex. Eventually, Obi-Wan jumps onto solid ground, gaining the advantage, and pleads with Vader to surrender. Anakin learned in training that the one with higher ground has the advantage; Vader, to show his disloyalty, ignores and tries to engage his former Master with a Force jump. Obi-Wan severs Vader's remaining limbs in midair, leaving him to die on the hot sands. As Vader tries to drag himself up the bank and away from the lava river, he suffers near-fatal burns and extensive lung and throat damage from inhaling the superheated air. Miraculously, Vader manages to crawl up the bank away from the lava river and lingers on until rescued by Palpatine, who sensed Vader's impending defeat after his own duel with Yoda. Palpatine then reconstructs his apprentice's ruined body with extensive prosthetics, an artificial respirator, a voice modulator that lowers his voice to a fearsome rumble, and a hideous breathing mask.
Once Vader regains consciousness, Palpatine tells him that Padmé is dead, killed by Vader's Force-choke. Overwhelmed with grief, he shakes the room with the Force, destroying the medic droids that saved his life. As Palpatine intended, this revelation breaks what remains of his apprentice's spirit, leaving him nothing but his service to his master and the Empire.
Although Vader remained a formidable warrior, his duel with Obi-Wan on Mustafar cost him a great deal of his power in the Force; Lucas has stated that his injuries rendered him only 80% as powerful as Palpatine. Had he not sustained his near-fatal injuries, he would have been twice as powerful as Palpatine, leading to an alternate ending on the Episode III video game in which Vader (having easily defeated Obi-Wan) kills Palpatine and declares himself ruler of the Empire.
Rise of the Dark Lord
As chronicled in James Luceno's book Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader, Vader sheds his identity as Anakin Skywalker shortly after incurring his injuries on Mustafar; in the months afterward, he systematically pursues and kills the survivors of the Order 66 (save Obi-Wan and Yoda) and, in the process, fully embraces his new identity as a Sith Lord and disavows any connection to his former Jedi self. The novel also reveals that Vader plans to eventually overthrow Palpatine, and that he had betrayed the Jedi because he resented their supposed failure to recognize his power.
Over the next 19 years, Vader evolves into a dark, terrifying figure within the Empire, a merciless executor of the Emperor's will infamous for using the dark side to choke people who displease him. Many of his own officers fall victim to this power, including Admiral Ozzel and Captain Needa in The Empire Strikes Back. He serves as Palpatine's second-in-command, although his official power is limited somewhat by Palpatine's orders to serve under Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing). Upon Tarkin's death in the destruction of the first Death Star, he becomes the most powerful figure in the Empire next to the Emperor.
His former self is not completely destroyed, however; his contact with his son, Luke, reawakens something of a conscience within him, which ignites an internal conflict that is not resolved until the conclusion of Return of the Jedi.
Battling the Rebellion and his son
In A New Hope, Vader is charged with recovering the stolen plans of the Death Star and finding the Rebel Alliance's secret base. He captures and tortures Princess Leia and, along with Tarkin, destroys her homeworld of Alderaan. Shortly afterward, he duels his former master, Obi-Wan, who has arrived at the Death Star to rescue Leia, and cuts him down, turning him into a spirit in the Force. He then encounters his son, Luke, during the Battle of Yavin, and senses in him a great strength in the Force — confirmed moments later when the boy destroys the battle station.
Over the next three years, Vader is obsessed with turning his son to the dark side, a quest Palpatine watches with great interest, as he plans to eventually replace Vader with Luke. Vader kidnaps Leia, Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), and C-3PO on the planet Bespin to lure Luke into a confrontation. Luke, who has been partially trained by Yoda, duels Vader, but is eventually defeated, losing his right hand to the Sith Lord's lightsaber. Vader then reveals his true identity as Luke's father and offers Luke the chance to overthrow Palpatine and rule the galaxy as father and son. Luke refuses, throwing himself into a deep shaft (the Force intervenes, however, and he is spared.)
Redemption and Death
.
A year later, Vader is charged with overseeing the completion of the second Death Star, with Moff Jerjerrod (Michael Pennington) as his immediate subordinate. He meets with Palpatine onboard the half-constructed station to plan Luke's turn to the dark side.
By this time, Luke has nearly completed his Jedi training, and has learned from a dying Yoda and Obi-wan that Vader is indeed his father and from the spirit of Obi-Wan Kenobi, he also learns that Leia is his sister. On a mission to the forest moon of Endor, he surrenders to Imperial troops and is brought to Vader. Aboard the Death Star, Luke resists the Emperor's appeals to his anger and fear for his friends, but snaps when Vader telepathically probes his mind, learns of Leia's existence, and threatens to turn her instead. Enraged, Luke nearly kills Vader, severing his father's right hand. He controls his anger at the last minute, however, as he looks at Vader's cybernetic hand and then at his own; he realizes that he is perilously close to suffering his father's fate.
As the Emperor approaches, encouraging Luke to kill Vader and take his place, Luke throws down his lightsaber, refusing to perform the killing blow. Seeing that the young Jedi is a lost cause, the Emperor attacks Luke with Force lightning. Luke writhes in agony under the Emperor's torture, begging his father for help. Unable to bear the sight of his son in pain, Anakin Skywalker re-emerges, and he turns on his master and throws him into a deep shaft, where he explodes in a fury of dark energies. However, Vader is mortally wounded in the process by the Emperor's lightning. By destroying both the Emperor and himself, he fulfills the prophecy and brings the Force into balance.
Moments from death, he begs his son to take off his breath-mask so he could look at Luke "with his own eyes." Luke complies and for the first time, father and son truly see each other. Freed from the mask that had caged his head for half his life, Anakin Skywalker is a sad, withered man in his mid-40s, his skin ghostly pale from not having seen natural light for more than two decades. The ravages of time, injury, and the dark side have prematurely aged him, and he appears many decades older than he truly is. Through sunken eyes, he looks up at his son and back at a lifetime of regret. In his dying breaths, Anakin Skywalker is redeemed, finally admitting to Luke that the good within him was not destroyed after all. Luke escapes with his father's body as the Death Star explodes, destroyed by the Rebel Alliance.
That night, Luke burns his father's Sith armor in the manner of a Jedi's funeral. During the victory celebration on the forest moon of Endor, Luke is able to see the redeemed spirit of Anakin Skywalker, standing once again with Obi-Wan and Yoda.
Notes and references
Sources
- Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace Novelization, 1st edition paperback, 1999. Terry Brooks, George Lucas, ISBN 0-345-43411-0
- Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones Novelization, 2003. R. A. Salvatore, ISBN 0-345-42882-X
- Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Novelization, 1st edition hardcover, 2005. Matthew Woodring Stover, George Lucas, ISBN 0-7126-8427-1
- The New Essential Guide to Characters, 1st edition, 2002. Daniel Wallace, Michael Sutfin, ISBN 0-345-44900-2
- Vader: The Ultimate Guide, 2005.
- Star Wars: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 1998. Dr. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-789-43481-4
- Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 1999. Dr. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-789-44701-0
- Star Wars: Attack of the Clones: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 2002. Dr. David West Reynolds, ISBN 0-789-48588-5
- Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith: The Visual Dictionary, hardcover, 2005. James Luceno, ISBN 0-756-61128-8
- Star Wars Databank. Skywalker, Anakin, Vader, Darth
See also
External links
- Anakin Skywalker at the Star Wars Databank
- Anakin Skywalker on Wookieepedia, a Star Wars wiki
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