If you don’t recall just how many people had an issue with the Star Wars prequels this might actually remind you since Anakin, despite being a central character to the whole story, was a bit annoying at times as a kid and later on as a young adult. But it’s easy to laugh at this in a strange sort of way since watching Anakin being interrupted and pretty much ignored would have made for a very different movie, not to mention if he was running after the cruiser at one point telling them to wait up. It’s a bit funny to think that people had such an issue with the prequels despite the fact that they lined up fairly well with the original trilogy, apart from any continuity errors that die hard fans might have picked up on after watching each movie frame for frame. The story of Anakin Skywalker was one that as actually pretty critical to the overall story of Star Wars since a Skywalker helped to start the story and also ended it. To see him being ignored in this way though is kind of funny since when you think of how Anakin turned to the dark side there are a few factors that went into the downfall of the Chosen One.
One is that he was a slave along with his mother, and this was a hard thing to live with since it marked him in a society where few if any people had much respect for one of his station. It didn’t help that he was also extremely intelligent and understood his lot in life, as the Star Wars universe makes it pretty clear that younglings that aren’t coddled, and there are a lot of them, learn at a pretty quick pace that they have to start thinking for themselves early on and how to survive as well. Another sticking point was the fact that he had to leave his mother since Qui-Gon couldn’t secure both of them from Watto. But then think of it, what might have happened had Shmi Skywalker been allowed to come? It’s still likely that the Jedi Order would have cut her out of Anakin’s life since joining the Jedi isn’t like going away to summer camp, and the attachment she would represent would probably be shunned by the order and possibly offer up another hurdle to Anakin being accepted if it didn’t disqualify him entirely. Of course, thinking about it at this point one can reasonably guess that had Shmi still been a part of his life she might have been able to balance him out when no one else could. Even Padme wasn’t enough to keep Anakin balanced that often, and she was the love of his life.
But when Shmi was gone, Anakin’s rage was allowed to explode as he took out an entire Tusken village and continued the plunge into the dark side. From that point on it feels as though there was a slim hope that he might be able to be redeemed, but not much. Obi-Wan and Padme would have been among the only people that could have kept him from slip-sliding into the madness he embraced, and even they weren’t enough since Anakin was too afraid of losing those closest to him. The lack of attachment that most Jedi had was a smart thing in some cases, but it did make them feel insanely isolated and way too hands off when it came to the world around them. In a way this was a wise move, but it still feels a bit cold and uncaring. Anakin never had a chance to feel that aloof however since his connection to his mother was so strong. When it came to being the Chosen One he had a few chances to really shine and he had a few moments when he could have steered himself away from the dark side, but there were just too many influences and a lot of emotion pulling him in.
One of the most amusing things about Anakin is that even with the foreshadowing and the knowledge that he would one day become Darth Vader, a lot of people were still hopeful and eventually came to like him as a Jedi since he wasn’t perfect and he definitely didn’t follow all the rules. Kind of like Qui-Gonn Jinn he was more or less a free spirit that was bound by the Jedi code at times and able to skirt the edges of it at others. He wasn’t the only Jedi that did this of course, as others were just as edgy if not more so. Just imagine though if he had never been picked up by the Jedi, and if the Sith had found him instead. The implications that follow would be horrendous.
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