Anakin Skywalker is a young Jedi who fight in the Clone Wars. He was found by Qui-gon Jinn on Tatooine. He is the apprentice of Obi-Wan Kenobi, master of Ahsoka Tano, secret husband of Padme, father of Luke and Leia, and the original persona of Darth Vader.
Biography[]
Anakin Skywalker is the central character in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. The original and prequel trilogies follow Anakin's rise as a vessel of The Force, his fall to the dark side, and his ultimate redemption. In the beginning Anakin is a Jedi Padawan, and later a Jedi Knight of legend.
Anakin first appears as a selfless nine-year-old boy. Anakin and his mother, Shmi, are slaves in the service of Watto, a junk dealer. Anakin can build or repair nearly anything, evidenced by the creation of his own protocol droid, C-3PO, and podracer, each from salvaged parts. He is also a remarkable pilot with quick reflexes.
Anakin is found on the planet Tatooine by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, who is convinced that he is the "Chosen One" foretold by the Jedi prophecy to bring balance to the Force. Shmi says that he has no father, and that she simply became pregnant with him. Over the course of the narrative, Qui-Gon Jinn goes on to discover that Anakin has the highest known number of midi-chlorians, a measure of Force-aptitude. Anakin forms a strong bond with Queen Padmé Amidala, whom Qui-Gon and his padawan apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, are guarding.
After winning Anakin's freedom in a podrace, 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 he exhibits. Ultimately, Anakin helps win the final battle against the villainous Trade Federation. A dying Qui-Gon, slain by Darth Maul, urges Obi-Wan to train Anakin, and Council leader Yoda reluctantly approves. The Republic's newly-elected Supreme Chancellor, Palpatine, befriends the boy, promising to "watch his career with great interest."
10 years later, Anakin, now twenty, is Obi-Wan's padawan. Because his natural abilities place him far above his peers, he has developed into an arrogant loner during his years of Jedi training, and has begun to chafe against Obi-Wan's authority.
He is assigned to guard Padmé, and eventually falls in love with her, even though such emotional attachments are forbidden to Jedi. In conversation with Padmé, 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 village of Tusken Raiders, but arrives too late; she has been tortured and beaten beyond help, and she dies in his arms. Seized by a blind rage, he slaughters the entire village, even the women and children. He returns with his mother's body, and tearfully confesses to Padmé, who forgives him.
Anakin and Padmé learn that Obi-Wan has been taken hostage by the droid forces of the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a faction of star systems that want to secede from the Republic. They rush to to the planet Geonosis to rescue him 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, Obi-Wan, and Yoda engage Separatist leader and fallen Jedi Count Dooku in a lightsaber battle. Obi-Wan is injured in the battle and Anakin is forced to fight him alone.
Some years later, Anakin and Obi-Wan return from the Outer Rim to rescue a kidnapped Palpatine. They board the Invisible Hand, flagship of the Separatist fleet and its cyborg leader, General Grievous. Tracking the captive Chancellor to the observation deck, they encounter Count Dooku. A brief battle ensues, in which Dooku renders Obi-Wan unconscious. Once again, Anakin is set to duel with the Count alone. Wanting revenge for his earlier defeat on Geonosis, Anakin overpowers 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.
After rescuing the Chancellor, Anakin finds that the flagship is in critical condition, and, with some help from Obi-Wan, barely lands its front half safely on an airstrip.
Anakin returns to Coruscant, where Padmé tells him she is pregnant. He is initially overjoyed, but that night has a horrible nightmare of Padmé dying in childbirth. He is extremely afraid this vision will come true, as it is 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 tell him to spy on Palpatine. His pride wounded, Anakin loses all faith in the Council. Ultimately, the Chancellor offers him the chance to learn the dark side, which he claims holds the power to prevent death. Anakin realizes that Palpatine is the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, and reports Palpatine's secret to Jedi Master Mace Windu. He soon follows Windu to the Chancellor's office to make sure Palpatine is taken alive.
Anakin arrives to find Windu holding his lightsaber on a disarmed Sidious. Windu declares the Dark Lord of the Sith under arrest, but Sidious defiantly unleashes a torrent of Force lightning at Windu. The Jedi Master deflects the lightning with his lightsaber back at Sidious, hideously scarring his face. The attack continues unabated until Sidious seemingly tires, giving Windu a chance to strike a deathblow. Anakin pleads with Windu to spare Sidious' life, but Windu refuses, insisting that Sidious is too dangerous to be kept alive. As Windu raises his lightsaber to deliver the final blow, Anakin intervenes, severing Windu's right hand. Sidious then springs to life, bombarding him with Force lightning and hurling him out the window to his death. Anakin then submits to the dark side, and is dubbed Darth Vader. Vader's first task as a Sith Lord is to assault the Jedi Temple and to kill everyone inside, including the children. Vader 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 Sidious' grasp with her. He refuses, saying that the two of them can overthrow Sidious and rule the galaxy together. Obi-Wan, who had hidden himself on Padmé's ship, suddenly emerges. Vader accuses Padmé of conspiring against him, and uses the dark side to choke her into unconsciousness. Kenobi and Vader then engage in an intense lightsaber duel throughout the mining complex. At the end of the duel, Kenobi severs Vader's left arm and both of his legs. As Vader comes into contact with the molten metal, he catches fire and is nearly immolated. Obi-Wan leaves him to die, but Sidious comes to Vader's rescue.
Sidious reconstructs his apprentice's ruined body with the iconic suit of black armor. Once Vader regains consciousness, Sidious tells him that Padmé had died as a result of Vader's anger. (She had in fact died in childbirth after delivering Luke and Leia.) This half-truth breaks what remains of Anakin's spirit, and he screams in torment. He is last seen overseeing the construction of the first Death Star at Sidious' side.
Concept and creation[]
While the first draft of Star Wars includes a tall, grim general named Darth Vader, the character came closer in line with his final depiction in the second revision. A character named "Anakin Starkiller" also appears in an early draft of Star Wars, playing a role similar to Luke Skywalker's, as the 16-year-old son of a respected warrior.
After Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope was successful, Lucas hired science fiction author Leigh Brackett to write Star Wars II (later retitled Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back) with him. They held story conferences and, by late November 1977, Lucas had produced a handwritten treatment called The Empire Strikes Back. The treatment is very similar to the final film, except that Darth Vader does not reveal he is Luke's father. In the first draft that Brackett would write from this, Luke's father appears as a ghost to instruct Luke. George Lucas was disappointed with the script, but Brackett died of cancer before he could discuss it with her. With no writer available, Lucas had to write his next draft himself. In this draft, he made use of a new plot twist: Darth Vader claiming to be Luke's father. According to Lucas, he found this draft enjoyable to write, as opposed to the year-long struggles writing the first film.
This new story pointing out that Darth Vader was Luke's father had drastic effects on the series. Michael Kaminski argues in his book that it is unlikely that the plot point had ever seriously been considered or even conceived of before 1978, and that the first film was clearly operating under an alternate storyline where Vader was a separate character from Luke's father; there is not a single reference to this plot point before 1978. After writing the second and third drafts of Empire Strikes Back in which the point was introduced, Lucas reviewed the new backstory he had created: Anakin Skywalker had been Obi-Wan Kenobi's brilliant student and had a child named Luke, but was swayed to the dark side by Darth Sidious (who became a Sith and not simply a politician). Anakin battled Kenobi on the site of a volcano and was badly wounded, but then resurrected as Darth Vader. Meanwhile, Kenobi hid Luke on Tatooine while the Galactic Republic became the tyrannical Galactic Empire and Vader systematically hunted down and killed the Jedi. This change in character would provide a springboard to the "Tragedy of Darth Vader" storyline that underlies the prequels.
For Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the first film in the prequel trilogy, Lucas made Anakin nine years old to make the character's departure from his mother more poignant. Movie trailers for The Phantom Menace focused on Anakin, and a one-sheet poster showing him casting Vader's shadow informed otherwise unknowing audiences of the character's eventual fate. The movie ultimately achieved a primary goal of introducing audiences to Anakin Skywalker.
After deciding to create the prequels, Lucas indicated the series would be a tragic one examining Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side. He also saw that the prequels could form the beginning of one long story that started with Anakin's childhood and ended with his death. This was the final step towards turning the film series into a "Saga".
Michael Kaminski, in The Secret History of Star Wars, offers evidence that issues in Anakin's fall to the dark side prompted Lucas to make massive story changes, first revising the opening sequence of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith to have Palpatine kidnapped and his apprentice, Count Dooku, murdered by Anakin as the first act in the latter's turn towards the dark side. After principal photography was complete in 2003, Lucas made even more massive changes in Anakin's character, re-writing his entire turn to the dark side; his fall from grace would now be motivated by a desire to save his wife, Padmé Amidala, rather than the previous version in which that reason was one of several, including that he genuinely believed that the Jedi were plotting to take over the Republic. This fundamental re-write was accomplished both through editing the principal footage, and new and revised scenes filmed during pick-ups in 2004.
Portrayals[]
Jake Lloyd was chosen from over 3,000 prospective child actors to play Anakin in The Phantom Menace. Casting director Robin Gurland initially thought Lloyd was too young to play the role; however, upon another meeting several years later, Gurland believed Lloyd was an appropriate choice for the part.
Hayden Christensen played Anakin in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith; he also donned Darth Vader's armor for the final scenes of the latter film. Mat Lucas voiced Anakin for the Clone Wars animated series and in various Star Wars video games. Matt Lanter voiced the character in the CGI The Clone Wars film and subsequent TV series.
Appearances[]
Films[]
Original trilogy[]
In Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi (1983), a dying Yoda confirms to Luke that Darth Vader is indeed his father; moments later, Obi-Wan's spirit tells him he has a twin sister — whom Luke almost instantly divines to be Leia — and that he must confront his father to save the Rebellion. Luke surrenders himself to Imperial forces, hoping to turn his father back "to the light side". Vader brings Luke onto the second Death Star, where Darth Sidious tries to seduce Luke to the dark side. During their duel, Vader learns Leia's true identity and threatens to turn her to the dark side if Luke will not submit. Enraged, Luke attacks and overpowers Vader, severing his mechanical right hand. At the last minute, Luke realizes he is close to suffering his father's fate, and refuses Sidious' command to kill Vader and take his place. An enraged Sidious unleashes a torrent of Force lightning upon Luke, who begs his father for help. The sight of his son's suffering breaks the dark side's hold on Vader, who kills Sidious by throwing him into the Death Star's reactor core; in the process, however, he is mortally wounded by his master's lightning. Vader asks Luke to remove his helmet; in his dying breaths, the redeemed Anakin Skywalker tells his son that there was good left in him after all. Luke escapes with his father's remains, which he burns in a funeral pyre. The same night, the Rebels celebrate the destruction of the Death Star and the fall of the Empire, and Luke sees the spirit of Anakin standing alongside the spirits of Obi-Wan and Yoda.
Prequel trilogy[]
Anakin Skywalker appears as a nine-year-old slave in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999). He is raised on the planet Tatooine by his mother, Shmi Skywalker (Pernilla August), who says Anakin had no father, implying miraculous birth. He is a gifted pilot and engineer, and has the ability to "see things before they happen". He even creates his own protocol droid, C-3PO. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) meets him after an emergency landing on Tatooine and becomes convinced the boy is the "Chosen One", foretold by a Jedi prophecy as the one who will bring balance to the Force. Anakin wins his freedom in a podrace, but is forced to part with his mother. Qui-Gon takes Anakin to the Jedi Council, who forbid training on the grounds that the boy's future is clouded by the fear he exhibits. During the invasion of Naboo, Anakin helps defeat the Trade Federation by destroying their command ship. After Qui-Gon is killed in a duel with Sith Lord Darth Maul (Ray Park), his apprentice, the young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), promises to train Anakin, a proposal the Jedi Council reluctantly accepts. During the film, Anakin forms a close bond with Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman), Naboo's queen. Palpatine, newly elected as the Republic's Supreme Chancellor, befriends the boy, telling him that "we will watch your career with great interest."
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), set 10 years later, depicts Anakin as Obi-Wan's Padawan learner. Palpatine assigns Anakin and Obi-Wan to investigate an assassination attempt made on Padmé, who is now a senator. Anakin travels with her to Naboo, where they fall in love. Anakin has a vision of his mother in pain, and goes to Tatooine, where he learns that Shmi had been kidnapped by Tusken Raiders. He goes to the Tusken camp, where he finds his mother, tortured to death by the tribe; Anakin snaps and kills the entire tribe. He returns with his mother's body, and tearfully confesses his crime to Padmé, who comforts him. Soon after, Anakin and Padmé travel to Geonosis, hoping to rescue Obi-Wan from Jedi-turned-Sith Lord Count Dooku (Christopher Lee) and his army of Separatists; instead, they are captured and sentenced to be executed. Anakin and Padmé profess their love for each other moments before being rescued by an army of clone troopers and Jedi. Anakin loses his right arm in a lightsaber duel with Dooku; it is replaced with a prosthetic. At the end of the film, Anakin and Padmé marry in a secret ceremony.
In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005), set three years later, Anakin is a Jedi Knight and hero of the Clone Wars. He and Obi-Wan lead an attempt to rescue Palpatine, who has been kidnapped by Dooku and Separatist leader General Grievous (Matthew Wood). During the rescue, Anakin defeats Dooku in a lightsaber duel, and decapitates him at Palpatine's urging. When he returns to Coruscant, he meets with Padmé, who tells him she is pregnant with his child. That night, he has a vision of Padmé dying in childbirth; he fears it will come true, as it is similar to visions he had of his mother before she died. Meanwhile, Palpatine names Anakin his representative on the Jedi Council; the Council, suspicious of Palpatine's dictatorial power in the Senate, denies Anakin the rank of Jedi Master, and asks him to spy on Palpatine, whom Anakin considers a friend and mentor. Angered by the snub and instructions to commit what he believes to be treason, Anakin begins to lose faith in the Jedi.
Palpatine eventually reveals to Anakin that he is the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, the mastermind behind the war, and that the dark side holds the power to save Padmé's life. Conflicted, Anakin reports Palpatine to Jedi Master Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson). Despite orders to remain behind, Anakin follows Windu to the Chancellor's office to ensure Sidious is captured alive. He walks in on Windu ready to kill Sidious and intervenes on the Sith Lord's behalf, severing Windu's lightsaber arm; Sidious then kills Windu with a blast of Force lightning. Desperate to save his wife, Anakin pledges himself to the Sith as Darth Sidious' apprentice, Darth Vader.
Sidious sends Vader to kill everyone inside the Jedi Temple, and then to assassinate the Separatist leaders on Mustafar. Padmé meets him there and pleads with him to flee Sidious' grasp with her. He refuses, saying that the two of them can overthrow Sidious and rule the galaxy. When Obi-Wan emerges from Padmé's ship, Anakin accuses her of conspiring against him and uses the Force to choke her into unconsciousness. Anakin then engages Obi-Wan in an epic lightsaber duel, which ends when Obi-Wan severs Anakin's legs and remaining organic arm in mid-air. Anakin then slides too close to a lava flow and catches fire, sustaining life-threatening third-degree burns. Obi-Wan picks up Anakin's lightsaber and leaves him to die.
Moments later, Sidious rescues Vader and reconstructs his apprentice's ruined body with the cybernetic limbs and black armor first seen in A New Hope. When Vader regains consciousness, Sidious tells him Padmé died as a result of Vader's anger. The news of her death breaks what remains of Vader's spirit, and he screams in torment. He is last seen alongside Sidious and a young Governor Tarkin (Wayne Pygram) viewing the construction of the first Death Star.
Expanded universe[]
Literature[]
The redeemed spirit of Anakin Skywalker appears in The Truce at Bakura (1993), set a few days after the end of Return of the Jedi. He appears to Leia, imploring her forgiveness. Leia condemns him for his crimes and banishes him from her life. He promises that he will be there for her when she needs him, and disappears. In Tatooine Ghost (2003), Leia learns to forgive her father after learning about his childhood as a slave and his mother's traumatic death. In The Dark Nest trilogy (2005), Luke and Leia uncover old recordings of their parents in R2-D2's memory drive; for the first time, they see their own birth and their mother's death, as well as their father's corruption to the dark side. In The Unifying Force (2003), Anakin tells his grandson, Jacen Solo, to "stand firm" in his battle with the Supreme Overlord of the Yuuzhan Vong. In Bloodlines (2006), Jacen — who has himself turned to the dark side — uses the Force to "watch" Anakin slaughter the children at the Jedi Temple and become Darth Vader.
Animation[]
In the animated series Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003), Anakin (voiced by Mat Lucas) is made a Jedi Knight despite the 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". Anakin's adventures in the Clone Wars are also chronicled in the Star Wars: Republic comic series. In the 2008 animated film The Clone Wars and the subsequent television series, Anakin (voiced by Matt Lanter) takes on Padawan learner Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein). In the episode "Ghosts of Mortis", he sees a cryptic vision of his eventual transformation into Darth Vader.
Characteristics[]
In Attack of the Clones, Anakin feels "smothered" by Obi-Wan Kenobi and is unable to control his life. By Revenge of the Sith, however, Anakin's "father-son" friction with his master has matured into a more equal, brotherly relationship. Once he becomes Darth Vader, each evil act he commits makes it harder for him to return to the light, but Vader ultimately escapes the dark side and redeems himself before he dies by saving his son and killing Darth Sidious.
Eric Bui, a psychiatrist at University of Toulouse Hospital, argued at the 2007 American Psychiatric Association convention that Anakin meets six of the nine diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder (BPD), one more than necessary for a diagnosis. He and a colleague, Rachel Rodgers, published their findings in a 2010 letter to the editor of the journal Psychiatry Research. Bui says he found Anakin Skywalker a useful example to explain BPD to medical students. In particular, Bui points to Anakin's abandonment issues and uncertainty over his identity. Anakin's mass murders of the Tusken Raiders in Attack of the Clones and the young Jedi in Revenge of the Sith count as two dissociative episodes, fulfilling another criterion. Bui hoped his paper would help raise awareness of the disorder, especially among teens.
See also[]
- Darth Vader - Anakin's Sith persona