Why I Don’t Care About Anakin Skywalker

A RANT

I was seven years old in 1977 when the first Star Wars movie came out. Back then, it was Star Wars. It wasn’t episode anything. It wasn’t “A New Hope”. It wasn’t the first of a whole slew of franchise films. It was just Star Wars.

And it had the most awesome bad guy ever.

Darth Vader was pure-D evil. He was ruthless, vindictive, able to crush the life out of you with one hand or no hands. Even on Grand Moff Tarkin’s leash, he was able to intimidate everyone in the room. And we all loved to hate this masked villain, this terror that was the Dark Lord of the Sith.

And we didn’t really care where he came from.

Forward three years. I was 10. And it was time to find out what happens next. The Empire Strikes Back carried a promise of bad things from the get-go. You knew from the title that this was going to be an event. And we got even more of Darth Vader being bad, and then to learn that the suit is what keeps this scarred shell of a man barely alive. And then to learn that the Emperor is even more evil. And then to learn that [SPOILER ALERT] Darth Vader is Luke’s father!!

It. Was. Awesome.

And we still didn’t really care where he came from. But the question was now out there. Was Darth Vader really a Skywalker? Or was this just a big fat lie from an evil man to get Luke to fall to the dark side of the Force?

And then the resolution in Return of the Jedi: Vader really sired young Luke. He was once a great Jedi named Anakin Skywalker, a great pilot and good friend to Obi-Wan Kenobi. As Kenobi explained it, I envisioned a great noble Jedi samurai warrior with a pure heart falling from grace in such a way that he took the Jedi Order with him. It had to be something so powerful to overwhelm and undermine the nobility of being a Jedi. What could possibly have seduced such a powerful Jedi to become such an evil Sith? And did it happen before or after the accident that brought on the life support suit?

So, now there were questions. And the redemption of Darth Vader made us ask those questions, speculate about how he got there. Sebastian Shaw’s performance as the dying Anakin Skywalker made the death even more poignant, more tragic. The irony that he would find redemption only in the sacrifice of his own life, was the perfect embodiment of great tragic story-telling.

And then George Lucas had to screw it up by giving us the back story.

I suppose we should have all seen it coming–Star Wars got so big, Lucas had to prove he was bigger. And so he set about writing and directing the prequels himself. Which he never should have done. He should have followed the model of the first three films: surround himself with really talented people, give them a target, and let them shoot.

Instead, we get a completely unlikable anti-hero who whines and moans about how terrible he has it, and how no one understands him, and how his life would be so much better if he were just allowed to make his own decisions … I mean, really? The great, powerful Jedi of which Yoda spoke in ESB was this angst-ridden brat?! Are you kidding me?

So here’s how it makes the story lousy: it completely renders pointless the redemption of Anakin Skywalker in ROJ.

As a writer, my job is to tell stories that audiences will appreciate. They may not like them, but they must appreciate what I’m trying to do. Thus, it falls on me to bring the audience into my little creation and compel them to spend a couple of hours with the characters populating my story. You don’t like Hannibal Lecter, but you watch his every nuanced move because he’s such a rich character. If the character isn’t believable or likable, what does the audience hang its collective hat on for the time it takes to tell your story?

This is why Anakin Skywalker is such a failed character from a story perspective. Ignore the fact that he’s too young to fit the descriptions of him in the earlier movies. He’s a whiny brat, arrogant and selfish, dealing with separation anxiety because he’s not with Mommy. My kid had issues like that. But he’s almost 10 now, and he got over it. What’s Anakin’s excuse?

What is now the point of redeeming Anakin in ROJ? Restore him back to what? When was he ever a hero? A good guy? When was he ever a character we care about? Without caring about him in the beginning, the audience has no reason to care about his fall from grace or his subsequent redemption. The journey may be complete, but the audience is at the rest stop 12 miles back.

Instead, Anakin Skywalker should have begun at the same place Luke Skywalker did: noble, caring about others. Trying desperately to be a responsible Jedi with powers beyond even his understanding. And as Obi-Wan let his own arrogance get in the way (“I thought I could train him as well as Yoda.”), we find Anakin losing control of his power, and in those moments of vulnerability and frustration, the seeds are planted for his fall.

See? No Mommy issues. No angst because he never had a Daddy. Don’t get me started on that.

Anakin is clearly a product of his time: the angst-ridden youth from a broken home who tries to make something out of his life, rise up from meager circumstances and get out of the ghetto (or the projects, or the barrio, or the …). But it also reflects society’s need to excuse bad behavior by blaming that same set of circumstances. Society tries to shift responsibility on someone else – the absent father, the drugs, the poor job (or lack thereof). It’s never the parents or the child who are responsible for the state they’re in. Likewise with Anakin. He spends all three movies reacting to everyone and everything around him. He’s impulsive, reckless, impatient, rude, ill-mannered, ill-tempered. And instead of feeling sadness and horror when he fell into the lava, I felt a great deal of satisfaction because he got what he deserved.

And that’s a mistake Lucas will never be able to fix.