Anakin Skywalkers Portrayal

Does anyone feel that Anakin was misused slightly, I think Anakin should have been portrayed more as a force of nature (like Nate Grey in X-men) with the ability to do virtually anything but also screwing up because of his inexperience.

With perhaps the exception of LOE (when he gets mad & ruins an entire building with a force scream) this is never shown.

Sure Anakin is a great pilot & skilled in combat but you never get the sense that Anakin is anything to out of the ordinary, which surely with all the mids & the fact that he was created

Thoughts?

 

I thought the fact that he was an emotional wreck from II to III, someone who was impulsive and impetuous and reacted on the spur of the moment, was sort of evidence of that. But yes, I do agree with you that he wasn't exactly portrayed as a torrential hurricane of Force power and swirling destiny.

 

Well the problem with Nate Grey is the fact that...

1. Anakin gets his butt handed to him by Obi Wan.
2. Anakin gets his butt handed to him by Dooku.
3. Anakin must be in danger due to a bunch of droids.

Of course, we do get hints in the movie.....

Anakin defeats the entire Jedi Temple after all.

 

I agree. After all the hype surrounding him in TPM, I expected more...

It seemed to me that Lucas made Anakin (and by extension, Obi, Mace and Yoda) appear "more powerful" by making the other Jedi around him (and them) rubbish.

Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon were clearly meant to be examples of the Jedi *norm* in TPM - Lucas saying, "Yeah, this is what Jedi Knights can do!" - yet the "normal Jedi" from AotC to RotS would have died at the hands of the first wave of battle droids and droidekas. I mean, if Jedi were really as rubbish as portrayed in AotC and RotS, they would *not* have the reputation that precedes them in TPM.

I'm not suggesting that Jedi should be gods, but a lot more should have survived Geonosis, and the clones should have had to have been more creative to kill them. Blasters > Force + Lightsaber makes little sense to me.

Ultimately, Charles is right, the reason Anakin can't be the "Nate Grey Force of Nature" (as he really should be) is because he has to get slashibittied up by Obi-Wan... which makes me wonder why Lucas bothered including the whole "Anakin has the highest midi-chlorian count ever" stuff in the first place... sure, it's just potential but - especially after the events of AotC - I expected him to capitalise on it more.

As it stands, the basic "Anakin was emotional so he made mistakes" reasoning behind his loss is pretty lame. If Anakin was so much stronger in the Force than Obi-Wan, he should have torn him apart. I was kinda hoping that Anakin would win the duel only for Obi-Wan to trick him into burninating himself somehow...

Ah well. I guess we'll just have to accept that, except for rare instances, Anakin had barely scratched the surface of his potential power and was therefore more or less Obi-Wan's equal.

Even so, I'd have loved to have seen him portrayed as the "torrential hurricane of Force power and swirling destiny" that mark (very Jolee of you) described.

 

True, but at least his son occasionally show that magnitude of power from time to time. Too bad it wasn't seen on film.

It's a shame that it wasn't shown on film.

 

It would all make so much more sense if Anakin was a "torrential hurricane of Force power and swirling destiny" (What a description ). Then you would almost be sympathetic to the jedi order & Obi Wan who seem to want him kept on a short leash.

As it is we see that Anakin is the galaxy?s greatest pilot & one of the orders most elite swordsman but what we really needed to see was Anakin using the force to destroy building etc.

 

Granted, Anakin's impatience lead to his defeat at the hands of Obi-Wan...a Jedi Master, and example of the best of what the Jedi can be....and, be fair...when Anakin lost to Dooku in AOTC, he was still in training, and Dooku was not only a fully fledged Jedi Master, but we know he was/is one of the greatest duelists the Jedi had, before he left. Anakin was a rank amateur when they dueled the first time. Talented beyond belief, but, inexperienced. Now, when they have their rematch in ROTS, and Anakin allows the dark side to give him strength, we see what happens...Obi-Wan gets incapacitated, and Anakin not only defeats Dooku, but, gets Dooku on his knees, makes him beg almost, and then beheads him. THIS Anakin is the Anakin Sidious had hoped for.

It is kinda funny though, despite being able to kill every Jedi in the Temple, and you had to know there were more than just padawans, there HAD to be Masters, he can kill hundreds of Jedi....but, Obi Wan can match him stroke for stroke, thrust for thrust, parry for parry, by simply doing what comes naturally to him, exercising a little patience. Obi Wan is probably the only Jedi in the entire galaxy that could have defeated Anakin at the end of ROTS, which is kind of alluded to in the novelization, that Kenobi's saber technique, while based on the basics, is absolutely flawless, and he is THE master at whatever form it is (the name escapes me right now). Anakin's flaw has always been impatience...Kenobi's strength was always patience...

 

Not to mention they knew every move each other would make because they'd been together for over 10 years. And the whole point of the duel was that the dark side makes you stupid (see Jacen Solo) and Anakin had no control over his emotions nor his sanity for that matter at that point. He was actually handicapped by the dark side.

And I don't know... just in the books I've read in the past few months Anakin/Vader saved Praesitilyn virtually single handedly there at the end, killed Durge (someone who had wiped the floor with every other Jedi, including Obi-Wan), maimed Asajj and humbled her (see Durge, same scnario...including Obi-Wan), killed Dooku (who had just wiped the floor with Obi-Wan as he did in AOTC), brought down the complex in Labyrinth of evil, killed the Jedi in ROTS, wiped the forrest floor with SEVEN wookies in Dark Lord, and that's just to name a few.

 

"It's a shame that it wasn't shown on film."

That's what the video game is for!

Die Jedi dogs!

 

It's a shame that it wasn't shown on film.
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It was shown in the video game at least. If we count that as canon, Anakin killed 36 Jedi Knights I understand.

 

The Jedi Temple level in the game was pretty good, best part of the game I feel beside Obi-wan's escape when the clones turn on him. Still had they put that in the movie they'd either have to do it right or not at all. It would have made the film even longer and while I think that was a good thing it would have taken away from the ending fights I think. Had they shown it you'd have Anakin going up against fellow Knights and Masters and just slicing through the Padawans and Younglings. The game shows you some of the major fights during the temple raid and they weren't push overs either which I'm glad to say but I do see how they might have taken away from the other fights.

I wonder just how much of Jedi Temple fights were filmed through. I always wondered if the fight Yoda and Obiwan see on the security tapes is CGI or if that was really filmed and then edited into the film the way it was. The one where Anakin is fighting several Knights or Padawans all at once.

 

I agree that we should have seen a more powerful Anakin. His emotional downfall which humanizes him more would have come across as even more tragic because he's so powerful and still can't save the ones he loves. The Anakin we got though I'm not complaining too much, doesn't seem to fully realize his power, and doesn't seem to "feel" like he's the Chosen One, so why not sacrifice it all to save his pregnant wife?

I also agree that the Temple scene from the game rocked, and would've been cool to see on the big screen even if it meant cutting something from the movie.

 

Well Padme was a supurfulous character, I say she should have just been ditched. Anakin could have married uhhh Sabe or someone in the meantime ;-)

 

It was shown in the video game at least. If we count that as canon, Anakin killed 36 Jedi Knights I understand.
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That was a fun level. I play it often.

 

If the film showed the Anakin from the game then we would all be happy people.

The Anakin who ripped apart the jedi temple was a beast, can you remember that enormous statue that the chosen one throws like a dart.

 

well... for his age and level of training - don't you believe Annakin to be Nate Grey'esque.
I believe all here will agree that Annakin's potential was off the charts, but in reality - he only had... 13 years of training. At 13 years of training, he was, at the least, Obi-wan's equal - and obi-wan had trained for 30+ years.

Sidious did tell Yoda that Annakin would be far more powerful than either of them. Annaking needed more training (and more limbs - sorry, had to do it)

Think of it along the lines of martial arts... I've seen 20 year old 6 foot tall, 220 pound brown belts taken down easily by 3rd, 4th degree black belts that are over 50 years old, barely 5'8" and 140 pounds soaking wet.

fighting isn't always power - its, as much, training and discipline

 

That's a good point.

 

True enough, but if you accept the general interpretation of RotJ, then Luke manages to defeat Darth Vader - who's had thirteen years of Jedi training and twenty three years of Sith training - with barely a *week's* worth of training... when you'd have thought that the big, bad Jedi killer would have had the edge - loss of potential or not. Must have been a HELL of a crash course.

(Of course, this doesn't conflict with *my* take on it - since I'd argue that Vader had given up on his dreams of usurping the Emperor and went into that fight knowing full well that he was going to die so that his son could step into his shoes... I don't even think Palpatine lied to him about it. Sure, it conflicts with the novel and GL's comments, but it works better with the script and how resigned Vader is to everything.)

But yeah, in principle you're right. Considering he'd been there for thirteen years, whereas every other Jedi has been there since they were in nappies.

 

Barely a week???? UMMM...you do know that Luke trained on Dagobah for MONTHS, right? It coincides with Han and Leia having to travel to Bespin without the benefit of hyperdrive...If it had been barely a week, Han wouldn't have said "Its pretty far, but I think we can make it"...a Week's travel is NOTHING when you are traversing the galaxy...

 

Well, obviously not... duh.

Fair enough.

Less than a year < Thirteen years however.

Still, that's a little better. (I can't believe I missed it... )