PT Anakin Skywalker MEGAthread - Don't talk to him about sand, it makes him uncomfortable

I'll tell you now. Don't follow Anakin. Many years ago, I was in your place, but I let my obsession, attachments, love and lust get the best of me. I did a lot of pain unto others....

Anakin is one I can truly relate to.

 

Maybe this is the true brilliance of Lucas and his character Anakin. While the majority of stories gives us heroes to aspire to, Lucas gave us a fallen hero to show us what not to become and what to avoid doing in life. The usual positive protagonists are less realistic and more far fetched, whereas Anakin is much more realistic and grounded and we can relate to him a lot more since we all have a dark side that we can easily succumb to.

Maybe this is Lucas's true gift to the world through the medium of Star Wars, a tale of caution and warning to help us preemptively save ourselves from our dark sides before we make the mistake of letting it take over us.

I love Star Wars, I love Anakin Skywalker's character and I love George Lucas. Thank you Lucas!

 

Yeah.

I was intending to go into this in a bit more detail in the other AOTC thread.

I'm quite morbid in a lot my thinking like Anakin. And I can be peculiarly obsessive and hung up on things.

I'm also quite hot-headed like Anakin when faced with a stressful situation. All this may sound like such a cliche -- or even a non-sequitur -- but I don't do stress.

I recognize myself in this sentence a lot: "We are both overly emotional, very repressed, hopeless romantics, sensitive and keep thinking/overthinking even though we have our calm and strong moments."

Right on.

Hope things get better for you, Antpocalypse. I've truly been in some black situations -- bleak mental spaces -- in years prior; and I still battle these things on a daily basis.

Try and avoid what I might think is the chief flaw of Anakin: focusing on the negative (as Obi-Wan recognizes). I sometimes get reminded that this is exactly what I fall victim, or make myself victim, to.

A nice reminder of that occurred less than an hour ago. I got a letter through the post, which was a response to a request I recently made, asking that a payment be amended, due to what I considered to be an administrative oversight. I felt I was owed money but was pretty sure I wouldn't get any back. Turns out, according to this letter, I will be getting money back. The organization has agreed to my request and the letter says I will shortly be reimbursed.

Silly thing, really. And it isn't much money. But the principle. I'm a sucker for principles. That also makes me a bit more Anakin-esque than I might like. In fact, I was thinking of his outburst to Padme in AOTC, repeated to the Jedi in ROTS: "It's not fair." I have some issues in that area. When I read the letter, I was very pleased, and caught myself saying, "That's fair." I'm not quite getting all the money back, from the look of things, but enough to patch over the small set of injustices that I personally felt led to the oversight (and made it so galling).

I had to remind myself in that very same moment that good things do happen, I just have a knack of cherry-picking and dwelling on the bad, and therefore forgetting the good. Either that, or I'm forever anticipating the next bad thing, which is a pretty unfortunate way to live. And then that ends up becoming our reality. "Your focus determines your reality".

I'm not clear of pain in the "love" area, by the way. None of this is meant as a lecture from a sound and contented mind. I've not long emerged from the thick of a fairly extensive argument/rift with a femme fatale that took place in November and December and was semi-concluded last month. She no longer wants to be friends, as it were, even though she said she'd like to be (she thinks it is probably "unfeasible" that we should remain friends after the clash between us). Well, that was her last communication, and I've sort of sat on my hands about it since then. In Cryo style, I even drafted up a couple of pages of notes: starting points for a voluminous e-mail I might still send. Somehow, though, it still doesn't feel quite right to start it. I'm often in two minds about something.

To be honest, I'm probably more like Hamlet than Anakin, but even if he's not one to philosophize, there's a bit of the former in Anakin, isn't there?

A very complex character, for sure.

Again, I hope things work out for you, and you find a more agreeable path through life.

That's our first and greatest challenge. Always.

Peace.

 

Anakin is the Boss.

 

Well, I'm glad that these conversations make you feel better. But I know that where there are feelings, it doesn't exist neutral POV. Maybe is better if you could see the world through the eyes of the other person. I know that is not always possible, but if it is, it helps a lot. Maybe your situation is also some big misunderstanding as the ending scenes of ROTS, I don't know, only you know that. But in ROTS it is a big misunderstanding. Padme doesn't go there to betray Anakin. She is trying to save him. She didn't know about Obi Wan and if Anakin would waited a minute or if Obi Wan could just said: she didn't know about me, let her go.. but... Anyway, the first time I saw this scene I was very angry to Obi Wan because he just didn't care what could happen to Padme and he just care about his precious task to stop the Sith (and some people even try to think that it could something between Padme and Obi Wan, which is ridiculous).But who knows, maybe he hadn't a clear plan, he just wanted to stop Anakin but the tension and the misunderstanding caused this ultimate tragedy...

Generally, I really dislike one specific quality of the Jedi: they become merciless and indifferent when it comes to achieve some goal. I prefer the emotional and flawed Anakin instead of the perfect Jedi Obi Wan. And Padme prefer that, also. She loved him to her last breath, her last words were for him, when she woke up in Mustafar her first words were for him, she have already forgiven all that happened... And Anakin also didn't really believe that she betrayed him but was blinded by the Dark Side. Many people do that in their lives and feel sorry after that...
P.S.
If only Anakin could awake close to somebody who is not the Emperor. Because I think that the first words in the suit were still Anakin's words, is Padme alright? No matter that generally people with such injuries think for themselves and he cares only for Padme... Yes, this is unique, tragic love. It makes me cringe that so many people underestimate it and compare it to the ordinary light-hearted flirting game between Han and Lea...is not that. Is deep and tragic as in some medieval novel.

 

Cryogenic

Wow, haha thanks for your response. You really hit the nail on the head with "I can be peculiarly obsessive and hung up on things".

I am like that too, I always end up focusing on the negative and keep getting reminded by people how often and how much I do that. I always thought I was just more of a realist, but I guess I do tend to let my focus on the negative determine my reality a lot.

Funnily, I've actually been repeating that line to myself in tough times, "Your focus determines your reality", but have found it hard to change my focus.

Fortunately though, today I managed to do that just long enough to ward off any bad confrontations and my friends noticed something was wrong so at tea time they themselves asked me and I talked it out calmly and managed to get things off my chest. Now thankfully the air is clear, problems have been solved for the most part and I just need to accept some things and move forward. But I am at relative peace now, something that I am really glad I managed to attain through patience and control.

Thanks for your good wishes, they seem to have worked!

I'm sorry to hear about your problems and about your letter I have one thing to say, it's something I live my life by: It's always better to communicate what you truly feel than to keep things bottled up inside. Talking through things is the only way for both parties to move forward.

I also wish you the best in life and hope your problems are taken care of by the will of the Force, as we all learn something from Anakin's mistakes that might help in our lives.

Peace!

OMFG, thank you for that video! It was absolutely haunting and perfect!

Yes, it was a misunderstanding on my part and I assumed a lot of things which weren't really true, but felt like they could be the only explanation.

And yes, when I said neutral POV I also meant the other person's POV since I was seeing things in a way I hadn't seen before, from their side.

And yes, I waited and it all solved itself, so I'm glad about that.

When it comes to the Jedi philosophy though, I tend to agree with their logical and non emotional method since it helps us to accept things and think of things in a much more peaceful manner than letting our emotions run amok.

I digress, but maybe someone can point me to a thread which discusses PT Jedi or overall Star Wars Jedi philosophy? Thanks!

 

It could be a great thread. You could start it if you want. I personally dislike that thing in their Code, I prefer the empathy and it includes feelings, not logic. The clod rational sense is something that I couldn't accept it frightens me, because exactly such cool rational people invented and tested the nuclear weapons and it is showed metaphorically in ANH, Tarkin destroys Alderaan, not Vader. I noticed that even in his dark moments Anakin still has some of his older beliefs and manners: in the mentioned scene Tarkin and not he is blackmailing and verbally torturing Lea, Vader just hold her. I think he despise being rude with women and this is a rest form his pad, from the chivalry times of the Republic.

 

Haha, I just might tomorrow.

 

And one thing I really like in Anakin but I think that many people connect this to his 'whiny' side: he can hesitate and not be sure about many things. That makes him even more human; and also we know that only a Sith deals in absolutes. When he becomes one, he doesn't convert in cool badass, he just looses his humanity.

 

I think both Luke and Anakin have their whiny moments but both are badass, and I think, despite the criticism, the actor portrayed Anakin very well as a combination of the Darth Vader we know and love to hate, and Luke. Often, accent aside, Anakin sounds like he's trying to sound like Darth Vader with the pacing and intonation of his voice, and the Luke mannerisms and whining come through perfectly when he's portraying Anakin as a stupid teenager or angry young adult.

 

So I found these 2 music videos, the first one is a beautifully edited ode to Anakin's character and journey and the second is a more fun and energetic video. The lyrics in the videos are eerily perfect and describe him well. Enjoy!

 

Is it just me or does anyone find Anakin quite a badass in ROTS? I always wonder if he never turned to the dark side he could have became one powerful Jedi. We certainly see glimpses of that in ROTS. Anywho I'm curious what is your guys favorite moment of Anakin in the PT?

 

I have already discussed the Anakin personality here http://boards.theforce.net/threads/...-most-complex-character-in-the-saga.50038860/, and in terms of badass-ness also. And if I have to described with few words: dynamic, interesting and complex characer, that is Anakin for me.

 

Agreed, Anakin is unquestionably a badass Jedi in Revenge of the Sith.

Proof:



As for my favourite moment, I suppose it would either be when he's showing off his piloting skills or wrecking havoc with his lightsaber. So pretty much every scene he's in.

-Darth Plagueis

 

Anakin rocks and rolls. He is Amazing!

 

You should definitely read the thread Tonyg posted. We really get into why Anakin is the best.

 

I have a couple favorite moments....



A moment to himself, tears in his eye, reflection on what he has done, what he must do. He is Darth Vader, but still Anakin Skywalker at this point..



Anakin's face is half and half. Half in the light, half in the dark. He is still Anakin Skywalker, but, is also Darth Vader.

To me it's not a coincidence that the part of Anakin's face that is not in the shadows is actually the furthest away from Obi Wan, symbolizing that the good part, the part that was Anakin Skywalker is moving further away from where it should be, with Obi Wan...

 

Just checked out your thread very interesting indeed . Anakin surely is a very unique character

 

My favorite moment?

The search for his mother in AOTC.

 

Anakin has a lot of complexity. Lucas stating he is the main character of the saga represents a bit of an underrated concept Imo, there is a pretty deep six-movie arc as he slides to the dark and returns.

Discussed here if anyone is interested...

http://boards.theforce.net/threads/an-analysis-of-anakins-turn.50027331/

 

Anakin Skywalker was an incredible duelist...


an incredibly powerful force user...


but also a very frightening and dangerous presence when angry...

 

If you ask me, Anakin is overestimated. The fact that he was the chosen one was the reason that he picked up skills faster and was why he was so powerful in the force. But there were some Jedi he definitely couldn't defeat. Mace, Yoda, Obi Wan and some other off screen characters. Anakin never really beat Dooku legitimately. Dooku was not only holding back, trying to turn Anakin to the dark side, but Anakin actually tapped into the dark side, making him stronger during the fight.

 

I agree Yoda would be too strong for Anakin at ROTS strength. But I think Vader could take Obi-Wan if he was thinking clearly and didn't impatiently try to end the fight by jumping over Obi-Wan on the lavabank.

Mace I'm not sure, it would be a close fight. I'm of the opinion that Palpatine could have defeated Mace in a straight fight if he didn't need Mace to lose his cool in order to turn Anakin, so it is hard to say.

Anakin beat Dooku fair and square Imo. Dooku is holding back at first, much like Vader while fighting Luke in ROTJ (role-reversal!). But when the younger duelists get angry (Anakin/Luke), I think both Dooku and Vader are overwhelmed.
Yeah, Anakin tapped the dark side to do it, but I think the speed that Dooku was taken out once Anakin was focused shows Anakin had truly surpassed him.

 

I believe Lucas stated that Mace did beat Sidious fair and square. And Vader vs Mace would be a good duel, but Mace would definitely win. His form, Vapaad, uses the enemy's aggression as energy (or something like that lmao). And Kenobi's form is what helped him fight against Vader, for it was a defensive form, and it was very powerful. I also believe that Anakin, not only tapped into, but was completely using the dark side during the fight on Mustafar, making him stronger. Even if he was unstable, his hate and anger made him more powerful. However, Obi Wan is literally my favorite character, so everything I say about him is like 15% - 20% bias. LOL

 

Alright I'm curious who do you guys think would win in a lightsaber between in his prime Anakin vs Luke also in his prime?