Anakin Skywalker's True Desire: Attachment (love?) or Power?

Now, after watching AOTC again last night, I really studied Anakin's character and came to the conclusion that his tragic fall either comes from two things as they are displayed in the films:

Attachment to the people he loves: Love/attachment.

Or

A true lust for power: which is WHY he wants to keep the people he loves around.

Now, where is this desire coming from? This desire to keep the people he loves. Does it come from loving somebody so deeply that he is strongly attached to them that he cannot live without them?

Or, is it just a blatant lust for and hunger for power?

Throughout all of AOTC, we always see Anakin trying his best to show off and prove himself. He thinks he is beyond Obi Wan, and even Mace and Yoda in his mind. He has such an unsatisfied need or desire to be number one. Now is this brought on by insecurity, or greed? Does he want to be great so he can justify leaving his mother, because it was so painful for him? Or is he just greedy and power-hungry?


When his mother dies, he claims she died because HE wasn't strong enough to save her. Now this could come from either one of the same things: True deep love and/or attachment for his mother (because he does also say he misses her so much) or a lust for control and in essence power to maintain that control over all life out of a desire for dominance (I will be the most powerful Jedi ever!) either based on plain greed or good old insecurity.

Which is it or are they connected in some way? Inter-wined.

What do you guys think?

 

Anakin Skywalker was greedy and selfish in AotC, but his true love was Padme. He thought about the same girl everyday. I can't even imagine that type of love. Remember, Anakin believes he is more powerful than Obiwan in AotC, because he hasn't been tested, hell, he may even believe he could take Yoda. But when his Mother dies, and gets his ass handed to him by Count Dooku, he realizes he has been diluting himself. He wasn't good enough. And even though he doubles his powers, he still feels insufficient. He lets the fear eat away at him that he isn't good enough. He wants enough power to control and dictate everything. If his mother had not died and he didn't have visions of Padme's death, he would have been content to learn and grow as a Jedi. But instead his visions threw him into a position where he needed to be all powerful much more quickly. So, really, his love was so strong for Padme, his own fear ate away at him and through that felt a need to become more powerful. His first love was Padme. His favorite love was power as evidenced on mustafar.

 

It's his attachment to the people he loves. His lust for power comes only after he falls to the Dark Side and after he loses everyone he loves. The end of ROTJ is a telling point. Vader overthrowes the Emperor not because he wanted power (which he could have easily gotten), but because he loved his son (and wanted to save his life). The Emperor manipulates Anakin's problems into thinking that Padme will die and the only way to save her is to join him. But in order to join him Anakin must first kill all these people who are in his way (and therefore gain power). He thinks he's using Palpatine, but Palps is in complete control of the situation.

When he's showing off to Obi-Wan and what not in AOTC, it's more like growing pains. He, by natural gift, has more power than everyone, but he's just a teenager trying to piss off the man. He doesn't want power, he wants freedom. Freedom from the Jedi's codes. Freedom from death and sorrow for others who've died. Freedom to use his power in anyway he sees fit. But his love for Padme overides all of this.

 

Ah, the chicken or the egg debate.
For me, the desire for control - over others, the Force, death - overshadow the problems Anakin had with attachment. Lots of people are separated from loved ones, at even younger ages than Anakin left his mother. And it didn't tip over into rage until her death. Then he seems to decide that the only way to deal with losses like the death of Shmi is by having the power to prevent them from happening.
Same with Padme. Anakin had dealt with juggling his duties as a Jedi and as a husband for several years. Only when he thought he might lose both - Padme through death, the title of Master because of the Council - that Anakin sought the power to keep both with any means he could find.

 

It's both. For a Jedi who falls to the dark side, it is all born from the same source. Fear. Fear of loss for those that you care for and feel powerless to keep them from harm. Anakin's fears are what drive him to become all powerful, fueled by Palpatine's machinations and ego massaging. And these fears must have a focus of some sort. A catalyst. That catalyst is when one becomes attached to a person to the point where they fear for the ones they care for. In fact, they are afraid to life live without those that they care for. And so they will do whatever it takes to become powerful enough to keep the bad things away. Attachment and power are intertwined. But what happens to Anakin is that the lust for power grows stronger, dwarfing his attachment to Padme. This is why he was capable of inflicting harm upon her, when he would normally not do this.

 

It's actually a mixture of both, IMO. It starts with him loving Padme and his mother, and wanting the power to protect them forever. I mean, if you foresaw your lover or parents dieing and you could save them you'd try your best. However in a way, the jedi stand in Anakins way to save his mother because of the demands of training and missions; he's been having these dreams for awhile so were led to believe at the beginning of AOTC, but when he finally gets the opportunity to go save her its too late.

Notice how its only after his mother dies, and he's in remorse that he says ''One day I will be the most powerful jedi.''

He wants the power to make his own decisions. To do what he wants, and that all stems from being a slave and from his mother dieing. Then in ROTS, he foresees Padme dieing and consults master yoda on it. He tells him the obvious jedi speech about letting the fear of a loved one dieing subside because it is natural to die. Instead of listening to Yoda which possibly would've avoided Padmes death and the fall of the Jedi order, Anakin decides to use his power and status as a Jedi knight to make his own decision. Now he's promised the power of the force to save Padme, and his power to make his own decisions.

I hope that wasn't too contradictory or confusing.

 

The basis of Anakin's fall was his insatiable quest for power. It was a quest focused on power but fueled by fear.

 

Fear which lead to Anger which lead to Hate which lead to Sufferring.

 

And once gaining the power it was greed to learn more and become more powerful. Greed is the shroud of the darkside.

 

I see Anakin's desire for power as a reason to keep around those he love. He believed that with real power, he will be able to accomplish this. Once this idea leads him to his inner darkness, the desire for power grew within him.

We more or less saw the same thing with the Jedi Order. Look at the extent that Yoda, Mace, Obi-Wan and Ki-Adi Mundi were willing to go in order to destroy the Sith and maintain their status quo within the Republic.

 

In many of Lucas' interviews, he always maintains that Anakin's major flaw was that of control, an inability to "let go," or in Buddhist terminology "attachment." Upon thinking more upon the whole saga, it seems that, yes, he does have that problem, but his real flaw is the desire for power, power to control the world and others, control of the world and others translates to freedom. Freedom from . . . I believe that power and control are a means to an end, freedom. Here is my argument . . . From his earliest years, Anakin was a slave. His mother was a slave. He created C-3PO, a "slave" to help his mother. Later, when he was freed, he came under the tutelage of Qui-gon. But that was short-lived. He was then apprenticed to Obi-Wan and to the Jedi Order. Although dedication to the Jedi Order is not slavery, it is another form of servitude. Many times throughout the PT, Anakin complained about being held back, about having to follow the Jedi code, etc. When he defended Palps and aided in the death of Mace, he became apprentice to Sids. Thus far, he has exchanged one master for another. After his immolation, he became encased in his "iron lung." He became diminished by his substitute mechanical body, essentially enslaved by the technology that preserved and maintained his life. In addition he also became enslaved by the power of the Dark Side. I would argue that Vader, from childhood, always perceived himself as such. Whether a slave, servant, reluctant disciple or even "the Chosen One," Anakin's main flaw was in the desire for freedom. I am sure this is probably saying the same thing as Lucas did with the issue of control, but when looking at Anakin's life, he has always been in servitude. Based upon his lifetime experience of servitude, I would argue that his true desire was freedom. But then again, his greatest fear was probably just that. He knew he was powerful with the force, but then what? Through the Force, he could achieve the freedom he never knew, but that was arguably his greatest fear, freedom. Which put Anakin in a cycle that never really can be resolved. This was his psychological prison. He desired power and control but was fearful of the freedom that would entail.

 

Right.
And it validates what Palpatine said to Anakin at the Opera House, "All those who gain power are afraid to lose it, even the Jedi."


Desire?
Anakin's was love.... Vader's was power.

 

His true desire was love which led to power to save those he loved.

So both.

 

It was the love of power.

Or possibly the power of love (cue Frankie).

 

Don't need no credit card to ride this train!

Make one man weak, another man sing!

 

"If Huey only knew the power of the darkside... he wouldn't rock w/ the mullet."

 

We need a thread on potential use of Frankie songs in future rereleases of the SW saga.

Seriously, though, I'm not sure which was the ultimate source of his desire. As a young boy, he said he wanted to come back and free his mother, so he's always been conscious of protecting those he loved. On the other hand, he always seemed quite preoccupied with his power and having it acknowledged.

Probably fear was as much at the root of it all as anything else.

 

I absolutely agree with those who are saying "fear", fear of loss. That's the root of it, his tragic flaw. And great thing is that Yoda called it from the get go. That's a moment mostly for the audience, "this will bring about his downfall." You can trace everything back to that, both his desire for love and attachment, as well as power. But it wasn't so until after he left Tatooine, it's a grand irony. Power is kind of a means to an end. It helps prove he's a good Jedi, worthy of being saved after the Council initially rejected him (has to give anyone a bit of a complex). It's also the tool he tries to use to save Padme. After a while he wants to leave the Order and stay with her, give up his Jedi status, so I don't think he ever wanted power for the mere sake of it (until later in ROTS that is). He doesn't because of loyalty and a desire to not leave the Jedi in a time of crisis. He also has too much love for Obi-Wan personally to give him the shaft. But part of the reason he was able to go crazy on Padme and Obi-Wan was because Sidious manipulated his love for them. Though Sidious cleverly tries to also make it a power issue for Anakin, so when the time comes and he has nothing left, he can grasp onto the power aspect. It helps him become Sith.

 

Anakin's TRUE desire is control...not in the sense that he wants power, but he wants to control the fate of the Universe.

It's classic control issues...a psyhologist would have heaps of fun with him.

 

As I see it Anakin was conflicted by his love and his desire to control.

I don't think he wanted power, in the sense of sitting on a throne and ruling the Galaxy, like Palpatine did. I just think he didn't want to any outside power to control his or Padme's life. And that desire drove him insane.

 

And I think those control issues also come from a place of fear. There has to be some kind of underlying emotion. Anakin fears loss, so his desire to control things comes from that. He will hold on to Padme as tightly as possible, he will make the Jedi think he's as great as he thinks he is. He knows what it's like to forcibly have nothing, and it can all be traced back to the trama of losing his mother. He let her go, and he won't do it again.

 

i thought he wanted to be free from conflict in every respect.

 

To have control, one must have a means to create a controlled enviroment. A means of control is power. Gotta have power to control. It works out like this.

Fear+control+greed+anger+hate=suffering.

Anakin didn't want to rule at first. As he said, he believed that it should be someone who is wise and capable. Not himself. But once he had turned to the dark side, all he cared about was being in charge himself.

Anakin: "Don't you see, we don't have to run away anymore. I have brought peace to the Republic. I am more powerful than the Chancellor. I can overthrow him, and together you and I can rule the galaxy. Make things the way we want them to be."

To stop people from dying is the ultimate form of control, as you are trying to control nature. To enable that control, he must have power. But it all comes back to fear.

 

Yoda tried to tell Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon, but no, they wouldn't listen.

 

Other than Obi Wan I never felt like the other Jedi really made a valid effort to help Anakin..especially Mace

its funny to me though that with over 10 years of training..this issue couldnt get resolved..we see Anakin skills evolve but not his mind..he still has the mind of a child and it doesnt change till he leaves the order.but like Obi Wan said...Anakin wasnt ready for that mission in AOTC and it costed the order