Characterisations: Anakin Skywalker

Topics for discussion include: the best portrayal of the character by which author; how you think the character has been changed (for good or bad); has the character served his/her purpose for which they were originally created: what has the character contributed to the EU; maybe include your favorite moment or quote from a character etc.

As usual, no gushing or bashing will be tolerated. Please discuss purposefully and thoughtfully.

This week Anakin Skywalker. The chosen one and nexus of the Star Wars Saga, Anakin has had, at best, a haphazard journey throughout the EU. Seems that most authors have gone out of their way to show that Anakin was destined to fall and become a Sith Lord, sometimes to the detriment to the story

*Note that this is for pre ROTS/suit discussion. A seperate thread will be done for Darth Vader at a later date*

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So many Aussie iconised posters. It's not . . . right.

 

Anakin Skywalker is best characterized by those who realize he never really wanted the hard parts of being a Jedi, only the perks, and that when it comes down to it, he's a selfish brat who damns the entire galaxy for the vague, nebulous possibility of saving one person.

 

I will gush a bit over Stover's Anakin in ROTS. The style it was written, obviously by design, the reader was encouraged to create an Exile-like emotional bond with Anakin. Although it was a decent read, Rogue Planet I felt advanced him intot he darkside to quickly. That act was too far along I felt.

As its been pointed out, the other problem I have with Anakin, mush like with Obiwan is that they were tossed into novels unnecessarily.

 

One book that really impressed me regarding Anakin was Outbound Flight. Not because of anything particularly complex about it; indeed, just the opposite. Anakin was a 14 year old boy, and that's exactly what Zahn wrote him as. Not obvious future Sith Lord, not a barely contained ball of rage and darkness, just a normal independent and rather reckless teenager. But he didn't miss that it was Anakin either; the moments when he listens to C'baoth with a bit too much interest and agreement nicely foreshadow without clubbing you over the head with it.

Luceno got the balance between these aspects pretty well in Labyrinth of Evil. A different Anakin; he's only months to weeks away from being Vader, so the darkness slips through more. But we still see cocky, good-natured Anakin from the beginning of ROTS most of the time, as it should be.

Ostrander is iffy. His Anakin tends to come off a bit much the tortured soul, and Anakin going all crazy-like in Republic 59 is a little too much.

Stover's kind of difficult to judge, because the Anakin of the ROTS novelization is part Lucas as well. However, I thought he did a great job highlighting just what Anakin's problem is. It's not that he's stupid, it's not that he's weak-willed, it's not that he's just deep down evil. It's that he lets things override his good sense too often. He sees a crazy opportunity in a battle, he takes it without thinking. And when he's backed into a corner and needs to do something now (like with Mace and Palpatine), he lets his emotions and impulses take over everything else. And Stover's portrayal got this; Anakin does what he does because he's desperate. Of course, like I said, this is partially Lucas as well. But it was the sheer desperation Anakin was feeling that I came away from the novel with the most, so regardless of where it originated, Stover did a great job expressing it.

There's a moment in the beginning of ROTS when Anakin wants to go back to save the lives of the clone pilots. And as much as people want to call Anakin an awful selfish person who only cares about his own feelings blah blah blah, this scene is a clear example of that not being the case. Anakin has nothing to gain by this; he's only doing it for those men. Now, it isn't the best idea (like I said, emotions overriding sense), and Obi-Wan calls him on it, but it is a great little moment of the good man Obi-Wan would later speak of, and an example of Anakin being a true selfless Jedi. The only EU situation I can recall like this is Republic 67. A Jedi Anakin has no attachment to is risking her life, and Anakin wants to risk his own life to save her not out of personal attachment, but just because he feels it's not right for her to die. Actually, that's not quite true that's the only one. Traviss fleshes this out very well in speaking of Vader's care for his men in A Two-Edged Sword, but that's Vader. Either way, it's something that many authors seem to miss for the more obvious "evil crazy reckless dark-sider".

The problem I think is that with all the different properties authors were unsure just how far advanced they should make Anakin. Go too slow and ROTS could seem out of place. Go too fast and he's a Sith Lord from the moment TPM ends. And writing between the movies creates an extra problem as well, in that they may not know how far along he'll be in the next movie. Most authors seem to have gone with erring on the side of too much darkness, because that's what people are ultimately expecting with Anakin's character. We know the PT is about his fall, but authors sometimes seem to forget that it's about his rise as well.

 

This is the characterization piece of authors and readers who just don't get him. I haven't seen many authors get him right. The best so far has to be Stover in ROTS, followed closely by Luceno in Labyrinth and Bear in Rogue Planet. Jude Watson failed miserably as she seemed to take the easy way out as a lot of authors do (see quote above) and didn't know the character. She wrote him as a young Darth Vader, when Lucas has said time and time again that he was good up until the end pretty much and his turning was catalyclismic for the galaxy. He pretty much was the force. I like Zahn's protrayal of him in Outbound Flight also, for the aforementioned reason. He didn't give in to his baser instincts and write him for the sake of angst as a young Darth Vader.

I look at it this way: I'm not a Thrawn fan (in the least) therefore I couldn't tell you who writes him best, but his fans could. If you're not an Anakin Skywalker fan, you really don't know who gets him. It's relative at best, but Lucas is a good guide and he's Lucas' tragic hero. When you get that about him (and Vader), you understand the character more. I love authors that don't take the easy way out and find that not many post-ROTJ authors can get him or Vader right. Way too deep and gray for the pretty shallow good/bad, black/white storylines of that era.

Besides, I'm enjoying the fact that Jacen is already worse than Grandpa and in nowhere near the same amount of time, with no evil sith lord whispering in his ear. Now here's a guy born to be a Sith Lord.

 

The Characterisation of Anakin in many books as this little boy/Sith Lord is what drove me from reading much of the prequal material, especially anything with him in it. But I agree that there ae some good stories of Anakin, especially Labyrinth of Evil. It captures the Anakin and Obi-Wan relationship at the start of ROTS perfectly

 

I agree that Stover got Anakin the best amongst novelists but I think Ostrander actually writes the best Anakin and the comics are where he works best.

Anakin is VENGEFUL as his main problem. Anakin isn't all round evil, he's just filled with a lot of WRATH for people in the world. He's also controlling and arrogant. These are genuine parts of his personality even then. However, the point is that they're overshadowed by his better nature and desire to do what's right.

 

Anakin isn't really evil, he just makes bad choices. He takes shortcuts, something that Obi-Wan was at him again and again and again but talking to Anakin is like talking to a statue, he NEVER really listens to anyone.
He thinks that by doing something bad (i.e. becoming a Sith Lord, killing a lot of Jedi) that something good can come out of it in the end.
What's that saying: the road to hell is paved with good intentions, Anakin personifies that in his choosing of Padme over the Jedi.

But really, it is this attachment that he had for the people that he cared about, his above a;l desire to save people no matter what is what brought him back. That's what I've always thought when watching the end of ROTJ and James Kahn, perhaps the first author outside George to write Anakin Skywalker shows this in a way that I think hasn't been paralleled despite the fact there are now inconsitencies with it.

As for other authors doing him, Anakin as a character is perhaps one of the easiest to get right IMHO provided you know where to draw the line in context for his turn to the dark side.
Stover is one of the best, as already has been said but we must also note Luceno and perhaps Jude Watson in the Jedi Quest series. Some of the novels with him in them, like The School of Fear and The Changing of the Guard as well as the last of the series The Final Showdown (which is set on Korriban, go figure) really show the conflict within him as he gets older and the struggle poor Obi-Wan has to keep it under control.

 

Considering the fact that many people think she didn't do justice to her own Original Characters, it would be very hard to credit Watson with any level of intelligent characterization. And 'poor' Obi-Wan who struggled so hard with Anakin, was an even bigger brat in TPM as a 25-year-old-almost-Knight than 19-year-old Anakin was in AotC.



One thing I've noticed is that when a writer fails to get Anakin's character, the rest of the characterizations fall apart like a pack of cards.

Lord_Hydronium and rhonderoo said it best: Anakin is Lucas' tragic hero, the whole story of GFFA revolves with him in the centre. The PT is about his fall and rise. Any writer (fan fiction or pro fiction) that fails to understand that, really shouldn't bother with the GFFA.

 

Is Jude Watson the writer who had her OC padawan learner one-upping Anakin at every opportunity?

 

The one and only.

 

Anakin has to be one of the most unfortunate characters when written in the EU.

Quite frankly I've been desperately disappointed by many of the authors failing to get the core traits of his character. Granted I haven't been able to read all the works with him in (eg the comics, the ROTS novel or Zahn's novel).

But what I have read has made my favourite character pretty much look like Vader in a Jedi Padawan's uniform.

Jude Watson has to receive the scathest attack because frankly she doesn't like Anakin and favours Obi-Wan (not to mention her OC Ferus Olin) over him.
James Luceno really nailed the Anakin that alot of us AS fans know and cared about.

The only author I wish could write an Anakin novel (preferably in between TPM & AOTC) would be Karen Traviss. She really nailed him as Vader and I'd love to see her portrayal of Anakin himself.

On an additional note despite what some have said about The Approaching Storm, I think you do get, from Alan Dean Foster, to see some of Anakin's core traits and character in there despite the contrived nature of the story (the telling off of the child shouting at his mother by Anakin highlights this).

 

To be fair, Draco Malfoy like characters are supposed to be that way.

We're supposed to root for Anakin over Ferus.

 

Yeah, I think what people lose sight of is that Anakin isn't a very good Jedi, and I mean this in a "he doesn't play nice with others" way. Ferus, as a child, sort of embodies the rules, ethics, and ideals of the Jedi order, all things Anakin despises. Well, maybe not the ideals, but like Ferus, Anakin as a kid falls short of them from time to time. We're supposed to root for Anakin, because Ferus is insufferable, and his one-upping is supposed to piss us off. He's Anakin's foil.

If we're gonna make the Harry Potter comparison, he's Cedric Diggory to Anakin's Harry.

 

yes, he's the Golden Boy.

What Jude doesn't give us is that the Golden Boy is consistently outdone by the Rogue Maverick as in most fiction.

However, Anakin DOES *USUALLY* prove to be right.

 

I don't really see Ferus Olin as the Cedric Diggory of the Jedi. For one, Cedric is likeable in a way that Ferus never, ever is. Granted, I am an Anakin fan and will have troubles with anyone who works so hard to discredit Anakin (all in the name of the greater good of course), but Cedric does not walk around with that air of superiority that Ferus constantly carries with him, neither does he take it upon himself to keep an watchful eyes on those who don't fit with his idea of a good Jedi.

I have to agree with most others in here - Watson didn't write Anakin (or anything) very well. Admittedly, her stories were intended to be read by younger fans, but still... The relationship she describes between Anakin and Obi-Wan is just horrible. Yeah, it's good to see that what Anakin really wants is Obi-Wan's approval (because I think that is very, very important to him) but reading her books you just can't wait for them to get to Mustafar - it's no tragedy, like, it's just bound to happen. Ick.

Luceno on the other hand is one of my favourite SW authors since LoE. That book gave us Anakin with both his bad and his good qualities, and the relationship between Obi-Wan and Anakin was really well-written. Kudos!

Stover is, of course, a special case. Whether it was because of Lucas' help, or just because he's an amazing author, he created the portrait of Anakin. Considering that he claims to be a huge Obi-Wan fan, I think that was quite remarkable - it's far too easy to just write Anakin as some kind of evil brat, if you happen to favour Obi-Wan (and vice versa - at least in fan fiction).

One thing that disturbs me about the characterisation of Anakin is the fact that the things he does always are put into a bigger perspective. Now this is a weird complaint to make...but hear me out. If he screws up, it's never just a mistake, it's a sign of his inner demons, and the dark future. It just doesn't make sense - he's the Chosen One, true, but he's also a little (or not so little) boy - with all the normal flaws of a little boy. I haven't read Outbound Flight Project yet, but if what someone said - that Anakin is largely described as a normal teenager in that one - is true, I'll be rather pleased.

I liked the Clone Wars - except for the part where Anakin eats worms 'cause that just freaks me out. What the - ?

Reading Jedi Trial was an...experience... If we for one moment ignore the horrible writing, the really weird OC:s (and their names) and stuff like that, I have to admit that it was refreshing to see Anakin as the hero, regarded by others as a hero. We know he was supposed to The Jedi during the Clone Wars, but far too often the books and comics focus more on his dark side - I would request more of a balance. Watching a good person go bad is interesting (and sad) - watching a bad person get worse isn't really. I'm sure Lucas would agree with me on this one.

Right. I'm sure I've got more to say, but that will have to wait, because it's too hot to think properly.

 

And this is why I try to avoid must stuff with Anakin/Vader, because like rhonderoo and Thrawn, I find him completely uninteresting when he's written as The Tragic Chosen One. Before the prequels, I preferred the idea that he was no better than any other Jedi, except that he was the one who fell. After the prequels, I preferred the idea that he's a selfish brat ("to hell with the Jedi, I want Padme!").

 

Problem is your "preferred" view is skewed and wrong. He's hardly a selfish brat.

 

That was the one I saw in theaters (I haven't read any Clone Wars EU, as it all bores me).

 

So you're basically too lazy to read good versions of a character? I can't even get into how dumb that is.

"I saw a bad Macbeth play, therefore, all Macbeth plays are bad!"

 

It doesn't depend on the actor, it depends on the writer. It doesn't matter who plays MacBeth, the motivation for killing Duncan remains the same.

 

But by your own admission you haven't read the Clone Wars stories which Anakin features heavily in. Not to mention in Return of the Sith he's shown to be a brave, capible Jedi for the majority of the story.

It's one thing not liking the character, its another thing saying the character sucks if you haven't actually *read* the stories the character features in.

 

Uh, from your POV. Not mine.

The PT, by and large, bored me (exception: Palpatine in ROTS), so I saw no reason to read their EU.

 

Again, you're just making excuses for not reading about the character, and then complaining that the character is lame. Try reading the stories that are actually out before making a judgement.