Does anyone else keep thinking of Anakin and Vader as two separate people?

I suspect that, gee whiz, ROTS might change this view in some way(huh huh), but I keep thinking of Anakin Skywalker as one individual, and as Darth Vader as another, even though I know FULL WELL that they're the one and the same. Somehow, the Ep.II Anakin, evil as he may act when he's mad, still doesn't seem like the evil deep-voiced asthmatic caped freak we all know and love, and not even Ep.III Anakin does as far as I could see from the trailers. Sure, when he glares @ the camera with yellow eyes you can definitely see the Sith in him. But Vader has such a presence about him. Does Anakin? Certainly not in the way Vader does.

Maybe the fact that Vader has such a prominent place in popular culture is part of this.

Anyone else ever think this way?

 

I think of them as one person who has transformed so fully as to be a different person entirely.

I can see what you mean about Vader being a true pop culture icon, while the young Anakin is a far less striking character, especially visually.

 

Obi-Wan: Your father was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened the good man who was your father was destroyed.


Does anyone else keep thinking of Anakin and Vader as two separate people?


Yes.

 

we all have a vader in side us. just think if you let him out. then you have to clean up the mess you made. and it wouldnt even seem as if that was you. that is how i think of it.

 

Yes, actually I think Anakin is a SCHIZO if I can say it in such a manner.

-S-

 

I don't think of Vader as schizo or anything like that. Nor do I consider him and Anakin as two different people.

Even if Anakin wasn't "full-blown evil" in "TPM/AOTC", Vader had his ambiguous side, as well. Despite their "differences", the two sides had their similarities (speech patterns, stance, etc.) that led me to believe without a doubt that Anakin and Vader are one and the same.

Anakin's darker side wasn't the only one shown in the Prequels, by the way. But a lot of people seem so blinded by the Skywalker/Vader myth that they seem blind to this fact.

 

I used to, but now it is getting harder. I watched ANH the other day and everytime I saw vader I didn't think about a badahem JEJ I was thinking about Anakin! yikes took me by surprise.

 

The PT gave everyone a dark side...or at least a shade of grey. It can be uncomfortable trilogy to watch in some ways because it takes some of our oldest, most untouchable classic heroes/villains and gives them a vulnerable, human side. I'm sure Anakin Skywalker would be an easier character to swallow and accept if he was either completely evil or comletely good, rather than the morally ambigious, deeply flawed, yet sensitive young man we're given in the prequels.

I can see where it's difficult to connect Anakin and Vader - or relate *anything* human to Vader, for that matter. In many ways, he's is the leftover, empty shadow of what was Anakin Skywalker, filled with hate and evil. ROTS will go a long way to connect the two characters, especially since the masking of Vader in episode III will powerfully mirror the revealing of Anakin in episode VI.

 

To be perfectly frank, I didn't really think of Darth Vader as the epitome of evil. Sure he choked the occasional "failure", and sliced off his son's hand, but other than that he just seems like a tormented man in a shell of evil forced onto him. I'm not completly sure that I won't consider Vader less dark than what Anakin becomes in ROTS, pre-vader of course.

 

Yes, I always have.

Anakin Skywalker was this cool kid, this great Jedi warrior, terrific husband, and very, very good leader.

Vader is a monstrous, angry, evil minded, power hungry, intimadating villian.

 

It's interesting. I keep thinking to myself: "Oh yeah, Anakin IS Vader."

 

goincommando,
you are correct. i teach the hero's journey in one of the classes i have. Vader would be considered an EVIL FIGURE WITH A GOOD HEART. now i am talking archeypes here. definition: villian who has a change of heart and is redeemed.
the emperor is actually the DEVIL FIGURE. definition: the symbol of evil; offers hero deepest desire for his soul.

this sounds awfully familiar doesnt it. this is stuff from carl jung.

 

Vader would be considered an EVIL FIGURE WITH A GOOD HEART.

That's almost like an oxymoron...

 

Pre PT I always had a mental picture of who Anakin Skywalker was before the suit.

I saw Anakin/Vader as the same person who had mentally and emotionally allowed the Sith in him to take over.

After the 'I am your Father' reveal in ESB I looked back on the comments in ANH by Obi-Wan about Anakin as well as Vaders' comments on his real name/history in ROTJ and thought it was interesting how everyone viewed Anakin as dead and buried.

His redemption of course proved that there was a good man who had been a Jedi protector of the people.

Luke saw that Anakin and Vader were one and the same,he treated Vader like he would Anakin(once he knew and accepted the truth).

It has appeared to me that Vader had all the usual traits/emotions of a Sith whilst also having a great deal of internal conflict(Luke says as much in ROTJ though Vader denies it) which is IMO the goodness part that Luke could sense did still exist.

Everyone else connected to Vader - Palps,Obi-Wan and Yoda saw Anakin as dead.

 

Most people on the boards seem to think of anakin/vader as two separate personalities/persons. I think perhaps peter jackson's distortion of the Gollum/Smeagol character into duelistic schizophrenic may make this all the easier.
For me, there is no vader anymore. I always saw vader as a black mask and true evil that luke exploited. If anything, ROTS shows that even when he is turning to his most evil, he has the conflict that a good person does. Padme tells him, "You're a good person, don't do this." Anakin never truly turned. Look at his eyes, yellow, brown, yellow, brown. He just never turns dark. Even when that mask goes down, he is not sith. He wants to be after what he's done, but inside he cannot. IT's almost pathetic. He acts like a child trying to convince himself of something he truly doesn't believe. "There is no conflict."
I just cannot see the cold, dark mask anymore. I see hayden crying after the separatist slaughter.

 

hey ya,

nope. Dont see him as two people but my way of thinking of him has very much changed. From being an evil being of great power who slowly we see his old self re-emerge I see Vader - I saimpering weak man, very much like many dictators, trying like a snivelling rat to please a master he "must obey".

Selfish and throwing all his toys out of the pram - a bully - a physically powerful character - yet no power to control a childish temper. Evil yes but emotionally retarded also....

 

Yes. Simply put, I find Darth Vader bad-ass and Anakin not so much. I just can't think of them as one person.

 

Anakin ceases to be Anakin once he becomes Vader.
In a psychological sense they are two different people.
I wonder if it is a form of schizophrenia?

 

actually after ROTS I see them more as two different people then ever before. I feel sympathy for vader now. but to me anakin skywalker is dead. and darth vader stands in his place. I do not see anakin in the suit. and its not because of any dislike or dissatisfaction with hayden. it is all the way I view the story. anakin died. he betrayed him self and his friends. he was murdered by darth vader.

once we get to ROTJ though my feeling for anakin are brought back. and by the end of the film he is anakin again. but I really must say for ANH and ESB they are two seperate people. and anakin is no where near to be seen. dead and buried.

 

So, I suppose that, after the Millennium Falcon blasts into hyperspace, at the end of TESB, all of you folks can see that the Anakin Skywalker within the "Vader Suit" is kind of snickering to himself, thinking "Blast it! That's Padme's little droid, isn't it? He's still got it!!! Well, I don't have to kill the Admiral today... No one can stand against the Might of R2-D2!" <inhale... exhale...>

lol

P.S. My conception of that scene is really not as silly as that, but that's the basic impression I always have had of it since I saw TPM: Vader knew R2 was aboard the Falcon.

 

Yeah, they seem like two indiviuals. O, and episode 1 and episode 2 Anakin seem like two different beings too. Anakin changes so much.
1-kind,selfless
2-jerk,annoying,obsessed with Padme
3-nice at first,then goes evil and does anything Palpatine says
4-evil
5-evil, tries to seduce Luke
6-evil at first, the turns and saves Luke

 

I think of them as two separate people. In ROTJ, Luke said, "Your thoughts betray you father. I feel the good in you. The conflict."

I think that once Anakin/Vader found out he had a son, Anakin's soul tried to get to the surface while it was Vader who wanted to convert Luke to the dark side.

 

No way. They're the same person.

I think so many people have problems with the PT Anakin because he is not as cool in his anger as Darth Vader was. The problem is, being on the dark side deep down isnt' that cool. When people are bad, it's more because of personality flaws like Anakin has in the PT. Bad people often have an annoying quality to them. And people overrate Darth Vader's badassness. He was a slave to the emperor in the OT who had lost a lot of power because of his mechanization. So in the end it's the downfall and redemption of a flawed character into something better, but it's that same person all along.

 

They way I see it, no Vader never died. There was always a little chip of Anakin left. Even before ROTJ.

 

I do. Anakin was by far my favorite character in the movies (Sorry Luke, you were too dull). I like Vader when he is still in human form. Hayden potrayed that part very good. Truly evil he was. But when he is in the suit, he is a whole new person. I hated him.