Saga How did you imagine Anakin to be like before the prequels?

I don't remember what I thought Anakin was like for the PT before the PT.
Probably a bit different from what Lucas did though.

 

This is a very good question. I had 20+ years to ponder this, but admittedly didn't much. Vader was so cool I kind of didn't want or need to. But I occasionally did. I imagined he must've been a charismatic natural leader, but I never I imagined he was the Michael Jordan of the Jedi. And from how Ben described him, he kinda sounded like an ahole. Funnily, I couldn't imagine why anybody would want to marry him and have kids with him.


I never would've imagined the immaculate conception, the prophecy, the unprecedented Force potential, the life of slavery (on Tatooine), being freed the same moment the Sith reveal themselves after 1000 years, Qui-Gon, the death of Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan taking him reluctantly and with the council uncertain of his future, Luke & Leia's mom being older, a Queen and a senator, the events of the Clone Wars era revolving around him, but I love all of it. I may not have liked the way the PT was directed in some parts, but I always loved the story. A true stroke of genius.

 

I pictured Anakin to be muscular, with a Caesar style haircut.

 

Sexy.





Wasn't wrong.

 

I dont know if its sarcastic, but for me thats certainly the truth. I always imagined him as much older, and looking like Shaw - someone who grew up as a farmer on Tatooine (due to his clothing as a force ghost, he was dressed like Obi Wan and Owen, which I assumed at the time were regular robes for farmers/residents of Tatooine), had a wife and somehow got pulled into the whole Jedi and Clone Wars thing

 

Funny, back then, I think because of all the English actors playing older roles in the movie, my imagination waffled between something like Patrick Macnee and ironically, Christopher Lee.

 

I certainly didn't picture him as some whiny little turd. I guess I always imagined him as someone who started out well, but who became increasingly bold, arrogant and reckless over the course of the Clone Wars. He would’ve been a charismatic war hero, someone who inspired loyalty in those who followed him. However, the war would harden him, make him ruthless and vicious. You would see how someone who initially sought to bring peace and justice to the galaxy eventually became paranoid, obsessed with crushing his enemies, and destroying anyone who got in his way. His idealism would end up leading to his thirst for power and control. Throughout, he would genuinely believe that he was “bringing order to the galaxy”. The first film would show him as a noble idealist, fueled by a desire to help and protect people. The second film would show him become a deadly and cunning warrior, but also show a few early warning signs. He would be a bit too vicious and perhaps even a bit sadistic in fighting the war. The third film would finally show him give into all of his worst tendencies, as he aids the Emperor during his power grab, becomes the Emperor’s right-hand man, wipes out the Jedi, alienates everyone who ever cared about him (Obi-Wan, his wife) and eventually becomes encased in the suit.

I guess I almost envisioned a Captain Kirk-like figure, except that whereas Kirk always knew when he’d gone too far, and always had people like Spock and McCoy to guide him, Anakin would be convinced that he was always right and that everything he was doing was for the greater good. I’d also show Obi-Wan either encouraging or glossing over some of Anakin’s worst tendencies, and ignoring some of the early warning signs that, while Anakin is still a fundamentally good and well-meaning person at this point, he has the potential to become very dangerous- hence, “I thought that I could instruct him just as well as Yoda. I was wrong.” This scene from STAR TREK: THE WRATH OF KHAN is actually an excellent springboard for how a Kirk-like Anakin could end up becoming Darth Vader:

 

I sort of pictured him something like Exar Kun is portrayed in Tales of the Jedi. In a way he nails it in ROTS though the actual turn scene was a little choppy.

 

I imagined him to be like Michael Corleone from The Godfather. An idealistic war hero who after coming home, gets involved in some shady business in order to protect his family. He's very reluctant at first, but over time, the power it gives him starts to go to his head until the darkness completely consumes him and alienates him from his friends and family.

 

I imagined him to be a bit more like Darth Vader.

That's not a snide remark, I just thought he'd be much the same character with a bit more humanity and humour - obviously less grim, but still with the same arrogance and single-mindedness from the very start. Trouble.

There's obviously elements of that in the PT Anakin - deliberately so, in order to set him up - but I wasn't expecting him to be a direct parallel of Luke, with such similarly humble origins and what that entailed. I really thought Anakin Skywalker came from a very elitist background (perhaps growing up on Alderaan or Coruscant), and that it may have played into his fall.
More like Count Dooku, who was a noble who became a Jedi - not a rescued slave.

And yeah, as some have already mentioned - older. Closer to a peer of Obi-Wan than a kid brother, even if he was his apprentice.
GL has admitted that he originally envisioned Anakin being a young adolescent (say, 12-15) when Obi-Wan (effectively Qui-Gon in the finished film) discovered him, but made him younger in order to emphasise the trauma of leaving his mother.
So there was probably only about 5-7 years in age difference between Obi-Wan and Anakin, if that, rather than a decade or more.

 

I’ve only just discovered this thread, but I’ll chime in because it’s something I’ve been thinking about lately. I always imagined Anakin to be a bit of a jock-type character. He wasn’t bad or evil, but he could be a bit overbearing and maybe even a bit of a bully sometimes. When it came down to it, though, he would always do the right thing and help people. I think Poe Dameron and Han Solo meshed together is what I always imagined, TBH. Judging from a few other responses here, I clearly wasn't the only one who thought this.

 

I imagined him 10 years older in Episode 1.

 

There was nothing to imagine....Everything was rendered useless, even the perspective of him before the PT.

 

Spitting image of KANE STARKILLER.

 

I always envisaged him as strong willed, impatient and stubborn (as Vader and Luke both were), but ultimately quite a noble character.

 

older than he was in Eps 2 and 3 when he turned

 

Another aspect of Anakin I was expecting, athough it doesn't exactly relate to the character's personality or so on - I thought we'd encounter him as a Jedi apprentice from the start, rather than bothering with the actual telling of his backstory (which would simply be revealed through exposition). Anakin's first appearance in AOTC in the elevator with Obi-Wan almost seemed like what the very first PT appearance of Anakin Skywalker could have been.

I always felt that the content of TPM and AOTC should have been Episode I (establish the characters, the love story between Anakin and Padme, set up the Clone Wars), then Episodes II and III should have dealt with the end of Clone Wars themselves (with perhaps a bit more of the conflict itself), their aftermath, then the actual fall of the Galactic Republic and the Jedi - with Anakin's rise and fall at the heart of it all.
TPM and AOTC really felt like one episode worth of content stretched into two - while ROTS felt rushed, trying to stuff the substance of two entire films into one.

TPM, for the most part, wasn't really necessary. It's almost a standalone SW film about a minor galactic incident - in which a handful of important elements are simply established (Anakin becomes a Jedi apprentice, Palpatine becomes Galactic Chancellor, Padme establishes herself as a credible public figure). Such elements didn't require an entire episode for their establishment - the relevant information would have required little more than a few lines of dialogue in an episode dealing with these characters set a few years later.

IMHO, it's actually a better film than AOTC, but as far as the overall PT trilogy is concerned, the storytelling process could perhaps have been better served by incorporating these elements into the framework of the rather dull episode that was Attack of the Clones - then taking the next two films to revel in the excitement of the legendary Clone Wars (if only their end), Palpatine's manipulation of the corrupt Republic, the decline of the Jedi Order, and the fall of the great hero Jedi Knight, Anakin Skywalker, along with a bit more about just how responsible the saintly Obi-Wan Kenobi was for everything that happened.

 

Slightly older, imagined him 13-15 instead of 10, more like early ROTJ Luke in personality more than anything else.

 

I loved the OT when i was a child (box set VCR special edition, my Pops), but i was still child when the PT came out, so i can only recall certain parts of what i thought at the time..

I imagined, like others, a lot from the few lines we got about Anakin in the OT. I thought he was going to be similar to Luke, but not as sheltered, and didnt have most of his formative years spent on a desert planet. i thought he would wield a green lightsabre, like we see Luke with throughout ROTJ (thinking colours meant proficiency). I thought he would be fairly reckless, but excels naturally at most things, which gets him through the reckless things he does. i didnt really think about where we'd see him (what age) just that he would be younger than Obi-Wan, like a teacher/student bond. I thought he would be a bit of a recluse, because seeing how Vader acted - only really speaking when spoken to, otherwise with purpose.
I was a bit conflicted in thinking whether or not he would outshine Obi-Wan, on multiple fronts - and revel in it (either friendly/competitive or spitefully/aggressively).
I thought the inevitable fall was going to be something BIG - something to do with The Clone Wars - with Obi-Wan heavily involved, same with Sidious.
Sidious i thought was going to have a more direct ' im the evil witch that you need to do something ' type of trope - which i suppose was used in the end, with him being in Anakins ear about Padme and his visions... but i thought it was going to be more outright to do with power/abilities, mutually exclusive (which, it turns out, was not mutually exclusive) from one another.

What we got was in most aspects FAR better than what i expected/thought. the scale of everything was immense, so when character moments were happening, by comparison, they seemed inconsequential - obviously not the case though, but maybe thats why some think dialogue was just not up to the standard everyone thought it could have been?
anyway, I loved seeing Anakin as a child, going into teenage/early adult and then being basically an adult and Jedi Knight. I do share some thoughts here from others regarding the Episode 1 and 2 should/could have been combined, with possibly even a flash forward? because as well, i thought ROTS had enough meat to go over two movies - or are we simply being biased in that we wanted to see more of Anakin as an adult Jedi? idk. but i loved everything about his fall, Sidious' involvement, Obi-Wan's mentorship (my favourite character) and even Yoda.
Sometimes i do think that he should have been shown to be more of a badass, since we are talking about the future-Vader here. thats one aspect i would probably highlight and say we needed more of, but complaint probably comes into the TPM/AOTC being one movie, with the end of AOTC and ROTS being split up and fleshed out further, to be 2 and 3, since more time would be spent on Anakin. HOWEVER i do understand why that isnt and wasnt the case, because there are so many details that i always forget were placed in the PT - that didnt receive the full credit they/it should have. and i still believe theres so many fans that just do not understand how the OT and PT are obviously quite different intentionally and that Anakin is shown the way he is, for the most part, to complement how he is in the OT (the PT did this in so many ways, characters ((side/name drops and all)), places, events, etc)

 

^^^^^^^ Captain Kirk is a good example! First of all, I didn't expect the Jedi to be unlikeable monks who sat around meditating in a temple all day and having no families. There was nothing to indicate this in the originals. I expected Jedi to act much more like the characters from the Seven Samurai: dangerous, capable, and quick, but not lifeless. If he was Obi Wan's good friend then I expected him to be likeable, and also perhaps more brooding. Obi Wan described him as cunning, and Darth Vader isn't chatty, so I think something along those lines.

 

pointing his finger comically at everyone, emphatically poking at the wrong emphasis.

Seriously I never thought about it. I guess I kind of imagined him to be a bit more stoic, less passionate and more of a strategist...possibly a very watered down Thrawn.

 

I considered him reasonable and noble-intentioned.

 

I thought he would be exactly the way Obi Wan described him...and likeable. Not remotely what we got.

 

I imagined Anakin as being older, certainly and being Owen's brother. I used to think that Obi-Wan and Anakin's meeting would play out a bit like Luke's meeting with Obi-Wan, with Obi-Wan trying to persuade Anakin to come with him and fight in the Clone Wars as a Jedi Knight, with Owen arguing for Anakin to stay. I thought of Anakin as a dreamer like Luke, longing to leave Tatooine behind and go on a great space adventure but whereas Luke was reluctant to leave, Anakin couldn't wait to become a Jedi. Obi-Wan would train Anakin and together, they'd fight in the war to save the galaxy. Anakin would be a great hero, leading the line. A cut line from ANH has Red Leader telling Luke he flew with his father and I imagined Anakin's exploits being the stuff of legend.

But as Anakin became a powerful and famous Jedi Knight, it all went to his head. Vader's line about the power of the Force always struck me. I saw Vader as a fanatic and if Vader was a fanatic, that meant Anakin was too. He became obsessed with learning the secrets of the Force and began experimenting with the forbidden arts of the Dark Side. During this time, Anakin falls in love. At the end of the Clone Wars, the Republic is destroyed and replaced by the Empire. The Jedi Knights are declared enemies of the state and they go into hiding, scattered across the galaxy. Anakin is brought before the Emperor, who offers to show him the true power of the Force and teach him all the secrets of the Dark Side in exchange for his help in hunting the Jedi. Anakin, consumed by his lust for power, agrees and leads the pursuit of the Jedi. The Jedi purge doesn't happen overnight, it happens over a period of months, perhaps even years. Fearing what Anakin is becoming, his wife flees, probably with help from Obi-Wan. Enraged, Anakin pursues her, his anger drawing him further and further into the void of the Dark Side. He eventually finds her and essentially imprisons her in his castle that sits on a volcano. Obi-Wan goes to rescue her and tries to reason with Anakin and bring him back to the light but Anakin won't listen and ends up killing his wife. When this happens, Anakin goes over the edge and attacks Obi-Wan and they have their climactic duel which results in Anakin being burned and having his limbs severed. The Emperor saves his life and tells him that if he is to survive, he must kill Anakin Skywalker and become a true agent of the Dark Side, a Dark Lord of the Sith - Darth Vader. Vader spends months, perhaps years hunting Obi-Wan but never finds him and what Vader doesn't know is that when his wife fled, she was pregnant and had given birth to twins. Many years later, somewhere above the planet Tatooine, Vader pursues a a suspected Rebel ship that may contain stolen plans to the Empire's ultimate weapon....

In essence, I thought that Anakin basically let the power of the Force go to his head and in exploring the Dark Side, he became consumed by it, willing to do anything to achieve the power he so desperately wanted. A lot of who I thought Anakin would be actually ended up in the prequels in one form or another. People say he turned to the Dark Side out of love but it was really his need to control his own destiny and not be beholden to anyone, not a slave master, not the Jedi, not even death. Anakin wanted power to create his own version of paradise but ended up creating a living hell for himself. My only real issues with how Anakin turned out were that I felt that Obi-Wan should have had Qui-Gon's role in Episode 1 in finding Anakin, who should have been a bit older and I thought that Owen Lars should have played a role but overall, I've no real problems with how Anakin's story played out.

 

That's a fantastic interpretation! It reminds me of Milton's Satan: Anakin falls because he pursues total independence, refusing to serve anyone.