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

I pictured someone who said "yippee!" and later frolicked in grassy meadows while complaining about sand. All my dreams came true.

 

A scar on his right butt cheek and a jet black mullet with red tips dyed to show his dark side. Damn you George for not showing what a REAL man would look like to become Darth Vader!

He should have been 36 years and 8 months old in Episode III too! PROOF that George Lucas doesn't know how to age characters!

 

I think I imagined him to look like a Disney prince lol. I was about 8 or something when I watched the OT.

And you know what, Hayden does look like a Disney prince, so I wasn’t far off. Although I do feel that, personality-wise, TCW Anakin is closer to what Obi-Wan described.

 

I didn't think about it too much, at least from what I can recall. I was 5 when ROTJ came out. As I grew up, I obviously knew there were 3 prequel stories and I knew they were about when Darth Vader and Obi-Wan were "little". An amusing thing is that when I heard about the idea that Obi-wan left Vader to die in a lava pit, I literally pictured suited Vader knee deep in a small pit full of lava as Obi-Wan walked away. Also, I had 2 or 3 General Madine action figures but no Obi-Wan, so I used one of the Madine figures for Obi-Wan and another one for Anakin when I role-played him coming back alive to help the rebels win, etc.

 

I didn't think about it past what Obi Wan told to Luke about his father being the best star pilot in the galaxy, a cunning warrior and a good friend. I had ZERO head canon stories built up in my head and no expectations about anything else regarding Anakin that affected my ability to enjoy the PT.

 

I pictured Anakin to be a bit more like MadMartigan from Willow.

 

I saw the Prequel movies long before I had seen any of the Clone Wars episodes. And to be honest, I didn't have any pre-conceived notions on what he would be like in the Prequels. I also had more of a problem with Anakin's portrayal in "The Clone Wars" than I ever did in the movies - Prequels or Originals.

 

i imagined him looking like Uncle Owen

 

Alot older for starters. Nearly all the characters in the PT are far too young. I just can't buy Darth Vader OT is supposed to be Hayden Christiansen + about 17 years. It's simply Sebastian Shaw under there for me. Same thing with Ewan McGregor to Alec Guiness in about 17 years...what the hell went down on Tatooine to do that to him.

I kind of assumed he would have been similar to Ben, but more focused on being an epic pilot like that was his primary job. Back then it was alot more unclear what a Jedi knight was.

Largely due to how Owen describes him I got the impression he was also a bit of a rogue type figure, I guess you could make a Han comparison, but a more serious version who fought in some epic war. A risk taker.

 

well Haydens Anakin certainly took risks. i like the youthfulness gives the saga a more epic story rather than just a story of one moment in time

 

From the ROTJ novel:

It was a face that had not seen itself in twenty years.
Vader saw his son crying, and knew it must have been at the horror of the face the boy beheld.
It intensified, momentarily, Vader's own sense of anguish - to his crimes, now, he added guilt at the imagined repugnance of his appearance. But then this brought him to mind of the way he used to look - striking, and grand, with a wry tilt to his brow that hinted of invincibility and took in all of life with a wink. Yes, that was how he'd looked once.

Hayden does occasionally capture that "took in all of life with a wink" moment IMO.

 

I thought that Luke's father was much older and much more like Obi-Wan Kenobi.

I always thought Anakin didn't become Darth Vader until a later age ...

 

There were a few "Darth Vader was young when he fell" hints - and maybe at about the same point in his training that Luke was in TESB:

"A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil."
"When I left you I was but the learner, now I am the Master."
"If you end your training now, if you choose the quick and easy path, as Vader did, you will become an agent of evil."
"Only a fully trained Jedi Knight, with the Force as his ally, will conquer Vader and his Emperor."

 

I dunno just seeing him as Sebastian Shaw in ROTJ as unmasked Vader and his ghost on Endor just cemented he was about mid 40's to early 50's which would have placed him around mid 30's when the twins were fathered. Mid 30's is still on the young side (or it was back then, cultural attitudes surrounding age have shifted) and back then it wasn't clear when Jedi training began or what age one graduated as it were.

 

I honestly have no idea how Anakin would be portrayed in the Prequel Trilogy. I guess I didn't have any expectations for the Prequel Trilogy.

 

I imagined him more manly, and no-nonsense, coming from an aristocratic/patrician background. A bit older (at least in his 30s) when he was turned and openly having a wife and young children at that point. There is no indication in the prequels that Jedi are not supposed to have normal family relations. I imagine him as more of a military commander, perhaps losing his humanity and sustaining injuried more gradually, in the course of long and difficult conflict. I imagined that he turned to the Dark Side for more power to defeat his enemies, rather than for the sentimental reasons given.

I could have imagined him being played by a younger Christopher Lee.

 

I don't know why but for some reason I also imagined Anakin to be a bit darker-haired (in the brown/black range) than Hayden and that it was Leia who actually inherited the features of her father.

They made him blond like Luke instead. A bit boring, I guess.

 

interesting the point.. i think George had set his heart on blonde cos of Luke but he could've gone dark.. would've given him more choices for Anakin.. i still really don't like Anakin in clones.. but redeems himself massively in Sith... just on his hair alone.. which seems a bit darker lol

 

I was about 9 years old when I first watched TPM, so I admittedly didn't think of it as much as some people on here. Going by the basics, I thought of him as a relatively muscular and mature Jedi.

As for skill, I figured he was on par with something akin to Rey or Starkiller, where he could eviscerate his enemies in a way no one else could. I also thought he was much older upon turning to the Darkside, so something closer to mid-30s rather than 22 years old.

 

I imagined him to be a bit like Kirk Douglas; tough with a bit of a swagger and a twinkle in his eye.

 

Huh?

 

Before we knew the details of the PT, I assumed Anakin was going to be like a battle-hardened warrior, a sort of Jason Statham-esque kind of figure. Someone who turned to the dark side to get things done quickly, rather than pussy-footing around like the rest of the Jedi.

 

Like Revan or Thrawn

 

Older, certainly. Mid to late twenties when he first embraced the dark side, and around thirty at the time of his duel with Obi Wan. Highly intelligent, but drawn to forbidden knowledge. A good man in the beginning, who became arrogant as his power increased. A successful military commander, who's men would have idolized him almost to the point of worship. Sort of a cross between Alexander the Great, Napoleon and Colonel Kurtz.