Luke's Reaction to Aunt & Uncle's Murder Vs. Anakin's to Shmi's Murder

If you want a clear cut difference between Luke and his Father, look at the way Luke reacts tp his Aunt and Uncle's murder and how Anakin reacted to his Mother's. I realize they were not Luke's mother and father, but they may as well have been, they raised him from birth. It seems to me like look even as a farm boy and not even a Jedi has learned to let go of the things he fears to loose the most and we know he ultimately never turned to the Dark side like his father before him who could never let go of what he was most afraid to loose as Yoda tried to teach him in ROTS.

One instance where Luke acts Anakin like was in ESB when he goes to Bespin because he sees a preminition of his friends dying and ignores the advice of Yoda and Obi-Wan and goes there to try and save the anyway. You can see Luke being unlike Anakin in that he ultimately learns this lesson as at the end of ROTJ when he is faced with the idea of the destruction of his friends by Palpatine he flips out at first, but then comes to his senses after he sees in his fallen father what he is becoming (as in ESB with the cave scene and the Darth Vader mask blowing up to reveal Luke's face).

If there are those of you who think Luke maybe didn't have as good a reason as Anakin to join the dark side, think about this, Anakin did not have his Biological Father luring him to the Dark Side. After a whole life of never knowing your parents, and then when you discover one, how hard must that be to reject him right off the bat when he tells you to join him, and Anakin had been with the Jedi Order alot longer at the time of his turn than Luke had been with the Rebellion when he was told Vader was his father.

So anyway, I say it can all be summed up by Lukes willingness and ability to detatch himself and let go of the things he fears to lose the most, granted Luke wasn't great at it, but he was better at it than his father.....

 

Nice.




Emporer Gerner Dark Lord of the Sith

 

Another thought on this: Luke's ability to let go of things might be attributed to the fact he grew up with a father and Anakin didn't. And Luke's father figure(Uncle Owen) was a hard a@@ so to speak and dominated the household. True Anakin did go through his teen years with conflicting father figures (Obi Wan and Palpatine), but he grew up mainly with a mother only and as you can see the point of this topic was the ability to let go of the things you are afraid to lose the most .

So in short Anakin has a more of a feminine value when it comes to this and Luke's values are mostly Masculine from the male dominated environment he grew up in. So Uncle Owen should get a lot of credit for raising such a strong young man, but nobody really talks about that now do they....Uncle Owen saves the Galaxy....

 

Uh no.
Luke's reaction to Beru and Owen's death is different than Anakin's reaction to the Shmi's death because the stormtroopers had already hit the road by the time Luke got there. In fact Obi-Wan told Luke not to go back to the homestead just like Obi-Wan told Anakin not to do anything without first consulting him (Obi-Wan) or the Council.

If someone had just killed your mother and the killers were right there, are you saying you would not kill them? After Beru and Owen were killed, Luke didn't rebuild the homestead and live out his days on the farm. No, he went on a killing spree of his own. Killing stormtrooper after stormtrooper. The same kind of stormtroopers that killed Beru and Owen.

The Empire will stop at nothing to reach its goals. The attack on Beru and Owen was nothing less than savage. To kill and probably torture Beru and Owen over something they had no knowledge of is savage.

However, Shmi wasn't tortured and killed by the Tusken Raiders because the Tusken Raiders are just horrible savages. Shmi was tortured and killed by the Tuskens because the Tuskens are the indigenous people of Tatooine that have had their land taken by off world settlers. Off world settlers have come to Tatooine and over the years have taken what belonged to the Tuskens and refuse to even acknowledge the Tuskens as anything more than mindless monsters. So who is to blame? The Tuskens?

 

Which makes Anakin's final encasement in the suit more ironic: he's literally positioned over the symbol of the Empire as he's being operated on and the mask descends and seals. So, the very human pain he felt at losing his mother, and both the anger that it incited and the obsessive quest for unlimited power that it initiated, actually caused his own son, a generation later, to experience a similar kind of pain, and it was an act of violence enacted on the very people he and his mother once knew.

Talk about the circle being complete.

This potent observation brings the "great despair" of the galaxy into sharper relief and further enhances Anakin's role as "the Son of the Suns". Of course, I'm well aware of your leanings, but it's always good to see your greatest comments reappear.

 

Nice observations all round

I think the fact that in AOTC, Anakin expresses the belief that Owen etc "are good people" is so cruelly ironic when 2 films later Stormtroopers under his command will torture and kill them.

We don't see anyone, bar Anakin himself, undergo such a painful experience I don't think - to be burned alive - especially as they know nothing about the information the droids carry.

It shows how far Anakin has fallen in the space of 2 movies.

If Luke had found the Stormtroopers there, Kenobi is right, they would have killed him. There is no way he would've been able to extract vengence upon them at that stage.

Luke later tries to punish Vader for the believed death of his father and Kenobi.

It is only when he learns Vader is his father that he stops looking for revenge - it is only really in ROTJ that he is walking a true and just path.

 

You guys are on the right track but, not quite.

The only difference about how Anakin and Luke delt with the deaths of their family is simple.

At the time Anakin had the power to do something about and Luke didn't. Anakin was already a Jedi in training and arguably the most powerful padawan ever. Luke was just a farm boy. Just like Obi Wan said to Luke, If you were there you would've been killed too.

I think this scene is to show how similar Luke and Anakin are, not how different. They both wanted revenge. Anakin was able to take it then, but Luke had to wait. But revenge was a big factor in Luke leaving Tatooine with Obi Wan.

Besides, when Luke came across Owen and Beru, they were already dead.
There was nothing he could do at that point. Whereas Anakin knew his mother was still alive and his main purpose was to save her. He just lost control when she died in his arms.

 

Anakin was filled up with pure hate, and even though Luke did want revenge, he was filled up with sarrow.

Anakin = hate
Luke = sorrow

Maybe that is why Luke didn't turn to the dark side.

 

This sounds like another excuse to declare Luke's superiority over Anakin. And I don't buy it. Especially if you're using Luke's reaction to Owen and Beru's deaths as an excuse. I don't think he was that attached to the Lars as he was to Obi-Wan, Leia and Han. Now, if you had used Luke's reactions to Obi-Wan's death in ANH, Leia and Han being in danger in ESB and Vader's threat to turn Leia into a Sith apprentice, you will find that Luke and Anakin WERE NOT all that different.

 

as stated above i don't think these particular reactions were that unlike and i agree with the above posters

if you take another example - anakin kills dooku in cold blood. dooku is a man that has cut off his arm and taunted him. the "leader" of the opposition.

luke doesn't kill vader, although he almost does. the simple reason behind this is because vader is anakin.

i reassert my cliam that only after luke learns the baddie is his father does he lose the will for revenge

if vader was actually the killer of luke's father, he would still want revenge...and why not?

 

If someone had just killed your mother and the killers were right there, are you saying you would not kill them? After Beru and Owen were killed, Luke didn't rebuild the homestead and live out his days on the farm. No, he went on a killing spree of his own. Killing stormtrooper after stormtrooper. The same kind of stormtroopers that killed Beru and Owen.
DARTHIRONCLAD

Good point. For someone whose just been handed a gun Luke shows no remorse for mowing down the stormies or blowing up the Death Star ? Is this the anger Yoda talks about in ESB? Just because Luke doesn?t act out in such a dramatic way doesn?t mean he doesn?t want revenge for what the empire did.

I?m a fan of forgiveness but it comes slowly. To automatically ?let go? seems cold and almost inhuman to me.

 

Nice in-depth work on this thread, and I'll just add my two cents which may or may not sound exactly as you've heard in posts before me.

I do agree with the idea that Luke would have done something to the stormtroopers if they had been there. I can't really conceive what he could have done other than hit them with rocks before he was shot, but the emotion would have been there. The difference between Luke and Anakin is that Luke had not yet learned the will to act. For one thing, the environments the two grew up were different. By the time of AOTC, Anakin knew he was already disobeying orders, knew the repercussions, but did it anyway. At the point Luke was in ANH when Owen and Beru were killed, he had not learned yet to spread his own wings. No matter how much of his father's son he was, he did not have the discipline or will at the moment he saw the bodies of his aunt and uncle to do something. He had been living under Owen's thumb all those years, and when the moment came, it came and passed. I'm not saying Luke was weak; far from it. He did go back to the homestead despite Obi-Wan's pleas, but this can be attributed to the lack of bond they shared as compared to that of Owen and Luke, where Luke respected and in some part feared Owen.


Excellent points, everyone.

-Krystal

 

Anakin's reaction drove him to murder - not just revenge by killing the killers, but cold murder in the killing of the whole tribe. It was also, in the movies, the first very significant decision of Anakin's toward the dark side, and one from which he never really recovered. Once he killed the first time, it became easier every time until it became second nature to Darth Vader by the time Imperial officers are dropping like flies in ESB.

Luke, on the other hand, was driven to justice and heroism. Both men lost the one(s) who raised them from birth, and so the attachment would probably be fairly significant in both cases. Anakin has been trained from a young age - not as young as other Jedi, but still very young and impressionable - to let go of attachment, yet he never embraces this philosophy but is utterly repulsed by it. Luke never received any Jedi training or teaching, short of any "lessons in disguise" Obi-Wan may have passed on at whatever point. Logically, you would think the one who has received the instruction would be more likely to follow it than the one who hasn't. In which case, Anakin should be redeeming Darth Luke from the dark side.

But that's not the way it happens. And why? I think this demonstrates the incredible power of choice, powerful enough to overcome environment and conditioning. I love how Star Wars creates such a view of personal responsibility and accountability for one's actions regardless of environment and conditioning.

 

^^^^

I?m sure Anakin would convince himself that what he did was justice.

 

Probably true. I mean, whatever helps him sleep, right? But that doesn't mean that it WAS justice, just because he might tell himself so.

It would be debatable, to a certain extent, on whether or not it was justice if Anakin had simply killed the Tuskens who took his mother, rather than wiping out every living creature present, man, woman, or child. To have taken it as far as Anakin did could be nothing short of murder.

 

Actually, it would be considered manslaughter since Anakin was acting out of revenge.

 

Forgive me, but I'm not sure I follow you. It was a clearly planned out act with the intention to kill in mind. There was no accident.

-Krystal

 

Luke, on the other hand, was driven to justice and heroism.

Uh huh. So, Luke maniacally trying to hack Vader into bits after the latter had suggested turning Leia into a Sith apprentice is an example of his drive for justice and heroism? If you say so.

 

The two were engaged in a consensual fight. Vader had a weapon to defend himself with. The same can?t be said for the Tuskan women and children Anakin mowed down.

But regardless, the whole point of the ROTJ duel is that Luke didn't kill his father despite the fact he was in a position to do so. When it came to quelling an inner rage that led to murder, Luke was superior to his father.

 

Yes, but Luke eventually looked at his hand and realized he was actually turning to the Darkside and so refrained from chopping Vader into pieces! While Anakin was remorseful of his actions after the tusken slaughter. I think Luke's guidance was superior to Anakin's guidance.

 

It's true that Luke was powerless to do anything when his aunt and uncle were killed, so that's probably not a good comparison.

But how is Luke killing stormtroopers an act of revenge?? First of all, the stormtroopers had guns and were shooting at him. The Tusken Raiders had no weapons. Second, Luke was fighting for a cause (the Rebellion) and his primary objective was to rescue Princess Leia. Anakin had no cause and his primary objective was to kill the Tusken Raiders.

As for Luke's fight with Vader in ESB, Luke was again trying to rescue his friends when Vader tried to take him captive. The only time where Luke acts out of hate or revenge is in ROTJ when Vader threatens Leia. But as Ezekiel said, that's the whole point: Luke sees that he is acting like Vader and stops himself.

 

Luke sees that he is acting like Vader and stops himself.

And Anakin had seen that he was acting like...er, Dooku?

Seriously though, Anakin said that they were like animals, so he slaughtered them (he put the men, women and children in the same league). And if we remember Anakin was also a child before with a mother who loved him. He may have been thinking how could the women children do nothing for his mother, so he massacres them as well. However, he did regret it and that being a Jedi it was a wrong act. "Im a Jedi, I know Im better than this".

He follows it up with Dooku in Ep. III "he was an armed prisoner..." Anakin again disappointed with himself.

 

Anakin went through a case of temporary insanity while he was killing the Tusken men. He was too blinded by his rage to realise that he was also killing the women and children until he was finished and he regretted going after the women and children which is why he was crying on Padme's shoulders.

 

The only difference between luke and anakin is that luke learned from anakin's mistake. Prior to his finding out that his idolized father was a fallen, shell of a man commited to the evil in the galaxy, he did things exactly like anakin did. Ben dies, luke kills as many stormtroopers in the hanger as he can. It is only after the revelation of TESB that luke begins to act differently.

 

I think Luke's guidance was superior to Anakin's guidance.

Or . . . he had Palpatine's big mouth to thank. After seeing ROTJ, I noticed that Luke was a hair's breadth from following his dad's footsteps - until Palpatine opened his mouth, cackling, "Good, good!" From that moment on, Luke managed to turn away from his inner rage.