First up, I never loved the prequels. They had their moments but to me they just never has the finesse I'm writing of the OT. I've always been annoyed at how Anakin was handled especially his fall. I'm no writer, far from it ,but one day recently a few ideas came into mind. So here they are. Let’s just forget about the other issues people have with the prequels and think about the most important part. Why the noble knight Anakin we hear being described in A New Hope (well… as Vader) fell so low. Even in my most kindest of moods to the prequels I will never get past the reasons Anakin turned. To save Padme from a premonition. His next move (the chat with Sidious and the betrayal of Mace) is through blind love. Love does not lead to the dark side… yes yes there was fear there, fear - hate - anger etc etc. But I never really bought that either. He’s been trained to know the dark side has no place for love, it should be the last place he would expect help. No what we are taught in the old trilogy is it is always anger that leads to the dark side. Luke needed to control his anger. Vader even says “you have controlled your fear, now release your anger, only your hatred can destroy me” Luke is in Bespin trying to rescue his friends, he’s abandoned his training and all advice from Yoda and Obi Wan but he has controlled his fear of the situation though barely managing the anger. This is a guy who’s barely trained as apposed to Anakin with at least 15 years under his belt. The big arc of Star Wars (literally told by Yoda and Obi) was you will be tempted to the dark side by attempting to use anger to destroy it but it is that anger that will ultimately bring you to the dark side. Luke dips into this anger in Return of the Jedi to defeat Vader but does what so many couldn’t. Literally throws away his offensive weapon, takes a deep breath and claims he is a Jedi. Anyway to my point. It should have been anger that Anakin fell into. Padme should have been killed by at the very end of Ep3 during the Empire uprising. Imagine the 2nd/3rd act of Ep3 being about Palpatine making his move and the Empire taking control. Anakin and Obi Wan in this open conflict in Coruscant trying to save as many people as they can, the two knights we’ve come to know over these films being the true peace keepers of the Republic. Insert a scene where Padme needs to be escorted to an evac shuttle but only Obi can do it and Anakin agrees (he’s locked in a saber battle) My point is this is all happening very fast so the reactions are “Go Obi Wan! I know you’ll take care of her”. But he fails. In the last 15 mins of the film it’s Obi carrying a dead Padme and Anakin just losing it. See in anger we don’t see reason anymore. The noble knight we get to know about in Eps 2 and 3 falls away and he can only see Obi as the reason she’s gone. We have our battle, Obi trying to calm him down but ultimately leads to the burning (wherever in Coruscant is applicable). Anakin is all but anger now and a broken man. Palatine finds him and we get what we got in Ep3 except now we don’t have Vader asking a stupid question like “where is Padme?” (gosh that scene) no Anakin is gone now, he’s only Vader. Obi then goes into exile filled with regret and blames himself for failing Anakin. He doesn’t even want to take care of Luke incase he fails him too so hands them to Owen and Beru. They say something like “we don’t want to see you around here again” He stands outside his hut looking at the setting twin suns. Credits. Why I don’t want the long long build up of Anakin’s fall is that it he should be too clever to not see that coming. No we need to go back to the basics. Anger is fast and ruthless and it was anger and the loss of Padme that brought the knight down in the final moments. To link it up with the old trilogy Vader then consumed by anger and hatred to anything Jedi starts his hunt for the few that are left.
I think his fall was out of anger. Maybe not immediate anger over the death of Padme, but an anger that had been building over several factors. Mostly it came from Anakin's inability to let go. He had trouble leaving home before he started his training, but when he learned of his mother's death his anger took over in grief. Add to that the underlying anger he'd always felt at the Jedi council for his training, and the anger he felt for the counseling he got about the visions he had. Having Palpatine in his ear for years would only help foster the anger that the Jedi Order would try to train out of Anakin. It was Anakin's anger at the Jedi as much as his fear for Padme that ultimately turned him to the dark side, and I think that wouldn't be as complete if Padme was killed in Obi Wan's care. It's only after he turns that his anger is turned on Padme and Obi Wan making his turn to the dark side complete. It's only after the Emperor tells Vader that he is responsible for killing Padme that Vader finally lets go of his emotions and becomes the Sith Lord that Palpatine wants him to be.
I think Anakin should've fallen in much the same reason Luke might've, because of anger and the lust for revenge. If Luke struck down anyone in anger like his father he would have instantly joined the dark side to a point where he could not return from it. My preferred background that at some point this is what happened Anakin. Anakin knew much death and destruction during the Clone Wars as Luke knew during the Galactic Civil War. The clones kill most of his family on a planet where he dwells. Many of his friends fighting for the Republic, including many Jedi die during the war as well. Anakin gets a way to kill the leader of the clone army or another significant figure which had to do directly with his own personal involvement in the conflict. He strikes him down out of anger, maybe after years of frustration to with the senate and the Jedi over the slow progression of the war. His anger causes him to duel Obi-Wan over a molten pit, the accident which knocks him into and scars him causes his memory to be confused and think this was a deliberate action by Kenobi. His uncontrollable rage from being led into the war effort and know permanently locked into a cyborg suit and disfigured causes him to seek revenge to the point of exterminating all of the Jedi and who threaten peace and security in the galaxy like the Rebels might.
I think Anakin's fall is one of the few things the PT actually did right, IMO. Sure, it seems a bit rushed, but they only had really 2.5 movies to work with to illustrate it. TCW does a good job at showing a few more little slips and struggles in his character, but for smushing it into the PT solely they did pretty good. They really focus on the underlying theme that Anakin is only human, and even his main reasons for joining the darkside are heroic in a sense; to save lives. It may be selfishly motivated, such as the whole "I can't live without her." line, but at the end, a lot of Anakin's reasons for joining the darkside would parallel every single person's reasons. Fear of losing those we love, anger at being mistreated and judged, revenge against those who wrong us, and frustration for not receiving the help we need to prevent death and disaster. The Jedi are supposed to being these higher beings who have evolved beyond attachment and basic human instinct and feelings. Anakin, being "too old for training" had already formed these human emotions, and therefore, he was almost destined to fall. A lot of his fall is contributed to his arrogance and pride, but just as much of it is because of the love and attachment he holds for Padme/ his children/ his mother. Even Obi Wan, you can tell when Dooku knocks him out, Anakin gets real angry and that's when he unleashes his full power and hands Dooku his....head.
Jedi aren't vulcans. They have feelings, and I Think the Jedi around the fall of the republic had it right with their policy of not allowing connections. I don't think love in itself is an emotion of the dark side, but love often leads to a whole hell of a lot of pain which DOES lead to the dark side. Anakin should have taken notes in the class on non attachment.
^^ I don't think it's necessarily love causing pain that the Jedi are worried about, but rather, that it can blind people's reasoning from doing what's right. As we see with Anakin becoming aggressive toward Padme's assassin, Anakin wanting to lower the gunship and halt the pursuit of Dooku to rescue Padme, and Anakin knowingly slicing off Mace's hand and sending him to his doom in order to keep Palpataine alive and securing his knowledge of preventing Padme's death. One of my favourite literally quotes is "the heart has it's reasons that reason itself does not know."
Why does Anakin's fall have to center around anger? I see nothing wrong with love or fear of loss being the true reason behind his downfall. Now that I think about it, you can say the same about the Jedi.
The thing is that it was never really a revenge motivation. Your feelings though, were those of some of the LFL employees during the making of ROTS. "...some of the people had a hard time with the reason that Anakin goes bad. Somebody asked whether somebody could kill Anakin's best friend, so that he really gets angry. They wanted a real betrayal, such as, "You tried to kill me so now I'm going to try and kill you." They didn't seem to understand the fact that Anakin is simply greedy. There is no revenge. The revenge of the Sith is Palpatine. It doesn't have much to do with Darth Vader; he's a pawn in the whole scheme.... So I had to ask myself, what was I trying to say and didn't I say it? Did it just get missed or it is it not there? I had to look at it very hard. I had to ask myself, Is this how the audience is going to react? Fortunately, Steven confirmed that most of everything was working. So I may lose a certain demographic - maybe, maybe not. But I had to make a decision, and I decided that I'm not going to alter the film to make it more commercial or marketable. I have to be true to my vision, which is 30 years old, but I have to be true to it." --George Lucas, The Making of ROTS, page 188. To which we must also look first as to what happened to Luke, because after all, Luke wasn't going to kill the Sith just out of revenge. "Part of the going into the tree is learning about the Force. Learning about the fact that the Force is within you, and at the same time, you create your own bad vibes. So, if you think badly about things or you act badly, or you bring fear into a situation, you're going to have to defend yourself or you're going to have to suffer the consequences for that. In this particular case, he takes his sword in with him which means he's going to have combat. If he didn't, he wouldn't. He's creating this situation in his mind because, on a larger level, what caused Darth Vader to become Darth Vader is the same thing that makes Luke bring that sword in with him." --George Lucas, TESB DVD Commentary. "You’ll see, as this goes on, Luke is faced with the same issues and practically the same scenes that Anakin is faced with. Anakin says yes and Luke says no." --George Lucas, “Star Wars: The Last Battle,” Vanity Fair, 2005 Anakin Skywalker's final confrontation with the Emperor occurs during Luke's final confrontation with the Emperor, which compliments his father's dealings with the same man many years earlier. Indeed the life of the father and the life of the son are commentaries on each other. --The Making Of Revenge Of The Sith; page 221. In TESB, when Luke leaves to face Vader, he's not just doing it out of revenge. He's doing it because he's afraid to lose Han and Leia to Vader. He has an attachment to them and his fear of loss is what motivates him to fight Vader, as well as the anger over his father's death at Vader's blade. In ROTJ, Luke's actions aren't out of revenge either. But because he's afraid to lose his loved ones. PALPATINE: "Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design. Your friends up there on the Sanctuary Moon... are walking into a trap. As is your Rebel fleet! It was I who allowed the Alliance to know the location of the shield generator. It is quite safe from your pitiful little band. An entire legion of my best troops awaits them. Oh...I'm afraid the deflector shield will be quite operational when your friends arrive." PALPATINE: "From here you will witness the final destruction of the Alliance, and the end of your insignificant Rebellion. You want this, don't you? The hate is swelling in you now. Take your Jedi weapon. Use it. I am unarmed. Strike me down with it. Give in to your anger. With each passing moment, you make yourself more my servant." PALPATINE: "As you can see, my young apprentice, your friends have failed. Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station. Fire at will, Commander." PALPATINE: "Your fleet has lost. And your friends on the Endor moon will not survive. There is no escape, my young apprentice. The Alliance will die...as will your friends. Good. I can feel your anger. I am defenseless. Take your weapon! Strike me down with all your hatred, and your journey towards the dark side will be complete." VADER: "Give yourself to the dark side. It is the only way you can save your friends. Yes, your thoughts betray you. Your feelings for them are strong. Especially for... Sister! So...you have a twin sister. Your feelings have now betrayed her, too. Obi-Wan was wise to hide her from me. Now his failure is complete. If you will not turn to the dark side, then perhaps she will." Indeed, Luke loses control because he feels that he is not strong enough to hide Leia from Vader as Obi-wan warned him to do. Luke has an attachment to Leia and he uses the dark side to him him overcome his father, just as he wanted to use it to kill Palpatine. Just as Anakin had used his anger on Dooku earlier. But he needs to embrace the dark side and Anakin's reasoning is that he needs the Force to stop people from dying. Indeed, Luke himself thinks along those lines. LUKE: "Master Yoda, you can't die." YODA: "Strong am I with the Force... but not that strong! Twilight is upon me and soon night must fall. That is the way of things... the way of the Force." And remember what Obi-wan said. OBI-WAN: "A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was a pupil of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire hunt down and destroy the Jedi Knights. He betrayed and murdered your father. Now the Jedi are all but extinct. Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force." OBI-WAN: "You 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."
