Saga Poll: Luke or Anakin? Which character is more interesting and why?

Now that both characters have passed on in their mortal lives which character do you find more interesting?

Jedi era:
Anakin:
Clone wars hero.
Killed Dooku.
Won Padme’s heart.
Was going to be a dad.
Trained Ahsoka Tano.

Luke:
Death Star hero.
Saved princess and sister.
Was catalyst that ultimately lead to death of the Emperor.
Brought his father back to the Light.
Discovered Jedi artifacts after the Empire sought to destroy them.
Found first Jedi temple.
Found ancient Jedi texts.
Performed largest Light side feat seen on screen in order to help the only way he could during the last stand on Crait, helping to save the heroes of episode IX.
The only human who has trained Rey on Light Side use and may help her more from
beyond.
Trained Ben Solo who later became Kylo Ren.
Trained members who later became the Knights of Ren.

Dark Side moments:
Anakin:
Killed wife.
Killed all Jedi children.
Became infamous hitman for the Emperor but never lead the movement.

Luke:
Considered killing father but was able to reign it in and stop.
Considered killing Kylo Ren before he became that because he saw it was going to happen and was sable to to reign it in and stop but not before Ben Solo noticed and may have played a role in his turn.

Other philosophy era:
Anakin:
Grey Jedi for a few moments after killing the Emperor?

Luke:
L’ewel era. Considered ending the Jedi Order and practiced non-interventionism and spear fishing on Ahch-To.

 

Luke

The last Jedi is actually the reason I picked him over Anakin. Before the newest movie I really just considered him a goody two shoes. TLJ added some much needed depth to his character and made him a much more interesting person to follow especially due to his mini redemption arc in that movie.

 

For me, it's Anakin. I personally love how he's a character that is so debatable, 13 years after his last movie. It's interesting to hear whether people love, hate, or feel in between about him.

I think it would have been easier to make him a OT Luke Skywalker/Han Solo clone, but he's really the only main SW protagonist that is hard to consider a role model. He's too flawed in many serious ways, and I find that entire angle interesting. His entire journey from Jedi in The Clone Wars, not to mention countless other smaller wars between Episode I and Episode II, and his transformation into a Sith is so fascinating.

Plus, I find him very threatening as a Sith Lord pre-suit. I love how his skin becomes pale and sickly, and his eyes turn yellow the farther he lets his Vader persona take over. I've always been fascinated how the dark side affected Anakin from a psychological standpoint in that short time between him joining Palpatine to his defeat on Mustafar. He's such a weird character to me, full of contradictions, and it adds a whole new dimension to what SW characters can be, at least for me.

 

While I love both I agree with Jedi Knight Fett that TLJ gave a depth and insight to Luke that we had never seen before. It really becomes a tie for me because of this.

 

Where is "killed an entire village of Sand People" for Anakin ? This was a truly defining moment for him.

 

I agree that the redemptive story arc near Luke’s end of life added a lot for me. I see clear parallels with Anakin’s end of life redemptive arc but adapted more to Luke’s personality and increased morality so on Luke’s journey back toward the Light it’s more himself holding himself back. Just as it’s always been with his setbacks.

ROTJ-era Skywalker drama and TLJ-era Skywalker drama are in many ways the most fascinating for me personally.

Both films explore post traumatic stress, regrets, atonement, crisis of faith, control issues to stop an observed cycle, and the notion of saving what you love, and that it’s never too late to change course from the perspective of the elder Skywalker men. In ROTJ that elder Skywalker is Anakin and in The Last Jedi it’s Luke.

The throughline is the Dark Side and their different approaches to it. In his quest to never become like his father, starting with this moment:https://giphy.com/gifs/luke-skywalker-9PqVOcrG8sZkk

A moment that Johnson tries to recreate in TLJ right down to the dazed look and the look down and the rigid movement and the timing and the green saber.

Luke and Leia decided to repress and lock away their family secret rather than use the failure of Anakin to teach. By not learning from history we are doomed to repeat it and that’s exactly what happened.

Rather than embrace the Dark Side Luke was able to continue to avoid the mistakes of his father and reign in his anger all the way through life but not to total perfection and not without some consequence. That’s something I think a lot of people can relate to in their own unique quests to not become exactly like their parents. Rather than risk becoming an agent of evil following his post traumatic stress he went into exile to think about the cycle and the Jedi’s role in it and came to the conclusion that the Jedi were a huge part of the problem. It’s an interesting parallel back to when Anakin first said that from his “perspective it’s the Jedi who are evil.”

Anakin descended into hell in his search to end the cycle he was observing where people he cared for were dying despite all of his power. When he lost Padme he took all of his emotion and anger and grief out on others, including the Jedi and joined the organization with the most control.

Luke, even at his lowest, was so determined not to become another Darth Vader that he slid only down to his own self-created purgatory where he wanted to stop the cycle he, too, was observing but couldn’t bring himself to end the Jedi order or find its place in the solution. He took his emotion and anger and grief and hid it away and internalized it. This is healthier for the world than what Anakin did but it’s still not the solution he thought it was.

Much has been said about Yoda’s wise words regarding how they grow beyond because in a lot of ways it’s the perfect summation of the Skywalkers and where they differed from each of their masters and handled their Dark Side moments differently and the issues of control that stem from being as powerful as they are.

Luke Skywalker and Anakin are about more than their fighting abilities or force powers. They’re our equivalent of Greek Gods in modern mythology. So, it was important that the end of Luke’s mortal life answer some questions about that Dark Side moment in ROTJ and explore some of the same topics related to end of life issues that his father faced 30 years ago.

Post-trauma - Control - Regret - Atonement - Questions of religion and faith - Saving what you love being the guide - The afterlife -

It’s all explored in ways better suited to Luke and his character and Luke reminds us just how different from his father he really was by facing similar ideas in different ways and delivers a beautiful ending to his mortal life by reminding us we are never too old to stop learning and that it’s never too late to change course. Nobody’s ever really gone. They just haven’t found their way back yet.

 

Anakin with a super-close edge. The pain as a boy leaving his mother.The resentment towards Obi-Wan and the council. His annihilation of Tusken Raiders. His misguided trust with Palpatine. And finally his cockiness, formed a Dark side, which we all know turned into one of the best sith lords, DARTH VADER.

 

I'd say Anakin is the most interesting because of we explore his inner conflict(s) and flaws, while Luke is the most inspiring because he chose to do the right thing (I'm not counting the ST, of course).

 

I like both characters and they both are interested, but I find Anakin to be far more interesting so he get my vote.

The reason is because I find his character and story far more fascinating. There is so much about him that you can still discuss till this day and the tragedy of his story really touch the heart and has a Geek mytho about it which I always was interested in. Not to mention that he is the most developed in SW.

Also, he is a character that manage to be great both as a hero and vilain and has a greater impact than any other star wars character which alone makes him interesting than anyone else.

 

Anakin. Just a more interesting and emotional arc, particularly regarding his ascension to a powerful position in the center of the galaxy where in many ways he finds he's lost, alone, and chained to duty. Luke's OT arc is nearly as great, but the ways in which the PT gave me a sense of Anakin's day to day life in addition to emphasizing the epic Force journey give that story the edge for me. Also, the melancholic atmosphere related to Anakin's journey is closer to my preferred tone in art than what we saw with Luke's journey.

 

IMO Anakin didn't kill Padme. She was alive and able to deliver his children before dying of a broken heart.

The emotional ride that Anakin's character development took me on was something I love about the OT and the PT. The story just caught me from the beginning and pulled me in even meeting him as a 9 year old boy, knowing what would eventually happen. Watching him struggle with the decision to leave his mom and go with Qui Gon, then watching her die in his arms.. broke my heart. It is that tragedy of having the skill and talent, wanting to save the people you love but going about it the wrong way and losing everything that pulled me in. After watching the PT, Luke's belief in and redemption of his father at the end of ROTJ became more emotional for me than it ever was a kid growing up in the 80's.

 

Luke's developing awareness and spiritual journey from adolescence to manhood was more compelling and convincing.

Anakin's was barely even there. But perhaps that was the point. His association with the Jedi begins and ends with his superimposed destiny as the destroyer of the enemy of the Jedi. But he never appears to embody anything that is ostensibly good about the Jedi besides their superior capacity as warriors - which is continuously identified as a dubious quality at best. So he was always predestined to embody the worst angels of our nature - despite his natural, unselfconscious altruism in his infancy, before the Jedi order and the Republic got their hands on him.

 

Anakin, easily. People can argue whatever they want about the prequels but he is part some of the most emotionally visceral scenes in the entire saga that it simply cannot do without. It was also more layered as his role within both the Order and the Republic made for some interesting conflict on his part as he slowly found himself being trapped in servitude once again.

The lack of any elaboration on the more interesting parts of Luke's development in TLJ(how he took on the role of mentor, how he differed from the Old Republic's Jedi masters and how that brought on the Order's collapse, etc.) are largely glossed over or ignored, making me largely ambivalent towards his conflict. The best thing about Luke in TLJ was Mark Hamill's performance and that's it.

 

I think it depends on what one values. Anakin is a psychopath for a long period of time. If they didn’t have the term “Dark Side” he’d seem mentally ill.

Luke, at the first negative consequence of this inherited Darkness, beats himself up over it because he wants more than anything not to end up like his father. He blames himself and leaves everything behind.

Both men change for a time but Luke’s hurts less people directly, is better intended and requires more self control. Both people realize their mistake in the end and save what they love. Vader lifts up the psycho boss who’s turned him into an attack dog and Luke uses a Force power never seem before. Anakin’s move kick starts a revolution that ends a war about a year later. Luke’s Force act seems to have inspired the public and may have helped kick start a comeback that will end the war in the future. Both become one with the Light. Luke’s apology is more of an actual apology to the people he hurt most than Anakin’s. Luke may still have even more of a role to play from beyond yet whereas Anakin didn’t.

 

Anakin is really crushing it! I am actually very suprised by that. Happy, but suprised.

 

Luke’s redemptive arc is a less extreme version of Anakin’s and built more around his additional control and desire to never become exactly like his father. Which is something a lot of sons can relate to about the aspects of our fathers we don’t like that still come out in us as we age unexpectedly. It’s something I could relate to. So Luke’s redemptive arc is therefore easier for *some* people who perhaps grew up with Luke to relate to than Anakin’s. Some of us couldn’t imagine making anywhere near the dark side slide that Anakin did but can better relate to aspects of what Luke faced. Perhaps not raising a saber but perhaps saying something horrible we shouldn’t have to a loved one reminiscent of our father’s temper. Or perhaps being on the receiving end of that in our own families and experiencing exile where an uncle or aunt suddenly hadn’t talked to one of our parents for years over something.

Or the notion that perhaps even though we can control our tempers better than our dads... that some of it still comes through now and then and disappoints us too. A lot of people out there didn’t have Darth Vader as a father but they may have connected more deeply with Luke’s plight initially because of some aspects of their father that disappointed them that they hoped they didn’t inherit. Building Luke’s arc more around the complications of that and around more family complications and adding to the sins of the father themes that Lucas first explored was the right choice for the modern mythology Star Wars has built and the life lessons it explores. Even if it showed Luke at his lowest. The Skywalkers aren’t there for us to watch succeed easily. They teach us about life through the extremely tragic and melodramatic struggles they face within Space Opera.

 

Are you sure? Did he not appear at the end of Return of the Jedi or was I somehow hallucinating that every time I watched that movie?

 

I’m anticipating more than a smile as a force ghost from Luke in IX, personally.

 

OT Luke for me.

His Heroes Journey going from farmboy to Jedi Knight is one of my all time favorite arcs in film.He's an inherently good-natured person, but not without his flaws. The way he handles his conflicts, whether it's saving his friends, at the expense of abandoning his training on Dagobah, or how against all odds, he not only senses the good in Vader, but succeeds in bringing him back to the light.

Speaking of Anakin, I feel the prequels are disjointed in how many years each one is spaced apart, so I feel it's a bit unfair on my part to judge Anakin's arc in that trilogy. That being said, I do love how his character evolves throughout The Clone Wars. His reclessness slowly diminishes as he gains introspection while training Ahsoka. Plus, even tough his personality is a stark contrast to Obi-Wan, you can definitely see how they're good friends. Plus, I feel that TCW gave more convincing reasons why Anakin would eventual;y turn to the Darkside.

All-in-all, I do enjoy Anakin's arc (much more so in TCW, admittedly), but Luke's arc just simply resonates with me on a personal level.

 

I went with Anakin. Luke is great, don't get me wrong-but much of his story is on the surface. Kind of "what we see is what we get" with him.

With Anakin, I feel there was a lot more attention given to fleshing out his inner feelings, motivations for his choices, and his reaction to what's going on around him and how it affects him. Not to mention his backstory. I mean, there's no denying; we saw much more in the way of inner emotion coming to the surface from Anakin in ROTS alone than we ever saw in Luke. (TLJ came close, IMO but still-not as intense.)