So What The Hell Was Wrong With Anakin?

I had a similar discussion on some Batman forums about the villains. Basically we diagnosed what mental illness each of them had.

So what do you think made Anakin snap like that?
I think he might be bi-polar or manic depressive.

 

Um...are you serious?

 

So What The Hell Was Wrong With Anakin?

He was human.

Not that he should've been an alien, or anything.

 

I really don't think normal humans slaughter women and children and are prone to mood swings and anger issues the way Anakin was.

 

Attachment lead to fear. Fear lead to anger, anger lead to hate, hate lead to suffering.

Psychologically, the APA said they think he has borderline personality disorder.

 

There was nothing "wrong" with him.

He just listened to others (re Palpatine) instead of his conscience, when he did things which were wrong. He knew sub-consciously they were wrong but consciously he did them anyway.
He made his life's mission about power because he feared loss but didnt seem to understand the consequences of such a mission.

Although its interesting to note that as Darth Vader he accepts his mask for his failure, and tried to leave his old self, Anakin Skywalker, behind. But he couldnt hide from who he was and eventually came face to face with his past (through Luke) and listened to his conscience and did what was right.

Comparing him to Batman villains devalues him IMHO, as he shows redeeming qualities and didn't thoroughly accept evil in the end.

 

He was an idiot.

 

I'll say borderline. He is a real attention whore.

 

Anakin was human, and instead of doing what was right, he decided to give into temptation. It was his choice, not because it was caused by some kind of mental disorder.

 

Most people don't get taken away from their mothers at 9 or see them brutally tortured to death over a period of months, either. Comparing normal people to Anakin's situation is utterly absurd, because they're not remotely similar.

On a wider note, I think attaching real-world mental diseases to any character from SW undermines the points being made with said character, and clashes horribly with the fact that it's a fantasy story and a myth. It's like thinking Achilles probably used steroids.

 

The character? Or the writer? To quote old Ben here:
"Who is the BIGGER idiot? The idiot? Or the idiot who wrote for him to be that way?"


I concur with Zombie.
Normal sentient-beings don't whack innocent bystanders when mommy dies.
No matter how bad the method of death was. Only a psychopath would slaughter a whole village and then blame his morally-sound teacher.

While I'm at it, only a moron would fall in love with that kind of person.
Now, I understand why she lost the will to live. Padme was a moron.

 

Agreed.

 

I agree as well.

 

So if your mother was tortured by kidnappers and ultimately killed by them, you'd slaughter all of their children, mothers, daughters, wives and sons as well? I can understand lashing out in anger at the people responsible but surely going on a tribal-wide slaughter of EVERY living thing including women and children who simply happen to live in proximity is a tad...much.

Anakin was an idiot psychopath. Anakin wasn't traumatised as a kid or anything--he had a cushier life than LUKE, despite being a slave it was more in title than in practice, he had great fun building stuff and racing with his friends, he had a warm mother and a pretty cool owner (really, just a boss--kids don't have much freedom in the first place anyway), and he chose to leave home to have adventures as a Jedi when he was old enough to handle such things. No doubt this must have left him feeling homesick, but to the point where you can BUTCHER innocent women and children with a sword?? Come on guys, get real. Anakin has no real defense here. He probably had severe chemical imbalances.

 

Anakin's problem stems from his attachment, not a chemical imbalance. It's like saying Palpatine would have been a good guy if he took medication. Star Wars is archetypal and thus tends towards mythic explanations rather than medical ones(see: "lost the will to live.")

 

No, if Anakin was a psychopath then the ending of ROTJ makes absolutely no sense at all, as he wouldn't care one way or the other if Luke was his son. Likewise, it wouldn't bother him that he murdered the entire Tusken village, which it obviously does, given that he's sobbing hysterically after doing so. He sure doesn't feel good about it. He wouldn't care about Padme dying either-she'd be just another object, and not real from his point of view.

Anakin gave in to his anger and the Dark Side simply made it far out of proportion to any normal person's reactions. Labelling him-or frankly, anyone-in Star Wars with real mental diseases completely ignores the fact that the Dark Side isn't real and that for Jedi, "angry" equals "murderous".

Look at Luke in ROTJ; a normally kind and caring individual goes nearly (completely) out of control when Vader threatens his sister. Force sensitivity, for whatever reason, makes your emotions thicken to the point where your wrath is about like God in the Old Testament.

 

Yeah, Vader threatened to kill his sister so he went to town on Vader. Pretty understandable reaction considering the circumstances and the physical fighting the two were aleady engaged in. He didn't continue and kill women and children (perhaps by the dozen), then froth at the mouth hours later as he recalled his butchery before breaking down in tears. And thats just one of the issues Anakin has, among a greater laundry list (ie his enormous temper, uncomfortable social practices and emotional instability).

Yes, the ending of ROTJ is inconsistent, but thats because it is a) a work of fiction, b) written backwards, and c) just plain inconsistent. I suppose one could explain it that the traumatic act of being burned alive, losing all of his limbs, killing his wife and then turning to the dark side "corrected", or lets say changed his personality. I mean Vader, while obviously consistent in some ways, is a very different personality type than Anakin. Since the dark side changes ones mind, many of the disorders and characteristics that characterised Anakin in his pre-Vader days dissolved.

 

Profound observation (in question format) by Master Sx3 regarding whether the idiot is Anakin or his 'writer.'

Reminds me of the line Jessica Rabbit unloads in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit: "I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way!"

Anakin is certainly 'drawn-up' with some serious issues. Hayden did a pretty fine job working with the chaotic character arc Lucas laid on him to make Anakin an adequate character. Even accomplished veterans like Chris Lee, Ian McDiarmid and Ewan McGregor snickered offhand at Lucas' directorial style and lack of ability to 'frame the shot' from the actors POV.

In fact Frances Ford Coppola suggested to Lucas that Chris Neil was brought in as "dialog coach" for ROTS to help the cast members grasp the moment their character was thrust into for the particular scenes at hand and provide character continuity. Thanks to Coppola for that!

 

Anakin is much more complex than simply a chemical disorder or some sort of imbalance. Anakin Skywalker is the catalyst of so many powerful events that culminated in a few choice decisions that he made throughout his life. Having been imbedded with such pain, such sorrow, such hatred, and a love and passion that was just as powerful, Anakin chose the path that was the easiest out of a necessity born of the weight he was forced to carry. That was partly how Anakin Skywalker brought balance to the Force; by creating such light out of darkness, and such darkness out of light.

 

I dunno...I kind of think it a tad to much to imagine finding your mother beaten and bloody tied to a cross, only to have her die in your arms. It wasn't like she died in a hospital bed surrounded by flowers ya know...


I imagine if I found my mum like that - and the gang of 50 who did it was next door - and I had the power to wipe them out. Well I can't tell you I would just sit pretty and call the police - in that case, the Hutts, who would laugh in my face at the call. Nor would I likely call in my gang if I could do it alone, especially if they were going to try to talk me out of it (i.e. the Jedi). So I am not sure I agree with your sentiment. But then again, I love my mum.

Rightyo - he matured into a fine whacky dark lord that force choked and sabered any and everyone who got in his way; watched an entire world go kaboom, tortured people left and right and get this - plastered some dude in carbonite and had him shipped away. He certainly was much more upstanding and "settled" than his younger self Anakin!!

Although granted...he was more polite. "Apology Accepted"

 

Zombie, I'm sorry, your statements are just ignorant. I am a perfectly normal, balanced human being. But if my mother was tortured and died in my arms and I had a lightsaber with me I wouldn't hesitate for a second to swing free at those responsible.

And I would be too consumed with rage to stop and look at each person and say, "hey, wait. this is a woman. Maybe she wasn't responsible. Next, please?"

Another thing worth note was they were tusken raiders, not people. Killing any life is wrong, but if your mother was just tortured and killed, and the things you were killing were not human, yes this is without doubt something I can see.

Would this all be out of an act of revenge? Yes. Is revenge a good thing? No. But it is something that exists in all of us, whether we like it or not, and something you are capable of enacting without having a "disorder."

 

Coppola gave up all claims to knowing how to get actors to grasp their characters after Reeves's and Ryder's performances in Bram Stoker's Dracula.

 

Sorry but.... I don't think most people would go and go and go until all the women and the children were slaughtered too. Most of us might seek revenge in the flash of emotion at the moment, but those flashes don't generally last long enough to wipe out an entire tribe including women and children.

 

What was wrong with Anakin is: He should of been more like Nadar Veb in TCW, that sort of loss and the effects of the war destroying him as a person and making him turn to the wrong person for help.

Instead, we got him taking the plunge because of a bad dream.

 

Wow, this is quite fascinating

This doesn't take away from the character for me, it makes them more human. In the ROTS novelisation, how Dooku is described seems to indicate that he might be a classic sociopath, even down to the part that he views the people around him as possibly not even being real.

I don't think Force-users are exempt from having mental illnesses, but I wonder how the Jedi would treat such a person? Would the Jedi try to help them or would the person face expulsion?