Who has the most tragic story in Star Wars?

While Star Wars is generally seen as a lighthearted space opera, many recurring themes of the entire saga, betrayal, loss of innocence, manipulation, and so on have their roots in tragedy. Similarly, even through the most fun and adventurous stories, there are some very tragic characters. Probably the main one would be Anakin Skywalker. Some others I can think of are Dooku, Jacen Solo, Ulic Qel-Droma, and Ventress.

I'm gonna have to cast my vote for Dooku. Christopher Lee is a phenomenal actor, so it's no wonder that, with the face he makes in ROTS, I feel sorry for the guy. It's also the fact that, really, he's not too different from Anakin. He was prideful to the point where he believed himself invincible, and fell because of his own choosing... however, he was manipulated in the same way that Anakin was, and spit out the same way, once he lost his usefulness.

Yoda: Dark Rendezvous goes a long way towards making him more compelling. The fact that he was almost redeemed, almost saved, adds to the tragedy and drives home the fact that what Luke did with Anakin was extraordinary. Only at the end does he realize he had been duped, that essentially the past decade of his life was in service to someone who would knowingly betray him. In a way, I'd like more material on Dooku, but in another, I like the fairly compact nature of his story. There are really only a few pieces to the puzzle when it comes to Dooku. Yoda's experience with Dooku probably led to his rather cold belief that the dark side will forever dominate your path, should you choose to walk it.

Any opinions?

 

Luke Skywalker.

While its easy to get caught up in his accomplishments, he has lost so much over the years. Maybe he doesn't have the tragic ending that others might but his journey is amazingly sad.

 

Luke's probably the best example of the "loss of innocence" theme I mentioned. You can tell by some of the Marvel comics, which are interesting because they were written before it was known that Vader was Luke's father, that what truly kept him going was his romanticized view of the Jedi and especially his father. There was definitely a good reason why Yoda and Obi-Wan lied to him about Anakin.

 

I can't pick one person, but I can pick one family. The Skywalker/Solo family.

Luke Skywalker- Redeemed, but than lost his father. Sent his nephew Anakin Solo on the mission that got him killed. His wife Mara is killed by his nephew Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus.

Han and Leia Solo- Leia loses her adopted parents when her world is destroyed. Her youngest son is killed on the mission to Myrkyr. Her oldest son turns to the darkside, and kills their sister-in-law. He is than killed by their daughter Jaina.

 

Ulic Qel-Droma was the first name I thought of when I saw this thread. His story is so tragic, especially the way he is killed.

 

No one has ever fallen father, from greater heights, having grown up in front of us his entire life, than Jacen Solo.

 

Firstly Anakin Skywalker is the quintessential Tragic Hero in my opinion and is by far the most tragic character. He was enslaved for the first decade of his life and is likely denied a typical childhood; he is separated from his mother with whom he has an incredibly strong bond (that moment when he leaves here is incredibly powerful); lives a Jedi?s life which, because of his un-Jedi-like early conditioning, would feel somewhat frustratingly restraining; is thrown into the heat of the Clone Wars and likely sees the very worst of war combined with the responsibility of leading armies at 20 and training Ahsoka (furthermore something may happen to her) undoubtedly being stressful and a heavy burden; torn between his Jedi obligations and his secretive marriage to Padme; the final days which transpire in ROTS would be incredibly frustrating, confusing and stressful; he ultimately betrays and destroys his wife, his surrogate family and all which he cherishes (including what he presumes is also his unborn child); forced to live a life entrapped within a shell living 20 years of regret and almost endless suffering. In my opinion he is the most tragic character. He falls from the ultimate heights of his grace as the Chosen One of the Jedi, destroys all he had cared for and is forced to live his life in a never-ending suffering.

However I also think Dooku is an incredibly tragic character. Ultimately he is brought down because he corrupts himself into taking overly drastic action in the name of good idealism. He loses his surrogate family in the Jedi and is played by Sidious into creating what he believes will be an idealistic society. He also never truly wants to destroy the Jedi but rather let them see his deluded and corrupted way of thinking. He is betrayed by his idealism which unfortunately corrupts him into being the perfect chess piece for Palpatine.

I would also like to make special mention of Obi-Wan. The poor bloke has his master killed, burdened with training the Chosen One, has everything taken from him and is inevitably left it the unrealistic self-proclaimed guilt that it is all his failure.

 

Leia. Her work to build New Republic was wasted, she betrayed it's successor state GA for Han's bout of Corellian patriotism. Her both sons died at a young age and she supported Jacen's murder, her daughter seems to be set to marry an heir to Palpatine's legacy and her grand-daughter is apparently set to become an autocrat too. Her "legacy" seems to me personally to set to be generations of despotic rulers who, based on what we have now, apparently even won't recognize their descent from her. The result being her life's work and her family utterly ruined in my eyes at least.

 

I think the Fetts are up there as well. Boba sees Jango beheaded in the arena and basically has to bring himself up. He marries and has a daughter only to have his wife disappear and end up in carbonite for years. His daughter is killed at the hands of Jacen & co. He gains a granddaughter and becomes Mandalore but now as things stand he can't go back to the planet due to a nanovirus attack. And he got tipped into the Sarlacc on top of it.

 

Three or four times, actually.

On the other hand, he could well get to live forever as he seems to have the biggest character shield of them all in current Star Wars in my own opinion. I can't myself imagine he being ever confirmed dead now, like Luke.

 

How about Tahiri? Her entire life has been personal tragedies and being manipulated by outside forces. The Yuuzhan Vong, Jacen and the Killiks in the Swarm War, Caedus twisting her around in the Second Galactic Civil War, and now Daala using her to advance her vendetta agianst the Jedi. She's made a lot of bad choices, but has been manipulated into making most of those. The moment she decides to figure out who she really is, she gets tossed in prison for crimes she was forced into doing.

 

Yeah, but that's Stazi for you.

 

I don't find Anakin Skywalker or Jacen Solo particularly tragic.

I guess I'll go with Alema Rar.

 

More like Ackbar's legacy without the political leadership to stand beside him and give added legitimacy.

 

I'm going to shy away from Lucas' argument that Star Wars is the tragedy of Anakin Skywalker. Yes, Anakin's pungent twerpitude can justifiably be accredited to being a naive slave-boy mommas boy who was abruptly plucked away to Coruscant where he marinated in You-are-the-Chosen-One-and-Foredoomed-to-Save-the-Universe juice and toiled for a decade under a psycho-obsessive lust for a woman he knew for maybe a month, none of which was helped by a proclivity towards everything he touched turning to gold. Add a doting teacher either incapable or unwilling to see Anakin's failings and a devious politician who incessantly tells our boy Ani that he, Jedi Skywalker, is the greatest thing in the Galaxy since Biscuit Baron launched its Hutt-sized all-you-can-eat buffet every Taungsday. All this does not make for a mentally and emotionally well-adjusted individual. Actually, it makes for an immature and angst-filled child in a man's body, a character with whom audiences are lucky to feel condescending pity, let alone sympathy.

As for Luke Skywalker, well, his story ain't over yet, and the way things look it ain't gonna be either. He's like Queen Victoria and Elvis rolled into one. We know he's dead but we won't let him lie in peace. Has his life been a long, so far unending, series of misfortunes writ Galaxy-spanning? Yes. So yes, his is a sad tale. But tragic? Wait for his last stand then we'll see if his is the stuff of tragic heroism.

Now for Count Dooku. He is Christopher Kriffing Lee. Naught else need be said. His voice alone can fill the roles of twenty.

What about Jacen Solo, I hear you say? Well, here we may have a case. Jacen we watched from womb to grave. His parents and uncle being who they were, he lived a life of catastrophe after catastrophe. Borrowing a phrase from an Edith Nesbit novel (plus five points to whoever has heard of her), his life can be summed up as: He would be good if he could be good. LotF, however, revealed to us that Jacen's Corollary to 1890s British Children's Literature References says: He can't be good so he shan't be good. Surface lesson learned? It sucks to have Jedi and war-heroes and politicians for kindred. Deeper lesson learned? Jacen could have had the most tragic story in Star Wars, but didn't.

Ulic Qel-Droma I find no more tragic than any other Jedi versus the dark side. Been done before. Been done since. Same story, new face. Tahiri and Alema Rar can be rightly considered tragic tales, but like Ulic, there's nothing new or singular that makes them stand out of the crowd.

So all this said, what do I think? Whom do I say has the most tragic story? I'm going to go with the first Jedi to ever fall completely to the dark side, because he or she or it set a precedent, establishing a pattern that would repeat forever, dooming the Galaxy to innumerable wars and slaughters.

 

If you want real tragedy look at Nelani Dinn. Trained by Jacen and brought into the Jedi Order by him, gets a crush on him. Then proceeds to watch him turn to the dark side, then is murdered by him, and is promptly never mentioned again. No one ever figured out he killed her. She was killed by her master, and idol of her affection, and still believed there was good in him as she died. Then Jacen dies as an unredeemed Darth Caedus, proving her last dying wish wrong.

 

She was occasionally mentioned again, at one point lil' Ben made a decision to find out what happened if I recall, but nothing came out of it.

 

This looks familiar.

 

Ummmm, It was mentioned that she took Jacen's Lightsaber class.

Not that she was not his student, but he was not her Master.

Not that what the rest of what you said was untrue. I do feel she had the potential to be a great character

 

Probably. The search system isn't particularly reliable.

 

Meh. Doesn't matter. I forget most of what I post so I for one am fine with repeats.

 

Anakin and Obi-Wan. More so Anakin for losing everything and living in thrawl to Palpatine for some 23 years without Padme.

 

Jar-Jar Binks. No where has a fictional character have been so hated by the community.

 

"Isa der anything Isa can helpa you with Sen Padme!?"

"No, I'm very busy Jar Jar, I'm sure you have stuff to attend to."

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