Anakin's Defining Characteristics

[Anakin] believes that he's the Chisen One. He's not doing wrong things knowing that its having a negative impact.

So there's that, sort of, naïveté to him now that wasn't there before, and it makes him more human in a lot of ways.

-Hayden Christensen

Yeah, I don't think he gave it much thought. That is until after years of Palpatine stroking his ego (I get the idea it's what (indirectly) led him to believe he could become powerful enough to stop death). But even then, I'd say he really didn't start taking stock in it until he turned to the dark side and used it as justification to believe he could overthrow Palpatine (which he could, of course, but that's another story for RotJ), and, as you mentioned, reform the Galaxy under his rule.

And this is the part of Episode III Hayden is speaking to.
(Last five minutes of video).
youtu.be/UqLsQClut5c

I think it's important that Anakin not think much of the Prophecy when left to his own devices, in order to show how much Palpatine manipulated him and to show how he suddenly decided to buy into it in order to justify his dark deeds during and immediately after his turn. As in; his rationale wasn't to turn to be evil, it was to do 'good' - his idea of good, at that point. He was using the Chosen One thing as a carte blanche to pursue his personal, selfish desires at that point.

As Lucas also says in this video:
"Nobody who's evil thinks of themselves as evil. They always believe they're doing good, even though they're not! And so it's a matter of how does a person who is good, turn to becoming an evil person."

Right. It could be argued that the prophecy angle implicitly fuels Anakin's ego and feeds into his hubris, as well as his fears and anxieties. When he dreams about his mother and later Padme in distress, his response to those visions becomes one of grim determination and eschatological foreclosure. While never stated outright, Anakin seems to see it as inevitable that he must take action to prevent outcomes he holds to be real -- a view likely bolstered by the prophecy (like all prophecies) being both just clear enough, and just vague enough, to impress upon him the cosmic rectitude of interceding; of creating new conditions and bending the universe to his will; giving him the warrant, as he later tells Padme, to make things the way they (or he) want them to be (or believe they should go) in a just and ordered cosmos (i.e., if it isn't just and ordered, Anakin must make it so).

To play Devil's advocate, Anakin objects to Padme calling him a slave in TPM, protesting that he is a person with a name. Along similar lines, perhaps he doesn't really like the idea of a prophecy, because it saddles him with another label; and again, with its destiny angle, seems to obviate his personhood. Thus, he may just interpret it to mean, "The Jedi think I'm special, therefore I must be special", without paying much heed to the Chosen One label -- or obligation -- until, as Subtext suggests, he goes dark and rationalises his dark deeds as being cosmically ordained. Until then, maybe he's taking more of a "suck it and see" approach and sort of going through life like Watto's chance cube. Blue, it's all on him. Red, there are other forces involved and he *is* the Chosen One.


Well, on some level, it all comes down to office politics. The bureaucratic angle cannot be ignored in the PT. The whole trilogy (and, technically, the saga) starts in a conference room and proceeds in a windy, tortuous vein, with much calamity and hijinks, but always comes back to board-rooms, corporate intrigue, and city-planning (the PT is basically a chamber drama or period piece meets HBO's "Rome" and "The Wire"). This is where bashers are both very right and very wrong. 'Cos, yeah, it *is* about the taxation of trade routes, and how layers of stultifying politesse encumber our lives (does a droid factory have a soul?). TESB, the crown jewel of the OT, is itself like a black comedy with Vader/Anakin choking underperforming or overly ambitious subordinates (visiting on his underlings the hurt and humiliation the Jedi originally visited on him). For what it's worth, it's also the only OT movie with a "city in the clouds". Hmm.

Anyway, to put it plainly:

Anakin is a skilled office assistant, and is basically stifled by his managers for fear of being equalled or superseded. Palpatine tells him the Jedi fear his power and know that he'll eventually be too strong to control; and while quite slippery with the truth, Palpatine never tells a complete lie. You only have to see how Mace reacts to Anakin bringing him the "good news" that the Sith Lord has been found, and it's none other than Palpatine, to experience an example of exactly what Palpatine just said. Mace tells Anakin to remain behind and even backs off from Anakin as he boards the gunship (touche, George!) -- a gunship (militarised hive-mind) to arrest the incumbent Chancellor of the Republic.

Anakin evidently knew the truth of this and that his mission was basically a sham. Notice that Mace casually tells Anakin, even before Anakin has said a word, that they're already on their way to the Senate to "make sure" Palpatine hands back his emergency powers. They don't wait for Anakin's report, even though Mace himself gave Anakin the order to report back on Palpatine so that they could get "a clue to his intentions". But, nah -- that's out the window now (pun intended?). They simply gave the boy something to do, just to rattle Palpatine, really. "We're onto you, old man" was the message they wanted to send. Anakin was just their messenger boy. 

"They want me to spy on the Chancellor?"     

No -- they only wanted you to get sufficiently agitated that you were being finagled against your high-placed friend that your high-placed friend, if he was as Force-sensitive as the Jedi feared, would cotton onto their scam straight away, and know (via Anakin's mere presence) that his time was almost up. Anakin continues to be the messenger boy under Palpatine: "Send a message to the Trade Federation. All droid units must shut down -- immediately." Anakin knew by then he was being played by both sides (hence him telling Padme in the next scene that he could overthrow Palpatine, all remaining loyalty dissolved, even the carrot of learning the secrets of "Darth Plagueis The Wise" swatted away).

Humans are extremely devious, especially when they start manipulating a power structure to their own advantage. That's basically the message of the PT, the backbone of Star Wars: a prescient warning (as edutainment) to us all. The tragedy is that Anakin attempts to get on top of all this and then becomes sucked into the power vortex himself. An object lesson that we must take the warning seriously. There is very little true freedom in the world. Most people live for the machine instead of living for each other.

Yep, I do think it makes sense to read it that way, for the most part. Look at the way he blanches at Qui-Gon's explanation of midi-chlorians. He seemed genuinely curious to learn what they were when he first asks Qui-Gon, until Qui-Gon tells him they "live inside" him, and that they are "symbionts" that "continually speak to us", communicating "the will of the Force". That all seemed too much for Anakin to wrap his mind around: "I have these little creatures inside me? I'm some kind of biological city? And these things are trying to tell me how to act and I'm meant to listen?" No wonder he acts a little too innocent to Qui-Gon, when the Quister tells him to find a safe place in Theed Hangar and stay there. The dirty hippy had already started to bore him with his trite demands and silly ravings.

And about that little Qui-Gon moment:

Qui-Gon's face when Anakin asks him about the midi-chlorians:



Anakin's face when Padme suggests that Obi-Wan wants to help him:



It's the same expression with the same contented/demented "star sparkle" in their eye and the same chiaroscuro lighting style.

How Anakin thinks he has moved beyond all tutelage, all masters...

By ROTS, the path of wisdom is no longer being trodden, and the galaxy has become a dark forest.

I really liked the analysis of whether Anakin is a psychopath in this video:



The psychiatrist knows his stuff about Star Wars and takes the film seriously, which is refreshing. He takes into account Anakin's age and even mentions his harsh upbringing. This is the type of analysis these films deserve, because the characters, especially Anakin, are that complex and real. I think the mainstream medias are coming around to the prequels, slowly but surely.

Watto's influence on Anakin is indeed interesting to think about. Watto owned Anakin and Shmi, and Anakin ends up being very possessive of Padmé, treating her like an object. Watto: "You can't have him, it wasn't a fair bet." Anakin: "You won't take her from me!"

There is also this similarity of them saying "How can you do this?"

Anakin, despite being a slave, was a generous, good-natured child who was always able to make the most of what he had. But after arriving on Coruscant, he also had a mentor who was secretly a Sith Lord, who knew how to manipulate people.

In Episode I we saw that besides being gifted in the Force, Anakin was basically like most other kids:
lofty ambitions ("I wanna be the first one to see 'em all!")
strong sense of identity (a person, not just a slave)
pride ("I'm the only human that can do it.")
a belief that Jedi can do whatever they want
and strong bond with his mother.

However, in the hands of Palpatine, these natural, healthy traits could be molded and shaped into a sense of self-righteousness and entitlement.

And with flaws like that framing his constitution, Anakin was set up for a fall, so to speak. He was heading down a path that would not only collide with the Jedi values, but would likely come to a head in some volatile moment. Which would then create a hook with which Palpatine could pull him into the dark side.

We didn't discussed this much but regarding Anakin and his attitude towards authority, I think that he is not the type who was seeking power literally (before his falling, I mean). He was seeking control which is not the same. Control means no risk or casualties in regards to something (or someone) he cares about. In short, if we can describe him as archetype, Anakin is the sentinel. He was born to protect and guard not to govern over others (power corrupts). Ironically even after his falling he continues to be sentinel in a very twisted way, guarding the castle of evil if I can say so. So this is one of his defining characteristics I think: he is indeed a Knight and when he fell he somehow tried to continue to be a knight (but that was impossible of course). Of course, being a Sith he already was interested in power and so on, my point is that there are nuances in his desperate seeking of control: he is not the type who is seeking to be the leader. He is capable to lead others in battle but being a leader at least in the beginning is not his intent at all.

Willingness to help: Anakin is relentlessly helpful, he doesn't want to let anybody down and that is not only restricted to the people he loves (his mother, his wife), but includes random clones in a battle over Coruscant or a group of people he's only loosely associated with (the slaves on Tatooine). As it goes with all good characerization, that first and foremost good trait is turned into something harmful when he becomes obsessed with saving the ones he loves.

Ambition: Anakin is ambitious. He sets high goals for himself, wants to improve, become a better Jedi and surpass his masters. That said, this is also a cause for his discontent in combination with his impatience, especially as a result of moments of failure, which propels him to the dark side ("I am Jedi. I know I am better than this.").

Insecurity: He "knows" he's better than this, but does he really? There is a deep part in Anakin that's vulnerable and insecure. His whole approach in regard to Padmè is based on insecurity. He's nervous, trying to impress and failing at that. He is also afraid of being not powerful enough.

Strong: Anakin is strong, he is very athletic, skilled and powerful. He's also fragile, though, and fragile power is a potential danger.

Just a few thoughts.