The Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker

All right. Let's do this. This will be an essay examining how the hell it is that Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader. We know how it happened in the movies in terms of action. I want to talk about how psychologically and spiritually Anakin became Darth Vader. Specifically, I want to highlight how this could have been prevented.

As I proceed here, I am also fully aware of how the story of Anakin is very similar to the story of Earth. So, if you'd like, let Anakin stand symbolically for Earth.

Childhood Traumas

Anakin begins his life as a slave on Tatooine. Barring the whole "midi-chlorians conceived him" business, which now when I think about the movies and think about how Taygetans can impregnate themselves because they are lonely... Well, that's not so far-fetched a concept, is it? Anyway. Anakin has no father and is a slave.

I would argue that as far as slave lives go, Anakin doesn't have it too terribly bad compared to how bad it could be. He works in a shop cleaning ship and podracer parts. Watto, his owner, is simultaneously cruel and not cruel. Verbally abusive, but not physically so. Very demanding of work, but at the same time capable of being compassionate. Still, this kind of life is a hard one. It's not good for a Lyrian to be enslaved. It's bad for our consciousness and traumatizes it in a very natural sense.

It's also not healthy for Lyrians to be exposed to authority figures who use intermittent, unpredictable rewards and punishment as a way of controlling others. It does two things:

1. Makes us dissociate from reality and stop learning to be present
2. Makes us addicts for kindness and grants Stockholm Syndrome in spades 

So, first childhood experiences are as a slave. He ends up earning his freedom by being "won" by a Jedi named Qui-Gon Jinn, and then has no choice but to leave the planet and his mother behind. Yes, he is on a big adventure, but by this time, he's only 9 years old. Actually, let's break this down.

Within the course of about 2-3 days on Tatooine, Anakin:

1. Meets a Jedi who shows compassion and interest in him as an actual person, not an object (this is a bigger deal than you think)
2. Wins a pod race
3. Wins his freedom
4. Learns he has some big destiny to fulfill
5. Meets someone noble who is actually kind
6. Gets swept away in a starship
7. Leaves his planet and mother behind (who is still enslaved)

That is a LOT for a 9-year-old. This is one of those experiences that you call a "Quantum Leap" in your life. Where everything changes all at once and your reality is turned upside down. Usually, for your own good.

Soulmates

I want to take a moment here to highlight some interesting things. So, the moment Anakin leaves Tatooine and has some time to take a breath while the starship is in transit to Coruscant, he properly meets Padme, who is going by another name at the time. It is clear from the outset, both of these characters know they are connected at a soul level. It's actually well done by the directors of the movie, because the body language is right on par with how people who are soul-bonded act when they're around each other the first time in a lifetime.

Which is to say, both slightly awkward (because the "I already know you" feeling is so intense yet they've just met) and at the same time unusually open and vulnerable (because the "I already know you feeling" is so intense).

The same can be said for Qui-Gon Jinn and Anakin. They act the same way, only with an automatic father-to-son dynamic.

Side note about Qui-Gon Jinn:

Qui-Gon is the only Jedi in a very long time to be what's called a "Grey" Jedi. He is someone who has mastered the light AND the dark in himself. It is worth noting that unlike most Jedi, who only chase the light and shun the dark, Qui-Gon has learned to embrace his empathic nature and all of his emotions. He uses them when he uses the Force, which makes him especially powerful. This mainly occurred because he broke the Jedi precepts and had the gall to have a romantic relationship with someone, who unfortunately died. It was through processing his grief that he learned how to harness his emotions as a force on their own.

Faulty Guidance

So, Anakin is in completely over his head right now. He's left the only life he ever knew. Is surrounded by strange people he barely knows but feels connected to. And to top it all off, after travelling through space for the first time is in a giant city-planet with no nature for the first time (Coruscant) standing in front of an intimidating bunch of beings called "Jedi", none of which are warm like Qui-Gon Jinn.

Oh, yes, they are compassionate, but they are cold in their compassion. They are remote. Seemingly untouchable. And as Anakin is standing there, all of 9 years old, in front of them, they have the gall to say "I sense much fear in him."

Well no shit, Yoda. The kid has hardly had 5 minutes to take a breath! And this is the beginning of the terrible guidance for Anakin as he grows. It's also unfortunate that Qui-Gon Jinn dies within a few months of Anakin becoming a padawan. Qui-Gon is the only Jedi who could have properly guided Anakin. Instead, the task falls to Obiwan Kenobi, who while competent, is unfortunately dutiful to the Jedi Code.

For you see, like Qui-Gon, Anakin is an empath and extremely emotional. He is extremely sensitive to energies. As he grows into a teenager, he shows the ability to have prescient dreams. Yet all along, the Jedi Council advises him again and again to discard his emotions. To shut them down and out, when emotions are what give Anakin his raw power. And when he has a prescient dream of his mother being enslaved by Tuskens, he's told to discard the dream.

Yet, he goes out anyway, and finds out his dream was 100% accurate and true. Is it any wonder he becomes enraged in the Tusken camp? All that the Jedi Council has been telling him has been a lie, for him. His emotions are true. His dreams are true. And yet he is told to discard these. This is where Anakin's slide into hell begins.

The Gross Errors of the Jedi Council and Its Policy

Let's take a break for a moment and look at the Jedi Council and its policies/teachings.

Jedi Teachings

One of the main teachings of the Jedi way of life is that there is a Light Side of the Force (Source) and a Dark Side of the Force. There are also several main precepts.

(This is where I get to show you exactly how much of a nerd I am. I literally have the Jedi Path book, which is the Jedi Code written from the characters as if it's a real thing. Well, because it is. Humans made it real, but that's beside the point. And well, maybe at one point I was thinking to myself, "I could be a Jedi." Until I read their precepts and decided against it.)

Here are the main precepts:

• There is no emotion, there is peace.
• There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
• There is no passion, there is serenity.
• There is no chaos, there is harmony.
• There is no death, there is the Force.

The presumption here is all that is in the first part of each precept is associated with the Dark Side of the Force. And all that is in the second part is associated with the Light Side of the Force. Now, Jedi as a collective, generally proceed with exalting and venerating the Light Side and the Light Side only. It's quite obvious from the very phrasing of their precepts that they deny the very existence of the Dark Side at all times.

Side Note: Do you also see how this plays out in the New Age movement on Earth? Do you see the teachings there and here? Hmm. Hmm. Who is seeding these teachings? Why?

What does this do to Lyrian being? It denies half of their very existence. Empathic beings are by default exceptionally emotional--emotions are their superpower. They are also naturally "ignorant" in that they are innocent in their behavior; they don't know what they don't know. They are passionate, and their creativity is driven from their passion. They are chaotic, and their rapid and intense transformations of themselves are generated from that chaos. And they are physical beings with a physical body that can die.

Does this mean the Light Side is bad? Nope. There just needs to be balance and harmonization of BOTH sides. And you see, the Jedi Code does NOT allow for that. It REJECTS the other side entirely.

Jedi Errors

Because of the precepts presented here, the Jedi eschew all emotions and emotional attachments to others. They enforce the experience of love, only as it pertains to "agape", which is universal unconditional love of everyone and every thing. They deny any type of love that otherwise exists. This includes family ties, as a Jedi you are to relinquish those, friends, romantic partners. All other types of love are forbidden. Jedi essentially are meant to be celibate monks who take their sexual frustration out in combat. (Ooh, I went there. Yes, I did.)

What do I mean by that. Okay, well aside from the problems with their policy, over time, the Jedi Council began to become the attack dog for the Galactic Senate. I'm sure I could go delve into the lore and tell you how that came to be, but let's be satisfied with the idea that an order of beings who originally intended to assist civilizations in need throughout the galaxy slowly became enmeshed with the Galactic Republic, and thereby became the religious-military arm of the Galactic Senate. If you watch the movies, you'll get an idea of how this happened.

Therefore, the Jedi Order ends up participating in War, which is actually against the Jedi precepts. But the Jedi Council glosses over this constantly in favor of their delusion that they are maintaining harmony in the galaxy. "If we didn't go to war, the galaxy would descend into chaos." My argument is also that the Jedi Council supports this frequency combat to keep its empathic members, who are emotionally and sexually frustrated to the point of madness, in line and sane. All that energy has to go somewhere. Why not through a lightsaber and into the gut of some unfortunate creature whose civilization is not obeying the Galactic Republic's grander aims?

Hmm...........

Sound familiar?

​Anyway, it is because of the erroneous precepts of the Jedi Code and the maladaptive, hypocritical positions and policies of the Jedi Council that Anakin receives continual guidance that erodes Anakin's trust in himself and those around him. The fact that he falls in love, quite naturally, with Padme and she with him and that he can't even celebrate this openly because of "Jedi Code" is another factor that drives the wedge deeper.

Descent into Madness

And now we come to it. All of the childhood trauma that Anakin was not encouraged to heal, but instead taught to deny. All of the fear he was taught to push down and push away. All of the anger, pain, love, passion...all that he naturally feels as a highly emotional being and empathic being builds over the course of his life.

His inability to celebrate a natural union with a soulmate drives him into secrecy, which exacerbates those trapped emotions, triggers all that suppressed anger, and unleashes it in his mind as madness.

I argue that had Qui-Gon Jinn been in Anakin's life, Anakin would not have come to this state. In fact, I'm fairly certain Qui-Gon would have supported Anakin at every turn and given him the proper guidance for harnessing his emotions and blending them with the Force. Jedi Code argues that you cannot do this, but Qui-Gon learned how without corrupting himself. Anyway.

Palpatine naturally capitalizes on this. Of course he does. The Dark Side of the Force is all ABOUT emotions. All about using those emotions in the Force and letting that be your power source. Thing is, Palpatine isn't wrong here. He's absolutely correct that this is the correct use for Anakin's highly emotional nature. What's wrong is how he plays upon Anakin's fears of Padme dying, because Anakin never came to terms with his mother dying or Qui-Gon dying. Because the Jedi Council never properly counseled him on handling his grief, because they deny grief exists.

​What a mess.

Anakin naturally descends into a paranoid, anger-infused madness. And the tragedy of his story continues to decline into Greek tragedy levels of drama to the point where Padme dies anyway, he's murdered hundreds of people, and lost himself so badly he loses most of his body.

The tragedy of all of this:

None of this had to happen. It could have been prevented easily. So very easily.

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I hope you enjoyed this essay. I thank you for your time. Adiamas.

--Kyriel