Vote up the most heartbreaking things fans noticed.
For being soap opera set in space, Star Wars is one heck of a tragedy, especially if you carry the name “Skywalker.” Anakin Skywalker's journey from slave, to Jedi, to Dark Lord of the Sith is riddled with heartbreaking moments that are shown on screen. The real heartbreak occurs when you take a step back and look at his journey as a whole with the context of six films, an animated series, and the Darth Vader comics– and die hard fans are the first to connect the dots.
This is a list of the most heartbreaking things fans noticed about Anakin Skywalker. Take a look down below and vote up the most heartbreaking things!
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Anakin's Story Is The Saddest In All Of 'Star Wars'
Photo: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith / 20th Century Fox
TL:DR - Anakin is by far the most tragic character that I have seen in popular culture. His origins, young adulthood, and tragic redemption is one of the greatest story arcs ever told:
Honestly it's heart-wrenching. Born a slave to a mother that loves him more than her own life, on a desolate planet where he will most likely die in the same place he's been since his mother decided to settle there. He had nothing other than her. Then comes these mythological figures that are guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy and he's given a way out. He's given an avenue to become one of them because a Master sees what his true potential is.
All he has to do is leave her behind.
Leave behind the woman who has scraped and scrapped for anything and everything to give to him. The last step between leaving the nearly inhospitable planet that he hates is that he needs to abandon the one thing in the universe he truly loves. And one of the last things Shmi says to him?
Don't look back...
Doubted from the very beginning of his training, taken on begrudgingly by a young knight who is only doing so to fulfill a promise to his former master, Anakin wrestles with his identity as a slave and rises to become one of the most formidable young padawans the Jedi Order has ever seen. He fights, and fights, and fights, and wins, and wins, and wins, at almost every challenge thrown his way but his undying love for people who love him is what holds him back from completely letting go and becoming the Jedi that people want him to be.
He loves. He loves to the point of obsession. The only person he loves more than his own mother is Padmé and he is bombarded by visions of her death, similar to his Shmi's. Anakin saw his mother die in his dreams, and relived that horror in person. All of this despite him traveling across the galaxy to attempt to save her. He would rather sacrifice everything he has ever achieved than see the woman he loves suffer the same fate.
Yet the actions he takes to prevent this lead to his wife and unborn child dying at his own hand.
For nearly twenty years he kills old friends as he hunts down the remaining Jedi, until he senses Ben.
Ever have a friend that you would die for? Right now, who was/is/will be your best man at your wedding? Who is the godfather of your children? Who is your ultimate confidant that you would trust with anything? Now imagine the betrayal you feel, when you realize they aren't going with you on this journey that you think is your right path. Not only won't go with you, but will do what they must to kill you and prevent these events from unfolding.
Now you see them. To you, they are the reason you are encumbered in this metal prison. Anakin strikes out with the intent that this will finally be the end of his past. The last man who might remember who he was before his immolation will now be dead.
But while defending the station that is the culmination of his new empire he sense a presence, and the search of the source will consume him for years until he discovers the truth. Anakin Skywalker, the hero of the Republic, the secret beloved husband of Queen Padmé Amidala, is a father. He has a son.
He has a son who is a Jedi, who is the hero of the Rebellion. He embodies everything Anakin hates about his past self. And he now struggles with his own identity. Is he loyal to his emperor who still has much to teach him about power and the force, which is all he has now? Or does he invest in his son, which is his last connection to the woman he loved more than his mother? Everything. Everything, he has tried to saved as turned to ash in his hands. Maybe just this once...
Anakin's love for his mother lead him down the path to the dark side. His love for his wife and unborn children was the cause for him to betray the order that raised him from a slave to a revered Knight and General. His love for his son, and his newly discovered daughter, is the catalyst for Vader to remember Anakin. He fulfills his destiny and destroys the master, at the cost of his own life.
He's tragic. He is the victim, villain, and hero of this story. Despite some directional and writing choices taking during the prequels, any competent edit of them shows the deep and character developing story that is there.
Redditor u/universe-atom points out the cinematic and framing parallels between Revenge of the Sith and Return of the Jedi. In both films, Anakin struggles with his identity and where he falls on the light and dark side spectrum with the same physical mannerisms.
