Skywalker's fall from grace

[Daystar Clarion]

Before anyone says it, no this thread is not about how Lucas butchered the series with things like midochlorians, Jar Jar Binks, etc, etc, this thread is about Anakin Skywalker and why I think his fall from grace isn't what I imagined it to be, feel free to critique my ideas and/or add your own.

Anakin as portrayed in the prequal trilogy is a whiney, angsty, emo douchebag. I know that, you know that. About 95% of that is down to the way the character was scripted and the rest was down to Haydenson not being able to act for toffee apples. Darth Vader in the original trilogy was a walking pile of awesome intimidation and power. How did he turn from such an arse into one of the most memorable villains of all time?

When I imagined pre-Vader Anakin, I thought he would be the perfect example of what a Jedi would and should be, selfless, merciful etc etc. So when Anakin in the prequal trilogy is crying every 5 minutes screaming "QQ I wants moar powah!", I just couldn't understand what went wrong. It shoud have been about how the best Jedi of the time fell from grace, something so terrible happened, something so devastating shook Anakin's foundations that it goes to show that no Jedi is 100% risk free of turning to the dark side.



The best way I can give it context is that Anakin should have been very similiar to light side Revan or paragon Commander Shepard. Best of the best, they were modest, selfless, all the traits you would expect to see in a perfect Jedi. If the viewer had no idea that Anakin would eventually be Vader, he/she should have never have seen it coming. The way he was portrayed in the prequal trilogy, I knew he would turn as soon as he opened his poorly written mouth.
EDIT: This about Anakin in episodes 2 and 3, 1 is exempt from the article.

 

[Yassen]

While I agree with your points it's important to remember they did show Anakin as an innocent, extremely talented and selfless child in the first movie. I had a hard time seeing him become Vader then.

It was only in the second and third movie they royally screwed the character.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

While I agree with your points it's important to remember they did show Anikan as an innocent, extremely talented and selfless child in the first movie. I had a hard time seeing him become Vader then.

It was only in the second and third movie they royally screwed the character.

That's what I mean, in episode 1 he was fine. Not great, but as soon as the second episode came along I was just face palming every 2 minutes.

 

[Quaxar]

Hey, leave him alone! Poor guy...
http://www.livescience.com/culture/psychology-darth-vader-revealed-100604.html

But yes, he was a bit whiney in the third movie.

 

[Everin]

how else was he going to change into Darth Vader, which had to happen, so rapidly? By being an arse.

 

[psychic psycho]

It kinda sounds like your describing what happened to Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Really all they had to do was make Anakin a likable character.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

It kinda sounds like your describing what happened to Harvey Dent/Two-Face. Really all they had to do was make Anakin a likable character.

That makes quit a bit of sense actually, now that you mention it. If you take away the angst and the bitching then it that would have probably worked.

 

[tzimize]

Argh! Dont talk about anakin episode 2/3 he doesnt exist!!!!!!!!! *puts fingers in ears* LALALALALALALALALALALALALA!!

 

[UBERfionn]

Read "Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader" by James Luceno. it made me feel better about the new movies.

 

[Socius]

"I. Am. Anakin. Skywalker! My. Shitty. Acting. is. ruining. saga!"

+10 points for correct reference

 

[Valksy]

That Lucas cannot direct people as well as he directs effects is evident. But the bit that got me, the bit that really got me, was the moment he slaughtered the children in the jedi temple. Seriously, everything that he had done up until that point was for the love of a good woman. How did he reckon she should take to mass murder? Answer, she didn't, she would sooner die (and orphan her own kids, what a pro).

I found the by the third film the choices that characters made we so stupid as to be borderline nonsensical. I have heard of writing characters in broad strokes but that was just mad.


And I did buy Kenobi showing no mercy to the man he called his brother. They were meant to be chivalrous, coup de grace man and spare us the frigging ewoks.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

The entire story arc makes no sense. He's tempted by the solution to a problem that doesn't exist, is treated like an imbecile by people who know he's a warrior of destiny sent to fulfill a balance prophecy in a galaxy OVERRUN BY LIGHT JEDI, DO THESE PEOPLE NOT UNDERSTAND THE YIN/YANG CONCEPT OF BALANCE? If I have 100 apples and 1 orange, obviously "balance" means the last orange which is in hiding will be destroyed, right? NO! Wrong! Mace Windu, Yoda and all you other jedi, you suck! I hate the hacks that wrote this dreck!

Anyway, rewinding to before I went on my little rant: Anakin feels compelled to help a dying father figure against an emotionally cold and arrogant Jedi Master who always treated him like scum. Understandable, this is one of the very few moments a normal human can identify with Anakin's actions. Then, just after that, when his brain must be reeling with the consequences of his actions, he AGREES TO MURDER MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN IN WHAT HAS BEEN HIS HOME FOR OVER TEN YEARS. And he has no problem with this at all, despite wrestling emotionally with the decision to kill ONE jedi earlier, a jedi who openly hated him, was planning to murder a man who treated Anakin like a son, and who was disobeying the Jedi policy of working within the laws of the land. Preeeeetty big jump that makes absolutely no sense and happens within about five minutes.

I won't deny a lot of the Expanded Universe novels are pretty worthless, but I read the Darth Bane series a while ago in the wake of Episode Three, and I think I've decided to pretend Vader and Darth Bane are the same character, and Bane's origin story is Vader's. Why? Because it's a lot more awesome. Being burned by your best friend is nothing compared to wearing a suit of semisentient armored scarabs. It's nice to see Sith doing Sith things, for once.

 

[Yassen]

I think they did OK with the turn. I think they could have done more with the rooting of the dark side in him. I thought it was a bit stupid how a dream about Padme would die and one story from Palpatine made him question everything he knew.

Apparently Palpatine had been manipulating Anakin his whole life, making him feel special about himself in very subtle ways. This would make Anakin resent how the Jedi didn't appreciate his power as much as Palpatine did. It was basically his desire to be admired and his lust for power that led to his eventual fall.

 

[Cowabungaa]

While I agree with your points it's important to remember they did show Anakin as an innocent, extremely talented and selfless child in the first movie. I had a hard time seeing him become Vader then.

It was only in the second and third movie they royally screwed the character.

Hence why Episode 1 is by far my favourite prequel film. That and it had Darth Maul, Liam Neeson and a pod race. And it wasn't 100% filmed in front of a green screen. Good gods I hate that.

That and indeed Anakin's awfulness make the other 2 prequel films a lot less enjoyable.

 

[WolfThomas]

I concur with this 100%, he should have been a perfect white knight who changed sides because he believed that the sith way of emotion was good and that the jedi were corrupt and bureaucratical.

 

[Soxafloppin]

His downfall was supposed to be a journey. I think he should have started off as a teenager in the first film rather than a child, that would have gave them more movies to show him gradually becoming darker.

 

[Downfall89]

I'm just sad that Lucas fucked up the prequels in general. The only memorable moment I remember is the epic showdown between Anakin and Obi-Wan at the end of Revenge of the Sith.

 

[Bellvedere]

I expected exactly the same of pre-vader Anakin. His fall from grace wasn't going to be a twist but they could have least made it interesting rather than so straight forward. Though in fairness I actually thought Anakin for the first part of Episode 3 was much better. With the exception about whining about being a spy for the council, he was an almost likeable character for the first time.

I don't really blame Hayden Christiansen for being a terrible actor though. With that script there was only so much he could do. Even Natalie Portman's Amidala was pretty disgraceful in the second two and she's a pretty good actor.

I still liked the prequels though. So they weren't master pieces. Still fun. Jedi are so cool.