☀️ COMMUNITY PROJECT
*This post contains minor spoilers for the final season of The Clone Wars as well as Rebels and the Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comic book series*
“Anakin Skywalker was weak. I destroyed him.” - Darth Vader
It’s a question as old as Star Wars itself. Were Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader different people? Did Vader really ”destroy” Anakin, or was Anakin behind that mask the entire time? As always, I personally believe the answer isn’t so clear-cut.
As much as Sith would have you believe it, I propose they aren’t a totally different person once they turn to the dark side. They may have some sort of radical personality change, but in the end they remain the same person they were before. They may act like they’re totally changed and perhaps even delude themselves into believing their old persona is dead, but in the case of Vader, we saw that he struggled constantly with his conflicting personalities and beliefs.
It is my theory that once the dark side takes hold, it can lead to a dissociative state. Anakin was prone to emotional outbursts, thus making him a perfect victim of the dark side. When his mother died, Anakin lost all control. Without perspective and against better judgement, he became violent. This supposed protector of the peace slaughtered an entire village of mostly innocent beings in a fit of rage so uncharacteristic of his otherwise cool and level-headed personality.
Despite this horrific event, throughout the Clone Wars Anakin continued acting as if this never happened and even lost control a few more times. Perhaps he was so dissociated during his attack on the Tusken Raiders that he viewed this Anakin Skywalker as a different person? I believe that by creating a separate personality in his head, Anakin found it easier to excuse his horrific actions, like a sort of coping mechanism. Case in point, we know Vader would often refer to Anakin Skywalker in the third person to distance himself from his past. He hid behind this mask, creating a facade and deluding himself to the extent that he could continue these unforgivable acts without feeling any personal responsibility or regret.
When it came to saving Padmé, Anakin acted out of both his love of his wife and fear of losing her. In an unbridled fit of rage, hatred, fear and pure emotion, Anakin once again allowed the dark side to take hold. Entering this dissociative state once more, he destroyed everything he held dear in a desperate attempt to save the woman he loved. After years of manipulation at the hands of Palpatine, Darth Vader was born. Palpatine was a master of the dark and a gifted manipulator who knew exactly what to do to push Anakin over the edge, he exploited every weakness of the Jedi Knight so perfectly that Anakin barely stood a chance. In some ways, his transformation into Vader was inevitable.
However, even after Anakin became Vader, we saw him doubt and regret his actions. If his Vader persona had truly taken hold, why did he question his past? We saw this explored extensively in Charles Soule’s Vader comic book series (which I highly recommend by the way). In this series, Vader would meditate for seemingly hours, reflecting on his decisions. We saw the real Vader in these moments, not the facade he put on, but the real man, a conflicted and broken Anakin Skywalker.
Towards the end of the series, with the help of an ancient Sith Lord named Momin, Vader constructed a portal that could supposedly bring Padmé back to life. After entering the portal and confronting various visions of his past, Vader found the spirit of his wife. He asked her to return to the physical world with him, but she claimed that Anakin Skywalker was dead to her. Amidala proceeded to take her own life and Vader was forced to return to the real world alone. He had lost his absolute final chance to save his wife, and now that all had failed, Vader appeared to fully commit himself to the dark side, crushing what was left of his Anakin Skywalker personality.
This might explain why Vader was seemingly emotionless when fighting his former apprentice, Ahsoka, in the Star Wars Rebels animated series. We know Vader found her saber in the snow at the end of The Clone Wars series, and perhaps at this point he would have given anything to get her back; maybe in this moment, before the events that took place later in Soule’s series, Vader had some light within him. But by the time of Rebels, Vader had lost everything and was convinced he was irredeemable. He likely felt he had no choice but to kill Ahsoka. In his mind, he’d gone too far and couldn’t go back.
Despite what Vader himself believed, I am convinced that he always had to have some hope, some conflict within him to turn at the end of Return of the Jedi. That inner turmoil Vader constantly felt represented the small amount of Anakin Skywalker that remained. When Anakin saw his son Luke being tortured by the Emperor, that spark within him grew into a blazing inferno. This event was the catalyst that allowed Anakin to escape Vader and finally see that he wasn’t beyond redemption. Thanks to the love and hope instilled in him by his son, Vader felt human again. He finally had something to hold on to, something to prove that Anakin Skywalker wasn’t dead, and with one fell swoop, the former Jedi killed both Vader and Palpatine, becoming Anakin Skywalker one again.
What do you guys think about the whole Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader debate? Do you agree with my points? Let me know in the comments below and as always let’s try to get some good discussions going. Thanks for reading and don’t be afraid to leave suggestions for future posts in the comments. Remember to upvote this post if you enjoyed it and be sure to follow the Force for Thought archive to stay up to date on the latest editions as well as find any you might have missed. I hope you all have a great week and that you’ll be back again for the next Force for Thought, but until then may the force be with you!
![[Force for Thought] - Overview and Archive | Fandom](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Sources
Attack of the Clones
Age of Republic - Anakin Skywalker
Revenge of the Sith
Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith
The Clone Wars - "Victory and Death"
Rebels - "Twilight of the Apprentice"
Return of the Jedi
