The Acolyte: It's Time for the DarkSide

 

On May 4^th, 2020, The Acolyte series being announced had me absurdly ecstatic. For as much live action content as Star Wars has, there hasn’t been a Sith-centric movie or TV show. The stories have always been Jedi-centric and I am sorry to say; the Jedi are boring. I have always found their ways to be too rigid and cultish.

There are so many stories Disney and Lucasfilm before them have not tapped, particularly from the Expanded Universe, where we get an excellent POV from the Sith with their ideology and methods. Several good reads to get up to speed are the Darth Bane Trilogy, the Darth Plagueis novel, The Labyrinth of Evil, Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader and others, which include a few Darth Maul novels.

To dig into the details of The Acolyte, it is important we understand the premise and try to speculate from there. Here is what we know about the plot:

 

“The Acolyte is set at the end of the High Republic era in a world of ‘shadowy secrets and emerging dark side powers’, approximately 100 years before Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. A former Padawan reunites with her Jedi Master to investigate a series of crimes, but the forces they confront are more sinister than they ever anticipated.”

 

Now, given the time frame of 100 years before Episode 1, that would mean that they set this story around 135 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin). From the surface view, that gives some exciting hints because that was during the time of Darth Tenebrous and the early years of his apprentice, Darth Plagueis (Darth Sidious’ master).

We can take this with a grain of salt because, as we all know (and detest), Disney has been hard at work ret-conning the Star Wars universe and relegating many beloved Star Wars stories to the “Legends” non-canon. So, until they unveil who the Sith in the series will be, I will not hold my breath. However, it would be a tremendous story if they made Darth Tenebrous and Darth Plagueis the villains in the story. Even more because it would be a story where the bad guys end up winning.

Tenebrous was a Bith Dark Lord of the Sith, also known as Rugess Nome, and a scientific mastermind. Plagueis was a Muun, also known as Hego Damask, who eventually would become so powerful with the Dark Side that he could influence the midi-chlorians in his own and other people’s bodies. Darth Sidious (The Emperor) and Darth Vader are the only Sith that the average viewer knows about, so it would be amazing to see previous architects during The Rule of Two and their scheming to bring down the Jedi Order.

This is where Disney’s agenda to create their own Star Wars lore could work because there isn’t any media set during that time of Darth Tenebrous and then Darth Plagueis outside of brief references in the Darth Plagueis novel. They could easily weave a story to include Jedi from that time as they encounter the Sith Lords and discover a plan that was set in motion 1000 years earlier by Darth Bane.

I know Disney likes to keep things light and family friendly, but considering the Sith remained relatively unknown until the Phantom Menace, they could really create the dark story we need by having the Jedi pair uncover the Sith Lords identities but ultimately fail in their efforts to stop them and be silenced, allowing Tenebrous and Plagueis to continue with their secret path of revenge.

Disney should release the Acolyte sometime this year on Disney Plus, and I am extremely excited about it. With "The Book of Boba Fett" being not received well, "Obi-Wan Kenobi" having mixed reviews (but a fantastic last few episodes), and the universally loved "The Mandalorian", they need another winner. If they do The Acolyte the right way, they can absolutely give us the Sith story that we have all been craving. Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen.

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Time for The Jedi to End

Greetings, mortals. It is a glorious time to be a Star Wars fan, isn’t it? We’ve gotten numerous TV shows and movies the past few years with more to come. I am beyond excited for The Last Jedi next month and I think it’s going to be an epic addition. But I’m glad that the title of the film is the last Jedi because I think “The Last Jedi” has the right idea with Luke’s quote, “It’s time for the Jedi to end.” And why, do you ask? Well, my friends, please turn your lightsabers over to my security before I answer that question because you aren’t going to like it. The truth is that the Jedi are the real villains in the Star Wars universe. Pick your mouths up off the floor. It’s time to take off the rose-colored glasses and analyze what the Jedi have done as well as what they’ve allowed to happen in the Star Wars universe.

Now, am I saying they are villains in the same vein as the way we view the Sith as villains? No, of course not. They aren’t what we view as classic evil i.e. killing rampantly, pillaging, seeking galactic domination, etc. BUT their beliefs, their methods, their passive way of conducting their role as the guardians of peace and justice directly and indirectly caused the fall of the Republic along with the rise of the Galactic Empire. Now, I am going to break this down into several points so that both the broad and narrow angles can be analyzed. That way the Jedi’s beliefs and motives can be shown as villainous, as well as specific examples of their toxic mindset.

The Jedi Code:

In order to delve into the thought of the Jedi being villains, you have to really understand the fabric of their beliefs. Above you see the Jedi Code. At first glance it seems like a reasonable code to live by. You get caught up on the latter half of each sentence instead of looking at each as a whole. The problem with this is that the Jedi don’t have any type of balance in their belief system. Instead of embracing emotions and using them to strengthen themselves as well as their bonds with others, they shun them. They feel emotions are a path to the dark side and in essence they “fear” emotion. Ironic, isn’t it? They always speak of fear being a path to the dark side but fear is rooted in their very belief system. They constantly harp on what they perceive as to be the negatives of life and enforce that on their entire order. How is this villainous, you ask? Well, it all has to do with how a Jedi starts. Jedi are identified at birth by their high midichlorian count and recruited throughout the galaxy. If they have parents then the parents are asked for permission for the child to be taken and trained. The majority of parents see this as an honor and willingly give their children up in service. This is where the problem begins. Once they Jedi take an infant that is normally the last those parents ever see their child. The Jedi don’t believe in having “attachments” so they do all they can to remove a person’s past so that they aren’t tempted to form personal attachments outside of the Jedi Order. Now, I ask you, does that not reek of cultist antics? You take a child from its family and don’t allow it to have any kind of personal contact ever again? And that behavior is justified by saying that attachment is within the shadow of greed, which guess what? Leads to the dark side.

So, what the Jedi basically do is take people when they’re infants and perform extensive, routine brainwashing on them. As much as they speak of fear being a tool and path to the dark side, they actually use fear in a subtle way to get their recruits and younglings to stay on the path that they deem acceptable. It is actually a tool that religions like Christianity use to keep people tied to their belief system i.e. “If you don’t believe in God then when you die you’ll go to hell.” And when a Jedi begins to stray from the Jedi Code they are chastised and lightly scolded. There is no room for error and true personal growth. It is all built within the rigid system that the Jedi have had in place for millennia.

The Negligence of Anakin Skywalker:

The next stop on our Jedi tour of villainy is how they completely mishandled and fumbled the ball with Anakin Skywalker. Anakin was unique among the Jedi being that he wasn’t recruited at birth. He was brought by Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi before the council when he was 9 years old. The first bit of negligence from the Jedi, specifically the Jedi Council, was their fear of him being trained at 9 years of age, stating that he was too old. Here is where the hypocrisy of the Jedi creeps of again. Fear. Over and over again the Jedi state how fear is the path to the Darkside and that a Jedi needs to cleanse themselves of it. Yet, Yoda, himself, stated “grave danger I fear in his training”. Before Anakin had even picked up a lightsaber they had decided he wasn’t fit for their order simply because they didn’t understand him. Fear based in ignorance is a common trait of religious zealots. Which is ironic because one of the lines of the Jedi Code is There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. Anakin had spent the first 9 years of his life living as a slave on Tatooine. He had experienced a life of hardship and all the emotions that accompany it. The Jedi knew this but instead of trying to understand Anakin they shunned him and treated him almost as an outcast, with the exception of Obi-Wan who was his master. Mace Windu, in particular, showed outright disdain for him whenever in his presence. They felt that the life he’d had, with all the attachments, combined with his unprecedented Force talent would lead to disaster. In my opinion, if they would have embraced him and tried to understand him, catered to the life experiences he’d had then Anakin would have turned out quite differently.

The second bit of negligence with Anakin we can credit to Yoda. When Anakin had premonitions of Padme’s death he went to Yoda for guidance, seeking a way to prevent her death. In the vaguest of ways, as to not reveal his secret marriage to Padme, Anakin told Yoda of his concerns. And what did the most sagacious master the Jedi Order had ever seen have to say in response? “Rejoice for those who transform into the Force. Mourn them not. Miss them not.” He basically told Anakin just to send thoughts and prayers. In one of the most crucial moments of Anakin’s fall to the Darkside, the greatest sage the order had ever seen could offer no better advice than “let things pass out of your life”. Yoda did not have the foresight nor the insight to the turmoil that was tearing Anakin apart at the seams. It was this bit of ignorance that actually helped facilitate Anakin being even more easily manipulated and seduced by Darth Sidious. Why? Because Darth Sidious was giving Anakin the semblance of solutions, not useless platitudes. He heard Anakin’s problems and slyly advised to Anakin that there were ways to fix those problems, even though these were lies. Anakin was desperate and searching for any kind of viable life line, which Darth Sidious offered to him. The Jedi being completely rigid, did nothing to help Anakin. And it was this criminal negligence which helped to carve the path to his fall.

Jedi vs Sith:

So now we get to the true crux of the matter of how the Jedi are villains. They are villains because due to their arrogance, rigidity and cultish antics, they allowed the Sith to remain behind scenes for over a thousand years strengthening themselves and destabilizing the foundation of the entire galaxy. After the defeat of Lord Kahn’s Brotherhood of Darkness, Darth Bane remade the entire Sith Order into the Rule of Two. Only two Sith Lords at a time. One master and one apprentice. He did this because he knew the best way to beat the Jedi was not with an army but with manipulation and subterfuge. He would use the very thing the Jedi were protecting, the Galactic Republic, against them. He evolved the ideology of the Sith in order to maximize their potential. For 1000 years, Darth Bane’s line of Sith waited in the shadows, manipulating and influencing galactic events. Waiting for the right time to strike against the Jedi Order. And what did the Jedi do during this entire time? They grew metaphorically fat and lazy, content in their perceived victory over the Brotherhood of Darkness. They did nothing to change themselves and improve upon their practices. Whereas the Sith evolved, the Jedi stayed stagnant. And once again most of this is due to Yoda, who being well over 900 years old and a senior member of the Jedi Council, didn’t allow change. He was stuck in his ways and the old ways of the Order. And it wasn’t until his final fight with Darth Sidious that Yoda came to realize the truth. That in the millennia since the last war, the Jedi hadn’t changed. They’d spent 1000 years waiting to fight they Sith as they had been. Not as what they had currently evolved into. You see the problem with the Jedi is they see the Force as an end in itself. The Sith see the Force as a means to an end. Both are extremes in the spectrum and what is needed is balance. This is more essential to the Jedi because of their role in the galaxy. They are supposed to be the guardians of peace and justice. It would have been smarter and more beneficial for them to acclimate to and understand all the different aspects of life, including the Darkside of the Force. Yet, they showed their hypocrisy in fearing it. They completely ignored the tenet of There is no ignorance, there is knowledge. They treated potentially their greatest member, Anakin Skywalker, as no more than a tool to be used when needed and shunned when not, which alienated him and caused him to seek the council of a Sith Lord.

So, my friends, this is why we must view the true villains of the Star Wars franchise as the Jedi. Are the Sith essentially villainous? Yes. But in reality, they only did what the Jedi allowed them to do. The Jedi had every opportunity to right the ship and protect the galaxy but they failed at every single turn. Their actions and lack of action led to the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Galactic Empire. Its high time we stop putting them on a pedestal and start viewing them as an example of what not to do.

For those of you that read this and enjoyed it I appreciate you. For those of you that read this and are literally shaking with anger right now then understand that with each passing moment you make yourselves more my servants. And I appreciate you. Always remember...

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The Fall of the Chosen One

“You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”

That is considered one of the greatest cinematic quotes of all time and it rings of truth. It speaks to how eventually a hero becomes tiring. Flaws are picked out and skeletons drug out of the closet. If there is anything that people love more than a hero, it is to see that hero fall. And perhaps the greatest example of a hero falling from grace into the depths of darkness is the tale of Anakin Skywalker. 

He was first introduced as Darth Vader, one of the most iconic villains ever, in the original Star Wars movies. He personified evil and radiated terrible power. His chilling, mechanical breathing and his penchant for using the Force to choke his underlings made tremors travel. The deep and powerful voice of James Earl Jones emanated out of his vocabulator and caught you in its menacing grip. 

But within the three movies there was information that laid the groundwork for a sad and tragic story. It was revealed that Darth Vader was once Anakin Skywalker, a Jedi Knight who was seduced by the dark side of the force. Anakin helped to hunt down and extinguish the Jedi Order. For a long time after the original films there was always a question of WHY Anakin had turned and done such an evil thing. What could have caused such a transformation?

In the late 90s George Lucas saw the opportunity to tell the backstory of Anakin’s fall from grace and in 1999, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace was released. It was the first of a three-movie trilogy, just like the originals. 

However, even though it chronicled the rise and fall of Anakin, it didn’t really do his story justice. Anakin in the films was portrayed as more of a whiney brat and it kind of tarnished how many people viewed the legend of Darth Vader as one of cinemas greatest villains. 

There was plenty of opportunity there to tell one of the most tragic stories ever created but George Lucas dropped the ball big time. However, there was some material that bore succulent fruit from this new Star Wars renaissance. The Extended Universe of books (which has now been discontinued by Disney, those pompous bastards) was simply amazing. 

For many years the books had been continuing the story of Star Wars after the defeat of the Emperor and the Empire but now we had copious amounts of books that were being pumped out about the time before the Empire and well beyond, extending back tens of thousands of years. And it was here that the story of the fall of Anakin Skywalker was described in glorious though deeply sad detail. 

The movies would have you believe that Anakin’s fall happened relatively quickly and with few incidents contributing to it. That is far from the truth and that is why I am going to go into detail. There is so much more to this story than just Anakin’s fall. There was also the complicated union of him and Padme. 

There was his brotherhood with Obi-Wan Kenobi that transcended the Jedi Code. There was the scrutiny and distrust that came from Yoda and Mace Windu. There were the deaths of numerous friends and acquaintances. There were the enemies he faced like Asajj Ventress and Count Dooku, who taunted and seduced him with dark side techniques. The death of his mother was the primary catalyst for his fall because it led to him slaughtering a whole village of sand people. But ultimately, it is the manipulations and schemes of the Sith Lord, Darth Sidious, that presided over everything and helped to orchestrate Anakin’s turn to the Dark side.

To understand what happened with Anakin we must start with his childhood while also understanding the different philosophies of the Jedi and Sith orders. In the Jedi Order children are identified with having force potential by measuring their midi-chlorian count. Normally, parents of a child would willingly offer them to the Jedi to be tested, knowing that if the child qualified they would most likely never see or speak to the again. 

The Jedi code requires a release of all emotional attachment and having contact with family is prevented. The Sith are far different in their philosophy. They do not discriminate in age. They simply look for someone with force potential, especially within the Dark side. So, here you have a young Anakin Skywalker. He encountered Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi at the age of 9, with the former immediately recognizing him as unique to the point where he had his blood tested for Force aptitude. 

When the results came back that Anakin had the highest midi-chlorian count ever recorded, Qui-Gon concluded that Anakin might be the Chosen One of the prophecy to restore balance to the Force and resolved to have him trained as a Jedi. 

Now, this was a crucial moment and decision. Anakin was far beyond the age of where Jedi normally recruit into their ranks and for reason. He’d already been exposed to hardships and interactions that would have given him the full experience of emotions like hate, jealousy, greed and fear. Those emotions were firmly engrained in him and it would be dangerous to try and train him as a Jedi from this point. 

The Jedi Order, more specifically the Jedi Council including Yoda and Mace Windu, were vehemently opposed to training Anakin as a Jedi. They could sense the danger in initiating training in someone who was his age. Keep note, that the biggest fear they sensed in him was the prospect of losing his mother. From that you can garner that loss was always Anakin’s biggest fear. We will touch more on that later.

Now to backtrack a little bit, I mentioned that Anakin was found by the Jedi at age 9, right? So that begs the question how did they not met him earlier on in life when he obviously had such colossal Force potential. 

For one, Anakin was born on Tatooine, which was a planet in the Outer Rim territories. The Outer Rim is a ring of star systems with “back water” planets that is far from the Inner Rim, where the galactic capital of Coruscant, the home of the Jedi Temple, resides. 

What this means is that the chance of Anakin meeting Jedi was astronomical at best and most likely was the will of the Force. Many people can probably recall Shmi Skywalker, his mother, recanting that Anakin didn’t have a father. She carried him and gave birth. How? This is where Darth Sidious aka Emperor Palpatine begins to weave his way into the life fabric of his future apprentice. 

About a decade before Anakin met Quit-Gon and Obi-Wan, Palpatine and his then Sith master, Darth Plagueis, were conducting experiments through meditation in the Force. They shifted the Force and tipped it towards the Dark side after months of intense meditation. Darth Plagueis had long had a goal of being able to manipulate the midi-chlorians to control life and death. 

Plagueis tried to take his powers even further and reached out to the midi-chlorians across the galaxy to gain dominance over them, but the Force resisted his efforts. In response, the midi-chlorians conceived a child within Shmi Skywalker. Sidious wasn’t aware of Anakin’s existence until many years later but this goes to show that prior to his Jedi indoctrination, the Sith had unwittingly contributed to his life.

So, we come back to the present. Anakin has been presented to the Jedi Council by Qui-Gon for testing and afterwards they deem Anakin is too old for training. They, particularly Yoda, sense much fear inside of him. They forbid Qui-Gon from training him as a Jedi. Qui-Gon takes Anakin under his wing anyway. 

During the Battle of Naboo, Qui-Gon is killed by Darth Maul and makes Obi-Wan promise to train Anakin as a Jedi. This is a CRUCIAL loss. Obviously, this hurt Anakin emotionally because Qui-Gon freed him and helped guide him towards the path of the Jedi but Qui-Gon was also possibly the only Jedi that could have properly trained him and kept him from falling to the Dark side. 

The Jedi are so rigid in their doctrine that they didn’t realize that someone like Anakin would have to be trained differently due to his prior experiences instead of being forced to conform to the traditional training. Qui-Gon, being somewhat of a maverick Jedi Master, would have recognized this. 

It is also to be noted that during this time Anakin developed an infatuation with Queen Amidala (Padme) of Naboo. He told her that one day he was going to marry her, showing the ability of foresight/premonition that would eventually help cause his downfall. 

The Jedi are forbidden to love as emotional attachment can be a path to the Dark side. In addition, after the Battle of Naboo was won and the Trade Federation defeated, Darth Sidious (known as Senator and then Chancellor Palpatine) took note of Anakin’s abilities and began to suspect his Force potential. So, heading into his Jedi apprenticeship Anakin was already weighed down with many different factors that could lead him down the wrong path.

The next major phase of Anakin’s rise and descent was about 10 years later when Obi-Wan and he were tasked by the Jedi Council to protect Senator Padme (formerly Queen Amidala) from assassination attempts that were being headed by the deadly Jango Fett. 

Several different forces were at play here. Firstly, it was Palpatine who requested to the Jedi Council that Obi-Wan and Anakin be placed as bodyguards to Senator Padme. He knew of Anakin’s affections for Padme since he had adopted the guise of a doting uncle to Anakin in the years since the Battle of Naboo. 

He strategically placed Anakin and Padme directly on the same path because of the internal strife he knew it would cause given how Anakin felt about Padme. It was a masterful manipulation by him. Anakain and Padme end up giving in to their feelings with each other that results in intimate moments. 

Secondly, the connection between the Jedi and the Force had been growing increasingly murky due to the influence of the Sith and the Dark side. It had caused them to become suspicious of their allies as well as to monitor the progress of Anakin closely. 

While many Jedi believed Anakin to be the Chosen One, the Jedi Council wasn’t entirely convinced, especially with him being trained contrary to traditional practices. Mace Windu and Yoda, in particular, had misgivings about Anakin, more so than the other Masters. 

Thirdly, and this is probably the most important point, Palpatine had already been injecting himself into Anakin’s life for years. Taking the role of a kindly uncle who provides guidance and insight. This allowed him to directly challenge the Jedi doctrine that was being taught to Anakin in a subtle way. The conversations would put seeds into Anakin’s mind that made him question himself and the Jedi.

Then we have what was probably Anakin’s first major step towards the Dark side. While guarding Padme on her home planet of Naboo under Obi-Wan’s orders, Anakin has a premonition of his mother being in trouble. It resonates within him so powerfully that he heads back to Tatooine along with Padme to check on his mother. 

He tracks down Watto, his old slave master, and learns that Shmi was sold to a man named Cliegg Lars who freed and married her. Anakin headed to the moisture farm where Cliegg and his family resided only to learn that his mother had been attacked and abducted by Tusken Raiders. 

The search efforts had turned up nothing and she was feared dead but that didn’t deter Anakain. He set out on his own into the Jungland Wastes to find his mom.

Amazingly, he finds her alive in a Tusken Raider camp within an empty hut. She’s in bad shape, most likely due to food and water deprivation, but after so many years her joy at seeing her son is overwhelming. 

They shared a few precious moments before she tragically passes away. This is where the hints of Darth Vader truly begin to manifest. Consumed with anger, rage and pain, he emerges from the tent and slaughters the entire Tusken Raider camp. During the ordeal a few Jedi, including the Force ghost of Qui-Gon Jinn and also Master Yoda, sensed the violence of the massacre as well as Anakin’s presence in the Force which felt powerfully of the Dark side.

Anakin returned with Shmi’s body to the Lars moisture farm, much to everyone’s dismay at Shmi having died. They gave her a burial and laid her to rest. Padme later found Anakin stewing, clearly upset. His explanation started at being frustrated with what he felt was Obi-Wan holding him back in his training and being jealous of his Force potential. 

But the real underlying issue was the mixed feelings was having about killing the Sand People. In his grief, he revealed how he slaughtered them all. Men, women and children. This, my friends, is where we see the face of Darth Vader trying to claw his way out of Anakin Skywalker for the first time. 

In this moment, you can see his anger towards Obi-Wan due to perceived slights. You can see his hatred towards those that have done him wrong like the Sand People.  You can see his fear at losing those he loves when he proclaims that he will one day have the power to stop people from dying. And you can see his suffering at realizing what he had just done. Fear. Anger. Hatred. Suffering. The path to the Dark side.

We now fast forward a few years. The Clone Wars are in full swing with the Confederacy of Independent Systems ceding from the Galactic Republic under the public leadership of Count Dooku but really with Darth Sidious calling the shots behind the scenes. 

It’s always been so amazing to me that everything transpiring to this point is a result of Sidious’s legendary ability to foresee and control events. Him and Darth Plagueis had been planning a conflict on a galactic level for decades. Even after Plagueis’s death, Sidious pushed forward. Altering, perfecting and shaping. When Anakin came into the picture he tailored his plans to include him as well. It’s mind boggling to think of one person being able to pull that many strings across an entire galaxy.

So, with the onset of the Clone Wars, Anakin began to build a legendary reputation as a starfighter pilot and Jedi warrior. He earned the moniker the “Hero With No Fear” due to his bold and audacious exploits. But this was merely a half truth, for while he had no fear for his own life, he feared for those he cared about and loved. 

Anakin was also having issues with following the Jedi doctrine to a T, the most principle instance of which was his marriage to Padme. Anakin had many incidents during the years of the Clone Wars that saw him flirt with the Dark side. Each time he slipped further and further into its embrace. Utilizing it as a tool without even realizing it.

Towards the end of the war Anakin, now a Jedi Knight with legendary feats and some seriously honed Force capabilities, was considered arguably the most powerful Jedi in the Order. He is viewed at large as a hero to the galaxy along with his former Master and best friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi. 

Here is when the tragic nosedive begins in truth. The Separatists sense their imminent defeat and launch a surprise attack on the galactic capital planet of Coruscant. General Grievous himself leads the campaign which is directed at capturing Chancellor Palpatine aka Darth Sidious. This plan was born of the bold genius of Sidious himself. 

The only person who knew Palpatine’s true identity was Dooku but in the prior days the Jedi had been leading an investigation into the identity and whereabouts of Sidious. They were getting dangerously close when Sidious had decided it was time to throw a curve ball. He commanded General Grievous to launch a surprise attack against Coruscant and to capture the Chancellor (himself). 

Obi-Wan and Anakin were on another planet during the attack but were immediately called back. Once they arrived they boarded the General’s flagship, the Invisible Hand, and set about a rescue mission. They came upon Chancellor Palpatine being held captive but Count Dooku had been lying in wait. 

They engaged in a fierce lightsaber battle that, due to Anakin and Obi-Wan’s prodigious advancement in their lightsaber forms, caught Dooku completely off guard. However, he separated Obi-Wan from Anakin and incapacitated him. 

While dueling Anakin, Dooku realized that the reason for the boy’s exponential leap in power was because Anakin was using his anger and hatred as fuel. 

In Dooku’s own thoughts from the novelization for Revenge of the Sith he said, “There was a thermonuclear furnace where his heart should be, and it was burning through the firewalls of his Jedi training. He held the Force in the clench of a white-hot fist.” 

Anakin was already utilizing the Force in the manner that a Sith would without even knowing it. Dooku searched Anakin’s feelings through the Force and discovered that the catalyst behind this was a source of uncontrollable fear. He taunted Anakin and distracted him. He was able to gain some ground until Sidious, masquerading as Palpatine, decided to unveil the final plan in his abduction that Dooku had not been aware of.

 Sidious began to coach Anakin and tell him to not be afraid of his anger but to focus and use it to kill Dooku. Dooku’s shock was palpable but a single thought manifested in his mind. Treachery is the way of the Sith. Anakin regained his advantage and after a few more exchanges he disarmed Dooku. Literally. Anakin struggled with the decision to kill Dooku or take him prisoner. Sidious urged and prodded him to kill Dooku. And as Dooku looked into Anakin’s eyes he realized that this was the plan all along. That he was never truly Sidious’s apprentice. He was merely a pawn in the seduction of Anakin Skywalker. And with that Anakin beheaded him and Dooku became the first cold-blooded murder for Anakin but not the last.

From there several key points happened that further exacerbated Anakin’s fall to the dark side:

1.       When he returned to Coruscant after rescuing the Chancellor, he met with Padme in secret after many months apart. He sensed something was wrong with her and upon his urging she told him that she was pregnant. He was excited at first but then realized what the ramifications of this would mean. If it became known to the public he would be exiled from the Jedi Order and her reputation in the Senate would be tarnished.

2.       Anakin ended up having a premonition about Padme dying during child birth. Due to his premonitions having a history of coming true he became obsessed with finding a way to save her. The first stop in his quest to save her was seeking advice from Master Yoda. He told him in a roundabout way that he had a vision of someone he cared for dying. This honestly might have been the most crucial miscue in how the Jedi Order handled Anakin. Stuck in the ways of old, Yoda told him that fear of loss is the path to the dark side and that he should rejoice for those who transform into the Force (die). That attachment is the shadow of greed and Anakin needed to train himself to let go of all he feared to lose. A lot of people speak about how sagacious Yoda was but after over 900 years of life he gave the worst piece of information possible. Anakin had not been in the Order his whole life and continuously struggled to completely adhere to Jedi doctrine. So, to tell him to let go of those he loved was like telling him to remove one of his own limbs. It further pushed Anakin away from the Order.

3.       The Jedi Council had become quite suspicious with the relationship between Palpatine and Anakin so they tasked Obi-Wan with telling Anakin that they wanted him to spy on the Chancellor and report back any findings. This put Obi-Wan in a horrible position because he knew how fiercely loyal Anakin was as a friend and it also but an even worse taste in Anakin’s mouth towards the Jedi Council. Things had begun to spiral out of control at this point.

4.       As a means of causing a further rift between Anakin and the Jedi Council, Palpatine appointed Anakin as his personal representative on the Council. It was a bold move and the Jedi Council was outraged as well as disturbed at such an act. They allowed Anakin on the council but did not grant him the rank of Master. This made Anakin irate. It wasn’t so much the rank he cared about but the privileges that the rank afforded. With the rank, he’d be able to get into the forbidden sections of the Jedi Archives to research on how to prevent Padme’s death. He took the slight as the council standing between him and Padme’s life.

5.       And here we have perhaps the most potent push in Anakin’s path to darkness. Palpatine called him for a private talk. He perceptively deduced through searching Anakin’s feelings and reading his behavior that the Jedi Council had asked for Anakin to spy on him. This set up the perfect path for a philosophical talk about the Jedi’s teachings and methods for him. He explained to Anakin that those who gain power are afraid to lose it, even the Jedi, and that the Jedi concept of “good” is not the only valid one. He also stated that the Sith being “evil” was only a fact from a Jedi’s point of view. He craftily put Anakin in a position where he had to look at the Jedi from a different perspective. He then laid the crumbs needed to further entice Anakin to him by telling Anakin a story he refers to as an old legend called “The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise”. He tells Anakin that Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith who was so powerful that he could influence the midichlorians to create life and to keep people from dying. This news was too good to be true for Anakin and he desperately latched on to the thought. Sidious masterfully deduced what Anakin’s desire was and placed the fruit right in front of him. When Anakin asked if it was possible to learn this power Sidious responded with, “Not from a Jedi.”

From there things escalated like falling dominoes. Obi-Wan went off on a solo mission to capture General Grievous and the remaining Separatist leadership to end the war, leaving Anakin without his best friend. 

Sidious took advantage of this and revealed his true identity to Anakin. Anakin was torn between killing the Sith Lord due to the knowledge he believed that he possessed and turning him over to the Council. 

He finally resolved to contact Mace Windu and the other Masters who were still on Coruscant to arrest Sidious. Mace could sense the conflict within Anakin and told him to stay behind at the Jedi Temple while Sidious was arrested. 

Anakin obeyed at first but thoughts of Padme sent him over the edge and he followed to where the arrest was happening at the Chancellor’s office. He arrived to see Mace and Sidious in a furious lightsaber battle with Mace disarming Sidious and getting the upper hand. 

Some say Sidious deliberately allowed this to happen to give the appearance of helplessness in front of Anakin. If so, then it worked. While Anakin was pleaded with Mace to let Sidious live to stand trial, because he secretly wanted the knowledge he thought Sidious possessed, Mace ignored him and swung for a killing blow. Anakin countered by slicing off Mace’s blade hand and Sidious dropped the guise of helplessness to unleash a ferocious torrent of Force lightning, hurling Mace out of the window and to his death.

Anakin was now at the point of no return and to him saving the life of Padme was more important than anything. He pledged himself to Sidious and Sidious proclaimed that he would henceforth be known as Darth… Vader *cue ominous Imperial March score*. 

He declared that all Jedi were a part of a plot to have him assassinated which revealed them as enemies of the Republic. He instructed Anakin to head to the Jedi Temple and “sterilize” it. He was to leave no living being behind. 

While Palpatine called on a secret channel and gave the command to execute “Order 66”, which had been in place since before the beginning of the war (that sly dog), Anakin went to the Jedi Temple followed by a battalion of clone troopers and began the slaughter of the people he had grown up with for over the past decade. 

He even showed no hesitation in killing younglings with his own lightsaber. He had truly embraced the dark side and the little boy from Tatooine was gone.

Obi-Wan and Yoda discovered Order 66 was a command from Sidious for all clone regiments to kill the Jedi they were assigned to. Fortunately, the two masters survived the attempts on their lives and were able to meet up with Senator Bail Organa, a staunch ally of the Jedi Order. He smuggled them on to Coruscant and into the Jedi Temple where they learned of the fate of the Order and also who the culprit was behind the attack. 

It destroyed Obi-Wan to see the boy he trained, and who had grown in to his best friend, butchering Jedi comrades and kneeling before Sidious in reverence. Though Obi-Wan was overcome with emotion, Yoda calmly explained to him that he needed to focus for the future of the galaxy was at stake. Yoda would be going to confront Sidious and Obi-Wan needed to confront Anakin. 

Obi-Wan went to Padme first to see if she knew Anakin’s whereabouts. He told her everything that had happened and that he knew Anakin was the father of her unborn child. It was an emotional and heartbreaking moment for them. Both having to come to terms that the person they loved the most was no longer in existence. Padme needed more proof and she went to Anakin, with Obi-Wan secretly stowing away on her ship.

Once she landed on Mustafar, which is where Anakin went to get rid of the Separatist leadership on Sidious’s orders, she went to him and told him what she’d heard. He brushed it off, drunk on power and greed, and told her that they were no in the position for the galaxy to be theirs. She recognized that Obi-Wan had been right. Anakin had completely changed and was gone. 

This angered Anakin and he accused her of turning against him. It was then that Obi-Wan appeared and Anakin took that has a betrayal on Padme’s part. He used what would become his signature technique, the Force choke, in a blind rage against her. She passed out and his rage turned from her to Obi-Wan, accusing him of turning her against Anakin. Obi-Wan countered that Anakin’s anger and his lust for power had done that while he allowed Sidious to twist his mind until he had become the very thing he was sworn to fight against. 

They commenced one of the greatest lightsaber battles of all time, which culminated in Anakin arrogantly trying to flip over Obi-Wan while the latter held a high ground position and Obi-Wan cut off Anakin’s legs along with one of his arms. He left him there on the slopes of the lava bank, burning from the intense heat.

After his battle with Yoda, Darth Sidious had sensed that Vader was in danger and came to his aid. He found him as Obi-Wan had left him. Burned and mutilated. He took him to a special medical facility on Coruscant and quickly set about trying to save his life. 

At the same time Obi-Wan had taken Padme with him to Yoda and Bail, where she went into labor. The medical droid urgently told them that they had to get the babies out quickly because Padme was dying, apparently from having lost the will live. 

An amazing fan theory is that Padme was dying because Sidious was using the Force to siphon her life in order to sustain Vader during his own surgery. Luke and Leia were born followed Padme’s last words to Obi-Wan. “There is still good in him. I know there is still…”

Sidious had moved quickly and the surgery to transfer Vader into his protective shell was a success. Below are some excerpts from the Revenge of the Sith novelization that show Darth Vader’s thoughts upon waking to his new life and his final realization of everything that had occurred.

And here you can see the final tragedy of Anakin Skywalker. In the end, he realized that it was not Sidious, Obi-Wan, Padme or even the Jedi that was at fault for everything. It was him. His anger, greed, and fear were the catalyst for his downfall. 

The cruel irony was that in trying to prevent Padme’s death he was the direct cause of it. He killed the person that he loved more than anything because he couldn’t come to grips with the fact that not everyone can be saved. Nothing lasts forever. Eventually even the stars burn out. 

His tale is one that has resonated with me because I think it’s been shown throughout human history. People getting in their own way and hurting their loved ones because of their selfish greed and lust for power. Ambition without balance can turn even the mildest creature into a monster.

Below is a mash up of footage from the Episode 4: A New Hope and some footage from the prequel movies where Obi-Wan is telling Luke about his father. This was an amazing clip because it timed Obi-Wan’s explanations with flashbacks to when him and Anakin were together. It will give you chills and all the feels. It is the essence of what makes Star Wars the greatest story ever told.


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