*** This is a personal and fandom-related update from my Star Wars sideblog (@the-far-bright-center) from a few months ago. I'm posting this in January 2019, but back-dating it to October 2018, when I first shared it on tumblr. Cross-posting it here now for archival purposes. :)
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I very much hope I’m wrong about this. So, on the slight chance that it might help somehow, I’ll try to explain why I feel this way right now.
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He could feel it now, in the Force, could recognize the creature before him, recognize the cold, freezing dread that lived in the furnace of his heart, the Obsidian Dragon with eyes of dead starlight, walled away by flame, and held at bay by sheer force of will. The Obsidian Dragon made of fear and failure and weakness and death.
“I will not fall!” He ground out the vow from behind clenched teeth, pressing forward with the Force as hard as he was able. Darth Vader trembled in anger at the onslaught. “I am Anakin Skywalker, and I will never fall!”
Suddenly, intensely, power rushed off Anakin in waves, and Darth Vader bent under the assault, crumpling with wheezing breaths. The painful breaths of a pitiful creature.
Utterly spent from the release of energy, Anakin sagged to his knees, arms falling weakly to his sides.
“I am Anakin Skywalker,” he rasped, “and I am not afraid.”
— from The Chosen Path AU series by steelneena ( @muldertorture ) (originally posted on tumblr)
Recently, I was asked to write about ‘Anakin as a tragic hero’, and rather than attempting to tackle such a broad topic from scratch, I decided to compile a masterpost of excerpts from (and links to) my previous posts on the subject.
In my personal view, ‘Star Wars’ (as in, the Skywalker saga) is, at its heart, Anakin’s story, and as such, his tragic fall and ultimate redemption forms one of the main, underlying themes of most of my SW analysis in general. And so, the selections below include everything from in-depth character analysis, to overviews of Anakin’s role in the saga as a whole, to explorations of themes of slavery vs. freedom, death vs. immortality, personal attachments, fear of loss, and perhaps most importantly, unconditional love.
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It’s been a while now since I’ve written about this character, but recently my husband and I were discussing the Prequels (and especially The Phantom Menace), and we both heartily agreed that Qui-Gon Jinn is a truly brilliant addition to the saga, both from a storytelling and ‘in-story’ perspective. Not only is he a compelling figure to watch on-screen (thanks to the mesmerizing Liam Neeson), but he is also an ingenious way of introducing us to the Twilight of the Republic-era Jedi—via someone who is, by that point, considered a ‘maverick’ in comparison to the rest of the Jedi Order.
This is a very clever approach, because it means that we actually experience the entire first half of The Phantom Menace from Qui-Gon’s perspective. Throughout our journey with him—during which time he comes to the aid of many beings, from the hapless Jar-Jar, to Queen Amidala, to a slave-boy and his mother on Tatooine, all while simultaneously on a spiritual quest of his own (aka, to find the Chosen One)—we come to admire a Jedi who is everything that we, as viewers who had only ever seen the Original Trilogy, would expect a Jedi to be. It is only after Qui-Gon’s arrival on Coruscant (when we are met by the comparatively cold, closed, and standoffish Jedi Council), that we realize that…oh… this wonderful, warm, openly-caring, and compassionate Jedi who we ASSUMED must certainly be the ’norm’, is actually anything but.
“The happy ending of the fairy tale, the myth, and the divine comedy of the soul, is to be read, not as a contradiction, but as a transcendence of the universal tragedy of man.”
| — | (via the-far-bright-center) “This is why the climactic and emotionally cathartic ending of Return of the Jedi must herald an end to this cycle. What does destroying the Sith mean, if not that? Without this, there is little point to Anakin’s otherwise wholly tragic story. Without this, I would argue, there is little point to Luke’s story, either.” |
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Below the cut I've posted an edited version of my response to ~ this tumblr discussion ~ regarding the mention of ‘The Chosen One’ in the final scene between Obi-Wan and Maul. While I understand (and empathize with!) the fandom's frustration over the use of this term, I feel that, on a meta-textual level, the conversation as a whole refers to both Luke and Anakin, aka the ‘Twin Suns’ of Tatooine.
"Anakin…exists relative to the state of the galaxy. He is not Luke, he is not the youth of western literature on a journey; that is Luke’s role. Anakin’s role is that of the demi-god of Greek and Roman origin. When Anakin rises, the galaxy rises with him, when Anakin is in turmoil, the galaxy is in turmoil, when Anakin falls, so falls the galaxy. Anakin is intrinsic to the galaxy because Anakin, like so many other mythological demi-gods, is an avatar for the gods or, in the case of Star Wars, the Force. Regardless of any one person’s views on the Force (which are extremely disparate and widely varied, so we won’t broach that subject here), this fact is indisputable. Anakin, as the Chosen One who will “bring balance to the Force”, is its avatar. When Anakin is claimed by the Dark, the Jedi Order’s zenith is reached, the Balance is tipped, and the Order descends into darkness with Anakin, just as his return also signals theirs.
-- ‘STAR WARS: The Creation of a Modern Myth: Cultural Influence, Fan Response and the Impact of Literary Archetypes on Saga Perception’
The title ‘Return of the Jedi’ doesn’t just reference Luke becoming a Jedi, but Anakin’s return to the Light, and with it, the ability for the Jedi Order to once more flourish. In this he is much like Beowulf, when the Geatish hero sacrifices himself to defeat the dragon at the end of the epic poem. Failure would spell ultimate destruction for Beowulf’s people and country, just as, had Anakin failed to destroy the Emperor, the Jedi and the galaxy would truly have been wiped out. Anakin himself has to die, however, because he is what tips the scales. Once he dies and becomes one with the Force, only then is balance restored."
(via muldertorture)
This right here is absolutely fundamental to understanding the entire purpose of the Skywalker saga, as Lucas so painstakingly told it. The destruction of the old Jedi Order that had ‘lost its way’ and forgotten its true role in the galaxy, and the founding of the New, heralded by Anakin’s return to the Light, and Luke’s essential role in reminding him—and us all—of what it means to be a True Jedi.
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