The Real Story of Anakin Skywalker

I had a big problem with Episode I, which told the story of Anakin Skywalker's childhood. Now, generally, children are not interesting from a dramatic point of view. And Anakin as portrayed by Jake Lloyd was not interesting. Lucas's idea for Anakin Skywalker is the wunderkind, frustrated by those in positions of authority--maybe an autobiographical element there? So we get a boy with great powers--and a mysterious virgin birth. The problem with the latter is, of course, that Anakin Skywalker is not Jesus Christ.

Episode II was equally troubled. Lucas seems to think that Anakin's evil stems from adolescent angst. As I said in my review of the that movie: "Romeo slays Tybalt in a rage, but how does he go from there to become Richard III?"

Here's my idea for Anakin Skywalker.

First, the interesting part of Anakin's life starts when he is approaching middle age. He is a Jedi Knight, a skilled practitioner of the Jedi arts and strong in the Force--but not necessarily the most powerful Jedi. He is somewhat frustrated, but not because the members of the Jedi council don't trust him and his powers. He is frustrated by what he perceives as the limitations of his powers. He sees that he will never be the greatest Jedi--and that is his ambition. He also sees that as he has aged, his powers have started to decline; he knows that this process will continue, making his achievement of his ambition even less likely.

Anakin Skywalker becomes attracted to the Dark Side because he thinks that it is the only way he can achieve his ambition. He experiments with dark arts, secret knowledge. And the Dark Side does make him more powerful than he had been. But it also drives a wedge between him and the other Jedi. As the other Jedi become suspicious of his new powers, this gulf expands to where Anakin is driven to use those powers to destroy the Jedi order.

I don't know where the Emperor comes in. But I really hate how Lucas views the Emperor as the puppet-master in the first two movies of the prequel trilogy. Anakin should be lured to the Dark Side by his own ambitions and failings. The latter is very important. It makes Anakin Skywalker an interesting character, as opposed to a petulant youth.

Maybe more later on this topic.