Muhammed Ali Week 3: The Progression of Identity in Anakin Skywalker

 


The Progression of Identity in Anakin Skywalker

    Star Wars is one of the greatest movie franchises of all time for a multitude of reasons. People accredit the superiority of George Lucas’s creation to things like elite fight scenes and incredible plot lines, but we often overlook one crucial thing. That one thing is the transition and development of the identity of the main characters. This development arguably makes the story what it is, and deeply contributes to the powerful messages of Star Wars. SPOILERS AHEAD.

    The most obvious—and most powerful—display of this type of character progression is found in the main character of the entire franchise, Anakin Skywalker, otherwise known as Darth Vader. The first movie depicts him as an extremely innocent boy who had been born into slavery with his mother, before being rescued by the Jedi. He meets Padme, his love interest, and the fear of Padme’s supposed impending death forces Anakin to question his loyalty to the Jedi, and therefore question his identity as a whole. He was raised by the Jedi after he was taken from his mother, so much of his identity was formulated around Jedi customs and traditions. Throughout the second, and more so the third movies, Anakin is facing a full-blown identity crisis, and the seduction of Emperor Palpatine, as well as many other moving parts, eventually lead him to turn to the dark side and become one of the most famous movie villains of all time.

    Anakin’s development does not stop there, however. As the ruthless dictator of the galaxy in the fourth, and fifth movies, Anakin—now known as Vader—is once again conflicted when his former master Obi Wan Kenobi returns to try to turn him back to the light. Even after killing Obi Wan, Vader is tormented to an even higher degree by the attempt of his son, Luke Skywalker, to turn him. Finally in the sixth movie, after many lightsaber fights, Vader realizes the error in his ways and ultimately avenges himself by killing Emperor Palpatine. He once again alters his identity after over 20 years of being consumed by the dark side. He tragically dies in the arms of his son shortly after as a result of injuries sustained when taking out the emperor, but he dies at peace and as a Jedi (hence the name of the movie, Return of the Jedi). The peace he attains at the end is a direct result of his change in heart and his change in identity, and all the conflict and pain that had been boiling inside him had been put to rest with this conversion.

    Star Wars is much more than just space fights—despite the name—and the character development and the advancement of the identity of Anakin Skywalker is more than enough to show that. The same can be seen in other characters like Luke and Han Solo, but no character demonstrates this progression like Vader himself. He’s a world renowned villain for many reasons, and his character arc is undoubtedly one of them.



Obi-Wan Kenobi Bridges the Gap Between Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader (for picture)

Comments

  1. Patrick ChouOctober 3, 2023 at 8:09 PM

    Hi Muhammed,
    I enjoyed reading your explanation of the identity change of Anakin to Darth Vader. You have captured the essence that Star Wars is not just a movie about space battles. You were able to bring to light the internal struggles that Anakin faced and showed the reasoning. I feel that you could have also spoke about the identity transformation that Luke Skywalker and Han Solo for a broader analysis of the whole franchise instead of just one character. Overall this was a fantastic analysis of the character development.

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  2. Siddarth KamathOctober 4, 2023 at 9:50 PM

    Hello Muhammed! I loved how you started with a common well-known movie that especially I know and love and showed its multi-faceted nature through the eyes of another, as you put it, "famous movie villians of all time." I was quite interested by your beginning statements detailed Geroge Lucas because I never pondered on how the characters in the Star Wars Movie Series was quite important to how they act later on in the sequels. It was great giving us a background information as you described how Anakin Skywalker because Darth Vade and returned as a jedi as the name of the movie mentions. Overall, I loved how you set it up, gave concrete evidence to prove your point that Star Wars is more than a regular movie and something with a greater purpose that is exemplified through the changes in Darth Vader.

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