Tebble

I'm thrilled that Anakin is getting the enthusiasm he deserves. But some of these Anakin appreciation posts—which have taken on a right-wing political valence—seem to be missing the point of the character, which is definitely not that he was a good guy who was right about everything. Anakin is compelling because he is flawed and ultimately succumbs to evil, not because his malevolence was somehow justified. What we learn in the prequels is that Anakin, like many teenagers, had a variety of personal issues, and Palpatine skillfully played on his distrust of authority and fear of losing his loved ones in order to manipulate him into turning evil. What makes Anakin such a popular character for young guys is that this is relatable, at least up to a point. Anakin wants to spend more time with his girlfriend—later his wife—but the bullshit rules of his workplace don't allow it. Anakin is really awesome at sword fighting and magic, but he gets treated like a member of the junior varsity team. Anakin is increasingly asked to complete dangerous tasks and even compromise his own (flawed) sense of right and wrong, but is denied a promotion (the rank of master) he deserves. Anakin begins to experience increasingly harrowing visions of loss, and his counselors (Yoda and Mace Windu) tell him to try not thinking about all that. In the end, Anakin betrays the Jedi because he thinks it's the only way to save Padmé. This involves him slaughtering friends and foes alike, including the many children who are training to become Jedi. But ultimately, Anakin loses Padmé anyway, is horribly disfigured in a final battle with Obi-Wan, and is strapped into a mechanical suit by Palpatine. Reduced to playing the part of the emperor's chief lackey, he is a fundamentally broken man. The tragedy of Anakin makes for a great story. It does not make him a great person. While the audience, particularly the younger male audience, might sympathize with his desire to keep Padmé alive at all costs, Anakin's subsequent actions—murder and betrayal—are both heinous in their own right, and ineffective at saving Padmé. Undone by hubris, he allows himself to be duped by Palpatine: He makes a deal with the devil, and the devil doesn't even deliver on his side of the bargain. Really, when Padmé and Obi-Wan tell him throughout the film that he is becoming the very evil he swore to oppose, they are completely correct. Perhaps that's why I bristle just a bit at the payoff of all these Anakin memes, which almost universally suggest that Anakin is right and everyone else is wrong—that, politically speaking, Anakin's reactionary solution is the correct one, whereas Obi-Wan and Padmé are naively liberal. How exactly did that work out for him again? Oh, that's right, he got agonizingly burned in lava. reason.com/2026/11/02/anakin…