'Star Wars' Fans Keep Finding Ways To Blame Anakin's Fall On Everyone Except Palpatine
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When it comes to the tragic fall of Anakin Skywalker, everyone gets the blame except the man who manipulated him since he was 9 years old. The cause of Anakin’s fall has been debated for years, and while there’s no doubt that he chose the dark side, fans have often questioned the role played by the people he trusted in his downfall. Some would place the blame squarely on his wife, Padme Amidala’s shoulders. Others believe Obi-Wan Kenobi was too emotionally distant as a master and chose to ignore Anakin’s growing issues. After The Clone Wars Season 5 revealed that Anakin’s Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, left the Jedi Order despite Anakin repeatedly requesting her to reconsider, many thought she might have been the reason for Anakin’s dark side turn. Indeed, Anakin’s marriage and his attachment to the people he loved did play a significant role in his downfall. However, Anakin was the victim of years of emotional manipulation by a man who was living a double life. Senator Sheev Palpatine knew that Anakin was ‘The Chosen One’ and possessed the highest midi-chlorian count ever recorded. From the day he arrived on Coruscant, Palpatine kept tabs on Anakin’s progress under the guise of friendship. He planned to make Anakin his apprentice, but he knew he needed to make him feel isolated so he would decide to join the dark side on his own. Yet, despite years of grooming, many fans overlook the damaging influence Palpatine had on Anakin and prefer to blame others for his fall.
Anakin’s childhood was marred by the suffering he endured as a slave, but when Qui-Gon Jinn discovered him, they quickly connected. Qui-Gon was the father figure Anakin had lacked his whole life, but fate had something else in store for them both. After Qui-Gon’s demise, Obi-Wan became Anakin’s master, but Kenobi was still a padawan himself. He was quickly promoted to the rank of Jedi Knight, but the duo had to grapple with the loss of Qui-Gon, and their relationship was strained at best. Anakin always looked to Obi-Wan as a father figure, referring to his Master as “The closest thing I have to a father". With a difference of just 16 years between them, Kenobi saw Anakin as a younger brother. It is why there was always friction between them, rather than the affection and approval Anakin desired. After he was knighted, the Clone War began, and Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship improved. They only had each other as they went off to battle, and the bond grew into friendship. We know from Kenobi’s own words that he saw Anakin as a friend and a brother whom he loved. Unfortunately, while they grew closer during the Clone Wars, Anakin was already married by this time, and the strain of the war, combined with the difficulty of hiding his marriage, took its toll.
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Obi-Wan did attempt to gain Anakin’s trust because he knew Anakin and Padme were in a relationship, but his Padawan wasn’t ready to confide in him. Palpatine had injected enough distrust of the Jedi into Anakin’s head that he feared Obi-Wan would report him to the Jedi Council. The opposite was true, as Obi-Wan would’ve kept the secret for his sake, something he confided to Padme in a deleted scene from Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. As for being emotionally distant, Obi-Wan did his best to fulfill his duties as a Master to Anakin first. The duo were inseparable, and a friendship and brotherhood would’ve come in the way of Obi-Wan’s judgement, which he tried his best to avoid. Would the approval and affection Anakin sought from Obi-Wan have prevented his fall? Perhaps, but the best Obi-Wan could do was to keep Anakin’s relationship with Padme a secret as a way to protect his happiness. It shows that he cared deeply for Anakin, but Anakin had grown so defensive due to his fears that he couldn’t see his Master’s sincerity. You can blame Anakin for this, but Palpatine was always there to stroke his ego and give him the words of affirmation he sought, which did little more than to fool him into trusting the Sith Lord. When Anakin believed he couldn’t confide in Obi-Wan, he would seek out Palpatine, and Palpatine always pulled enough strings to steer Anakin in the wrong direction.
Everyone was unaware of the threat posed by the cunning Chancellor. Ahsoka ultimately lost faith in the Jedi and left to find her own path, while Padme didn’t realize how dangerous Anakin’s situation was until it was too late. Besides Anakin himself, the only other person who deserves to be blamed for Skywalker’s fall is Palpatine, as he’s the only person among the people Anakin was close to who didn’t love him. Palpatine’s care and concern were fake, and he used Anakin’s need for a father figure as a way to manipulate and groom him for years. Towards the end of Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine was more overt about his intentions, offering Anakin exactly what he desired - the ability to save Padme from certain death. Instead of encouraging the Jedi to be positive and have hope, Palpatine convinced Anakin that his fear of losing Padme was legitimate, and there was a way to save her that the Jedi never taught him. This only increased Skywalker’s suspicion that the Jedi thought he was unworthy. Anakin’s issues with how the Council treated him would not have been as big a deal had Palpatine not used every opportunity to tell him that he was being mistreated. Although many of Anakin’s concerns were justified, if he had remained patient, the Jedi would have ultimately given him the rank of a Master. Mace Windu promised him that if what he had revealed about Palpatine’s true identity were true, then he would have his trust. In other words, Anakin was minutes away from getting what he wanted from the Jedi, which makes his fall more tragic.
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Sadly, the fear of losing Padme overpowered everything, and we can thank Palpatine for that as well. By offering Anakin a way to save her, Palpatine used his biggest weakness against him. It worked to his advantage, as did the years of grooming. It was Palpatine who stoked Anakin’s desire for power, which the Jedi denied him by refusing to give him the rank of a Master. Anakin was so focused on what he wasn’t given that he didn’t realize that it was an honor for him to be a council member and that it was only a matter of time before he would have everything he hoped for. Patience is a Jedi’s greatest virtue, and he had none, which Palpatine used to his advantage. By preying on Anakin’s fears and insecurities, Palpatine demonstrated how closely he knew Anakin, making him the most threatening figure in Anakin’s life. Even though Padme knew that Anakin was afraid of losing her, she failed to grasp the gravity of the situation. Palpatine did, as he could feel Anakin’s fear, frustration, and anger at all times. Obi-Wan wasn’t privy to all of Anakin’s troubles. He knew Anakin was unhappy about being sidelined by the Jedi Council. Unfortunately, Anakin was never comfortable discussing his relationship with him; Obi-Wan didn’t know anything about his fear of losing Padme. The more Anakin distrusted the Jedi, the more he distanced himself from them. Eventually, he was completely isolated, with no one to trust except the most dangerous guy in the room.
Anakin couldn’t get past the Jedi Council’s lack of trust in him, and it became a cause for him to resent them. This resentment began to taint his friendship with Obi-Wan, and the war did the rest to damage his mental health. The longer the war went on, the harder it was for Obi-Wan to be around him. Ultimately, it took Obi-Wan leaving on a mission to Utapau to separate them, leaving Anakin more prone to Palpatine’s manipulation than ever. With no one around to calm his fears, Anakin was left alone with the realization that Padme would die, and only Palpatine knew how to save her. If Palpatine had been a true friend, he wouldn’t have allowed Anakin to wallow in misery. The people who loved him, such as Obi-Wan and Ahsoka, always did their best to cheer him up. The people who loved Anakin were the only thing separating him from the dark side, and Palpatine knew this. He used that love to his own advantage, so while it is easy to blame his Master, his wife, or his Padawan, the truth is that no one could’ve outdone a master manipulator like Sheeve Palpatine. Star Wars fans love to blame others for Anakin’s fall, and even though he chose the dark side, the man who groomed him for it is Darth Sidious himself. He deserves way more of the blame than he usually gets. The Jedi are correctly blamed for being blind to Palpatine’s deception; however, Palpatine is also to blame for taking complete advantage of Anakin’s need for a father, affection, approval, and power. Palpatine and the Jedi Council both understood how traumatized and emotionally fragile Anakin was. The Jedi had the opportunity to help him heal, but didn’t. Instead, Palpatine saw a potential candidate for the dark side and planted the seed, carefully watering it over the years.
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The circumstances were in the Sith Lord’s favor due to the war, and he made Anakin feel so alone, miserable, and isolated that no one could’ve gotten through to him. If you couple that with his fear of losing Padme, like he had lost his mother 3 years earlier, Anakin was a ticking time bomb. If you want to blame someone other than Anakin for his fall, blame the most evil man in the galaxy instead of the people who loved him and suffered equally for what happened to him. Whether Obi-Wan and Ahsoka failed their friend is debatable, but they lived with the pain of losing him for decades. Ahsoka is traumatized by what happened to him and her role in it years after his death. Obi-Wan Kenobi was haunted by memories of his brother and friend, blaming himself for failing Anakin. It took him years to forgive himself, but even then, in all the source material, Kenobi remained traumatized to a degree until his death. Anakin was loved deeply by Padme, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka, and they should be the last to be blamed for his fall. The man he trusted more than anyone had the biggest hold on him, and therefore, Palpatine deserves to be blamed as the number 1 culprit for Anakin’s fall apart from Anakin himself.
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Sources: CultureSlate [1], [2], Fandom Wire, SWNN
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