Anakin Skywalker He is one of the most important characters of all Star Warsbut that aspect of his story still doesn’t make sense. Anakin Skywalker Star Wars The timeline had a huge impact Star Wars movies and TV shows. After he was introduced as one of Star Wars most powerful Sith in the original trilogy, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace revealed that Anakin was once an innocent boy on Tatooine, enslaved along with his mother.
Even more shocking, it was revealed that Anakin was the Chosen One, a being prophesied to bring balance to the Force and destroy the Sith. Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith then chronicled Anakin’s complex fall to the dark side, revealing how he became so corrupted over time. Despite everything that has been revealed about Anakin Skywalker’s history, a key part of his fall to the dark side remains perplexing.
Anakin Skywalker slaughtered his prey…but didn’t fall to the dark side
How did Anakin explore his hatred without turning to the dark side?
In Attack of the ClonesAnakin finally heeded the visions he was having as nightmares about his mother’s death and went to Tatooine to make sure she was safe. Unfortunately, he discovered that his predictions were correct, as his mother had been captured by the Tusken Raiders and was not recovered despite rescue efforts. Intent on finding her, Anakin tracked down the Tusken Raiders’ camp and found his mother tied up and clearly suffering from multiple injuries.
When she died in his arms, Anakin took advantage of his anger and hatred and massacred every single one of the Tusken Raiders in the camp.telling Padmé that this included men, women, and even children. In truth, this moment wasn’t all that surprising; Anakin’s future as Darth Vader was already known, and there were a number of nods towards the Sith that Anakin would become. What was shocking was that somehow killing an entire camp of Tusken Raiders – including innocent children – didn’t turn Anakin Skywalker to the dark side. This turning point would not come until Revenge of the Sithyears later.
Somehow, killing an entire camp of Tusken Raiders – including innocent children – didn’t turn Anakin Skywalker to the dark side.
The fact that this violence did not immediately turn Anakin to the dark side seems to contradict what has been revealed about the nature of the dark side. After all, Master Yoda himself warned Anakin that “fear is the path to the dark side” as “fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to suffering.” Still, in Attack of the Clones, Anakin fully explored his anger and hatred and remained on the positive side. This begs the question: why didn’t killing the Tusken Raiders cause Anakin to fall to the dark side at that moment?
Star Wars treated the Tuskens as subhumans
The franchise’s representation of the Tusken Raiders began as an issue
I still find it strange that Anakin was able to massacre the Tusken Raiders and remain on the light side of the Force, so much so that he became a Jedi Knight, had a Padawan, and defended the Republic in the Clone Wars. . Still, I can think of a few reasons why Anakin didn’t immediately fall to the dark side after this event, both in-universe and out. On the one hand, in the original and previous trilogies, Star Wars Didn’t treat the Tusken Raiders like human beings.
It was clear that this was Anakin’s perception of the Tusken Raiders in Attack of the Clonessince he told Padmé they were “animals”. While this could have been presented as Anakin making a blatant statement, it initially appeared that Star Wars The intention of the Tusken Raiders was essentially this: evil masked creatures that were somehow subhuman. This was introduced in A New Hopewhen the Tuskens were shown to be aggressive and antagonistic, and made it even worse Attack of the Cloneswhen they seemed to catch and torture Shmi Skywalker for no other reason than evil.
Happily, Star Wars has since corrected this disturbing portrayal of Tusken Raiders, but its original treatment in the franchise could explain why this event didn’t seem significant enough to fully turn Anakin to the dark side. This would be supported by Padmé’s (also troubling) response to Anakin when he confessed that he had carried out the massacre, which essentially boiled down to telling him that it was human of him to be angry. In addition to being Padmé’s worst moment, this reinforces that Star Wars may have considered this massacre less egregious based on the characterization of Tusken Raiders as pure evil.
Star Wars may have considered this massacre less egregious based on the characterization of Tusken Raiders as pure evil.
Anakin thought his actions were justified
Anakin’s belief that he did the right thing may have prevented his downfall
Although that wouldn’t explain why Star Wars I didn’t perceive this as a moment from which Anakin Skywalker couldn’t return, it’s clear that Anakin believed he had done the right thing by killing the Tusken Raiders. This is important insofar as turning to the dark side is a choice, which is at least partially true (although it is a nuanced issue). In light of this, Anakin’s belief that he had actually done nothing wrong when he massacred the Tusken Raiders may have, interestingly enough, prevented him from turning to the dark side.
Anakin’s belief that he actually did nothing wrong when he massacred the Tusken Raiders may have, interestingly enough, prevented him from turning to the dark side.
This is in stark contrast to Anakin’s final fall in Revenge of the Sith. In this scene, Anakin makes the split-second decision to defend Palpatine from Mace Windu, who stands in front of Palpatine, ready to deliver a killing blow. By severing Mace’s arm, however, Anakin opened a window of opportunity for Palpatine to send Mace Windu flying through the window to his death.
This moment was significantly less violent and fueled by hate, but it is this event that cements Anakin’s fall to the dark side. The main difference between the two events is how Anakin frames them for himself.. While with the Tusken Raiders, Anakin felt vindicated, saying they were like animals, with Mace Windu, Anakin said, “What did I do?”
Because Anakin felt shame and guilt for helping Palpatine kill a great Jedi master, he believed he was beyond the Jedi’s forgiveness. This left Anakin feeling like he had no other choice, finally completing his journey to the dark side. Although strange, Anakin’s (distorted) perception of these two events may explain why he didn’t fall immediately after killing the Tusken Raiders.
Falling to the dark side isn’t always instantaneous
Contrary to some perceptions, turning to the dark side is a process
Another aspect at play regarding Anakin’s ability to massacre the Tusken Raiders and still be on the light side of the Force is the fact that, despite some misconceptions, falling to the dark side doesn’t happen instantly. Although Anakin’s fall into Revenge of the Sith was heavily criticized for happening ‘too quickly’, just like Osha’s in The Acolyterealistically, It’s often a slow progression, especially when it’s a Jedi becoming a Sith. Falling to the dark side is as often a trickle as it is a flood.
Falling to the dark side doesn’t happen instantly.
While Anakin’s massacre of the Tusken Raiders in Attack of the Clones saw Anakin using his anger and hatred to fuel him, this event did not cement him as a dark side Force user. That also doesn’t mean it had no effect. Instead, it’s proof of what Yoda once said to Anakin’s son, Luke Skywalker: “Once you begin to walk the dark path, it will forever dominate your destiny.”
Killing the Tuskens began Anakin’s path to the dark side
Ultimately, this was the beginning of the end
As suggested, although killing the Tusken Raiders may not have independently caused Anakin to fall to the dark side, nor did it signify an immediate change, This massacre began Anakin’s dark path. Yes, he had shown worrying signs before, like being stubborn or openly in love with Padmé, but this was when his journey to the dark side truly began. As Yoda predicted, this also ended up entirely determining his fate.
As Yoda predicted, this also ended up entirely determining his fate.
These points offer a number of explanations for Anakin being able to kill the Tusken Raider men, women, and children without immediately falling to the dark side, although Star Wars has not yet confirmed these possibilities. Because this is such an important moment in Anakin’s story, I hope Star Wars will soon reveal this mystery. In the meantime, I will assume that Anakin Skywalker was able to resist falling to the dark side after killing the Tusken Raiders for these main reasons.