Why I Still Blame the Jedi for Anakin Skywalker’s Fall to the Dark Side

Anakin Skywalker is undeniably partially responsible for his fall to the dark side, but I still believe that the Jedi are primarily to blame for Anakin’s fate in Star Wars. Anakin Skywalker’s turn to the dark side is one of the most important moments in the Star Wars timeline. Although Palpatine’s plan was already well underway, Anakin’s fall and the birth of Darth Vader cemented the end of the Jedi Order and the Republic and the rise of the Galactic Empire.

Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace shocked viewers by revealing that this wasn’t always Anakin’s nature. When Anakin first appeared in the prequel trilogy, he was just a boy, trapped on Tatooine as a slave alongside his mother. Instead of already looking like the Sith Lord he would become, Anakin was innocent, kind, and caring.. In light of this, Anakin Skywalker Star Wars The timeline reveals the influence that the Jedi had on Anakin’s path, along with other factors such as his love for Padmé, Palpatine’s manipulations and Anakin’s own characteristics.

In The Phantom Menace, Anakin Skywalker was a relatively normal child

Anakin was strong with the force, but had no signs of the dark side

George Lucas intentionally made Anakin a sweet, compassionate boy in The phantom menace. This ended up becoming one of the main complaints about the prequel trilogy, as many expected or at least expected Anakin to be a powerful Force user and perhaps a rising Sith Lord, even in his story. Lucas wanted to use Anakin’s story to show that even the most innocent can be transformed into someone evil when placed in the right circumstances..

Intentional or not, these circumstances ended up having a lot to do with the Jedi themselves. Anakin was taken to the Jedi Temple by Qui-Gon Jinn in The phantom menace. At age 9, he had never known anything other than a fairly typical family dynamic with his mother that included love and, yes, attachment. Although Qui-Gon asked the Jedi to break his rule about the age of Jedi Initiates, it was Anakin who was treated as if he was on trial.

Anakin stood before the Council, who questioned him about his feelings of fear and missing his mother. Although the Jedi are supposed to lead with compassion, they failed to see how natural Anakin’s emotions were; Anakin wasn’t raised in the Temple, so there would be no reason for him to have resisted forming an attachment to his mother. Instead of taking this into account, the Jedi treated him as a threat. Yoda specifically told Anakin that these feelings he had could lead to the dark side – a terrifying concept for someone new to the Force and the Jedi.

Anakin Skywalker’s life in the Jedi Order was one of isolation

Outside of the master and apprentice dynamic, Anakin had no friend or ally

The Jedi eventually accepted Anakin into the Jedi Order, although only after they rejected him and changed their minds following the death of Qui-Gon Jinn. This initial rejection continued to be felt by Anakin long after his acceptance into the Order. (arguably, this feeling never went away and was in part behind Anakin’s resentment of the Jedi in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith). Anakin’s existence in the Order was therefore one in which he felt isolated and ostracized.

This feeling of isolation and being an outsider was also clear in the relationships Anakin formed when he was at the Jedi Temple. Anakin became quite close to Obi-Wan Kenobi as his Jedi Master, and eventually became very close to his own Padawan, Ahsoka Tano. Outside of these two relationships of master and apprentice, however, Anakin’s only close connection was Padmé. This undoubtedly intensified the already very intense feelings Anakin had for Padmé and made him even more desperate to keep her alive, lest he lose the only person he felt genuinely close to.

This loneliness was new to Anakin, however. When living on Tatooine, Anakin not only had a bond with his mother, but he also had a friend. Kitster, another child from Tatooine, was Anakin’s best friend and someone who supported him even when the odds were against him. It would make sense for Anakin to have developed friendships in the Temple, but perhaps as a direct result of Anakin seeming so different, he never developed bonds like that within the Order, outside of the master and apprentice he was assigned to.

This feeling of ostracism was compounded by the pedestal upon which Anakin was placed as the Chosen One. Anakin was immediately seen as a danger to the Jedi Order and the being prophesied to bring balance to the Force and destroy the Sith.essentially safeguarding the future of the Jedi. It’s not hard to see why Anakin never felt truly accepted or why he felt so alone.

The Jedi Order constantly pressured Anakin in terrible ways

The Jedi did not act carefully despite their concerns for Anakin

Tensions between Anakin and the Jedi (especially the Council) extended far beyond Anakin’s difficult introduction into The phantom menace or even your continued wariness towards him. Star Wars: The Clone Wars revealed that the Jedi were willing to cause Anakin suffering if it served their purposes. This was most evident when they tricked Anakin (and everyone else) into believing that Obi-Wan had died.

Unsurprisingly, Obi-Wan’s ‘death’ was brutally painful for Anakin. Besides being an odd choice because it could have easily led to Anakin falling to the dark side (which the Jedi should have considered, given their greater concerns about Anakin), this was simply cruel. Anakin believed that his former master, someone he truly cared about, had died, and it was all a lie that the Jedi invented to achieve their own goals.

The echoes of this incident were almost certainly felt by Anakin when the Jedi asked him to spy on Palpatine for them in Revenge of the Sith. He already had reason to doubt the Jedi at that point and believed they were willing to lie and deceive. It makes sense, especially in light of his bond with Palpatine, that when he was asked to spy on the Chancellor, his doubts about the Jedi were heightened.

Even before his fall, the Jedi doubted Anakin Skywalker

Anakin spent years trying to prove himself, but it wasn’t enough

Anakin was not a perfect Jedi. There were many moments when he displayed emotions (particularly those associated with the dark side) that should have worried the Jedi. This is true even without the Jedi knowing of some of Anakin’s more egregious acts, such as the massacre of the Tusken Raiders, or how seriously he went against the Jedi way by marrying Padmé.

Yet, Anakin also worked for years to prove his loyalty to the Jedi and the Republic. This was especially true during the Clone Wars, during which he fought bravely on the front lines. Ultimately, and despite his misgivings, Anakin also sided with the Jedi over Palpatine when Palpatine finally revealed that he was a Sith Lord in Revenge of the Sith.

When Anakin informed Mace Windu of the truth about Palpatine, however, it only reinforced that the Jedi (or, at least, Mace Windu) never truly trusted Anakin. In response to Anakin bringing him this information, Mace Windu told Anakin that if what he said was proven true, Anakin would have earned his trust. On the one hand, this reveals that, even at that moment, Mace doubted Anakin and what he was telling him. What’s most surprising is that Mace’s comments prove that despite everything that’s happened since The phantom menaceAnakin still hadn’t earned Mace’s trust.

I don’t believe Anakin is innocent, of course. He committed several acts throughout the prequels and even in The Clone Wars this proves that he has fought against the dark side for a long time. Still, the Jedi’s treatment of Anakin, especially as a threat from such a young age, left Anakin feeling isolated and ostracized. This, combined with the fact that the Jedi never truly trusted Anakin and made decisions that undermined his trust in them, contributed to his downfall. While the Jedi are not entirely to blame, they did have a major impact Anakin Skywalker turn to the dark side in Star Wars.