I think clone wars dark side anakin is my favorite dark side anakin. because yeah, in the movies, you can tell he's gonna fall. maybe not in the phantom menace, but in attack of the clones and revenge of the sith, it's so obvious! everything about him just oozes both light and dark, the dark steadily winning. but clone wars anakin? clone wars anakin? oh, he's a sun. he's blindingly bright and he's happy. we can go full episodes without a trace of the dark side showing up on his face or in his actions, which makes when he does go dark even more jarring. when he snaps and attacks and the imperial march plays faintly in the background, when not even ten minutes earlier in the episode he was joking around with ahsoka. that is peak dark side anakin to me, because that is what i imagine anakin truly was. happy and fun and then snapping, terrifying. it's why no one believed it when he fell. why obi-wan and padme and ahsoka didn't see it coming.

Do you ever wonder what memory of Anakin made old Ben Kenobi smile when he told Luke that Anakin had been a good friend?

harkening back to hayden saying that vader is still fighting that duality!! and how he must have moments if lucidity bc damn even tho he’s hunting obi and tortures him, he still lets him go several times. like obi is weakened, vader can easily kill him. and while i’m sure he’s getting satisfaction from prolonging it, he’s obviously having trouble putting the final nail in the coffin