Rey Skywalker

Palpatine:

He is doing a work check on Vader, you cannot tell me that's not what's happening, it's like when your boss goea to your desk with "everything alright here? Family, kids? The thing is...you're kind of been slacking lately, is there...anything outside work that happened, that's the reason behind this? Should I worry?" but not really in an affectionate way more in a "don't let me fire you" way. That, that was the scene.

And the fucking cherry on top is that after rambling for 20 minutes on Kenobi and how to catch him using ALL the resources of the Empire, when Palpatine goes "I can't have you keep acting like that, man, that's just unprofessional", Darth Vader has the audacity- no, Anakin, this is some Anakin's level shit- Anakin has the AUDACITY not to say "okay, as you order" or "yep, my bad" but TO LIE TO PALPATINE'S FACE AND HIS OWN SELF WITH "Kenobi means nothing".

WHEN HE JUST THREATENED TO SPEND ALL OF EMPIRE'S RESOURCES ON HIM.

LIKE ADMIT YOU MADE A FUCKING MISTAKE MATE, BUT NOOOOO, HE IS JUST GOING TO DENY THE EVIDENCE AND HOPE PALPATINE HAS THE KIND HEART TO NOT CALL HIM ON HIS OBVIOUS BULLSHIT.

You know what I love about that moment Obi-Wan said “Then my friend is truly dead,” and “Goodbye, Darth,”?

The final episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi is entirely about love. Obi-Wan leaves Leia and the ship of refugees because to him, they are more important. He finds the strength to break free of what would have been a stony tomb because he remembered Leia, and Luke, and Anakin, and how he loved all of them.

He wept as he spoke to Anakin because he loves him still.

But, as he said “Goodbye, Darth,” he let Anakin go.

He still loved Anakin more than anything. But Obi-Wan let Anakin go, because to hold on to him, to be attached in such a way that his life would still be centered on the memory of his brother, would be to burn with him. And he chose to love - to love Leia and Luke, Anakin’s living memory.

He was never truer to the Jedi and to the Force than he was in that moment. To love utterly selflessly and utterly determinedly, but without attachment.

What a beautiful thing it is, to choose to love the living without allowing the ghosts of the dead to cling to you.

Aunt Beru: 

It is the name of your true self you’ve only forgotten.

Whenever I read people using the idea that “from Anakin’s point of view the Jedi are evil” as the ultimate proof that he felt bullied by them, I roll my eyes. Anakin is intelligent enough to know when he’s wrong.

He doesn’t really think the Jedi are evil, he’s lying to himself, he bought his own con.

Anakin was a good kid to begin with, and with the Jedi training he became a great man. If you look at things objectively, Anakin is 90% of a great Jedi. He’s seemingly learned all the rules, and is wise enough to teach them to others:

Be it by telling Ahsoka that she needs to follow the rules, she can’t just go around and do whatever she feels like, it’ll lead to trouble…

… by encouraging his Padawan not to be too hard on herself…

… or be it by encouraging rational thought over hotheadedness.

In that last image, Anakin is Anakin telling Ahsoka and Rex to stop letting their emotions do the thinking and act logically. He’s telling them to be prudent.

Hell, he even believes that patience is a virtue.

Anakin is a trained Jedi Knight. He has the theoretical know-how to get out of his problems, in ROTS.

In fact, a lot of people forget this, but Anakin’s first instinct, upon finding out Palpatine is, in fact, Darth Sidious, is this:

The Jedi are Anakin’s family. If Palpatine is asking Anakin to choose between the Chancellor and the Jedi, he’ll choose the Jedi every damn time (which is why Palpatine makes Anakin choose between the Jedi and Padmé, instead).

So where’s the problem?

That last 10% of what makes a great Jedi. Introspection, self-control.

Despite being wise, clever and thinking rationally - Anakin has trouble applying those lessons to himself.

When it comes to his own personal problems, he’s hard on himself, he’s impatient, he breaks the rules and acts out of emotion instead of thinking things through.

As Obi-Wan puts it:

As a result of this flaw, Anakin keeps choosing the wrong path, despite knowing that it’s the wrong path. The Force puts a lot of tests in front of him, and he keeps choosing the easy way out, rather than the more difficult but ultimately satisfying path.

His mother was killed. He can choose to genocide a whole Tusken village, or be the better man and just walk away. He kills the Tuskens.

Dooku is unarmed and helpless. Anakin can either kill him in a rage, out of revenge, or he can capture him, bring him to justice, and potentially discover the identity of the second Sith Lord. He kills Dooku.

Windu is also helpless (his hand was just cut off by Anakin) and Palpatine is killing him. Anakin can either choose to save Windu and arrest Palpatine (who just revealed that he wasn’t “too weak” after all), or he can let Windu die. He lets Windu die.

Padmé tells him that this isn’t what she wants. He can actually listen to her wishes. Or he can go on a maniacal rant about having ultimate power, ignoring her own opinions completely. He goes on a rant, drunk with power. Then chokes her.

Obi-Wan tells him to stop, tries to reason with him: Chancellor Palpatine is evil. Anakin knows this. He can stop lying to himself and accept his mistakes, ending the fight. Or he can give Obi-Wan his two-cent rationalization about the Jedi being evil (which he doesn’t even really believe in), and keep trying to kill Obi-Wan. He keeps trying to kill Obi-Wan.

The more the War goes on, the more it gets easy for Anakin to take the easy path, over and over. But he knows it’s the wrong thing to do.

In the director’s commentary of Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas said this about the following two scenes:

“I like this scene because he’s lying to her and he’s rationalizing it at the same time by saying he’s doing it all for her. He’s loyal to the senate and the chancellor and her. But in the end- I mean, he’s twisted every fact to his own rationale to make it seem like it’s okay, but in the process of lying to her he’s actually just lying to himself and rationalizing his behavior. ‘Cause he knows he’s wrong, but he won’t admit it […] he’s too far gone- that he could murder a bunch of kids… and then go and rationalize it to her as just doing his job.”

“The tear [on Anakin’s face] says that he knows what he’s done, but he has now committed himself to a path that he may not agree with… but he is going to go on anyway. It’s the one moment that says he’s self-aware that he’s rationalizing all his behavior. He’s doing terrible things, but in the end he really knows the truth. He knows that he’s evil now, and there’s nothing he can do about it.”

Anakin tells himself that he’s doing this for Padmé, he’s doing this because the Jedi betrayed him, blabla.

Truth is? He’s just really really scared. And that made him do really bad things.

There’s this incredible moment in Darth Vader: Lord of the Sith #5.

Vader has taken the lightsaber off a Jedi, and now he has to corrupt the saber’s crystal to get his red blade.

The crystal, and by extension, the Force, showed him a vision, a path where he turned to the Light, defeated the Emperor and put an end to his suffering. A path of redemption. This was his reaction:

Vader refuses to take the hard path and chooses the easy path instead, once again. He rejects the Light and hangs on to the pain… because deep down… below the “they betrayed me” bullshit he keeps telling himself… he thinks he deserves it, because he did the wrong thing.

Anakin knows he’s wrong and he’s still goes forward with doing the wrong thing, no matter what test the Force keeps throwing his way.

And that’s why his sacrifice in Return of the Jedi is so impactful. He finally does the right thing, he accepts that it’ll be hard, that he’ll die if he saves Luke… he doesn’t care. Luke loves him, like Padmé did. He failed once. He won’t fail again.

I’m gonna conclude this with one more quote from Lucas:

Here’s some (non-exhaustive) evidence:

Not “I feel young Skywalker has maybe just committed an atrocious crime.” What moves Yoda almost to tears is how much Anakin is suffering. -

Talking about Anakin and Ahsoka - you can just see the hint of a mischievous smile on his face. Yoda loves trouble. This is very high praise. -

He’s actually sorry about the whole Rako Hardeen situation and openly admits to having made a mistake to Anakin. -

Look at his smile. He’s so wholesome.

(Meanwhile, Anakin is making the face you make when your grandpa butchers a meme, or when your dad asks if he can hang out with you and your friends. This is the face of the younger family member desperately trying not to let it show that they’re astral projecting out of embarrassment at the mere thought of being seen in public with their relatives.)

(Just a few moments earlier though:)

(Anakin having super worried puppy eyes and the most pleading, concerned tone.)

(Anakin kneeling next to Yoda with Obi-Wan because they’re fretting ducklings.)

“How dare you question our frog granpa?”  -

Yoda is just delighted to get some family bonding time with Anakin, and even more delighted at the prospect of getting him into trouble. It’s just precious and heartwarming and I love every single thing about it. Yoda is an absolute troll, because he asks for help by telling Anakin that he’s “very worried about him” because Anakin is about to get blamed for stuff. What a wonderful gremlin grandfather. 

Troll grandpa: the continuation. 

But what makes this scene is this:

Look at this!! Yoda teases Anakin about being a troublemaker, but immediately follows it with a clarification on why it’s a good thing. He makes a point to tell Anakin that he’s special and creative - not a black sheep to be shunned. He’s giving Anakin validation and warm praise, which are basically Anakin’s crack. -

And now, continuing on Anakin’s journey of faces: that one look you get when you discover that your dad used to do demolition derbies, or when you find your grandad’s martial arts trophies or something. The one look of mixed pride and disbelief at the realization that the grown-ups in your life are actually so cool, and hanging out with them is actually incredibly fun. Look at him. He’s so impressed with Yoda’s shenanigans.  -

Anakin is on the foreground of Yoda’s vision of a perfect world, happily mingling with his fellow Jedi.  -

Yoda’s expression when Sidious shoots lightning at Anakin in the last vision of the arc.

The symbolism here! This is Yoda, trying to keep Anakin from falling - with Sidious taunting him, saying he can’t!

And Yoda’s response?

Yoda will not be tempted into giving up on Anakin. Into letting his fear of what Anakin might do dictate his actions. He is ready to sacrifice everything to stay a true Jedi, in the light - and that means not writing off one of his own as a lost cause.

And then he freaking turns off his lightsaber - which he’d been using to absorb Sidious’ lightning while holding Anakin up - and he turns his back to a freaking Sith Lord, to protect Anakin rather than fight.

And he makes sure Anakin lands on a safe platform even as he’s being shot full of lightning. Granted, all of that last scene happens in a vision, but??? The symbolism???? The fact that Yoda doesn’t really know it’s a vision anyway???? That entire arc being about Yoda’s innermost desires, temptations and motivations so we know this has incredible weight???? Yoda refusing to give up compassion for victory???? Protecting Anakin rather than trying to kill Sidious????? Yoda. Trying so hard. To keep Anakin. From. FALLING.

*sobs*

-

And finally, because trolling is Yoda’s love language:

Yeah Anakin, why would you know anything about Senator Amidala’s personal matters? It’s not like we specifically called you here because we need you to convince her to spy on her ex or anything. What connection could the two of you possibly have? I’m just an innocent old Jedi grandpa who wouldn’t understand anything about relationships :D

(I like to think Yoda actually ships Anakin and Aayla really hard, because they’re chatting together in his vision of a perfect world. If he ever caught wind of Padmé and Anakin breaking up, he’d probably immediately start dropping heavy hints and giving really unwanted dating advice.) -

That’s all I’ve got today! Not included here, all the times Anakin goes to him for advice, and Yoda trying really hard to help even though Anakin is closing himself off.