| Anakin Skywalker is a pretty complex character,
and a lot of the prequels is purely a study of him, especially the latter two.
While The Phantom Menace introduced us to Anakin as a precoscious young
boy who was so giving and fearless, the second installment in the saga is practically
a reintroduction to the same character, this time as a promising Jedi Padawan.
A lot of people see Episode II’s Anakin as a spoiled brat and
a whiner, and I have to admit that he comes across that way more than once,
but there’s also some more important groundwork being laid down.
Anakin is brash, he’s haughty and cocksure, but we’re given reason
to see why as well as some of the consequences of his arrogance. I think the
main complaint is simply that Anakin isn’t a “badass” and
to some extent that’s true. At the beginning of the film I’d say
he proves himself to be pretty impressive, chasing down the bounty hunter Zam
Wessel in a high-speed chase through the labyrinth of colossal skyscrapers on
Coruscant. Sure he’s reckless, but he also gets results and succeeds where
perhaps even his own master might have failed.
But what people tend to remember are the mistakes he makes, like rushing into
battle with Darth Tyranus and getting a chest full of Force lightning. While
yes, things like that do make him seem more like a rookie, it’s important
to remember that he actually is a rookie. He hasn’t learned it
all yet, despite his belief that he has. He is far more skilled and talented
than others who have had more training, and that goes to his head. He becomes
overconfident, and he pays a hefty price for it, losing pretty much all of his
right arm below the elbow.
Just like I feel that a young Anakin is important to see, I feel like a teenage
Anakin is even more so. This is our first glimpse of a flawed person. Where
the young Anakin was intelligent and brave and giving, teenage Anakin is all
of those things but with a callowness and overconfidence bred by being the best.
We see his passion and we understand it because we’ve been there--it’s
part of being a teenager. We see his romanticism and how easy it becomes for
him to see things in black and white, right and wrong, a dangerous predisposition
that will play out in the prequels’ third act. We see him feeling like
he’s learned all that there is to know and then finding out that he’s
wrong, quite painfully. All of these things are important.
Finally, we see Anakin’s desire for power. He knows he’s good,
and he wants to be better. He wants to be so skilled, so talented, that he can
save everyone, especially those he cares for. He even wants to be able to keep
those he loves from suffering or death. This desire is crystallized by the death
of his mother and his feelings for Padme. It’s this thirst for what is
ostensibly the ultimate power, the power over death itself, combined with his
fear of losing the people that he loves, that ultimately corrupts young Skywalker. |
