#anakin is a tragic hero

[clayberesford-anakinskywalkerfan]

It is Star Wars Day so I decided to experiment and make more Anakin gif sets. Every day I'm experimenting, having fun and learning something new.

Anakin Skywalker looking super hot as always!! This scene omg ❤️🥵🥰

Thanks again @lacebird for your help and patience for those little details and techniques! May the 4th be with you!!☺️

[fanfic-lover-girl]

See, I love bad guys and evil characters, but I acknowledge that they are bad and that whatever they did isn’t good. One of my favourite characters in Harry Potter is Tom Riddle. My favourite character in Star Wars is Anakin/Darth Vader.

As rivetting as the Snape discussion is, as someone who loves Anakin Skywalker, reducing Ani to a mere villain is insulting! Darth Vader is revealed to be a tragic hero. A hero who fell to the dark side due to his flaw of not handling loss well. Darth Vader saved his son in the end. Anakin was a kind, compassionate person even while he was a lowly slave on Tatooine. Anakin is not just a villain!

It's mindsets like OP's that make fandom discussion so irritating. Unlikable characters are reduced to villains and if you try to argue for their good side, you are wrong. SMH.

You see, the problem with people liking Snape is that they don’t usually like him as an antihero/villain/bad guy but they try to justify his deeds and make him a good guy. See, I love bad guys and evil characters, but I acknowledge that they are bad and that whatever they did isn’t good. One of my favourite characters in Harry Potter is Tom Riddle. My favourite character in Star Wars is Anakin/Darth Vader. I really like Cersei Lannister from GoT.

But they are villains, and I know that, and I don’t try to ignore or justify their actions. Possessing children is bad, murder is bad, incest is bad and I know that they did it. But I still love them as the villains.

Snape lovers try to convince us that he is actually a hero. They close their eyes on him bullying children, obsessing with Lily, wanting her for himself and even the Death Eater part of his life. They say that he is actually cool…?

(Maybe that sometimes comes from the fans that didn’t read the books? Like, Snape isn’t really shown bullying children in the movies, not as much as in the books. Also, i now wonder whether this post is actually bullshit cause why must people do as I think is right???)

[geneticdriftwood]

rots obi-wan kenobi is horatio-coded, send tweet.

[starwarskid]

A Tragic Hero=Anakin Skywalker

What is A Tragic Hero?

A tragic hero is a character in a literary work, typically a play, who possesses admirable qualities but also has a fatal flaw that leads to their downfall. They are often faced with a conflict or dilemma that they cannot overcome due to their own flaws or errors in judgment. Despite their good intentions, their actions ultimately result in their own destruction or downfall. Tragic heroes evoke both pity and fear in the audience, as they are relatable and their tragic fate serves as a cautionary tale.

Anakin Skywalker

Anakin Skywalker from the Star Wars saga is often considered a tragic hero. He possesses several qualities that align with the archetype of a tragic hero. Firstly, Anakin is a character with great potential and admirable qualities. He is incredibly talented and skilled, displaying exceptional prowess as a Jedi Knight. He is brave, loyal, and has a strong desire to protect those he cares about. However, Anakin's fatal flaw is his deep-seated fear of loss and his attachment to his loved ones. This fear and attachment drive him to make impulsive and reckless decisions, leading him down a path of darkness. He is seduced by the promises of power and control offered by the dark side of the Force, ultimately becoming Darth Vader. Anakin's downfall is tragic because it results from his inner struggle and conflicting emotions. He is torn between his love for his family and his duty as a Jedi. The choices he makes, motivated by his fear and desire to prevent loss, ultimately lead to the destruction of his relationships, his identity, and his own physical and emotional well-being. Anakin's story evokes pity and fear in the audience as we witness his descent into darkness and the tragic consequences that follow. His journey serves as a cautionary tale about the dangers of unchecked emotions and the consequences of succumbing to one's own flaws.

Anakin Skywalker=The Tragic Hero

[starplusfourletters]

help I’m thinking about Ahsoka meeting the definition of a tragic hero

[loosely defined as a sympathetic but imperfect protagonist who suffers some kind of downfall because of a tragic flaw]

I think the brainworms haven’t latched onto this before just cuz it’s not my go-to lens for anyone happening to be standing next to Anakin Freaking Skywalker, but while her "downfall" is less intense than Anakin's I think she meets the bar as much as he does.

Out-of-universe she's literally destined to fail because any character added to Anakin's arc in the Year of Our Lord 2008 1) can't prevent him from falling and 2) can't redeem him and that's a pretty heckin tragic arc to give your 14-year-old character right off the bat.

The only ways to make that less tragic are to have them like each other less, or to have her realize he's on a tragic arc and choose to get away from him for that reason... and they quadruple down on exactly the opposite of that

Every single thing that happens to Ahsoka for three years teaches her that everyone will disappoint her and let her down EXCEPT ANAKIN, to the point where she makes him her one constant in the universe. That leads directly to the Maul confrontation scene (which strongly mirrors the scene with Anakin and Palpatine in Palpatine's office), where she's given a choice and chooses wrong because of her tragic flaw, which is loyalty to Anakin.

Except it's so much more batshit than that because it's also the same "join me and together we will defeat a greater evil" pitch that star wars fantasy does over and over and over but in this case and this case only SHE SHOULD HAVE TAKEN IT. But my the audience’s yelling-at-the-screen response to that is driven by the fact the TCW s7 came out a solid FORTY YEARS after we learned how all these choices turned out. So honestly her tragic hero-ness is 80% dramatic irony. Which is also very Star Wars.

But thinking about this has gotten me feral about Ahsoka and Luke again because the fact that Luke puts all his money on Vader is absolutely insane. Luke is betting EVERYTHING with no evidence that it's going to work out for him, and it pays off. He freaking WINS because of that. Meanwhile Ahsoka has so, so many reasons to bet everything on Anakin, and she does, and she loses everything.

your faith in your friends is yours

[nerdyerror]

There are two types of tragic heros:

The ones that have to much faith in their own judgment.

And the ones that do not have enough.

[calamitys-child]

Bad news boys I heard the line "he died at about the same time as your father" and am SEVERELY back on my bullshit

[ablog]

I love pov!! I love povs so much!!! I love to see stories of why and how the "bad guy" got to where they are! Bonus points if from their pov they are the good guy!

I would LOVE to see a show/movie that starts with us following the regular hero backstory and see the character grows and becomes a better person and all of that, and later have corruption arc, but not from some evil dude doing something to them, but from the inside and all that occurred to them, the bigging of a hero and a villain are often similar with little differences from their lifes and the environment around them it's so fucking interesting and i would LOVE to have it as the show's "twist"

[clayberesford-anakinskywalkerfan]

Literally me struggling right now. 😢😭 Every day I'm trying but I haven't been ok. I can definitely relate to Anakin and what he has gone through. He felt like he was never good enough and everyone kept doubting him as a Jedi. That's what it just feels like with myself right now, and it feels like I'm not good enough for anything. I don't normally share about my mental health online especially , but sometimes I feel like I just want to know that someone is there to listen and a place where I don't feel alone💔

[hacked-wtsdz]

Underbelly, Nicole Homer\\The Phantom Menace, dir. George Lucas\\Revenge of The Sith, dir. George Lucas\\Molly Brodak, Molly Brodak\\Frankenstein, Mary Shelley.

[dhampiravidi]

achilles vs. anakin

so I've been thinking--these 2 are similar AF:

has 1 divine parent

is the Chosen One...?

very cute uwu

close to their mom

BFF is a little more than that

ultimately chooses love over honor/others' praise every time

soldier who started too young

killed at least 1 kid that we know of

they're younger & less disciplined than their love interest

badass w/a weapon

berzerker rage followed by intense ugly cry

people judge them on their actions & label them as crazy

I guess their main differences are that Achilles wasn't ever taught to let go of passion or rage, while Anakin was told those are feelings that lead to the Dark Side of the Force. Anakin had lived as a slave while Achilles had grown up as a prince(ss) who took classes.

[the-far-bright-center]

#'all i want is your love' his wife pleads with him#'love won't save you! only my new powers can do that!' he answers while drowning in the dark side#'love can ignite the stars' the story stubbornly insists and it doesn't give up until it saves him and the entire galaxy (via @caracynthia)

#FEAR DESTROYED HIM. LOVE SAVED HIM.#HIS FEAR OF LOSING THOSE HE LOVED OVERRODE HIS LOVE AND CAUSED HIS FALL#HIS LOVE FOR HIS SON OVERRODE HIS FEAR OF PALPATINE AND CAUSED HIS RISE!!!#ITS ABOUT LOVE!!! (starts crying) ITS ABOUT LOVE!!!!!! (via @inked-explores)

^YES! All of the above!

i actually have one more thing to say. love saved anakin. love literally saved anakin. the love anakin skywalker had for his wife and subsequently their children, the love luke had for his father, is what saved anakin. it’s what destroyed the dark side. star wars is very much a love story. thanks. 

[intermundia]

my favorite thing about anakin as a character is the inherent nuance lucas wrote into his story, like he's neither an innocent victim nor an inherently evil monster, he's just some guy put in a series of Situations and ultimately failing the test of his humility and self-control. he was certainly flattered and shaped by the devil, spiraling into something unrecognizable, but he chose to take every step down the pathway to hell. lucas knew he would lose a certain demographic by making him basically a greedy pawn in the larger story, not a righteous betrayed macho badass, but he did it anyway. he made him an awkward romantic and a loyal friend, a generous boy and a brilliant teen. he made sure he had all the positive qualities that meant that he had potential to be so much more than vader, but it was clearly his choice to lie, murder, and fully squander that potential. there are no excuses for what he became, no acceptable reasons to commit mass slaughter. he became an unbelievably selfish and impatient man, reckless and wantonly violent. hayden captured that nuance so well, nobody can match the sweetness of his smile and the absolute horror of his scowl on mustafar. to view him through a single lens as either pure victim of manipulation and (canonically unsupported) emotional neglect, or a creepy evil villain, denies the heart of his story and the weight of his tragedy. he's neither an angel nor a demon, he's both and neither, he's deeply human, a classical tragic hero with a flaw of greed. lucas made a choice with the prequels to tell a story that not everyone wanted to hear, and the result was a character that i think is one of the best of modern pop culture, mostly because he feels to me so very, very ancient and eternal.

[faint-taste-of-almonds]

yes there's a lot of things to criticize about Star Wars but one thing i will always love it for is being so unabashedly tragic

i'm sure it's been said before, but one of the main things i think powers the SW fandom (fics in particular) is the (in)evitability of it all

time travel fix-its are one of the most popular sub-categories of fics that i've seen (for the prequels at least) but i see it much more rarely in other fandoms. i know each fandom has their own niches that they dig into but star wars fic writers took one look at this decades long story of people who were doomed from the start and said 'not in my house bitch'

and i'm never tired of it, because there's so many places where just one different action could have changed the story entirely, but didn't

was it over the moment Palpatine succeeded in feeding Anakin's fears and his distrust toward the Jedi? the moment the Sith gained control of the senate? what about when the war started, when the Jedi were made generals of men designed to be their executioners? what about when Dooku left the order? when Qui-Gon Jinn died, leaving barely-knighted Obi Wan Kenobi to raise a child he had no idea how to care for? when the Jedi massacred the Mandalorians at Galidraan, leaving Jango Fett primed (hah) for revenge? when Palpatine, and thus the Sith, first gained influence? when the Jedi were tied to the Republic, all the way back at the Ruusan Reformation?

there are so many little moments that turn into this huge web of cause and effect when you take a step back. and in canon, these characters are dooming themselves while we watch, but what reason do they have to do anything different? they don't know they're in a tragedy - its dramatic irony at its goddamn finest

but there's this thing about decisions: for it to be a choice, there has to be another option. and our heroes make their mistakes because that's what they do, while we aren't privy to that other option, leaving that little what-if. it's a favorite human pastime, to think about what might have been.

we start at episode 4, though, fourty or so years after what you could arguably call the start, and find ourselves watching the dominoes fall in place throughout 1, 2, and 3.

and we can hate the choices, hate the tragedy, hate what happened to our beloved characters, but we knew. we had the luxury of knowing.

it's a love story, it's political intrique, it's sci-fi at its finest, and they were dead from the start.

[heartofmortis]

✧ exile (what a ghostly scene)

. *. ⋆ Anakin / Vader x Reader

summary: you were bail organa’s ward, raised on alderaan with your younger sister. in the twilight of the clone war, you and anakin fell in love. when the war died, it dragged you and anakin to early graves with it — leaving only darth vader behind. even after years without you, he still wants you back. and there is nothing he would not do to bring you back to him. . .

tags: angst, tragic romance, suitless vader, no y/n, gn reader, inspired by the 2020 vader comics & vader immortal, past major character death, mourning, vader needs a hug, resurrection

note: my first reader/second person fic — i’m sorry if the tense is bad ajsjwjwjqjq. i’ve had this in my drafts for soooo long and i finally decided to finish it 🫶

word count: 1k

part 1 of 4

The stars have died, fizzling out into oblivion. All that remains is a charcoal heart that once belonged to Anakin Skywalker.

The boy from Tatooine is unreachable now, trapped inside the twisted soul of Darth Vader. The galaxy’s beloved Hero With No Fear is gone. With the rise of the Empire, the Jedi and their sympathisers will be erased from memory. A clean slate to start a new era.

Three years after the creation of the Empire, Darth Vader stands alone. His tower on Mustafar is isolating; its strategic position is a constant reminder of that day. His injuries still hurt sometimes: phantom itches on his now metal legs; scars from his burns that did not fully heal. The medical droids say he is lucky — the fire could have done more serious damage, and he could have been forced to rely on a suit keeping him alive for the rest of his days. Instead, the ebony coloured mask and suit he wears are to conceal his identity. A precaution so that Anakin Skywalker can fade from people’s tongues and memory, leaving the tyranny of Darth Vader in its place.

The weight of his failures is not the heaviest burden. Darth Vader drowns in his anger and grief. He was not strong enough to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi. He was not strong enough to save you.

(All things die. Even stars burn out.)

You were the stars in his sky, his light in the dark, the silvery moon to his blazing sun. So tender and kind. Perhaps your heart was too good for this world. Perhaps, it was your weakness all along. (How could peace ever love a dragon?)

Since you met, you had been Anakin’s sun. You anchored him; guided him home. You were his destiny. And, without you, the galaxy had turned cold. The fiery world outside, all hot air and lava fields, only stood as a reminder of his failure. He’d lost you. After everything Anakin had tried — surrendering himself to the dark side, betraying the light — he could not save you. Time had not quelled the pain.

Vader wonders if you would still recognise him. His copper hair has grown longer (he remembers how you used to cut it for him after he returned from another mission, and you’d giggle as you braided thin locks together), but his face hides behind an obsidian mask. You always loved the blue of Anakin’s eyes, but now they are blazing amber.

Mornings are the only time Vader allows himself to dwell on the past. It is when he finds himself alone and does not have to hide.

Vader recalls how you arrived on Mustafar like it was yesterday. (You haunt him every waking moment.) He could sense your conflicted emotions as soon as you disembarked your ship. Vader wasted no time approaching you, drawing you into his arms (where you belonged; where you were safe). His lips reconnected with yours, fitting together like puzzle pieces as he kissed you hungrily, his hands settled on your hips to keep you close.

You and Anakin had met after turning nineteen. He and Obi-Wan were called to Alderaan to protect the Queen and Viceroy from an assassination attempt. Being their ward, you had been there the whole time and quickly formed a connection with the young padawan — your relationship had blossomed during the Clone Wars.

He rested his forehead against yours as you spoke. “I heard terrible things. Tell me none of it is true.”

Vader hadn’t replied immediately and instead drew his head back to look at you. He would tell you any sweet lie if he needed to as he fought to quell the anger flaring in his eyes. “What have you been told?”

“Obi-Wan told me—”

Vader’s grasp around you tightened protectively. “Obi-Wan is alive?”

“He said you’d killed Jedi. Killed younglings.”

“You must not believe him, my love. He’s a traitor.”

It wasn’t the answer you sought, and you took a step backwards out of your husband’s grasp. “What have you done?”

“I did this for you. To save you.” He cupped your chin in his flesh hand and whispered your name. “I love you.”

Your eyes trained into his. There was no denial, no remorse in his stature; his only regret was letting Obi-Wan tell you anything.

He repeated his words. “I did this for you.”

From the shadows of your cloak, you drew a blaster. Only a small, weak thing. Vader watched your hands tremble. He did admire your courage. “Fix this,” you demanded. “Please,” you begged.

Anger flickered in Vader’s eyes. He had never seen you unimpressed with him. With an easy glide of his hand, Vader used the Force to knock the blaster out of your grip and pin your arms by your sides

“I am stronger than the Chancellor now,” he explained desperately, drawing you to his side. “I can overthrow him. Then you and I can be together; we can run away — just like you always wanted to.”

(But you didn’t. He lost you. Some might call you a traitor — Vader maintains that you were misguided.)

Three years later, regret still festers inside Vader’s hollow soul. There must have been a way to save you.

He misses you endlessly: craving your touch and the sound of your voice. (There is nothing Vader desires more than to have you back in his arms.)

Part of him wants to forget. To cast his memories of you into an abyss; to put the past behind him. But it is an impossible task. You are too well tangled into his soul. You haunt him. (And you’ll haunt him until his death.)

Today, there is no time to focus on you. A new morning brings meetings and training. You were Anakin’s Achilles Heel — but Darth Vader shows no such weakness. As Vader sits on his throne, reading over mission logs and other updates from the spread of the Empire across the galaxy, he receives a message: he must make his return to Coruscant immediately. (Your memory pulls him under the ocean again until he can no longer breathe.)

[the-far-bright-center]

#thats something i dont think people who hate on anakin and specifically hayden's portrayal of anakin seem to get#he's 'whiney' and whatever... no#he's deeply... DEEPLY traumatised and he is terrified of losing the people he loves#he loves incredibly deeply and strongly and he gives so much of his heart to people#but he grew up a slave and was ripped from his mother#and then he sees her death in his dreams until he cant take it anymore but then its too late#and that informs every single choice he makes after that#he sees padme's death and he /knows/ its going to happen. he /knows/ that he has the power of foresight#and he knows that he is seeing her true death#and he refuses to allow her to die the way his mother did#shmi's death informs every moment of anakin's life from that moment forward#and hayden portrayed that desperation and horror and longing for love and safety so so well#of course he fell victim to the sith!!! of course he did!!!#he was vulnerable because he couldn't let another person he loved die the way his mother did#anyway... hayden and anakin supremacy (via @dylanobrienisbatman)

Star Wars: Clone Wars Gambit: Stealth by Karen Miller