Throughout the Star Wars saga, there is a lot of ambiguity surrounding Anakin, mainly because we know he's going to do very terrible things, and we also know he's a pretty nice guy. This makes him a very difficult character to grasp, but here is the way I see it. The original trilogy was mainly about seeing the consequences of evil and the destruction and pain that it inevitably causes. That certainly is an important lesson to understand. But what seems even more important is the issue of why people choose to side with evil, and that is the very issue that the prequel trilogy is attempting to tackle.
This is a great and difficult question that Lucas is trying to answer -- we are talking about the human condition here, and that is not an easy subject to grasp in any light. Why do some people, even good and dear people, sometimes do bad things? Why did half the population of the United States once lock up another race into bondage? Why does an entire nation follow a man who wants the extermination of a race? Why would a man beat his wife and children? Why do people cheer on talk shows when they see another person being torn down? Why does a little child bully another child and try to tear that person down himself? The most outrageous of actions, the smallest and most innocent of bad decisions -- are they derived in the same manner? Is there not much difference between them? I, for one, am completely fascinated in how Lucas plans on interpreting this issue, because I myself am not completely sure of the answer; I'm not sure anyone truly is. Were all these people just born with a seed of evil? Should we look down on these people and say, "Ha! I would never do such a thing"? Or, is it too easy just to say that they are bad people, completely and utterly different from ourselves?
The real issue here is not about what faults Anakin has, but rather how we ought to view those faults. I believe that in the end, we're supposed to empathize with Anakin. Now, that doesn't mean we're supposed to condone what he eventually does. But the fact is, we're not supposed to look at Anakin and just think, "Oh he's evil. Shame on him." In reality it goes much, much deeper than that. I personally think it would be a cop-out if we were just supposed to hate him and cast him aside. What do we really learn from that? When someone does something wrong, are we just supposed to toss them aside and essentially spit in their face?
To do so is a dangerous prospect in its own right. Like all of us, Anakin doesn't see himself as committing evil actions; he probably also looked down upon others when they chose against good; and sees himself as one without greed or need for reward. It is his hubris, his unwillingness to see his own faults -- his own vulnerabilities and capability for evil -- that was his downfall, and such hubris may fall upon us. We are Anakin Skywalker. Everyone thinks this way; no one truly believes they are capable of evil. It is my hubris, your hubris, all of our own hubris.
The danger in denying the evil within us is that we don't come to understand it, and we can't prevent what we don't understand. Are we really supposed to believe that Lucas wants us to learn that when we see a person committing evil deeds we are supposed to turn our noses up and snicker at the person? Are we supposed to hate them back as much as they hate us? Do we cast them away as wretches? Perhaps what Lucas is really trying to say is that by understanding the frailties of our own selves, we can better understand the frailties of others, and rather than casting them away, we can bring them back with our knowledge of the human condition. Who is more likely to help a drug addict? A former drug addict who can empathize and talk to the person and convince them that there is only suffering that can be had for this life, or just an ignorant person who says, "Stop using drugs, you weakling." You can't get rid of evil by turning your back on it, raising your noses up at it, locking it behind iron bars, or trying to destroy it all together. That's because it resides within us. You can only control it within yourself and convince others to do the same, but that can only come about by understanding evil.
The very fact that we empathize with Anakin is scary to our own selves, because if we understand why he chooses evil, it is because we understand that we ourselves are capable of making the same decision, that we are not unlike him, and can make the same mistake. That is not an easy thing to swallow, and in fact is a very hard thing to believe. But if we understand our own capabilities to do evil, and we're fully aware of its consequences, we can make a choice against it. I think that's the lesson we're supposed to learn from Anakin. In Return of the Jedi, Luke is also on the verge of going to the Dark Side, but once he strikes down his father, he sees Vader's hand and looks at his own hand. He suddenly understands why someone would choose evil, but even more, he can look down on his father and see the pain and suffering that he went through. Now, he also understands the consequence of evil and can make the decision against it.
So in the end, Anakin's failures can be viewed as our own. Sure, we can cast him aside and raise our noses and wonder how could anyone be capable of such things. Or, more importantly, we can be frightened by the prospect that we are Anakin Skywalker, and we can find such a fate. People choose between good and evil on a daily basis. We are no exception. I guess what we are really supposed to learn is that although we see ourselves as good and do what is right day in and day out, we must be aware that each day we face these choices and one day we may choose evil. What we also learn is that even if day in and day out we decide choose to side with evil, we are always faced with the choices between good and evil, and can side with good if we wish, as Anakin eventually learned. We are not destined between good or evil. It is our choice.
That is the role of Anakin Skywalker. We don't condone what he does, rather quite the contrary. But in our empathy towards him, by understanding how he is like us, we learn humility for ourselves and banish the hubris we once had. To deny this is to not learn this lesson of humility and to maintain that level of hubris. That is Anakin's place as the mythological figure. His failures will be our triumphs, and to ignore them is to have gained nothing.
