Anakin Skywalker Appreciation Post: Lesser-Known Moments
So, Anakin has a lot of great moments I never see acknowledged, and I want to raise awareness of them.
First, I love how confident Anakin is in Obi-Wan. It reminds me a lot of a kid who's just awed by his big brother, and I think it's super cute. This panel is from the Obi-Wan and Anakin miniseries by Charles Soule, and I love its portrayal of their relationship.
On the morning of Anakin's thirteenth birthday, Obi-Wan had presented him with his Padawan gift. It was the gift that Qui-Gon had given Obi-Wan on his own thirteenth birthday, a Force-sensitive river stone. Obi-Wan was ashamed to remember how he'd been disappointed by the gift. He had been so young. He had wanted something significant, something like the gifts other Padawans had received — special hilts for their lightsabers or cloaks made from the lightweight, warm wool from the planet Pasmin. Instead, Qui- Gon had given him a rock. Yet that present had turned into his most valuable possession. The smooth black stone glowed with heat against his heart. It had warmed his cold hands on many planets. It had nestled inside a tiny pocket his friend Bant had sewn in his tunic, close to his heart. It was hard to give it up. But somehow he knew Qui-Gon would want him to. Unlike Obi-Wan's first reaction, Anakin's face showed deep appreciation. Then his expression clouded. "Are you sure?" he asked. "This was given to you by Qui-Gon." "He would want you to have it, as I do. It is my most treasured possession." Obi-Wan reached out and closed Anakin's fingers over the stone. "I hope it will be with you always to remind you of Qui-Gon and me, of our deep regard for you." Anakin's smile lit his face. "I'll treasure it. Thank you, Master." In many ways, Anakin was more openhearted, more generous than he had once been, Obi-Wan thought. Though there was a great weight on Anakin due to the prophecy, he was sure that Anakin would do well.
This passage is from Jedi Quest: The Way of the Apprentice by Jude Watson, where Obi-Wan gives Anakin the river stone that Qui-Gon once gave him.
One of my drives to make this post is because I once saw an ask on a different blog speculating that Anakin wouldn't appreciate this river stone, but Ahsoka would, and she and Obi-Wan could bond over it. That post broke my heart a little, because Obi-Wan did share the river stone with Anakin, and Anakin not only appreciated it, but was hesitant to accept because he knew fully what it meant to Obi-Wan. So I definitely wanted to include this moment.
This panel is from the Star Wars: Republic comics in Legends, and I believe it's the first designated instance of Anakin's moving meditation that he uses sometimes in Legends. I don't believe it's cropped up yet in canon, and I know he just meditates the normal way in the films. Still, I like that Anakin has this more unique form of meditation, and that he gets to share it and bond over it with Aayla.
This moment is also from the Republic comics, and I find it very cute. I love how quick Anakin is to compliment Aayla and that he genuinely wants to learn from her.
Anakin sat in the map room. He had activated dozens of holographic worlds at once. They swirled around him in their varied systems while dozens of voices told him facts about their climate, geography, species, and culture. The voices blended into an indistinguishable babble. It was an exercise he had invented to calm his mind. He drew the Force around him to help him concentrate. Then he tried to find the thread of one voice and follow it. As soon as he had, he would add another. He thought of the voices as layers in his mind, and he tried to keep track of what each voice was telling him, all at the same time. It was difficult and took tremendous concentration. But all the voices together filled up the space in his head and drowned out his own voice, his own feelings. So he would not have to think, only concentrate. Concentration is different from thinking, his Master had told him. When you are concentrating hard enough, you shouldn't be thinking at all. It was here in the map room that he had first understood what Obi-Wan had meant.
This passage is from Jude Watson's Jedi Quest: Master of Disguise. I love that Anakin has fashioned his own meditation style, and I think it makes a lot of sense for him. He's an inventor. If normal meditation isn't working for him, he'll simply invent one that does.
This is another moment from the Obi-Wan and Anakin miniseries, and I love how it highlights Anakin's resourcefulness and skill. I love that his talent for mechanics actually becomes a crucial element of the plot and allows him to swoop to Obi-Wan's rescue. He doesn't have a speeder or a speeder bike? Fine, he'll just build one.
It took Anakin a moment to realize that he had finished. Blinking, he scrutinized his diverse audience. Then the whistling began, and the hissing, and the coordinated knuckle cracking. He ought to have been pleased. Instead, he hurried to resume his place alongside his Master; head down, face flushed, trying and failing to hide his discomfiture. Someone was patting him approvingly on the back. It was Bulgan, bent and contorted, his face alight with pleasure. “Good sounds, Master Anakin, good sounds!” He put one hand to an aural opening. “You please every Alwari.” “Was it all right?” Anakin asked hesitantly of the man seated next to him. To his surprise, he saw that his Master was eyeing him with uncommon approval. “Just when I think I have you figured out, Anakin, you unleash another surprise on me. I had no idea you could sing like that.” “Neither did I, really,” the Padawan replied shyly. “I managed to find some inspiration in an old memory.”
A cool moment from The Approaching Storm by Alan Dean Foster: we find out that Anakin has a very good singing voice.
One interesting story arc from the Star Wars: Republic comics involves Anakin ending up on a war-torn planet called Jabiim with a group of fellow Padawans who were sent there by the Jedi Council because all of their Masters died. (It makes just as much sense in context.) With Obi-Wan also presumed dead (but not actually dead), Anakin and the Padawan Pack decide to make a suicidal last stand.
All of the Padawans except Anakin die horribly, and Anakin is only saved because Palpatine intervenes at the last minute. And then afterward, Anakin takes the time to memorialize each one of them.
I also like that Anakin does not forget about his friends who died, and later on remembers them, too.
I think it's noticeable that we never see any other Jedi mourn the Padawan Pack, but Anakin does. I don't think they ever even get so much as a mention from anyone else, but Anakin is disturbed enough by their deaths that he can look at other young Jedi and want to prevent them from sharing the same fate.
He no longer tried to block Skywalker's strikes but only to guide them slanting away; he could not meet Skywalker strength-to-strength—not only did the boy wield tremendous reserves of Force energy, but his sheer physical power was astonishing— And only then did Dooku understand that he'd been suckered. Skywalker's Shien ready-stance had been a ruse, as had his Ataru gymnastics; the boy was a Djem So stylist, and as fine a one as Dooku had ever seen. His own elegant Makashi simply did not generate the kinetic power to meet Djem So head-to-head.
This is the Obi-Wan and Anakin vs. Dooku duel from Matthew Stover's magnificent Revenge of the Sith novelization. It's a fantastic read that gives us enormous insights to Anakin's drive and motivation, and also this cool moment, where Dooku admits that Anakin is not only adept in Ataru, but the best Djem So wielder Dooku's seen in his life.
Time to end where we began: with Charles Soule's Obi-Wan and Anakin comic. I love this scene of Anakin giving his lightsaber to Obi-Wan. It's a beautiful moment. Anakin is mature, he's articulate, and even if he doesn't fully recognize how Palpatine is manipulating him at this point, he raises a very valid point regarding precisely how he entered the Jedi Order.
This is why I don't really jive with the "Anakin refuses to talk to Obi-Wan" argument I constantly see going around on Tumblr. Because . . . well, here we have Anakin having a conversation with Obi-Wan and doing a very good job of it.
And I love this scene that comes afterward, of Anakin being reluctant to take back his lightsaber and only doing so at Obi-Wan's reassurance. To me, this demonstrates that Anakin not only recognizes his responsibilities in the Jedi Order, but that he's not willing to go against their values as of this point.
He still wants to help--that hasn't changed. But he doesn't want to carry a lightsaber and call himself a Jedi when he doesn't feel like he can or should be a Jedi as of this point. And I love that this proves that Anakin can be a thoughtful and considerate person regarding Jedi traditions and philosophy.
Anyway, that's all of my underappreciated Anakin moments for now, but I'm sure I'll be back with others!