HAHA OMG OKAY I’m going to get mildly serious on a message that probably wasn’t intended to be all that serious! Sorry not sorry and all that! XDI actually do sort of agree that Anakin deserves (at least a metaphorical) punch in the face for his behavior in Revenge of the Sith (and one really important thing in Attack of the Clones). I think he is going to be haunted by his victims for the rest of his life and beyond, that no amount of forgiveness from those still around to give it can match those that aren’t around to forgive it. And I would go further in that, while I will never say anyone deserves the pain Darth Vader had to live through, there’s a large part of me that’s not exactly sympathetic because of all the people he’d killed, all the people he’d hurt and betrayed, that he actively helped in cultural and physical genocide, that he murdered innocent children he should have been protecting, that were part of his culture, his family. That we sometimes go, “Oh, yes, Anakin did bad things but–”No, it wasn’t just “bad things” or “bad choices”. They were monstrous choices. They cannot be overstated. The level of horror he wrought on the galaxy, in killing children, in killing the Jedi and destroying their culture, in the enslavement of worlds that he helped under the Empire, the terror that he helped put forth, the suffering he left in his wake. None of that can be overstated.This does not mean that the path there is unimportant, that Anakin was a victim when he was a child, that he had problems so many of us can empathize with (our fears eating away at us, the anger that boils inside us that we can’t let go of, that we become too attached to things that we wind up hurting them and ourselves, that we can’t admit when mistakes have been made because it feels like then we’ve walked this path for nothing), that once upon a time he was a good person who did so much good and that he loved so very genuinely.But one thing does not negate the other. They go hand in hand, but you can’t use his being a victim to offset the abuse he doled out and you can’t use the abuse he doled out to offset that he was a victim.Anakin was a victim of slavery and, in my opinion (not canon, but one I have a difficult time separating out from his character because I can’t not see it!), a victim of poor mental health. He A L O N E is responsible for the choices he made in ROTS, he was a grown ass adult and had many choices laid out in front of him–he chose the path he walked. But understanding why he did and offering a hand out when he’s truly ready to redeem himself (and no one can make him want to be better, he had to be ready to do it himself) and recognizing that he’s suffered for everything that was his choice and suffered for things that weren’t his choice are just as important.To say that he was evil from the start or that he was nothing but a monster, to say that he was worthless, it really misses the point of him, why Obi-Wan and Padme and Luke loved him so much, even after everything. It misses the point that this wasn’t a story about someone born evil, but about someone who had more power than he knew what to do with and his fears ate away at him until the good was cast into too much shadow to see anymore. All that the people who loved him had was faith that it was still there, because none of them could see it anymore. They just had to know. They had to see it come back.But they wouldn’t have loved him if he hadn’t been so, so worthwhile in the first place. They wouldn’t have worked so hard or been so happy to see him if he hadn’t been so, so worthwhile in the first place.Anakin has paid for his monstrous choices, in ways that of course make me upset and sad, because I don’t like to see anyone suffer in pain. He will continue to pay for them because he has to live (or whatever it is Force Ghosts do) with what he’s done, has to remember every bad thing he did that hurt someone he loved.This is not an attempt to sway you or anyone else into “oh, but you have to like him because of [various reasons he was good and was a victim]” because some people have a line and Anakin will have crossed it for them. Nor am I really trying to sway you or anyone else into saying that you have to hate him or be angry with him, I can’t control anyone else’s views on Anakin Skywalker any more than they could (or should) try to control mine!If a person hates him, well, we can take comfort in that he really, really paid for those choices–24+ years of pain and, yes, he’s a Force Ghost but one who has to live with almost everyone he ever knew either hating his guts or dead, one who has to live with trying to make peace with what he’d done, one who has three people who are invested in him (Obi-Wan, Luke, and Yoda) while everyone else doesn’t give a shit about him or hates him.And if a person loves him, we can take comfort in that Anakin finally returned to the light and he has a chance to make peace with everything, that there was still good in him, and that he does have those three people who care about him, who love him. (AND BOY DO I LOVE HIM. I will also say, love him or hate him, he certainly is a worthy central character, god knows I’ve written so much meta about him and STILL HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO GO, because Anakin Skywalker gives me so many feelings.)Either way, Anakin Skywalker may have died to be redeemed but he still has to live with it and that cannot possibly be an easy thing.
