The tale of Anakin Skywalker from the expansive Star Wars Universe has become one of the most gripping modern-day tragedies to be told. His story has been told via a variety of mediums—film, television, comics—but his main arc takes place over the course of six films: the Original Trilogy (Movies 4, 5, and 6), and the Prequel Trilogy (Movies 1, 2, and 3). Through the course of his life, he goes through what the Greek philosopher Aristotle defined as the four main phases of a tragedy: hamartia (a fatal flaw), peripeteia (a reversal of fortune), anagnorisis (a moment of realization), and catharsis (emotional purging).¹ Further, many parallels can be drawn between his story and other classic tragedies like Hamlet or Antigone, and these two facts combined give Anakin’s story a sense of inevitability. It is this sense of inevitability that makes the story of Anakin Skywalker so compelling—audiences cannot help rooting for Anakin despite knowing his tale ends in tragedy, and this draws upon timeless emotions such as hope and allows us to process them through a safe narrative.

The tale of Anakin Skywalker has many elements that are quintessential to tragic tales, and this creates the feeling that audiences have seen this story before, and thus, a sense of inevitability. Because the original trilogy was released before the prequel trilogy, viewers of the films go into Anakin’s backstory already knowing how it ends—no matter how much you root for him, you know how it will end—and thus a sense that the audience is looking across the barrier between life and death. This idea of characters living with one foot in the grave is mirrored in other tragedies such as Sophocles’ Antigone, where the titular Antigone acts as though she is already dead at times², and the more modern tragedy Death and the King’s Horseman, where it is the duty of one of the characters to commit ritual suicide³. In a sense, both characters have been dead since the beginning of the narrative, and the audience just has to catch up—just like in Anakin’s story. Further, the Star Wars universe touts strong philosophical ideologies on the side of the Jedi (the protagonists) and the Sith (the antagonists), which are crucial to tragedies. German philosopher G.W.F. Hegel in his work Phenomenology of Spirit argues that tragedy finds its roots in opposing philosophies, where both parties truly believe that they are in the right. This failure on both sides to reconcile their different concepts is an inherent part of human nature, and the inevitability of the fact that both sides cannot actually be correct, but both believe they are, creates the framework for tragedy⁴. In the case of Star Wars, Anakin Skywalker truly believes that he is doing the right thing, to protect the people he cares about and bring peace to the galaxy, and thus justifies his actions no matter how heinous. This, and the feeling that Anakin’s story mirrors other classic stories, is fertile ground for a tragedy to blossom.

As a character, Anakin’s fate is set in stone from the start of his narrative, and this sense of inevitability makes it all the more tragic when audiences are privy to crucial moments where his fate could be diverted if not for who he is. Prophecies are a large part of tragedies, and in the case of Anakin Skywalker, he is the subject of an ancient Jedi prophecy that claims that “A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored.”⁵ Prophets foreshadow the end in tragedies, and thus create a sense of inevitability: Cassandra in Aeschylus’s The Agamemnon narrates Agamemnon’s death⁶, Tiresias in Euripides’ Bacchae warns King Pentheus of Bacchus’s power⁷, and the soothsayer in Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra foresees that the handmaiden Charmian shall outlive her mistress Cleopatra⁸. Prophets tell the audience what will happen, but they do not reveal how it will happen. Anakin could fulfill his duty as the Chosen One in a number of ways, but his eventual transformation into Darth Vader is set in stone by the end of the first movie, The Phantom Menace, during the duel between the Sith Darth Maul and the Jedi master Qui-Gon Jinn. The music that underscores this fateful fight is called Duel of the Fates⁹ because it is a duel for Anakin’s future; a point of no return, similar to how the death of Iphigenia in The Agamemnon sets the stage for the rest of the play. As Dave Filoni of Lucasfilm put it,  “What’s at stake here is really how Anakin is going to turn out. Because Qui-Gon is different from the rest of the Jedi… He’s the father Anakin needs.”¹⁰ Obi-Wan Kenobi, who ultimately ends up mentoring Anakin, does his best, but he cannot teach Anakin how to balance caring for others with the Jedi philosophy in a healthy manner like Qui-Gon could, and Anakin thus falls prey to his fatal flaw: his fear of loss. The inevitability of this occurring is underscored in The Clone Wars TV show 3×17: “Ghosts of Mortis.” In the episode, the Brother, a personification of the dark side of the Force, shows Anakin his future as Darth Vader, and Anakin, gripped by his fear of his future and need to protect the people he loves, agrees to join the dark side, lured in by the promise to “end the war, corruption, and suffering throughout the galaxy.”¹¹ It is not until his memory is wiped that he returns to the light side, and it demonstrates that Anakin has not learned how to let go of his fear of loss, and thus the inevitability of his fall to the dark side.

Anakin’s story follows the classic beats of a tragedy laid out by Aristotle, starting with his fatal flaw: his inability to process loss and let go of his loved ones. This drives his actions and is exemplified by his forbidden marriage to Padme Amidala, the senator from the planet Naboo, which occurs during second movie, Attack of the Clones, and helps drive Anakin’s downfall.¹² Their relationship slowly becomes toxic, fuelling Anakin’s control and anger issues. This is most visible in The Clone Wars TV Show Season Six, when Rush Clovis, an old friend of Padme’s whom Anakin is jealous of, shows up, and Padme must work with him by command of Chancellor Palpatine of the Republic. He is controlling over Padme, stating “As your husband, I demand that you tell the chancellor you are stepping down” and demonstrating a lack of trust in his wife; when she asks him to trust her, he says “Like the last time, hmm? When you almost ended up dead? Or how about you just getting arrested, and it was me who had to bail you out?”¹³ His rage comes out in full force when he witnesses Clovis attempt to kiss Padme against her will and he beats Clovis brutally, using the Force to throw him around and ignoring Padme when she begs them to stop, scoffing that “You don’t have a say in this!”¹⁴ Anakin grew up as a slave before being freed by the Jedi when he was nine, and this immense trauma and helplessness from his childhood is an intrinsic part of his character that he never truly processes due to the Jedi mindset of not acknowledging their emotions. He projects this trauma onto Padme, becoming controlling and angry, and ultimately losing control when he begins having visions of her dying in childbirth during the third movie, Revenge of the Sith, when he proclaims to her: “I won’t lose you the way I lost my mother. I am becoming more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of. And I’m doing it for you. To protect you.”¹⁵ In the end, it is his very possessiveness that is his undoing, and the very dark powers that Anakin sought to save Padme’s life kill her, as she dies during childbirth from the trauma of Anakin choking her with the Force and abandoning her.

Anakin’s reversal of fortune, fall from grace, and eventual redemption finish out his tragic arc, but before he can be redeemed, he first loses everything. Anakin’s peripeteia (reversal of fortune) occurs at the end of Revenge of the Sith on the volcano planet Mustafar, where he harms Padme with the force in a fit of rage and jealousy, and then loses a duel to his Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, losing his limbs and becoming horribly burned and disfigured in the process. Obi-Wan’s futile attempts to make Anakin see reason bear no fruit, and instead, he cries to Anakin: You were the Chosen One! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!”¹⁶ It is incredibly tragic to watch Obi-Wan nearly kill Anakin, a man he considered a brother, after Anakin’s betrayal of not just Obi-Wan, but the entire Jedi order. Anakin’s fall to the dark side includes his march on the Jedi Temple, where he helps massacre everyone inside, including the children, during the brutal genocide of the Jedi. At this moment, hope is lost—it seems as though the prophecy will never be fulfilled, and Anakin is at his lowest point, having seemingly lost Padme, his children, his love, and his identity. At this moment, Anakin Skywalker is no more, and Darth Vader has risen in his place. Anakin does not regain his identity until the end of the sixth movie, Return of the Jedi, when his son Luke triggers his moment of recognition and ultimately, catharsis for the audience. Witnessing Emperor Palpatine torture his son, Anakin finally comes to the realization that his pursuit of power and fear of loss have only led to his own suffering, and betrays Emperor Palptaine, killing both him and himself in the process. In his final moments, he begs Luke to “let me look on you with my own eyes,”¹⁷ redeeming himself and fulfilling the prophecy, but not erasing the decades of damage his actions have wrought.

The tragedy of Anakin Skywalker has remained a compelling story for decades after it was first told because the feeling of inevitability baked into the tragic genre reflects the cyclical nature of human existence back at the viewers, allowing them to process their own emotions in a familiar environment. The fear of loss is an incredibly human emotion that many understand, and watching Anakin process this on screen allows viewers to process their own fears in a safe manner, experiencing catharsis when Anakin finally lets go of his fear to save Luke’s life. It shows us that even the most broken of people can be redeemed, though it does not erase their previous actions, and that everyone is deserving of love. In the end, all Anakin needed to turn back to the light side was kindness, love, and faith from Luke, who never stopped believing that his father could be a better person; the same belief Padme held onto even as she died. His tragedy is further compelling because even though audiences know how Anakin’s story ends, they still root for him, drawn in by the juxtaposition of inevitability and possibility: could Anakin’s story have gone differently? Ultimately, if Anakin’s story could go differently and he be redeemed and remembered as a hero, then so can all of us.

Works Cited

1.  Britannica, “Tragedy – Theory of Tragedy | Britannica,” in Encyclopædia Britannica, 2019, https://www.britannica.com/art/tragedy-literature/Theory-of-tragedy.
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2.  Sophocles, “Antigone,” in The Greek Plays : Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, by Mary R. Lefkowitz et al (New York: The Modern Library, 2016).
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3.  Wole Soyinka, Death and the King’s Horseman (London : Eyre Methuen, 1975).
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4.  Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and A.V. Miller, Phenomenology of Spirit (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018).
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5. Claudia Gray, Master and Apprentice (Star Wars). (Random House Publishing Group, 2019), 121.
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6.  Aeschylus, “The Agamemnon,” in The Greek Plays : Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, by Mary R. Lefkowitz et al (New York: The Modern Library, 2016).
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7.  Euripides, “Bacchae,” in The Greek Plays : Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, by Mary R. Lefkowitz et al (New York: The Modern Library, 2016).
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8.  William Shakespeare and A R Braunmuller, Antony and Cleopatra (New York, New York: Penguin Books, 2017).
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9.  Star Wars: Episode I – the Phantom Menace, directed by George Lucas (20th Century Studios, 1999), Disney+.
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10.  Cantina Talk, “Dave Filoni Explains Duel of the Fates in the Phantom Menace,” YouTube, July 7, 2024, Youtube.
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11.  Dave Filoni, “The Clone Wars: Ghosts of Mortis,” Television (Warner Bros. Pictures, February 11, 2011), Disney+, 9:45-10:47.
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12.  Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones directed by George Lucas (20th Century Studios, 2002), Disney+.
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13.  Dave Filoni, “The Clone Wars: Rise of Clovis,” Television (Warner Bros. Pictures, March 7, 2014), Disney+, 5:22-6:03.
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14.  Dave Filoni, “The Clone Wars: Rise of Clovis,” Television (Warner Bros. Pictures, March 7, 2014), Disney+, 12:14-13:31.
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15.  Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, directed by George Lucas (20th Century Studios, 2005), Disney+, 1:44:30 – 1:44:54.
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16.  Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, directed by George Lucas (20th Century Studios, 2005), Disney+, 1:59:59 – 2:00:41.
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17.  Return of the Jedi, directed by Richard Marquand (20th Century Studios, 2005), Disney+, 1:57:00 – 2:00:15.
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