Characters / Star Wars – Anakin Skywalker

All spoilers regarding the Skywalker Saga and The Clone Wars are unmarked. Examples relating to Disney's films and EU can be spoiler-tagged if deemed necessary.

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Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader)

"I will be the most powerful Jedi ever."

^{Click here to see his The Clone Wars appearance}

Species: Human (Cyborg)

Homeworld: Tatooine

Portrayed by: Sebastian Shaw (Return of the Jedi), Jake Lloyd (The Phantom Menace), Hayden Christensen (Return of the Jedi^note as a Force spirit since the 2004 George Lucas Altered Version, all other live-action appearances)

Voiced by: Matt Lanter, Hayden Christensen^note Archived audio only ^{Foreign VAs}Latin American Spanish dub: Isidro Olace (Return of the Jedi, original dub), Federico Romano (Return of the Jedi, remastered dub), Héctor Emmanuel Gómez (The Phantom Menace), Irwin Daayán (Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, and The Clone Wars), Carlo Vázquez (Rebels), European Spanish dub): Constantino Romero (Return of the Jedi), Masami Musuda (The Phantom Menace), Óscar Muñoz (Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, The Clone Wars), Japanese dub: Tōru Ōhira (Return of the Jedi), Akiko Yajima (The Phantom Menace), Daisuke Namikawa (Prequel Trilogy), European French dub: Julien Bouanich (The Phantom Menace), Emmanuel Garijo (Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars, Revenge of the Sith, Rebels, Obi-Wan Kenobi), Matthieu Sampeur (Seasons 5-6 of The Clone Wars), Roland Ménard (Return of the Jedi), Canadian French dub: Alexis del Vecchio (The Phantom Menace), Martin Watier (Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars, Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi), Brazilian dub: Rafael Rodrigo (The Phantom Menace), Arthur Salerno (The Phantom Menace, second dub), Peterson Adriano (Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars, Revenge of the Sith), José Leonardo (ever since The Clone Wars, including a redub of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith), Silvio Navas (Return of the Jedi, first dub), Pádua Moreira (Return of the Jedi, second dub), Sérgio Fortuna (Return of the Jedi, third dub), German dub: Constantin von Jascheroff (The Phantom Menace), Wanja Gerick (Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, Clone Wars, The Clone Wars, Rebels), Horst Schön (Return of the Jedi)

Appearances: The Phantom Menace | Age of Republic | Obi-Wan & Anakin | Marvel's Star Wars | Attack of the Clones | Queen's Hope | Brotherhood | Tales of the Jedi | The Clone Wars | Forces of Destiny | Ahsoka | Dark Disciple | Kanan^note cameo only | The Bad Batch | Revenge of the Sith | Thrawn^note mentioned only | Thrawn: Alliances | Obi-Wan Kenobi | Rebels^note appears in hologram and visions only | Return of the Jedi | Brotherhood | Ahsoka | Shadow of the Sith | The Rise of Skywalker^note voice only

"When I finished constructing my lightsaber, Obi-Wan said to me, 'Anakin, this weapon is your life.' This weapon is my life."

The Chosen One. The Hero With No Fear. The strongest member of the Jedi Order.

The Fallen Hero.

Anakin Skywalker was a Force-sensitive Jedi Knight during the final years of the Galactic Republic in addition to being the former Padawan learner of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the husband of Padmé Amidala, the master of Ahsoka Tano, the father of Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa, and the grandfather of Ben Solo (who later became known as Kylo Ren).

The Chosen One of the Force, Anakin was a lowly child slave on Tatooine that the Jedi Order indoctrinated, mentored by the Jedi known as Obi-Wan Kenobi. From his vast potential, Anakin quickly developed his skills and went on to become a hero of the Clone Wars. Likewise, Anakin married senator Padme Amidala in secrecy, leading to Padme's pregnancy.

Tragically, Anakin's promising career was terminated when Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious corrupted him into the Dark Side, being rechristened as Sith Apprentice Darth Vader.

Alongside the reprogrammed clone army, Vader wiped out the Jedi Order and Separatists, before getting defeated by Obi-Wan in a duel. Horrifically scarred in the aftermath, Vader was converted into a cyborg, with a good deal of his Force potential diminished. Worse, Vader's actions indirectly caused Padme to die as well, something which haunted him for the rest of his life.

Now bound as a servant to the Empire, Vader spent over two decades of his life hunting down the remaining Jedi and stamping out all rebel forces. Eventually, he learnt of Luke Skywalker's existence, alongside their connection as father and son.

While Vader sought to recruit Luke to the Empire — first in a bid to overthrow the Emperor, and later to serve as allies to both — his son's continued love ultimately remedied Vader's corruption from the Dark Side. Becoming Anakin Skywalker once more, he sacrificed himself to save Luke, defeating the Emperor as well.

Fulfilling the Jedi prophecy, Anakin died peacefully. Later, he would go on to become a Force Spirit, allowing him to guide his son and others in life.

For information about Darth Vader, see his personal page.

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#-A

• 0% Approval Rating: Prior to the Bloodline novel, the galaxy was unaware of Anakin Skywalker's conversion into Darth Vader, believing him to have died as one of the Republic's greatest heroes. Once the truth was revealed, only a few like Luke and Ahsoka still acknowledge his heroism, instead of simply deeming him as a figure of fear and tyranny.
• Accidental Hero: Anakin manages to end an invasion by the Trade Federation against Naboo by inadvertently powering on a starfighter, getting dragged into a vicious battle on the Federation's droid control freighter, and unintentionally firing proton torpedoes into the ship's reactor core, blowing the whole ship up and causing the droids on the planet surface to power down. All of this happened when he was just nine years old.
• The Ace: A rare posthumous example. When he makes his grand return in Ahsoka as a Force Ghost, Anakin has fully come into his own as he's finally forgiven himself, conquered his inner demons, and completely unlocked his full Force potential. He's stronger than ever as a lightsaber duelist, with control over both the Light Side and the Dark Side. The Chosen One, indeed.
• Ace Pilot: Anakin is a fantastic Podracer pilot by the age of nine years old and becomes the best starfighter pilot in the galaxy by the time he is nineteen years old. Although, he does have some issues with landing properly. This ability greatly increased by his early twenties, outright landing half a ship from outer space in Revenge of the Sith, a feat Obi-Wan initially thought impossible before remembering who he was sitting next to.
• Act of True Love: He saves Luke's life at the cost of his own in Return of the Jedi.
• Action Dad: He becomes a father in Revenge of the Sith and is still a heroic Jedi Knight before turning to the Dark Side.
• Action Hero: Deconstructed. Jedi are supposed to search for peace in all things, but Anakin feels more comfortable in combat and is always eager to be at the frontlines during battles. Obi-Wan tends to remind him that such an attitude could get him killed. It gets even worse as this passion for combat is just one more thing that leaves him vulnerable to turning to the dark side.
• Adaptational Wimp: Downplayed. The de-canonization of Legends takes out several of his most impressive war feats, especially in regards to Asajj Ventress. In Legends, Anakin defeated her with authority in their very first duel in Yavin IV, and at the end of the war he again gave her such a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown that she had to be rebuilt as a cyborg. In canon, the only duels between Anakin and Ventress are the ones presented in The Clone Wars, where Ventress (despite partially being an Adaptational Wimp herself in said continuity) could fight him and Obi-Wan simultaneously and look comfortable with it. The canonical Anakin does have an instance of overpowering Ventress later on, when he is infuriated at her on the belief she might have framed Ahsoka, but it happens after Ventress had been knocked out and stripped of her lightsabers.
• Adaptation Origin Connection:
  • Inverted and possibly subverted. Legends databooks published around the Prequel Trilogy and Vader: The Ultimate Guide stated that Anakin's origin might be tied to Darth Plagueis, who would have caused his conception while trying to summon a "living embodiment of the Force" in order to have the perfect Sith candidate (one of the sources also speculates that it was Sidious who did it after killing Plagueis). The 2012 novel Darth Plagueis altered this backstory, implying that Plagueis had failed in his experiment and that Anakin was actually the Force striking back by giving Plagueis the opposite of what he wanted. However, with the separation between Legends and Canon, this second origin was erased too, and it is now suggested that the first one is closer to the truth, with Vader suspecting that it was Sidious himself who created him through the techniques of his old master. Nothing about this is confirmed, though, it having been officially stated that those are just Vader's own thoughts on the matter.
  • Inverted with his Jedi Knight rank. In Legends, Anakin was knighted for his military victories in Praesitlyn and Vjun, where he frustrated two Separatist operations led by Asajj Ventress. In canon, according to an official visual guide, Anakin was knighted before the Clone Wars in order for him to be eligible to serve as a Jedi General in the Republic, as shown in The Clone Wars (which starts in the year 22 BBY, the same year as Attack of the Clones).
  • Inverted again with his facial scar. In Legends, it was given by Ventress during the Battle of Rendili. In The Clone Wars, and by extension the canon, Anakin is portrayed as already having the scar two whole years before said battle, which rules out this backstory for the wound.
• Adorably Precocious Child: Anakin is this in The Phantom Menace. During his subsequent appearances in the canon, Anakin is obviously older.
• Aesop Amnesia: A key plot point in Obi-Wan Kenobi is that the young Skywalker was once taught to not become obsessed with victory that he leaves himself open to harm in the process. He ignored that advice throughout the Clone Wars, even once costing the Republic of General Grievous as its prisoner. This is worsened as Darth Vader, leading to two defeats from Obi-Wan in a duel.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Shmi, C-3PO, Padmé, Qui-Gon, Jar Jar, and Watto sometimes address Anakin as "Ani".
  • Ahsoka occasionally calls Anakin "Skyguy", but he doesn't appreciate this nickname that much and she rarely calls him it for the rest of the time that she's his Padawan.
• Age-Gap Romance: Downplayed with Padmé as there is a five year age difference between them; he is 19 while she is 24 when they get married.
• All for Nothing:
  • After having a vision of Padmé dying in childbirth, Anakin succumbs to the temptations of the dark side as a result of believing that the Sith had the power to save Padmé's life. After killing his fellow Jedi, slaughtering the Separatist leaders, and ending the Clone Wars, he ended up strangling Padmé in anger, which eventually led to her death just as he'd seen in his visions.
  • After sacrificing himself to stop the Emperor, Word of God states that he'd finally fulfilled the ancient Jedi prophecy of restoring balance to the Force. In the Disney sequels, the Emperor "somehow" cheated death and hid in the shadows, where he manipulated Anakin's grandson into restoring the Sith Order before getting killed again. And since the Emperor was able to survive being thrown into the Death Star's core right before it was blasted from within, it's entirely possible he could keep coming back through other means that Ben and Rey hadn't foreseen. In hindsight, this means that Anakin's actions amounted to a mere fleeting victory that actually worked to the Sith legacy's advantage.
• All of the Other Reindeer: The Jedi Order often viewed Anakin as an outsider ever since he was brought to them at nine years old, with Qui-Gonn, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka being the few exceptions. By the time of Revenge of the Sith, this only makes it easier for Palpatine, who is invariably nicer to him than the Jedi Council is, to manipulate him. Mace Windu, in particular, makes no attempt to hide his dislike for Anakin.
• Always Save the Girl:
  • This occurred in a non-romantic sense in The Clone Wars when the Son kidnapped Ahsoka. Anakin went to confront him, shrugging off Obi-Wan's warnings about how something like that could have devastating effects on the universe at large.
  • Deconstructed in Revenge of the Sith. His quest to save Padmé from dying in childbirth not only dooms the galaxy and puts him in a life support suit, but it ironically kills her.
  • This could, in fact, be considered his Fatal Flaw. Anakin will always save those he cares about, even at great cost to himself and others. After all, what use is there in being the Chosen One if he can't save those he loves, be that his Padawan, his beloved wife... or the kindly old man who was always there for him.
• Always Second Best: Deep down, Anakin tends to feel this way about Obi-Wan, awed by the seeming ease with which Obi-Wan does everything and how he's praised by the Jedi Council as one of its greatest. Especially since Anakin's peers rarely even acknowledge him as one of their own.
• Amazon Chaser: Downplayed. Anakin is already smitten with Padmé when they meet at nine and fourteen, respectively. But, Hayden Christensen notes in the Star Wars II: Love Featurette that one of the qualities about Padmé Anakin is attracted to is her strength of character.
  "Padmé is a very strong-willed person, you know. [Anakin]’s not so much attracted to the power that she holds in her political arenas, but rather the power and strength that she holds within herself."
• Ambiguous Situation: Thanks to deliberate vagueness in the prequel trilogy and conflicting accounts in canon and Legends sources, Anakin is stuck with a few of these.
  • His birth. His mother says there is no father, suggesting that he's a virgin birth. Qui-Gon muses that he might have been created by the Force itself. However, Palpatine hints that he may have been created by Darth Plagueis, or even himself. Other sources have stated that he was created by the Force to counteract Plagueis and Palpatine, others that he was created by the Dark Side.
  • His fall. We know that Palpatine manipulated him for more than a decade, but how much of that was just Palpatine being a Manipulative Bastard? Was Palpatine also manipulating Anakin (and possibly Padmé) through the Force to push them into their Secret Relationship, accentuating Anakin's Crazy Jealous Guy tendencies and fear of loss? This is all less well grounded in canon, being more built on fan theories that try to resolve weakness in the writing, giving Anakin's and Padmé's rapid relationship in Attack of the Clones more justification.
• Ambition Is Evil: In Attack of the Clones, Anakin aspires to become the most powerful Jedi ever, which is a stark contrast to the sweet and innocent boy he was back in The Phantom Menace. When his mother dies during the course of the film, he apparently included "Learn to cheat death" to his list of ambitions, eventually pushing him into turning to the dark side when Padmé's death was semi-prophesized at the beginning of Revenge of the Sith.
• An Arm and a Leg: Loses his right arm in his first duel against Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones. He gets a prosthetic replacement during the Clone Wars. Later, he loses his remaining limbs in a duel against Obi Wan Kenobi during Revenge of the Sith.
• And I Must Scream: Losing all his limbs and sustaining crippling injuries in his early twenties. Being trapped in a robotic suit in constant pain for the rest of his life, haunted by memories of his dead wife, and aware of the fact that he made a terrible mistake in siding with Darth Sidious is simply a Fate Worse than Death.
• Anger Is Not Enough: At the climax of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin believes that his anger-fueled use of the Dark Side now makes him more powerful than anyone, including Emperor Palpatine and Anakin's former mentor Obi-Wan. However, it is not clear during his lightsaber duel with Obi-Wan that he actually possesses any new powers, as opposed to just fighting more aggressively than he had before. While Obi-Wan is largely on the defensive during the fight, Anakin loses the duel because Obi-Wan uses rational tactical planning to gain a solid defensive position on a slope, and when Anakin angrily tries to jump over him, he is able to sever three of Anakin's limbs.
• Angrish: After he gets maimed during a lightsaber duel with Obi-Wan that occurs on Mustafar, Anakin is reduced to screaming in agony and rage as he is consumed by flames.
• Anguished Declaration of Love: He gives a very angsty one to Padmé in Attack of the Clones. Although, he doesn't actually drop the 'L' word, but it's obvious what he's trying to tell her.
• Anti-Hero: Anakin is flawed, but he is still a good man. Deconstructed through, since said flaws end up being exploited by Palpatine.
• Anti-Villain: He becomes a cross between Types Woobie and Well-Intentioned in Revenge of the Sith, turning to the dark side because of his emotional struggles and misguided attempt to restore order to the galaxy.
• Appeal to Familial Wisdom: In The Phantom Menace, he quotes something Shmi told him back to her when she doesn't want him to go podracing, even though he could use the prize money to help Padmé and the Jedi reach Coruscant: "Mom, you say the biggest problem in this universe is nobody helps each other." This prompts Shmi to agree to let him race.
• The Apprentice: Part of Anakin's role in Attack of the Clones was being the Padawan learner of Obi-Wan. In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin becomes this to Chancellor Palpatine after turning to the dark side.
• Arch-Enemy:
  • During the Clone Wars, Anakin definitely perceives Count Dooku as this since he was responsible for putting Padmé in danger, killing hundreds of Jedi, the loss of his arm, and several other atrocities. They dueled multiple times, only furthering Anakin's resentment at him. Ultimately, Palpatine would manipulate Anakin into executing Dooku after their final duel, despite the latter being defeated and helpless. This act of personal revenge is a significant factor for Anakin's turn to the dark side.
  • After turning to the Dark Side, he perceives Obi-Wan as this, seemingly suspecting that his former master is in a Love Triangle with him and Padmé.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: In Attack of the Clones, Anakin is incredibly full of himself and thinks he can take on Yoda in a lightsaber duel. Then he faced Count Dooku and promptly got a brutal lesson in what a real Master Swordsman can do. Anakin gets significantly better about his arrogance by the time of The Clone Wars, but succumbs to it again as Darth Vader, losing all of his remaining limbs from a miscalculated jump.
• Artificial Limbs: He receives a cybernetic replacement for his right arm after Count Dooku cuts it off during their lightsaber duel in Attack of the Clones and the rest of his organic limbs after getting maimed by Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith. Subverted completely as a Force Spirit.
• Art-Shifted Sequel: Anakin infamously underwent this in Rebels, although slightly less so than Yoda. Taking into account for his redesign in Rebels is his appearance in The Clone Wars, Anakin lost all his rugged and chiseled features for a much more boyish appearance as well as losing his trademark scar and curly features of his hair.
• Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: He ascends as a Force spirit after redeeming himself in Return of the Jedi.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: As a direct opposite to Obi-Wan (who is a Stone Wall), Anakin has this as his signature fighting style. His style, Form V: Djem So, is amongst the more aggressive out of all lightsaber combat forms (the others being Form IV: Ataru and Form VII: Juyo/Vapaad), taking the initiative and unleashing a series of devastating offensive barrages that bash through an opponent's defenses.
• The Atoner: In a very twisted way, Anakin's inner feelings of remorse act as this for Darth Vader. Largely via Palpatine's brainwashing, he misguidedly became a miserable and pained killing machine, feeling it to be needed for "restoring order" in the galaxy. Thankfully he snaps out of it in the end.
  • Played completely straight after his Heroic Sacrifice, with Anakin's burning desire to make amends allowing him to retain consciousness in death.
• Ax-Crazy: He shows shades of this when responding to his mother's death by brutally killing the Tusken Raiders who were responsible in a homicidal rampage, women and children included. He later dives headfirst into violent insanity when corrupted by the Dark Side, turning into a highly unstable killer of mass destruction.

B–C

• Babies Ever After: Revenge of the Sith presents how he and Padmé were expecting Luke and Leia. However, the two were unable to raise their children as the former became a Sith Lord and was led to believe his children died with their mother, while the latter died from childbirth and a broken heart. Luke was sent to be raised by Anakin's step-brother and step-sister-in-law on Tatooine while Leia was sent to Alderaan and raised by Bail and Breha Organa, friends of her mother's.
• Back for the Finale: Anakin makes a vocal cameo in The Rise of Skywalker as one of the many spirits of past Jedi that come together to give Rey encouragement in defeating Palpatine. He tells her that she is capable of restoring balance to the Force, as he once did decades before her.
• Badass Adorable: Anakin was a very adorable, young nine-year-old boy back in The Phantom Menace. He was also incredibly sensitive to the Force, a mechanical genius in his spare time, and one of the best Podracer pilots in the galaxy. In addition, there's his instant mastery of piloting a Naboo royal starfighter, which allowed for him destroy the Trade Federation's mothership and put an end to the conflict on Naboo in the process.
• Badass Unintentional: In The Phantom Menace, Anakin destroys the Trade Federation's Battle Droid control ship, effectively winning the Battle of Naboo simply because he climbed into a starfighter to hide from the action, accidentally activated its autopilot, and was looking for another safe place to avoid getting shot.
• Bash Brothers: With Obi-Wan (who even calls Anakin his brother) before Anakin turns to the Dark Side and pulls a Face–Heel Turn.
• Bastard Understudy: He becomes this to Palpatine in Revenge of the Sith and suggests to Padmé that he can overthrow him so they can rule the galaxy together.
• Battle Couple: With Padmé after they profess their love for each other in Attack of the Clones, especially when they fight back-to-back in the Geonosian arena.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Anakin grew up into a handsome man, but he soon lost his good looks from becoming a Sith Lord. Once fully redeemed though, this is reversed. For bonus points, Anakin also regained his right hand, despite having lost it in the Clone Wars.
• Beauty to Beast: Anakin starts out as being very handsome, but he is horrifically scarred after being burnt by lava on Mustafar and then encased in a menacing black robotic suit and mask that barely makes him look human anymore. When Luke removes his mask at the end of Return of the Jedi, as shown in one of the page images, he's still Covered in Scars and eerily pale, though he looks better than he did back when he was first injured.
• Became Their Own Antithesis: As Obi-Wan tells him before their lightsaber duel on Mustafar:
  Obi-Wan: You have allowed this dark lord to twist your mind until now you have become the very thing you swore to destroy.
• Be Careful What You Wish For:
  • As a child, Anakin dreamed of becoming a Jedi Knight. He does. But over time, he becomes disillusioned with the Jedi Order for many reasons.
  • He wished he could meet Padmé Amidala again after they parted ways following The Phantom Menace. He gets his wish in Attack of the Clones, but subsequently he faces the problem of falling in love with her even knowing they can't be together.
    Anakin: [to Padmé] From the moment I met you, all those years ago, not a day has gone by when I haven't thought of you. And now that I'm with you again... I'm in agony.
  • Tied into the above example, Anakin wished in Attack of the Clones to only dream about Padmé but has nightmare of her death in childbirth in Revenge of the Sith.
• Because You Were Nice to Me:
  • A big factor in Anakin's love and devotion to Padmé is that she is almost always supportive of him and listens to his problems without judging him or being overly critical, which is something he doesn't often get from Obi-Wan and the other Jedi Masters. Sadly, after being twisted by the Dark Side, he assumes that she has betrayed him and repays her kindness by Force-choking her.
  • Unfortunately, the same applies to Palpatine, who intentionally exploits this to sway Anakin over to his side, while Padmé's kindness and empathy is genuine. Anakin doesn't realize these intentions until it's far too late.
  • After decades of suffering and regret as a Tragic Villain, his son Luke continued to believe in him, even after losing an arm in their first duel. Ultimately, Anakin overcomes the Dark Side, saving Luke and fulfilling his destiny.
• Being Evil Sucks: Anakin's fall to the Dark Side in Revenge of the Sith costs him everything and everyone that he loves as well as leaving him locked in a robotic life support system for nearly the rest of his life.
• Believing Their Own Lies: Despite turning to the Dark Side in Revenge of the Sith, at least part of him appears to genuinely believe that the Jedi have betrayed the Republic and that he is doing the right thing, even when Obi-Wan calls them out as Blatant Lies.
• Benevolent Boss: Anakin may be a somewhat reckless leader with his clone troopers, but he cares for them deeply and they rather be led under him in return. In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin insists on saving one of his men despite it making the mission more difficult.
• The Berserker: Anakin is naturally aggressive and reckless, but this side of him really shows up during the first time he taps into the Dark Side in order to kill the Tusken Raiders that abducted and killed his mother in Attack of the Clones. After the fact he starts to become more ruthless in his fighting style and prefers to unleash heavy attacks and using more of his anger to fuel his ability to fight.
• Beware the Nice Ones: In The Phantom Menace, he's an altruistic young boy that does whatever he can to help others, despite being a slave. Doesn't stop him from commandeering a Naboo starfighter to blow up the Trade Federation battleship, or giving Greedo a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown in deleted scenes when the latter accused him of cheating. Also definitely the case for The Clone Wars and 'Revenge of the Sith'', since he's a relatively Nice Guy who is A Father to His Men, a loving husband to Padmé, and good friends with those that care about him.
• Beyond the Impossible: Despite his entire body suffering life-threatening burns on Mustafar, Anakin cheated death for over two decades afterwards, if requiring a life-support system and mask for basic movement.
  • In Return of the Jedi. Once freed from the Dark Side, a badly injured Anakin outright defeated Palpatine by enduring his strongest lightning attacks, a feat even Master Yoda couldn't achieve.
  • In his final moments alive, Anakin showed no sign of agony whatsoever, speaking to Luke peacefully without relying on his equipment. Considering all the damage accumulated, it's very possibly a gift from the Force itself.
• Big Brother Instinct: He's very protective of Ahsoka, his young Padawan learner with whom he has a sibling-like bond. However, this also has a negative influence on him, since it was Ahsoka's expulsion by the Jedi Council which furthered Anakin's turn to the Dark Side. Also, Anakin treats R2-D2 fondly, even defending him from Obi-Wan's criticism.
• Big Brother Mentor: He really acts more like a big brother towards Ahsoka than a Jedi Master. It's not surprising given the fact that they're only relatively a few years apart in age.
• Big Brother Worship: His relationship with his master Obi-Wan is a mix of a brotherly and a father-son relationship and it's clear to many, including Obi-Wan himself, that Anakin really idolizes his master.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: In the original release of Return of the Jedi, the unmasked Anakin has rather thick eyebrows, which were digitally erased in the special editions to account for his horrific burns.
• Birds of a Feather: Anakin and Padmé both share a desire to do good and make the galaxy a better and more just place, even if that means bending the rules a bit. They just tend to have rather different ways of going about it.
  Anakin: We need a system where the politicians sit down and discuss the problems, agree what's in the best interests of all the people, and then do it."
  Padmé: That's exactly what we do. The trouble is that people don't always agree.
• Black-and-White Insanity: Increasingly, Anakin tends to see things in rather distinct terms (such as his beliefs around politics). He sums up the Clone Wars to Ahsoka as "The Separatists believe the Republic is corrupt, but they're wrong. And we have to restore order". As Darth Vader, he straight up tells Obi-Wan "If you're not with me, then you're my enemy", which applies to everyone who disagrees with him at this point.
  • Funnily enough though, his viewpoints regarding the Republic waiver pretty regularly throughout the Clone Wars. To note, despite his quote above, Anakin himself tends to question the Republic's intentions, especially after Ahsoka's near execution.
• Black Cloak: He starts wearing black-colored Jedi robes in The Clone Wars.
• Black Shirt: He doesn't support the Sith at first, but he is very much interested in the idea of the Republic's democracy being replaced by totalitarianism, though mainly out of sheer frustration at institutional inertia and corruption (that the Sith had been encouraging) and a desire to get things done rather than any particular ideology or personal ambitiion.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: The blonde (dirty blonde to be more specific) to Padmé's brunette (brown) and Obi-Wan's redhead (auburn).
• Bloodbath Villain Origin: Anakin's first task after turning to the Dark Side and being christened Darth Vader by Palpatine is to lead an attack on the Jedi Temple.
• Blood Knight: Anakin is very aggressive in a fight and appears to enjoy combat, even stating with a grin "This is where the fun begins" during the Battle of Coruscant.
• Blue Is Heroic:
  • He wields a blue-bladed lightsaber as a Jedi. Subverted in Revenge of the Sith, where he continues using his blue-bladed lightsaber to commit various atrocities, such as murdering children, until he finally loses it after the lightsaber duel he had with Obi-Wan.
  • Later played straight again when he becomes a Force Ghost and appears with a transparent bright blue tint because of it. He also goes back to using his blue lightsaber when secretly helping Lina's crew and later completing Ahsoka's training, though he does briefly change his lightsaber's color red and taps into the Dark Side to teach Ahsoka conviction.
• Bodyguard Crush: He had one on Padmé in Attack of the Clones, where his childhood crush has become a full-fledged infatuation. He was tasked with being Padmé's bodyguard following several attempts on her life by Jango Fett and Zam Wesell, he accompanies her back to Naboo, where they become closer by the day and quickly falls in love (which is against the laws of the Jedi Order).
• Bodyguarding a Badass: He is assigned to protect Padmé, a senator who's more than capable with a blaster, in Attack of the Clones.
• Body Horror: Anakin's transformation into Darth Vader is very horrific through the fact that he loses all his organic limbs, has his whole body set on fire (along with his internal organs mangled), and is put into a mechanical suit that, according to Word of God, he wasn't given any anesthetic for and was awake the entire time.
• Born in the Wrong Century: Given his constant tendency to disobey the Jedi Council and his love for getting into action, Anakin would have been a perfect Wayseeker Jedi in the High Republic Era as Wayseekers operate independently from the Jedi Council and help insurgents in overthrowing tyrannical rulers. Unfortunately, by the time Anakin had joined the Order the practice had long fallen out of favor.
• Born into Slavery: His mother was still a slave when she gave birth to him, so this trope is a given.
• Boy Meets Girl: This is Anakin's relationship with Padmé, who he first meets her back in The Phantom Menace.
• Brainy Brunette: Anakin's hair eventually turns from blond to brown by the time he is nineteen years old. While he has become more aggressive and prone to fighting instead of talking, Anakin is shown to be a brilliant tactician and mechanic.
• Break the Cutie: The incredibly sweet little boy of The Phantom Menace and the naïve, idealistic, and romantic teenager of Attack of the Clones are crushed by the events that occur in the latter due to the death of his mother. This is followed by a myriad of events that happen to Anakin in The Clone Wars, most prominently his mentor Obi-Wan faking his death and leaving Anakin Locked Out of the Loop and his Padawan learner Ahsoka being falsely accused of treason and leaving the Jedi Order as a result. Finally, Anakin's fear of losing Padmé the same way he lost his mother and the choices he makes in Revenge of the Sith to avoid that outcome finish smashing Anakin into tiny bits, which are then stomped on and finally set on fire. When Anakin kneels in front of Darth Sidious and receives his Sith title, you can see in his rag doll posture how completely and utterly broken he is. As Yoda tells Obi-Wan, "The boy you trained, gone he is".
• Break Them by Talking: Anakin accidentally does this to Padmé in Revenge of the Sith's climax. When he tries to convince her that all his atrocities are for the good of the galaxy (and to protect her) and they could just overthrow the Emperor and rule together, her spirit completely shatters and she is left sobbing and pleading him not to do this.
• Brilliant, but Lazy: Obi-Wan implies Anakin has this problem in Attack of the Clones; he is naturally very strong with the Force and outpaces many of his peers when he applies himself, but he isn't always the best student.
  Obi-Wan: If you spent as much time practicing your saber techniques as you did your wit, you'd rival Master Yoda as a swordsman.
  Anakin: I thought I already did.
  Obi-Wan: Only in your mind, my very young apprentice.
• Broken Ace: Anakin is stated all throughout the Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars to be one of, if not the most powerful and skilled Jedi in the galaxy, even more so than already legendary Jedi such as Yoda and Mace Windu, in addition to being a Master Swordsman, an Ace Pilot, and a talented tactician and engineer. He also has some serious personal problems, including emotional and relationship issues.
• Broken Pedestal:
  • Palpatine slowly becomes one to him over the course of Revenge of the Sith and by extension the Original Trilogy. He starts out viewing him as a "good man" and a Parental Substitute, but is clearly shaken when learning he's a Sith Lord. In spite of this, Anakin is emotionally coerced by Palpatine to become a Sith Lord and came to believe almost all of his lies. Eventually though, Anakin tries to usurp Palpatine, telling Padmé that they could rule together. In the end, Anakin (or rather, Darth Vader) is loyal to Palpatine again, but this is more or less from external factors. The pedestal is fully shattered once and for all in Return of the Jedi when Anakin gains the courage to overcome the Dark Side.
  • The Jedi become this to him over the course of the Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars. Anakin starts out admiring them and aspires to become a Jedi Knight himself, but he struggles with their teachings and is frustrated that the Council don't really acknowledge or care about him. Perhaps one of the largest pivotal moments was when Ahsoka was framed for treason and the Jedi Council casted her out. Anakin even admits to Palpatine that "my trust in them has been shaken" when they ask him to spy on the Chancellor, leading to Anakin's conversion into Darth Vader. It becomes a Rebuilt Pedestal by the end of his life, as he turns on Palpatine and saves his son, who proudly proclaimed himself a Jedi. As a Force spirit, he appears alongside Obi-Wan and Yoda dressed in Jedi robes.
  • Some years after his death, Anakin being Darth Vader is finally exposed to the public, utterly decimating Anakin's reputation, not to mention that of his daughter, Leia. Up until that point, Anakin Skywalker was a beloved war hero that most assumed had died by Darth Vader's hand. Once it's revealed that the former Jedi hero had become a genocidal tyrant, almost any goodwill the public has about Anakin evaporates.
• Brooding Boy, Gentle Girl: Anakin (the byronic, Jerk with a Heart of Gold Anti-Hero) is the Brooding Boy to Padmé's (idealistic, Nice Girl All-Loving Hero) Gentle Girl. Anakin even mentioned in Attack of the Clones that Padmé's presence is soothing to him.
• Byronic Hero: He is a handsome and brooding anti-hero with enough emotional issues (losing his mother, the fear of losing his wife, and his growing amorality, to name a few) to overfill the Death Star.
• Brought Down to Badass: While becoming an exceptionally powerful Sith Lord in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin's inner conflict weakens him as Darth Vader, something Palpatine noted in Obi-Wan Kenobi. This is also combined with crippling injuries from fighting Obi-Wan on Mustafar. In the canon and Legends, the degree of said weaknesses differ.
  • In Legends, Vader is a much more tormented figure which isn't helped by the fact that Palpatine rarely if ever engages with him as an actual teacher. In fact, Palpatine actively tortures and tries to keep Vader down as much as possible; realizing the source of Vader's reduction in power was almost purely psychological, namely feelings of regret, guilt and self-loathing. Also, the concept of Midichlorians from George Lucas was heavily downplayed by other writers, hinting that Anakin would regain his full powers if he overcame said issues above.
  • In the canon, the reason for Anakin's reduction in power is more physical. When he first dons his armor, he sends Palpatine flying in a fit of rage using the Force where he was unable to do that in Legends. Vader is far less tormented in the canon; while he still carries immense guilt and self-loathing, he buries it beneath his constant rage at his situation which actually makes him much more powerful in the dark side. However, the effects take a toll on his already weakened body, proving fatal if significantly pushed.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's impulsive, frequently disobeys orders, struggles with the Jedi way, and often uses unconventional plans and tactics. At the same time, Anakin is a brilliant leader and strategist, with his potential in lightsaber combat and the Force above everybody else. Thus, the Jedi Council often begrudgingly tolerates Anakin's antics and overall behavior. Both Yoda and Obi-Wan have even sought his assistance when they needed to go against the Council's orders.
• Cain and Abel: Not as his heroic self, but definitely when turned into Darth Vader.
  • Although not biologically related, Anakin and Obi-Wan came to see each other as brothers. This is hammered home when Obi-Wan addresses Anakin as his brother and that he loved him at the end of their epic lightsaber duel on Mustafar.
  • Downplayed with his stepbrother on Tatooine, Owen Lars. They met only once (Attack of the Clones), but it still applies. While Anakin turned to the Dark Side and became the famous and ruthless second-in-command of the Empire, Owen remained a good, if flawed, man and humble moisture farmer. Funnily, despite their short time together, Anakin did refer to the Lars family as "good people", while Owen was clearly upset when Obi-Wan told him that Anakin died.
  • Anakin's relationship with Ahsoka Tano also turned into this. When they meet again 15 years later, he attempts to kill her, and is only prevented from it thanks to time-travel shenanigans in a Jedi Temple.
• Captain Crash: Lampshaded in The Clone Wars episode "Bounty Hunters".
  Ahsoka: How come every time you fly, we crash?
  Anakin: It's not my fault, it's the ship.
  Ahsoka: He always blames the ship.
• Career Versus Man: A rare gender-flipped example; Anakin's future with the Jedi Order is jeopardized by his relationship with Padmé, mainly because the Jedi Code forbids such personal attachments. One of the reasons Padmé gives for them not having a relationship is that Anakin would be "throw[ing] away [his] future". Anakin tries to Take a Third Option by keeping his marriage to Padmé a secret, but this doesn't turn out too well in the long-run. This is actually a factor in Anakin joining the Dark Side; as a Sith Lord, Anakin could be with Padmé openly. Unfortunately for him, genocidal dictatorships are a dealbreaker for Padmé.
• Cassandra Truth: In a sense. When his mother died, Anakin swore that he would become more powerful than any Jedi and save his loved ones from death. After becoming horribly crippled though, it seemed that this would never be realized. Yet, near his demise, Anakin ultimately fulfilled his vows, defying all odds to stop Palpatine and save Luke.
• The Chain of Harm: Anakin eventually goes from a child slave to a dictator who brings terror and oppression upon the galaxy.
• The Champion: He professes himself as this for Padmé, who he says he will do anything she asks for, in Attack of the Clones.
• Character Development: Anakin undergoes this quite a lot. He starts as a naive but brave and kind boy to a deeply troubled young man who tries to do the right thing. From Palpatine's terrible influence though, Anakin's paranoia and ruthless for the "greater good" gradually increase, leading to...well, Darth Vader. Eventually, his son's unconditional love sways Anakin to the pathway in redemption. Once fully atoning and trained in the afterlife, Anakin attains spiritual awareness, becoming a calm and wise Force Spirit.
• Chick Magnet: He's considered to be attractive by several women; Carnelion IV native Kolara had a crush on him, a Twi'lek woman checks him out in a nightclub, his future wife Padmé is obviously attracted to him, and Queen Miraj of Zygerria is very attracted to him and intends to make him become her...'companion' in exchange for his friends' freedom.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Padmé, whom he meets when he was just nine years old while she was fourteen years old. They meet each other again ten years later in Attack of the Clones when Anakin is nineteen and Padmé is twenty-four, during which their romantic feelings grow and they marry by the film's end. And by Revenge of the Sith, they are expecting a baby (babies).
• Child Prodigy: In The Phantom Menace, nine-year-old Anakin has already built his own working Protocol droid and Podracer, is the only known human in galactic history to win a podrace (it's considered almost impossible for a human to participate in a Podrace, due to their relatively feeble perception and reflexes), and manages to get enough of a handle on a Naboo starfighter to destroy the Trade Federation droid control ship (by accident). Much of these can be attributed to his exceptionally strong connection to the Force.
• The Chosen One:
  • Double subverted. Anakin is the Jedi's prophesied Chosen One and has potential beyond his peers, which is consistent with a standard Chosen One package. Then, he turns to the Dark Side and becomes The Dragon for Palpatine, going against what he was foretold to do. However, he ends up fulfilling his destiny anyway when he destroys the Emperor to protect his son.
  • Anakin Skywalker's arc as The Chosen One in the Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars deconstructs Luke's arc in the Original Trilogy. Like Luke, Anakin is told at a young age that he has great powers, but his traumas eventually turn him into an extremely jaded figure, becoming Palpatine's pawn afterwards. It makes sense since Luke in-universe is in many ways Anakin done right. He even helps get Anakin back on track.
  • Further deconstructed in Dark Lord of the Sith when Vader has dark side visions that the dark side may believe he is its Chosen One rather than bringing the Force in balance, and his conception or his growth in Shmi Skywalker's womb may have been influenced by Darth Sidious to create a Force-user of tremendous power. If true, this means Anakin did indeed live up to his destiny of helping the Sith take over, but he eventually ended up becoming the Anti Anti Christ when he turned on his former master to help his son. Word of God is the page in Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith interpreted as confirmation "Palpatine is Anakin's father" did not depict a direct connection between Palpatine and Anakin's birth and that "the Dark Side is not a reliable narrator." God Never Said That Palpatine definitively did not create Anakin (and not that he did, either).
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: In The Phantom Menace, he helps a group of complete strangers at great personal risk and asks for nothing in return. While he keeps an otherwise heroic attitude in Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars, and Revenge of the Sith, he eventually starts to feel hurt by the Jedi's lack of gratitude.
• Clear Their Name: During the Fugitive arc, Anakin is Ahsoka's staunch defender when she's framed for bombing the Jedi Temple hangar.
• Cock Fight: He is openly hostile and passive-aggressive towards Clovis due to his blatant romantic interest in Padmé. This eventually escalates into physical violence - though, it has to be said, only after he walks in on Clovis forcing his attentions on Padme who is quite clearly saying "no!" It's deconstructed, as Anakin seriously injures Clovis and could actually have killed him if he hadn't come back to his senses. He is quite disturbed afterwards while Padmé is utterly horrified by his actions and actually decides to keep some distance from him for a while.
• Cold Ham: When Anakin Skywalker becomes Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith, Hayden Christensen maintains his stilted line delivery, but delivers certain lines in an over-the-top intimidating manner via often shouting at the top of his lungs. When the Vader persona briefly re-emerges in Ahsoka to teach Ahsoka her final lesson, Vader's lines are delivered by Christensen in the typical coldly imperious manner.
• Combat Pragmatist: As an aggressive fighter, Anakin has no qualms resorting to fighting dirty like throwing cheap shots or using the Force. He viciously chokes Dooku with his cybernetic arm in their duel on Naboo and cuts his hands off in their final duel before decapitating him. During his fight with Obi-Wan in Mustafar, he frequently throws surprise kicks and punches when his attempts to chip away at his master's Stone Wall defense don't succeed. Given that Obi-Wan uses exactly the same tactics, it's quite clear where he learned it from.
• Coming of Age Story: Anakin's journey in The Phantom Menace is leaving his home planet and family in order to begin his life as a Jedi.
• Conflicting Loyalty:
  • In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin is faced with loyal to the Jedi Order or Palpatine. Stemming from an act of impulsiveness, he ends up choosing Palpatine.
  • He's faced with a similar scenario in Return of the Jedi when Palpatine tortures Luke. Ultimately, Anakin's love for his son overcomes Palpatine's hold on him.
• Contrasting Sequel Main Character: It's more like Contrasting Prequel Main Character. Anakin is very similar to his son Luke, but they differ in several essential areas.
  • Both are raised on Tatooine, but whereas Anakin is born into slavery with just his loving mother, Luke had a Happy Family Life on a Farm with loving parental figures. Likewise, Anakin was forced to spend most of his childhood in dangerous situations, whereas Luke had Obi-Wan to protect him from afar.
  • Anakin was outwardly devastated over losing his mother and wife while Luke didn't really angst over the death of his loved ones (he was upset, but didn't allow himself the time to grieve) and never took a wife.
  • Their temperaments and methods of dealing with conflict also tend to differ. While Luke does have issues with anger and impatience, he learns to cope with them far better. Anakin tended to let his emotions get the better of him while Luke learns to be more cautious and levelheaded. Most notably, while Anakin is greatly tempted by the power he believes the Dark Side can offer him in Revenge of the Sith, Luke is briefly tempted by the Dark Side in Return of the Jedi and he is horrified at himself when he realizes what he's becoming and puts a complete stop to it. Anakin is at times dangerously overconfident and covers up his insecurities with bravado while Luke is usually quite humble and perhaps even a little insecure about his abilities.
  • The Disney sequels add another form of this. Whereas Anakin sought to "restore order" partly as atonement for becoming Darth Vader, an aged Luke simply fled society to live in seclusion and wallow in remorse for his own failures.
• Cool Car: The sporty, yellow XJ-6 airspeeder that he borrowed in Attack of the Clones in order to pursue Zam Wesell could qualify as a sci-fi variant.
• Cool Star Ship: He pilots sleek and visually appealing awesome starfighters in The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith.
• Cool Sword: His lightsaber, the Jedi's special weapon. His second one has achieved an almost legendary status via being passed down to his son Luke, the savior of the galaxy in the Original Trilogy, and wielded by Rey, The Hero of the Sequel Trilogy. Han uses it as a tool in The Empire Strikes Back, Finn wields it for a time in The Force Awakens, and his grandson, Ben Solo, utilizes it in the battle against the Knights of Ren.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Anakin starts off in The Phantom Menace as a young Wide-Eyed Idealist whose first thought is how he can help a group of strangers get off Tatooine. As he grew older, however, Anakin's need to cope from pain and trauma gradually made him ambitious, not helped by Palpatine, who plays him against his Jedi brethren.
• The Corruptible:
  • When Anakin was faced with the Jedi Council back in The Phantom Menace, the Jedi find him to be fraught with fear of losing his mother, which makes him vulnerable to turning to the Dark Side. Palpatine capitalizes on this when his fears shift towards losing Padmé.
  • In The Clone Wars, Anakin's ever-present desire to do the right thing and bring peace to the galaxy also make him inherently vulnerable to turning to the Dark Side. In Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine managed to exploit this aspect of Anakin's personality to further seduce him to the ways of the Sith.
• Costume Evolution: He wore white clothes when he was a slave before switching to the standard Jedi youngling white garment — both represent his still present innocence and inherent kindness. As an adult, Anakin often wore darker clothing, which highlights his growing experience and darkness. Finally, as a redeemed Force Ghost, Anakin usually wears a white attire with Jedi master robes.
• Covered in Scars: After his defeat on Mustafar, Anakin is left horribly burned and covered with hideous scars. By the time of his death, however, the marks are, while still very visible and quite brutal, less extensive.
• Cowboy Cop: He has a tendency to launch his own independent investigations when the Jedi Council stonewalls him. Heck, for all their criticism, other Jedi like Obi-Wan and Yoda actually ask Anakin to be this from time to time.
• Crazy Jealous Guy: Anakin is less than thrilled whenever other men make a move on Padmé.
  • Anakin shows signs of this, though in a very downplayed fashion in Attack of the Clones, becoming irritated and grumbling that he "gets the picture" when Padmé tells him about the cute boy she had her first kiss with (it's Played for Laughs).
  • Anakin is nothing but hostile and rude to Senator Rush Clovis whenever they are together in The Clone Wars because of the latter's romantic feelings for his wife.
    • When Padmé went undercover to investigate Clovis' possible Separatist ties, she was kissed by him on the cheek, which made Anakin (who was pretending to be a pilot to protect Padmé) quietly enraged. Also, when Clovis tried to kiss Padmé again, Anakin used his piloting skills to stop it.
    • This aspect in Anakin's personality gets deconstructed when the two men meet again during the Clovis arc: When Padmé informs Anakin that she was working with him, Anakin actually threatened to leave his wife in jail and remained quite antagonistic to Clovis during their escape. Anakin then attempted to "demand" Padmé to tell Chancellor Palpatine she wouldn't work with Clovis, which notably and rightfully angers Padmé. The final straw was when he saw Padmé being held in Rush Clovis's arms and about to be kissed by him (despite her resistance), he lost his cool, telekinetically threw Clovis, and beat him in a fistfight. However, both Padmé and himself are completely horrified at his actions with the former thinking the two need some space.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Gets both his legs and his remaining organic arm lobbed off at the cusp of his battle with Obi-Wan, leaving him crippled and unable to continue the battle. He then catches fire from magma and burns to a crisp, all while screaming in agony. Subverted in that he isn't actually dead, though Obi-Wan considers this to be the moment when his friend and apprentice, "Anakin Skywalker", died.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: His first few duels with Dooku are this, as Anakin has the potential to be much more powerful than him but hasn't reached that level yet and is a few levels below him at that point.
  • During his duel with Dooku in Attack of the Clones, he actually manages to put up a more decent fight than Obi-Wan did and briefly puts him in the back foot at the start of the duel, making Dooku put a little more effort fighting him than he did with Obi-Wan. Despite this, Anakin is still no match for Dooku and he comes out of the fight in worse shape than Obi-Wan.
  • In The Clone Wars movie, Dooku once again overpowers him and counters his strikes without much trouble, but Anakin at least puts up a much better fight than last time as he manages to push Dooku back a few times and actually manages to land a kick to Dooku's face before fleeing the duel.
• Cutting the Knot: During the Clone Wars, he tends to win space battles for the Republic via using unorthodox tactics, which is evident when he had a group of AT-TEs hide on asteroids in order to ambush a Separatist fleet commanded by General Grievous from behind and when he combined I Surrender, Suckers with Ramming Always Works in order to destroy a Separatist Blockade that surrounded Ryloth.
• Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Anakin's descent into evil is paralleled by his cyborg conversion. Also, according to Word of God, a Jedi losing body parts supposedly makes them lose Midichlorians and thus weakens their connection to the Force. Moreover, as pure Force Spirit, Anakin fully regained his organic body.
• Cynicism Catalyst:
  • The death of Anakin's mother in Attack of the Clones was his first significant steps to the Dark Side.
  • By the penultimate season of The Clone Wars, Anakin's trust in the Jedi Order has been severely eroded. He watched his former master Obi-Wan supposedly die, only to find out that this was just a scheme that involved manipulating Anakin's grief. Then, he watched his Padawan learner Ahsoka get left to the Republic court system by the Jedi Order, causing her to quit as a Jedi afterwards. It didn't help that the Jedi Council gave Anakin a spot on the Council in Revenge of the Sith, but they refused to give him the rank of Master and were just using him for his personal connections to Palpatine.
  • In Revenge of the Sith, the fear of the loss of his wife Padmé by childbirth is what drives Anakin into turning to the Dark Side. For extra irony, Padmé dies from childbirth because she loses her desire to live after seeing the monster Anakin became in trying to prevent her death.

D–F

• Dark and Troubled Past: Though his life prior to The Phantom Menace has yet be given too much detail, what we do know shows his childhood was NOT a happy one. He was Born into Slavery on Tatooine, where he faced discrimination and even life-threatening danger regularly. His only family member was his mother, whom he needed to leave enslaved in order to become a Jedi; shortly thereafter, his new Parental Substitute is murdered. Anakin's harsh past and later troubles as a Jedi significantly affect him by early adulthood, with the subsequential traumatic events) strongly contributing to his turn towards the Dark Side.
• Dark Is Not Evil: By the time of Attack of the Clones, Anakin's Jedi robe was much darker than most other Jedi's, but he was still heroic in The Clone Wars. However, once he turned to the Dark Side in Revenge of the Sith, it became Dark Is Evil. Becomes a straight example once more post-death; appearing to Ahsoka in pitch-black robes, and channeling his Dark Side as Vader to Scare 'Em Straight. Sabine summarizes him best when he appears before them as a ghostly shade.
  Sabine: Just shadows in the starlight...
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: Anakin turns to the Dark Side in Revenge of the Sith in order to save his wife from dying. By the end of the film, he has slaughtered younglings and Force choked his wife to near death.
• Deadpan Snarker: Anakin has quite a few moments of sarcasm throughout the canon, especially whenever he is interacting with Obi-Wan.
  Obi-Wan: [after the two Jedi are almost crushed by an avalanche of rocks] Anakin, when I tell you to run, run.
  Anakin: Master! You're alive.
  Obi-Wan: And where's your lightsaber?
  Anakin: It got knocked out of my hand.
  Obi-Wan: By a rock?
  Anakin: [turns back to Obi-Wan and begins searching for his lightsaber] Yeah, by a rock. It's got to be here somewhere.
  Obi-Wan: That is a feeble excuse.
  Anakin: You know what would be helpful? A little light.
  Obi-Wan: Certainly. [turns on his lightsaber but it sputters and goes out] Silly thing. It was just working a minute ago.
  Anakin: You don't suppose it was hit by a rock, do you?
• Deal with the Devil: He does this in Revenge of the Sith with Darth Sidious as the devil. Anakin turns to the Dark Side when the Sith Lord offers knowledge of how to save Padmé from death due to child birth. The scene where he submits to Palpatine is staged like a classical Faustian drama. Like all such deals, it ends up backfiring as his turn to the Dark Side is what drives Padmé away from him, causes her death, and eventually leads to him becoming a crippled cyborg paraplegic for the rest of his life.
• Death of Personality: The hearing of Padmé's death breaks whatever was left of Anakin's spirit and leads to his transformation into the brutal villain that we see in the Original Trilogy. Subverted, however, in that the old Anakin Skywalker did survive; it just took Luke's efforts to see him prevail.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of The Chosen One and From Zero to Hero. Despite being born as a slave, Anakin is incredibly gifted as a Force-wielder, possessing potential far beyond his Jedi predecessors. Unfortunately, this caused others to target him for their own agenda, forcing Anakin to be burdened with immense responsibilities since childhood. Moreover, it also made jealous classmates and more traditional Jedi act unreasonably critical towards him, being distainful at Anakin's natural inclination for emotional attachments. Predictably, all this negative treatment takes a severe toll on his well-being.
• Decoy Protagonist: During the Umbara arc in The Clone Wars, it initially looks like he is going to serve as a Deuteragonist to Captain Rex. However, halfway through "Darkness on Umbara" (the first episode in the story arc), he is called off to Coruscant.
• Despair Event Horizon: Padmé's death, not helped by Palatine's choice of words. After that, The Empire and Anakin's service to his master are all he has left. He overcomes this after saving Luke.
• Desperately Craves Affection: One of Anakin's greatest weakness is his need for approval, stemming from his lowly status as a slave. Likewise, he struggles with the Jedi's teachings too, worsened by his status as The Friend Nobody Likes.
• Destructive Romance: His relationship with Padmé eventually descends into this, which is particularly highlighted in "The Rise of Clovis". Although they love each other, having to keep their relationship secret puts a lot of pressure on them and causes trust issues. Anakin's ever-worsening emotional state and Crazy Jealous Guy tendencies don't help either and it clearly has negative effects on them. After Anakin turns to the Dark Side, the relationship becomes blatantly abusive – he straight up deceives Padmé to cover up his crimes, starts treating her more like a possession than his wife and lashes out at her with the Force, strongly contributing to her death in childbirth.
• Determinator:
  • In The Clone Wars episode "The Citadel", Anakin takes back his lightsaber from an electromagnet while hanging from his own right hand (which is also stuck to the magnet) and being electrocuted.
  • In Revenge of the Sith, he manages to survive through The Power of Hate alone even after getting all but one of his limbs chopped off and his body immolated by a river of molten lava.
• Deus Angst Machina: By the time of A New Hope, Anakin has spent ten years of his life agonizing over leaving his mother in slavery, returned to her after all that time just for her to die in his arms, committed mass genocide, and killed his own beloved wife (and supposedly their unborn child) in a botched Deal with the Devil meant to save said wife and child from death, and spent another twenty-or-so years living with the guilt of his actions while trapped in a twisted mangle of burnt flesh and machinery.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In "Overlords", Anakin manages to subdue the Daughter and the Son, the god-like embodiments of the Light and Dark Sides of the Force, simultaneously. this was done via temporarily tapping into his hidden potential.
• Died Happily Ever After: After performing a Heroic Sacrifice in order to save his son Luke, Anakin appears as a Force spirit alongside Obi-Wan and Yoda at the end of Return of the Jedi while being more peaceful than he's ever been in life.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: He dies in his son's arms after finding redemption.
• Disability Immunity: After being set alight by lava following a lightsaber duel he had with Obi-Wan on Mustafar, he manages to climb to safety because his prosthetic arm remains intact.
• Disappeared Dad: According to Word of God, Anakin was conceived by the Force itself, therefore he doesn't have a father.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Arguably. Anakin massacres the village of Tusken Raiders, including its women and children in order to avenge his mother's death. In fairness, the Tusken Raiders are seen by most as mere savages, including the Lars and Obi-Wan themselves.
• Dogged Nice Guy: He is constantly trying to be kind, helpful, and charming towards Padmé and professes that he will do anything for her. He's not particularly interested in taking no for an answer from Padmé when she tells him they can't be together. However, he does tone it down after she spells out plainly the reasons their relationship wouldn't work... and then they end up together anyway.
• Domestic Abuse: As Anakin turns to the Dark Side, his treatment of Padmé steadily becomes this.
  • His controlling treatment of Padmé in The Clone Wars is an emotional abuse example, especially in regards to her relationship with Rush Clovis. When she was asked to spy on Clovis, Anakin blatantly stated he wouldn't let her do it. When Clovis returns to ask for Padmé's help, which she agrees to, Anakin is enraged upon learning it and threatened to leave her in jail. And when asked by Chancellor Palpatine to work with Clovis, Anakin actually told Padmé, he "demanded" her to tell the Chancellor she couldn't.
  • He falls headfirst into full-on physical abuse at the peak of his Face–Heel Turn in Revenge of the Sith, when he Force chokes a pregnant Padmé in a fit of paranoid rage, indirectly resulting in her death.
• Doomed by Canon: It was known what Anakin's destiny was going to be since The Phantom Menace despite the fact that he was originally a young and innocent boy.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: When Anakin is appointed to the Jedi Council but not given the rank of Master, he believes it's unfair given all his accomplishments. In doing so, he pretty much showed why he wasn't ready to be a Jedi Master.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Anakin's recurring nightmare about Padmé's death during childbirth in Revenge of the Sith.
• Drives Like Crazy: In Attack of the Clones, Anakin nearly gives Obi-Wan a heart attack with his reckless speeder driving while chasing Zam Wesell on Coruscant, where driving is a three-dimensional affair. Justified, since his primary training in driving anything was his participating in the high-speed podraces on Tatooine.
• Drunk with Power: After turning to the Dark Side and becoming Darth Vader, Anakin declares his intention to overthrow the Emperor and become ruler of the Galaxy.
• Dual Wielding: In Attack of the Clones, Anakin fights Count Dooku with two lightsabers at one point. Unfortunately, it only lasts a short while before he's forced to switch back to one. He also does it again a few times in The Clone Wars.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Anakin has this issue with the Jedi Order, best showcased when becoming a member of the Jedi Council. Somewhat crosses over with Both Sides Have a Point.
  • While they certainly aren't the best parental figures, the Jedi Order's decision to not make him a Jedi Master is understandable, given his several reckless actions and need for emotional growth. Not helping matters is Anakin's unwillingness to let go of emotional attachments.
  • On Anakin's side, the Jedi Order's attitude is undeniably harsh, especially since they have continued to task him with dangerous missions at a young age, despite treating him with apparent distrust. Likewise, their decision to use Anakin's attachments was quite short-sighted.
  • Moreover, by neglecting to explain more clearly why they chose to deny him the rank of master, the Jedi Order missed an opportunity to teach Anakin a lesson in humility. Similarly, Anakin should have not been so quick to take their decision as a sign of emotional rejection, considering how he still became a member of the Jedi Council.
• Dumb Blonde: An inversion. Anakin's hair was originally blond before it darkened over time. And despite his reckless and arrogant nature, he's a brilliant tactician and mechanic.
• Dying as Yourself: In the last moments of his life, he lets go of the Dark Side and dies as Anakin Skywalker, not Darth Vader. Reflecting this, Luke removes Vader's mask per his father's wishes.
• Dying Declaration of Hate: Anakin does this during his Villainous Breakdown after he's defeated by Obi-Wan on Mustafar, screaming out his hatred towards the Jedi Master, who responds by telling him he loved him like a brother. Subverted in that he doesn't die.
• Easily Forgiven: After his passing, Luke, Obi-Wan and Yoda show no hard feelings towards the redeemed Anakin's spirit. Obi-Wan even shoots his former Padawan a fond smile. It helps that he already suffered immensely as Darth Vader. Plus, in Obi-Wan and Yoda's cases, they oversaw Anakin's atonement in the afterlife, as well as how the Force dealt with him.
  • The novel "From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi" explores this, showcasing Anakin and Obi-Wan's point of view in the matter.
• Embarrassing Nickname: Anakin did not like it when Ahsoka first called him "Skyguy". When later referred to by this nickname again though, he didn't seem to mind.
• Emergency Transformation: After his duel with Obi-Wan on Mustafar, Anakin's body is injured so badly that Palpatine immediately brings him to Coruscant and creates Darth Vader as we know him in the Original Trilogy.
• Enmity with an Object: Anakin despises sand, having lived as a slave on the desert planet of Tatooine.
• Entitled Bastard: While Anakin is justified in wanting respect for his many contributions, he overreacted to the Jedi Council not promoting him to Master at the age of 22, especially since Obi-Wan was still a Padawan by age 25. To be fair, from Anakin's point of view, his outburst likely came from feeling emotionally rejected; something Obi-Wan attempts to quell.
  • Interestingly, prior to this, Anakin outright told Palpatine that the Jedi Council would not accept him as a Jedi Master and council member.
• Entitled to Have You: Not at first, but his attitude towards Padmé starts to smack of this by the end of Revenge of the Sith; mostly Type B. As he succumbs deeper to the Dark Side, he starts to view her less as a person he loves and more as a possession who owes him loyalty and affection. He outright claims everything he's doing is for her, as if this is a valid excuse for her to not question or condemn his actions, disregarding her feelings on the matter. He completely flips out when he believes that she has betrayed him. Anakin really only snaps out of it after waking up from his life-saving operation; one of the first things he asks is if Padmé is safe. Unfortunately, it's too late...
• Et Tu, Brute?: After his Face–Heel Turn in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin believes that Obi-Wan and Padmé are conspiring to kill him when they are merely trying to make him turn back from the Dark Side. However, it's the other way around since he was the one who betrayed them.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Not so much a villain as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but his massacre of the Sand people was provoked by their murder of his mother.
• Even the Guys Want Him: When he enters the club in Attack of the Clones one of the people who checks him out is a man.
• Everyone Has Standards: Given that he grows into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold until becoming Darth Vader, it's this trope instead of Even Evil Has Standards; while Anakin is vulnerable to morally dubious acts, he knows where to draw the line in several areas.
  • While he despised Clovis for being Padmé’s ex and putting her in danger, he was horrified at how he almost beat him to death for trying to put a Forceful Kiss on her.
  • He also shows utter contempt for slavery, which isn't surprising considering he was a slave for the first nine years of his life.
  • Despite his frustration with Windu and the Council over the years, he still makes it a point to report Palpatine as a Sith Lord to Mace not long after he finds out. And even though he impulsively disarmed Mace Windu to save the Sith Lord, he's still devastated that his actions lead to Windu's death.
• Evil Costume Switch: Anakin puts his hood up a lot more after turning to the Dark Side and being christened Darth Vader. In the ultimate evil costume switch, he wears the infamous biomechanical suit of armor we are familiar with.
• Evil Is Hammy: In Revenge of the Sith, when Anakin turns to the Dark Side, he starts acting more bombastic when he speaks.
  Vader: You underestimate my POWER!
• Evil Makes You Ugly: Anakin starts to show signs of Dark Side overuse mere hours after his turn, mainly his sickly yellow eyes. His horrific disfigurement by lava soon follows. His full redemption as a Force Spirit reverses this.
• Exiled to the Couch: After beating the crap out of Rush Clovis in "The Rise of Clovis", Padmé all but kicks him out of her apartment, saying she thinks they need time apart. To his credit, Anakin accepts this and leaves without much fuss.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: In Attack of the Clones, Anakin has short hair with a Padawan braid, the exact same hairstyle his mentor Obi-Wan had in his youth. By the time of The Clone Wars, the braid is gone and his hair is longer, giving him more of an Anti-Hero look.
• Extremely Protective Child:
  • Anakin is protective of his mother, Shmi. As a nine year old boy, he promises Shmi he will come back and free her from slavery someday. Ten years later, he defies the Jedi Council and drops everything to go back to Tatooine when he has recurring dreams of her being in danger. Upon learning she was kidnapped by Tusken Raiders, he refuses to give up on her and doesn't rest until he finds her. Unfortunately, once witnessing Shmi's death, Anakin massacres the entire camp of Tusken Raiders out of grief and rage.
  • He's also this to Obi-Wan, whom he regards as his adoptive father. Seeing Dooku about to execute Obi-Wan during their duel with him on Geonosis prompts Anakin to get back up from being electrocuted by Dooku's Force Lightning and stop Dooku from delivering the killing blow. During the Clone Wars, witnessing Obi-Wan seemingly get assassinated by an assassin drives Anakin into a vengeful rage and exact revenge on said assassin, unaware that Obi-Wan faked his own death and impersonated said assassin. Lastly, during their final duel with Count Dooku, seeing Dooku knock Obi-Wan out and crush him under a balcony pisses him off and he promptly curbstomps Dooku, cuts his hands off, and beheads him on Palpatine's request.
• Eye Color Change: Anakin's eye color gradually change from blue to yellow once he turns to the Dark Side and becomes a Sith Lord.
• Face–Heel Turn: In "Ghosts of Mortis", the Son convinces him to turn to the Dark Side a year early, ironically to prevent his actions as Darth Vader, though this is quickly undone by the Father. In Revenge of the Sith, he turns his back on the Jedi Order to become the ruthless Darth Vader.
• Fallen Hero: He could easily be the Trope Codifier. While he begins as a sweet, selfless child and becomes a heroic Jedi Knight, Anakin inevitably turned to the Dark Side and becomes one of the most famous villains in cinematic history.
• Family Man: Anakin loves his mother Shmi and wants to make a family with Padmé. The death of the former in Attack of the Clones and being unable to make a family with the latter in Revenge of the Sith marks his path to the Sith instead of the Jedi.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • He really hates Tusken Raiders for killing his mother, massacring the village responsible in blind rage. Although to be fair, Tusken Raiders' have never been shown to be anything other than cruel, sadistic thieves and murderers, at least until The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Even then, it's not like they wouldn't kill an outsider if given the opportunity.
  • Anakin loathes Zygerrians, angrily referring to one as "Zygerrian scum". However, this is justified as Zygerrians are slave traders and Anakin was born into slavery.
  • He's not very fond of Hutts either, even straight up saying that he "hate[s] Hutts" in The Clone Wars' pilot movie. Again, this stems back to his upbringing as a slave; the Hutts are well-known perpetrators of slavery and Anakin and his mother were once owned by Gardulla the Hutt.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: His designs in The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith very subtly present his increasing darkness. He has a scar over one eye and the arm on the same side of his body has a tight sleeve and glove combo over his Artificial Limb, while he otherwise maintains his boyish looks and wears the same loose fitting uniform he had back in Attack of the Clones.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • Anakin has four: His first flaw is the fact that he suffers from an imbalanced sense of assurance, his second flaw is his unresolved grief and pain, his third flaw is a strong desperation to solve the chaos surrounding him, and his fourth flaw is his fear to accept what he did as wrong (although he gets this fourth flaw after he turns to the dark side). When combined, it results in him becoming paranoic about (Padmé's Death by Childbirth), going to any lengths to try and avert it, even if that means turning to the Dark Side and slaughtering the innocent, all while genuinely believing he's doing the right thing.
  • Obi-Wan Kenobi adds a fourth flaw he has that still persists even after he's become Darth Vader which the titular character exploits multiple times: an obsessive need for victory. He craves victory so much that it makes him incredibly reckless and impatient in trying to achieve it. It results in multiple force-sensitives managing to escape his grasp and him painfully losing a brutal rematch with Obi-Wan all because he wanted to prove that he's surpassed his former mentor.
• Fate Worse than Death: After the events of Revenge of the Sith, where he becomes Darth Vader, he is condemned to a life of constant emotional, psychological, and physical pain until he is redeemed at the very end of Return of the Jedi.
• A Father to His Men: He's pretty caring towards Ahsoka, Rex, and the other clones; but he usually comes up with reckless plans that send them into serious danger. Then again, given they are in the middle of a war, his plans could be argued as the lesser of two evils: he doesn't send his clone troopers into situations he knows they won't survive. He also leads from the front and seems unwilling to order his clone troopers to do anything he wouldn't do himself. In Revenge of the Sith's opening battle, he even wants to go help the clone troopers when they're overwhelmed by the enemy, but Obi-Wan says they need to concentrate on their own mission.
• Final Boss: Excluding Palpatine, he is the final antagonist of the main and prequel trilogies, fought by Obi-Wan in a climactic duel on Mustafar and then by Luke aboard the second Death Star.
• Flaw Exploitation:
  • Palpatine exploits Anakin's love for Padmé and fear of losing her to convince him that everything he does is for the good of the Galaxy.
  • Palpatine had also exploited Anakin's need for validation since day one via becoming a friend and mentor to Anakin since Obi-Wan was too inexperienced at the time to replace Qui-Gon.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling:
  • He's the foolish to Obi-Wan's responsible. Even as a young adult, Anakin is still considerably more hot-headed and reckless than his more grounded mentor.
  • It's reversed with his own Padawan learner, Ahsoka. He gives her advice on how to handle herself in tense situations and help her grow.
• For Your Own Good: He delivers a very dark variation of this to Padmé in Revenge of the Sith, insisting all the horrible things he's done are for her own good.
  "I'm becoming more powerful than any Jedi has ever dreamed of. And I'm doing it for you. To protect you."
• Freudian Excuse:
  • He was born on Tatooine as a lowly slave, experiencing several horrors and even the risk of death. At the age of nine, circumstances forced Anakin to part with his still enslaved mother, essentially becoming a child soldier for galactic conflict. Thus, by his late teens, Anakin is plagued by intense PTSD, something greatly worsened from Shmi's tragic demise.
  • The Republic and the Jedi Order disillusioned Anakin over the years, especially when his Padawan learner Ahsoka was put on trial and quit as a Jedi. Not helping matters is the Jedi Order's inability to properly take care of Anakin's issues, demanding so much from him since adolescence, all while worsening his pain and need for validation.
  • Being given little freedom since childhood would cause Anakin to develop Control Freak tendencies. The same also applies for his frustrations and rebellious attitude.
  • Anakin also has some serious issues with father figures. For starters, Anakin has no biological father (since he was conceived through the Force itself). Growing up, his primary male role model was Watto, his selfish slave master. He gains a new, much better father figure in Qui-Gon Jinn...only for him to be killed by Darth Maul. Obi-Wan tries his best to be a replacement, but their relationship is more reminiscent of an older brother being forced to step in as a parent, causing a fair bit of friction between them. His main father figure during the Clone Wars is Chancellor Sheev Palpatine aka Darth Sidious (who is the Dark Lord of the Sith and pretty much the worst person in the galaxy Anakin could look up to as a Parental Substitute).
  • His premonitions of the future did no favors whatsoever, depriving him of precious sleep time and installing great fear. Combined with heavy burdens as The Chosen One, it's frankly no wonder why Anakin became so overwhelmed in Revenge of the Sith, with his desperation to end the Clone Wars significantly increased.
  • While Anakin himself came to admit fault for becoming Darth Vader, Palpatine's mastery of The Dark Side and emotional coercion did have a significant role in it. Furthermore, by the time Anakin is reconstructed into a cyborg, his entire body was burnt into an agonizing crisp. Combined with his past subjugation as a slave and deep self-loathing, it's pretty understandable why Anakin was so easily placed under Palpatine's thumb.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Obi-Wan tells Qui-Gon that while both of them share some blame in Anakin's turn to The Dark Side, at the end of the day Anakin willingly chose it despite having the wisdom and better judgement to reject it. That said, by the time Anakin fulfills his destiny as The Chosen One, Obi-Wan has eased up with this assessment.
• Friendly Ghost:
  • After his redemption and subsequent death at the end of Return of the Jedi, Anakin is seen smiling at his son and daughter as a Force Spirit, being very proud of them.
  • In Ghosts Of Vaders Castle issue #5 on Mustafar at the end, when Lina’s crew is having trouble navigating through fog in Vader’s castle, a lightsaber guides them through. When they get back to their ship, they thought it was Lina leading them with the lightsaber but she wasn’t. Lina jokes that there’s no such thing as ghosts, where it’s revealed that the force ghost of Anakin was the one who helped them. With a smile on his face, Anakin laughs to himself after Lina’s claim of there not being ghosts.
  • His appearance in Ahsoka mostly counts as this, even if he is essentially walking Ahsoka through her Clone Wars-related trauma and compels her to fight through them by invoking his persona as Vader, because he's being Cruel to Be Kind and to help her get over her baggage and guilt.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: In the Canon, this is his status within the Jedi Order ever since he first met with them in The Phantom Menace. Qui-Gon Jinn is the only who wholeheartedly vouched for him and believed in him. His Jedi classmates are very jealous and mistreat him. While Obi-Wan loves Anakin like a brother, even he complains behind his back to the Council about his arrogance and bad temper (as shown in Attack of the Clones; Yoda admits Anakin gets it from them) in addition to never standing up for him, unlike Qui-Gon. Most of the other Jedi don't have a very high personal opinion about Anakin on account of his unique roots, childishness, willingness to take risks, rule-breaking, and issues with attachment. The bad blood between them had a big factor in his eventual turn to the Dark Side.
• Friend-or-Idol Decision: Anakin is led to believe he has to turn to the Dark Side or else Padmé will die. Also, Anakin's choice between letting Mace Windu kill Palpatine or saving the Sith Lord's life; he also seems torn between remaining loyal to the Jedi or the Chancellor and the Republic.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Anakin provides the page image for this trope. He starts out as a lowly slave boy born on an Outer Rim planet far away from the influence of the Galactic Republic, who eventually becomes the very instrument used to bring about the rise of the Galactic Empire and the decimation of the Jedi Order.
• Frontline General: While many Jedi Generals led their troops this way during the Clone Wars, Anakin had a particular knack and reputation for charging right into the thick of battle with his loyal 501st clone troopers at his back, or flying point in his Jedi starfighter during space battles throughout the war.

G–H

• Gadgeteer Genius: When he was a nine-year-old in The Phantom Menace, Anakin built his own protocol droid, C-3PO, when he was only a kid, as well as built his own podracer. In The Clone Wars, he is frequently in charge of making repairs to the ships, maintaining his own prosthetic arm (which came in handy when he eventually gained three more artificial limbs), and performing other mechanical duties.
• Generation Xerox: Anakin shares his mother Shmi's compassion and altruism towards those in need as well as her Determinator attitude. While this was subverted as he drew closer to the Dark Side, it comes back into full circle near the end. Fittingly, they both die in the arms of their sons after they had come to save them.
• Genius Bruiser: He is a brilliant engineer and tactician who leads his men from the frontline during the Clone Wars.
• The Gift: Due to his high midichlorian count, Anakin is extraordinarily talented in lightsaber combat, piloting, and other Force abilities. Similarly, he is very intellectually gifted, to the point of building C-3PO at age nine.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Anakin's eyes glow a bright yellow when he goes off to kill off what remains of the Separatist council. It stays this way after fully becoming Darth Vader, only being undone near death.
• A God Am I: In Revenge of the Sith, after turning to the Dark Side, Anakin says that he is becoming more powerful than any Jedi in the galaxy, so powerful that he can overthrow Emperor Palpatine and rule with Padmé by his side as his Empress.
• Good Is Not Soft: As a Jedi, Anakin is never afraid of more violent solutions. In The Clone Wars episode "Voyage of Temptation", he kills Tal Merrik when both Obi-Wan and Satine couldn't do so.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors: Anakin goes from wearing light colors in The Phantom Menace to progressively darker colors in Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars, and Revenge of the Sith, which is a not-so-subtle indicator of Anakin's gradual openness to the Dark Side. Even after his return to the light, he's perfectly capable of invoking his Darth Vader persona when needed.
• Good Costume Switch: When Anakin appears as a Force spirit in Return of the Jedi, he has switched from the dark brown and black robes he wore as a young Anti-Hero and the iconic black armor he wore as Darth Vader to a light brown and white set of robes similar to Obi-Wan's own.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has a scar next to his right eye by the time of The Clone Wars before ending up covered in burn scars after his Face–Heel Turn and battle with Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith.
• Go Out with a Smile: This is Anakin's farewell to Luke. After being redeemed from the Dark Side, Anakin smiles warmly at his son after looking upon him with his own eyes for the first time in his life.
• Green-Eyed Monster:
  • Anakin's jealousy of Padmé's former relationship with Clovis is Played for Laughs for most of "Senate Spy". That is until the part where he abandons Clovis to the mercy of Lott Dod, Poggle the Lesser, and a battalion of Battle Droids.
  • The early scripts for Revenge of the Sith had Anakin suspect that Padmé and Obi-Wan were having an affair, with this being one of the contributing factors to his turn to the Dark Side. The finished film still has hints of this (Anakin asking if Obi-Wan had been to Padmé's apartment, and his emphasis on Obi-Wan during his conversation with Padmé on Mustafar), adding some extra depth to his enmity for Obi-Wan after becoming Darth Vader.
• Grin of Audacity: He often smiles and sometimes even laughs as he's doing or about to do something very dangerous.
• Guns Akimbo: During the Crystal Crisis arc, he resorts to using two X-8 Night Sniper blaster pistols he stole from an armory after the Sugi confiscate his and Obi-Wan's lightsabers.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: When he's a Battle Couple with Padmé — He charges in with his lightsaber while she uses her trusty blaster.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Young Anakin has blond hair in The Phantom Menace. When he meets the heroes and brings them to his home, he volunteers to race in the Boonta Eve Classic podrace so that they could get the prize money. When his mother objects, Anakin reminds Shmi of her belief that people need to help one another, convincing her to allow Anakin to race for Qui-Gon Jinn.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: Anakin is impulsive, hot-tempered, and easily angered, especially if someone he loves is in danger.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Qui-Gon theorizes that he might have been conceived by the midi-chlorians, based on his unprecedented midi-chlorian count, and Shmi's claim that he was the result of virgin birth. Word of God confirms that Anakin was a creation by the Force itself.
• Handicapped Badass: In The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith, Anakin becomes an even more skilled lightsaber duelist than before losing his arm in Attack of the Clones.
• Happily Married: Zig-zagged. He and Padmé deeply love one another and, until his turn to the Dark Side, they were happy together. The nature of their marriage and other factors cause some problems. During the Clovis arc in The Clone Wars, Anakin displays some controlling behavior around Padmé out of jealousy of Rush Clovis and later nearly beats him to death in a violent rage when he nearly kisses his wife, greatly disturbing Padmé and leading to them temporarily separating. And in Revenge of the Sith, she implies that despite three years of marriage, they still keep things from each other; reading between the lines, it's also implied he believes Obi-Wan and Padmé may be having an affair. He eventually escalates into a full-on Domestic Abuser after turning to the Dark Side, Force choking Padmé when she rejects him and he believes she's betrayed him. He never stopped loving Padmé though and is emotionally destroyed when he realizes he caused her death.
• Hated Hometown: He despises Tatooine. It's not surprising, seeing how terrible his life was on the planet. This was worsened especially after Shmi's death. Thus, Anakin only returns to Tatooine when he absolutely has to. This actually factors into Obi-Wan and Yoda's decision to take Luke to Tatooine after Anakin turns to the Dark Side; Obi-Wan knows that Vader is extremely unlikely to ever want to set foot on Tatooine again, so both he and Luke should be relatively well-hidden there.
  Anakin: The desert is merciless. It takes everything from you.
• Healthy in Heaven: As a Force Spirit, he lacks any of the burn wounds and severed limbs he sustained from Mustafar, looking exactly like he was before he turned to the Dark Side but with a flesh-and-bone right arm instead of a prosthetic one.
• Heartbroken Badass: His mother's death turns him into one and Ahsoka's departure from the Jedi only makes him feel even worse. When Padmé dies, Anakin's heart is broken so badly that his allegiance to the Dark Side becomes almost absolute.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Best shown when Anakin saved Luke from Palpatine, despite the overwhelming odds. Also, in "From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi", it's explained that Anakin's burning desire to make amends from being Darth Vader was what allowed him to retain consciousness in death.
• He Cleans Up Nicely: He spends most of The Phantom Menace wearing tattered clothing and sporting a slightly unkempt bowl cut. Once he's inducted to the Jedi Order by the end of the film, he's seen wearing cleaner robes and has gotten a nice haircut too.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Anakin tries to "redeem" himself by telling Padmé that he can overthrow Palpatine so that they can rule in his place. Sadly, Padmé is far too terrified of what he's become to accept his offer.
• Heel Realization: After killing the Tusken Raiders, a part of Anakin's speech shows that he feels like he's failing as a Jedi.
• He Is All Grown Up: In Attack of the Clones, Padmé is impressed by how much Anakin has grown in size and personality since their last encounter ten years earlier back in The Phantom Menace.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: He wears a black leather tabard as part of his Jedi outfit in Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars, and Revenge of the Sith. In The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith, he wears a black leather glove to cover his prosthetic right arm.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Anakin uses a lightsaber, as he is a Jedi and lightsabers are the Jedi's weapons. He himself associated lightsabers with Jedi since childhood, as he deduced Qui-Gon was a Jedi based on the fact he had a "laser sword".
• Heroic Bastard: His mother was not married and gave birth to him without a father, making Anakin this. And he's a good, if immature, Jedi Knight. Too bad this stopped as Darth Vader.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • Anakin has a huge one after his mother dies and he goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against her killers. He calms down after her funeral. Although, his impulsive rage in the First Battle of Geonosis (especially against Dooku) indicates it's still affecting him (seeing dozens of fellow Jedi killed and Padmé injured doesn't help). This gets him badly injured and nearly killed.
  • In Revenge of the Sith, he goes into one after informing Mace Windu that Palpatine is a Sith Lord and being told to wait at the Jedi Temple while Mace and some other Jedi Masters go to confront him. All of his inner turmoil comes to a head and he paces around the Council chamber, Palpatine's words echoing in his mind. He ends up staring out of the window and across the city towards Padmé's apartment (where she also happens to be gazing out the window, ruminating), silently crying as he seriously contemplates betraying the Jedi to save her and Palpatine.
• The Hero Dies: Anakin is the main protagonist of the Skywalker Trilogy as a whole, so if one were to regard him as The Hero in "The Phantom Menace", then his Heel–Face Turn and Heroic Sacrifice at the end of Return of the Jedi would technically make him this.
• Hero-Worshipper: Unsurprisingly, Anakin really looks up to Qui-Gon Jinn, both for his compassion and wisdom. The novel "Brotherhood" notes this, with Qui-Gon referred to as Anakin's definition of an ideal Jedi.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Obi-Wan. After a somewhat difficult master-apprentice relationship, they became as close as brothers during the Clone Wars. Once Anakin turns to the Dark Side, however...
• He Who Fights Monsters: This is the reason why he becomes a Sith Lord, the very thing he sought to destroy. In one notable example before his Face–Heel Turn, he slew the Tusken Raiders responsible for Shmi's death. All of them. Including the tribe's women and children.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Although his early suffering is through no fault of his own, Anakin gradually deals with this by Revenge of the Sith. His insecurities, short temper, and fear of loss directly lead to him turning to the Dark Side, getting horribly maimed, and losing almost everything he cares about. This continues as Darth Vader, significantly hampering his prowess when faced with emotional strife.
  Obi-Wan: I believe Anakin may be in grave danger.
  Padmé: From the Sith?
  Obi-Wan: From himself.
• Historical Hero Upgrade: It's never made clear how widely known Anakin Skywalker's turn to the Dark Side was by the time of the Original Trilogy. However, official history recorded him as a great Jedi that perished in the Clone Wars, with the rebels also viewing him as a great pilot.
  • Subverted when his identity as Darth Vader was ousted, with public opinion immediately turning its back on Anakin's legacy, destroying Leia's political career. To be fair, it's left vague as to whether Luke fully told the general public at the time of Anakin's redemption.
• Honey Trap: During the Zygerrian Slavers arc, Anakin's plan to rescue the enslaved Togrutan colonists is to charm Queen Miraj.
• Horrible Judge of Character: Especially in Revenge of the Sith. To be fair, a lot of this is caused by manipulation on Palpatine's part and the Jedi Council's nearsighted actions, with the Dark Side affecting Anakin's sanity:
  • He trusts freaking Palpatine above everyone else, outright defending him as a "good man". It takes him a while to realize he's a thoroughly evil and unscrupulous bastard who just wants to seize power for himself.
  • Becoming Darth Vader caused Anakin to think Padmé was plotting against him even though she makes it clear that all she wants is to help him turn away from the Dark Side. By the time Anakin thinks otherwise, Palpatine "explains" that Padme had died.
  • Before his duel with Obi-Wan, Anakin came to believe the Jedi are evil traitors. While the Jedi Order is definitely flawed, especially regarding hubris, clinging to restrictive codes and being in absolute servitude towards the Republic, the Jedi as a whole stand for justice and liberty, fighting to defend the innocent and seize government control from a Sith Lord. Obi-Wan himself tried to remind Anakin of this, but was ignored entirely. Thankfully, this was rectified in Return of the Jedi.
• Hot-Blooded: Anakin is emotional, passionate, brash, and impulsive, which the Jedi Order attribute heavily to the Dark Side. When combined with his inner struggles, said traits cause Anakin to end up as one of Palpatine's biggest pawns.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Two examples:
  • A romantic example with Padmé, whom he towers over (he is 6'2" while she is 5'5").
  • A platonic example with Ahsoka. Justified, as she is a teenager while he is a full-grown adult.
• Humanoid Abomination: Not in a traditional sense, but a case could be made for this, since Anakin was somehow conceived through the Force without a father. This was thoroughly explored in the Legends novel Darth Plagueis, in which Anakin was conceived through the Force in retaliation against Darth Plagueis and Sidious' experiments. In canon, there are allusions to this with Sidious being implied to have played a part in conceiving Anakin through the Force.
• Humble Pie: It's hinted that getting his arm cut off by Count Dooku in Attack of the Clones, partly because of his impulsivity, caused him to tone down his bratty behavior since he is a lot more levelheaded and mature in The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith. That is, until he turned to the Dark Side and became a Sith Lord in the latter.
• Hypocrite:
  • As Ahsoka's master, he often finds himself having to preach patience, humility, and detachment. All of which are things Anakin has struggled with constantly as a Jedi. This is most notable when he notices Ahsoka's affections for Lux and gently reminds her to set aside feelings. Considering the trouble he faces, it's clear Anakin simply wants her to avoid the hardships of his own life.
  • Anakin hates being controlled, but can be controlling towards Padmé and Ahsoka for different reasons.
  • As a Padawan, Anakin frequently complained about Obi-Wan being a Stern Teacher behind his back, but he can also be pretty stern when it comes to training Ahsoka. However, since his mentorship was during the Clone Wars, it is understandable why Anakin would be hard on a student that acted more arrogant, reckless, and stubborn than himself, since he is essentially teaching her how to survive.
  • In "Senate Spy", when Anakin is called away by the Jedi Council, thus ruining his evening with Padmé, he attempts to comfort her by stating "duty comes first, especially in wartime". However, he always puts his duties second to his own personal feelings, as he did in this very episode.
  • In Revenge of the Sith, he urges for Mace not to kill Palpatine because killing an unarmed opponent is not the Jedi way. Not only did Anakin do just that earlier in the film (if hesitant prior to Palpatine's manipulations and expressing regret afterwards), he's shown throughout Attack Of The Clones and The Clone Wars'' to struggle with the Jedi way. That said, this was largely done for Anakin's own agenda.
• Hypocrite Has a Point: While Anakin definitely needs lessons in honesty, his anger towards Obi-Wan for faking his death and deliberately not telling him is justified. No matter what the reason, it was still a cold-hearted and manipulative act for Obi-Wan to do to someone he considered a brother, especially since he's well aware of Anakin's attachment issues. Even Obi-Wan had no real response when Anakin referred to these actions as "lying". Likewise, Anakin's arguments toward Mace have shades of this, at least in inadvertently pointing out how the Jedi Order has become unable to live up to its own code.

I-K

• Icy Blue Eyes: Anakin starts off as the innocent variant but becomes this as he grows more ruthless and cold.
• Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: After his first lightsaber was destroyed in the droid factory on Geonosis, Anakin spends the rest of the Clone Wars wielding the lightsaber that would later be passed down to his son.
• Identical Grandfather: As Darth Vader, Anakin shares some similarities to Kylo Ren, such as their inner struggles and outfits. Kylo intentionally models himself after his grandpa, or rather, his evil persona Darth Vader. There are key differences, namely their origins, values, and demeanors.
• I Did What I Had to Do: When he was trying to justify his actions to Padmé in Revenge of the Sith, he insists that he is bringing peace to the galaxy. The heinous nature of his crimes, however, make this ring hollow.
• If I Can't Have You…: He unwittingly starts to to become this way towards Padmé when he believes she is plotting with Obi-Wan to stop him in Revenge of the Sith.
• Ignorant of the Call: In The Phantom Menace, he just sees himself as an individual who's really good at podracing, in spite of how dangerous and difficult the sport is.
• I Got Bigger: Anakin started off as a small, wide-eyed child before becoming a tall, complex-filled adult.
• I Just Want to Be Free: As a child, Anakin was a slave and aspired to travel the galaxy. As a young adult, he also wished to be freed from the Jedi Order's tight leash, which tragically led to his painful servitude as Darth Vader.
• I Just Want to Be Special: As The Chosen One, Anakin already is special, but he still suffers from this, feeling he's not good enough or that he could be so much more. It doesn't help that he believes becoming more powerful would enable him to protect everyone he cares about. Palpatine exploits this by offering him greater power and a "life of significance" via the Dark Side.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die: Shmi (Anakin's mother) and Padmé are Anakin's Gwen Stacys, as they both feed into his Face–Heel Turn. The former's death he believed he could have prevented if he had stayed at home while the latter he believed that he had accidentally killed after all the trouble he went through turning the Dark Side in order to save her.
• Imaginary Love Triangle: The subtext in Revenge of the Sith implies he thinks he's in one with Obi-Wan for Padmé. Nothing could be further from the truth, but by the end Anakin is so caught up in his delusions, he is convinced Padmé has betrayed him to help Obi-Wan kill him. It doesn't end well for anybody.
• Immortality Seeker: Not for himself, but the death of his mother and Qui-Gon as well as the many attempts on Padmé's life made him covet a way to make his remaining loved ones impervious to harm. In his quest to attain such power, he winds up outliving all of them and causing some of their demises himself.
• Improbable Age: Besides being a Child Prodigy when it comes to mechanics and piloting, Anakin eventually gets on the Jedi Council at the age of twenty-two, which Obi-Wan himself points out is extremely unprecedented. Due to being The Chosen One, Anakin is capable of outmatching more senior Jedi in addition to being a Jedi General of the Republic by the time he is nineteen years old. Unfortunately, the burden of these responsibilities and expectations at such a young age takes a severe toll on his well-being, only adding to his troubled emotional state.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: The Crystal Crisis arc shows that he's a crack shot with not just one, but two blasters. One must wonder if that's where his offspring got it from.
• Improbable Piloting Skills: Justified by his connection to the Force, which aid his already impressive piloting skills and allow him to pull off stunts no ordinary human can do; even at the age of nine years old, he is purportedly the only human capable of piloting a Podracer, and takes down the Trade Federation blockade in a Naboo starfighter without prior experience flying one.
• Indy Ploy: He usually makes up the plans as they go.
  Rex: What's our plan of attack, sir?
  Anakin: Follow me.
• Improperly Paranoid: In Revenge of the Sith, he suspects that Obi-Wan and Padmé were conspiring against him. That couldn't be anymore false, as he should know what kind of people they are and how much he means to them.
• Inadequate Inheritor: Along the Master-Apprentice Chain, Dooku openly regards him as this. Dooku is very much proud of Qui-Gon, and similarly holds Obi-Wan in high regard and comes to consider him as a Worthy Opponent. However, he sees Anakin as little more than an unrefined brute unworthy of his and Qui-Gon's legacy. Ironic, given what Anakin inherits from Dooku in the end.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: One of his main weaknesses. Anakin is very insecure about not being the best Jedi he can be, with Padmé outright tells him that he "expects too much of [himself]". Unsurprisingly, this leads him on a dark path.
• Informed Ability: His allegedly awesome power in the Force is mentioned many times throughout the Canon, but Anakin rarely demonstrates unusual Force power other than in engineering, piloting and lightsaber combat. Hand-waved as not having reached his full potential in the Force; Sidious claims that when he does, he'll be more powerful than both himself and Yoda.
  • His fighting ability is described by Nick Gillard to be on the same level as the likes of Yoda or Sidious, but he not only fails to Force push Kenobi away on Mustafar, but ends up losing in their duel. In Obi-Wan's series, Palpatine theorizes that Vader's inner conflict weakens him, which would also explain his duels against Ahsoka and Luke.
  • Subverted near his death. Despite sustaining immense injuries, Anakin's love for Luke ultimately gave him the power to stop Palpatine in seconds, outright enduring the latter's strongest Force powers.
• Informed Kindness: Downplayed. While very much a sweet boy in the first movie, Anakin gradually grows into a troubled young man, though still nice enough for the most part. Yet, others like Obi-Wan, Padmé, Ahsoka, and Rex often describe him as unfailingly noble and kind, which is rather an exaggeration. To be fair, they're probably idealizing him a bit, especially as all but Padme are talking about him post-mortem, and Padme usually saw the best of him.
• Ink-Suit Actor: In The Clone Wars, he looks very similar to Matt Lanter.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Anakin has blue eyes that represent his heroic qualities. They become the icier example the further he turns to the Dark Side.
• In the Back: This is how he kills Tal Merrick and the Son.
• In the Hood: After turning to the Dark Side, Anakin begins wearing hooded robes a lot more. Until he's encased in armor, that is.
• I Resemble That Remark!: To Anakin, the Jedi Council holds him back from being promoted (first to Jedi Knight and then to Master) due to the unfounded belief that he isn't ready for the position. He responds to this by sulking and insisting he deserves the promotion, which only reinforces his immaturity and lack of humility.
• Irony:
  • His idealistic nine year old self scoffs at Qui-Gon's suggestion that he stole his lightsaber off a fallen Jedi, and boldly proclaims that no one can kill a Jedi. Not only is this notion tragically proven wrong at the end of Anakin's first adventure, when Qui-Gon is killed by Darth Maul, but Anakin would end up slaughtering Jedi as Darth Vader.
  • During the Clone Wars, he temporarily turned to the Dark Side a year early to prevent himself from becoming Darth Vader. And his first decision? Telling Obi-Wan the Jedi have to be killed off because they stand in the way of peace... which was exactly what led to his agony as Darth Vader.
  • When one recalls Darth Plagueis' story, Anakin's demise is this. Both Plagueis and Anakin became powerful enough to save others from death, but would ultimately succumb to unnatural causes. Unlike Plagueis though, Anakin died on his own terms as a Jedi, saving Luke and restoring balance to the galaxy. For bonus points, Anakin gained this power from love, an emotion that was frowned upon by the Sith and previous Jedi Order.
• I Shall Return: In The Phantom Menace, he promises his mother he will return someday and free her from slavery. This only makes it worse when he does return for her at long last, only to learn she's been abducted by Tusken Raiders in Attack of the Clones. He manages to track her down, but she dies in his arms from her injuries. Anakin does not take this well.
• I Should Have Been Better: He says this after his mother's death, believing that if he'd only been stronger or gotten there sooner, he could've saved her. Padmé tries to tell him that "Sometimes there are things no one can fix", but he still blames himself. It is his fixation on becoming better that eventually leads him into turning to the Dark Side.
• It Sucks to Be the Chosen One: Anakin is The Chosen One destined to bring balance to the Force. Unfortunately, this makes him go through a ton of grief in his life, experiencing hell as Darth Vader. Only near the end is this somewhat subverted, since he peacefully dies as a free man.
• It's All About Me: When turning against the Republic as Darth Vader. Most evident once Padmé rejects his proposal to run the Empire together and expresses horror over his actions, he reacts as if she's being ungrateful and turns on her. This is subverted later, as the first thing he asks Palpatine when he gets out of surgery is if Padmé is safe. However, Palpatine then informs him that he killed Padmé in his anger and he realizes just what his selfishness cost him.
• It's All My Fault: Depending on the Writer, he is this as a Sith Lord. Deep underneath Vader's Never My Fault attitude, Anakin blames himself for all the tragedies that occurred from the Empire's establishment, hence his Self-Inflicted Hell.
  • Funnily, this is actually somewhat misplaced. To note, even if Anakin did not become a Jedi, Palpatine would have still gained control over the senate and likely been able to execute Order 66, which in turn would have wiped out the unsuspecting Jedi.
  • Furthermore, without Anakin, it is possible that no one would have stopped Palpatine at all, especially given the Sith Lord's immense prowess and cunning mind. Thus, in a very loose sense, Anakin's fall as a Sith Lord was arguably necessary for the greater good.
  • By "From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi", Obi-Wan himself acknowledges that Anakin is not solely to blame for what happened, helping the pathway for proper redemption.
• It's Personal: Slaughtering most of the Confederacy leaders on Mustafar was just at the directive of his master, but it's mentioned that he had a particular axe to grind against Nute Gunray for ordering multiple assassination attempts on Padmé.
• Ironic Name: Clone War-propaganda took to calling Anakin the "Hero with no fear", quite ironic given how Anakin's overwhelming fear was a significant factor in becoming Darth Vader.
• I've Come Too Far: Partly the reason he swiftly sides with Palpatine after inadvertently helping him kill Mace Windu; Anakin believes that there's no coming back from the Dark Side and sees it as necessary to save Padmé and "restore order" for the galaxy. While he initially does seem to reconsider things from Padme's pleas, this trope goes into full effect once Obi-Wan appeared before them.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Downplayed, but occasionally present. In Attack of the Clones, Anakin actually does back off and settles for being friends with Padmé when she explains to him why a relationship would never work between them. When Padmé gives him what she believes may be a Dying Declaration of Love, he initially says "I thought we decided not to fall in love. That it would destroy our lives" before she points out if they're dying it doesn't matter. In The Clone Wars episode "The Rise of Clovis", he also sadly accepts Padmé's request that they should temporarily separate after the incident with Clovis. Notably whenever Anakin stops considering what Padmé wants or feels, it's a sign he's succumbing further into the Dark Side.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: When Ahsoka's life is threatened by Geonosian brain worms, Anakin goes to the cell where Poggle the Lesser is being held and Force chokes him until he reveals how the worms can be killed.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Anakin is an aggressive and arrogant Jedi but does make good points on multiple occasions.
  • Anakin's grief towards the Jedi Council is justified. Despite years of loyal and grueling service, the council continue to treat him as a simple asset for their crusade, and are downright cruel at their worst. Similarly, Anakin's distrust is valid to an extent. For all the Jedi Order's influence and preachment, they ended up doing some very shady things, such as: leave Shmi to be a slave under dangerous conditions, manipulate Anakin's grief when Obi-Wan "died", and throw Ahsoka out of the Order when she was framed.
  • A young Anakin hovers a lightsaber above a couple of Padawans' heads to invoke fear in them for mockingly referring to him as a "slave". It was overkill, but making fun of slavery is not an okay thing to do.
  • Values aside, Anakin's growing frustration at the Jedi Order's openly detached attitude isn't unwarranted, since it harbors incompetence and causes more harm than good. It's especially egregious considering how the Jedi Code espouses compassion, so this attitude is completely antithetical to their way of life.
    • One good example is this situation. When Ahsoka and Barriss fell into deadly trouble, Anakin's emotions compelled him to take immediate action. In contrast, Luminara's detachments initially made her focus on criticizing Anakin's outward concern, instead of helping the search team. Considering a Jedi's duty is to look out for their Padawans, Anakin's reaction was far more logical and moral.
  • In a sense, Anakin's anger at Obi-Wan for Shmi's death holds some truth, if his emotions prevented him from making it out properly. Had Obi-Wan not dismissed Anakin's visions of the future beforehand, they might have been able to act sooner and saved her.
  • His killing of Tal Merrik was brutal, a foreshadowing of him becoming Darth Vader, and resulted in Obi-Wan briefly chastising him. However, Anakin points out that Merrik was about to blow up the ship that they and other people were currently on, making his actions in self-defense.
  • Anakin didn't want to get involved in how the Duggs dealt with the Zillo Beast because of the fact they needed an alliance. Later on, Anakin is mostly unsympathetic towards the creature because he has seen firsthand how dangerous it is.
  • During the Citadel arc, after Anakin and his team rescued Tarkin and his group, Tarkin doesn't offer any gratitude, only criticizing the Jedi's plan. As such, Anakin's response is to give the older man a subtle "The Reason You Suck" Speech at his ungratefulness.
  • Anakin acting unconcerned if Count Dooku killed Queen Miraj may be against the Jedi Code, but who could blame him, honestly? Not only does she pridefully rule over a planet that practices slavery daily, an issue that understandably pisses Anakin off, she also captured his friends as a bargaining chip for Anakin to become her Sex Slave. Her slaves are also mistreated so badly that one even committed suicide. That said, since Anakin did express shock and upset over her death, he was likely bluffing.
  • While largely due to a combination of jealousy and entitlement, Anakin's anger at Padmé for helping Clovis during the Clovis arc is still understandable as the latter senator did betray the Republic to the Senate, which is a major crime. Plus, Anakin rightly points out that Clovis' previous misdeeds almost got Padmé killed. He also saw Clovis forcing himself onto her when she'd already told him no, which would upset any other loving husband in Anakin's shoes.
  • For the unfinished "Crystal Crisis on Utapau" arc, he bluntly tells Obi-Wan that the Council gave Ahsoka no choice but to leave the Jedi Order, seeing as how quickly they threw her to Tarkin's non-existent mercy on flimsy evidence of guilt. While Obi-Wan counters that Ahsoka's choice to leave was still her own, Anakin raises up another point that it meant they failed as Ahsoka's Jedi mentors, especially in an emotional way.
  • While his outburst showed that he wasn't ready for the job, Anakin's frustration at the Jedi Council for nonchalantly denying him the rank of "Master" is understandable, especially since he defeated Count Dooku just a day beforehand and turned the tide of the war in the Republic's favor. If the council wanted Anakin to comply, they should have at least explained their reasons more clearly to him.
    • Even more, once a Jedi Knight trains their Padawan to Knighthood, they become a Master. From Anakin's side of things, this means the Council already screwed him over this promotion by driving away Ahsoka.
    • Also, considering that the Council's reason for accepting Anakin as a member was solely so that they can "unofficially" use him as a spy towards Palpatine, Anakin wasn't exactly wrong to interpret such an act as "disrespectful" and "hypocritical".
  • When temporarily corrupted by the Son, Anakin claims that the Jedi stand in the way of peace. While clearly stemming from an unsound mindset, there are strong merits to this statement. Not only does the Jedi Order allow highly dubious acts such as using Padawans as child soldiers, but they support the failing Republic and its equally poorly-planned actions (e.g. creating cloned humans to be a military force, ignoring the the Outer Rim's immense problems, etc...). These actions are what largely led to the Empire's establishment.
  • When Mace cornered Palpatine, Anakin insisted that he be arrested to stand trial, even citing the Jedi way. Mace Windu doesn't listen to Anakin, and attempts to kill Palpatine after pointing out how much political power the Sith Lord holds. Though mostly from being emotionally manipulated by Palpatine, Anakin's point is valid, considering how their Jedi Order is clearly unprepared to deal with the consequences of assassinating the Supreme Chancellor. Had the two Jedi acted less impulsively, they could have reached a better solution (ex: discussing the matter with every other Jedi Council member before taking decisive action).
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Although flawed, Anakin is at heart a good person who will do anything for those he cares about. He even apologizes to Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith for his childishness. Then, he is manipulated into the Dark Side and has a Face–Heel Turn.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope:
  • In The Clone Wars, whenever he starts Force choking people, it's a sign that he's slipping towards the Dark Side.
  • In Revenge of the Sith, he quickly goes from agonizing over his role in Mace Windu's death to killing younglings without a problem. He does seem to have a brief Heel Realization, but dismisses it as being necessary to save his wife and restore order to the Galaxy.
• Keeping Secrets Sucks: Particularly in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin is shown to be getting really tired with constantly having to lie about his marriage to Padmé. He even recklessly kisses her where people could see, saying "I'm tired of all this deception. I don't care if they know we're married". Subsequently, it means he also feels he can't properly get help from the Jedi when he starts having premonitions of her death. He also feels very conflicted about spying on Palpatine, whom he regards as a friend and father figure, for the Jedi Council, which Palpatine exploits to turn him against the Jedi.
• Kick the Morality Pet: Twice. In Revenge of the Sith, the Dark Side corrupts Anakin so badly that he Force chokes Padmé, his own pregnant wife, into unconsciousness. Then he blames Obi-Wan of all people for "turning her against him".
• Kid Hero: In The Phantom Menace, Anakin single-handedly (if accidentally) wins the Battle of Naboo at the age of nine years old.
• Kid Hero All Grown-Up: In Attack of Clones, The Clone Wars, and Revenge of the Sith. He's still a hero, but he's a lot more conflicted and troubled than he was as a child. And we all know what he eventually becomes...
• Kill It with Fire: He manages to survive, but Obi-Wan figures the best way to kill him is to just leave him to die while his body is set on fire.
• Kill the God: He slays the Son, who is the embodiment of the Dark Side of the Force.
• Kill the Ones You Love: He ends up Force choking Padmé, who later dies in despair. He believed he'd killed their offspring too, though he learned much later this wasn't the case.
• Knight in Shining Armor: As a Jedi, Anakin is this, especially towards his loved ones.
• Knight in Sour Armor: Deconstructed, since years of fighting has left him jaded in general, not least in how the Council faked Obi-Wan's death or threw Ahsoka to the wolves to save face. Eventually, the situation become too much for Anakin to handle alone.
• Knight, Knave, and Squire: Anakin is the Knave since he's more of a Combat Pragmatist than Obi-Wan with a few signs of Well-Intentioned Extremist thrown in. Ahsoka serves as the Squire in The Clone Wars, having less experience than the other two.
• Knight Templar: Anakin isn't quite as extreme as some examples of this trope (Tarkin, for example), but he still shows signs of it. If needed, he is willing to use torture and lethal force, especially when pushed.
  • He fully embraces this trope upon his Face–Heel Turn, believing that destroying the Jedi (who are, in Anakin's twisted point of view, evil) is necessary to bring peace to the Empire.
  • Even as a Jedi, his proposed solution to the inefficiencies of the Republic is that dissenting voices should be made to agree.
• Knight Templar Big Brother:
  • He once Force choked Poggle the Lesser in order to get the information he needed to save Ahsoka.
  • He also almost killed Ventress in a blind rage when he believed she framed Ahsoka for murder.
• Knight Templar Parent: He is heartbroken by the seemingly impending death of his wife Padmé and possibly of his children (whose future he cannot see in his visions). He goes on a savage killing spree after succumbing to the Dark Side of the Force in order to gain the power to save his family.
• Kung-Fu Jesus: A tragic deconstruction and eventual reconstruction of this trope. His son plays it arrow-straight though.

L–N

• Lady and Knight: He is the Knight to Padmé's Lady.
• The Lancer: To Obi-Wan during the Clone Wars.
• Laser Blade: As a Jedi, Anakin had two lightsabers at separate points in the canon. While the first is destroyed in the Geonosis droid factory, Obi-Wan takes Anakin’s second lightsaber when he defeats him on Mustafar and later passes it on to Luke, which in turn winds up in Maz Kanata's hands before it passes on to Rey for a time.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: His memories of the vision of the future, as well as his brief Face–Heel Turn, were erased by the Father.
• Last Guy Wins: Padmé had other boyfriends before Anakin, in particular Rush Clovis, but Anakin is the one she marries. Unfortunately, Palpatine ends up manipulating this relationship.
• Last Request: In Return of the Jedi, he asks Luke to remove his mask so he can "look on [him] with [his] own eyes". He also asks Luke to tell Leia that he was right about him not beyond redemption.
• Leeroy Jenkins: In Attack of the Clones, where against Obi-Wan's orders, he rushes in to attack Dooku and gets incapacitated by Force lightning, and Revenge of the Sith. As Darth Vader, this attitude costs him his limbs and most of his body and, after being outfitted with his iconic armor, he becomes a much more cautious and calculating fighter.
• The Leader: Type Headstrong. He's confident and bold to the point of recklessness, but it does wonders for the clone troopers' morale.
• Light Is Not Good: In Revenge of the Sith, he's still a heroic-looking character, even when he turns to the Dark Side. Subverted after being fully redeemed in "Return of the Jedi", hence his white attire and new Jedi robes.
• Lightning Bruiser: He has a strong, fast-paced fighting style. As Darth Vader, his injuries on Mustafar and cumbersome suit decreased his speed and agility but becomes a Mighty Glacier. Once becoming a Force Ghost, his powers and abilities reach unprecedented heights.
• Like Brother and Sister: He and Ahsoka have a more of a brother/sister bond than master/apprentice. They also double as Platonic Life-Partners.
• Like a Son to Me: Inverted. Anakin came to regard Qui-Gon as a father-figure. Once the latter died, Obi-Wan acted as his replacement, until their relationship gradually became more akin to siblings. For some time, Palpatine tricked Anakin into thinking that they had this relationship, when it was almost entirely one-sided on Anakin's part.
• Likes Older Women: Padmé (the woman he fell in love with) was five years older than him. It doubles as Precocious Crush.
• Living a Double Life: Hoo, boy. By the time of The Clone Wars, Anakin is a Jedi Knight and General of the Republic while secretly being married to a senator (and the father of her unborn children). Then, to complicate matters further, he has to secretly spy on Palpatine on the orders of the Jedi Council in Revenge of the Sith, but he starts confiding in him about his feelings of doubt and conflict in regards to the Jedi. Then, he turns to the Dark Side and becomes a Sith Lord, which he initially hides from Padmé...It all blows up in his face in the end as he understandably cannot keep maintaining all his lies and deceptions.
• Living Emotional Crutch: For Padmé. Padmé is so heartbroken by the loss of Anakin that she dies from a broken heart during childbirth. Though it seems to be less to do with losing Anakin and more the way she lost him. Realizing the man she loves has become a monster and doesn't even seem to believe his actions are wrong - hence trying to justify it as protecting her - causes her to hit the Despair Event Horizon.
• Logical Weakness: The Clone Wars demonstrates that his mechno-arm shares the same drawbacks as real life prosthetics. During the Zillo Beast arc, the electromagnetic field emitted by an electro-proton bomb meant to disable all electronics within its radius causes his mechno-arm to briefly go haywire and in the Citadel arc, he gets pulled into a magnetic trap due to his mecho-arm and gets stuck in the ceiling until he manages to destroy the trap with his lightsaber.
• Lonely Funeral: Anakin's son Luke gives him a Jedi's funeral by himself on Endor while the rest of the Rebels are celebrating their victory, since he's the only person who saw what happened in the Emperor's throne room and knows that Anakin died a good person. Anakin doesn't seem to mind.
• Long-Distance Relationship: He is in one with Padmé for most of their marriage. Padmé lives mostly on Coruscant or occasionally her home planet of Naboo whilst Anakin is off fighting in the Clone Wars. They sometimes go months apart without seeing each other.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Anakin is very handsome and has fine facial features. By the time that he is twenty-two years old, his hair has grown to his shoulders.
• Loophole Abuse:
  • He practically runs off this trope to get around any restrictions. In "Rising Malevolence", he's ordered to keep his fleet on course to their rendezvous point, and not go searching for the missing Plo Koon. Instead, he takes the Twilight, Ahsoka, and R2 to the Abregado system to search for him, while keeping his fleet right where it should be. It annoys the Council to no end and they order him back right away, but it doesn't stop him from finding further loopholes on later assignments.
  Anakin Doing what the Council says, that's one thing. How we go about doing it, that's another.
  • The Jedi and the Republic can't help out the Onderonian resistance due to red tape. Anakin's solution? Hire Hondo's crew to deliver weapons in the Republic's place.
• Love at First Sight: The first thing he says to Padmé is to ask her if she's an angel.
• Love Cannot Overcome: Played with. Padmé begs Anakin as Darth Vader to stop what he's doing while there's still a chance, professing that she loves him, and he actually seems to consider it — then Obi-Wan shows up, and it all goes to hell.
  Padmé: I don't believe what I'm hearing! Obi-Wan was right... you've changed! You have turned to the dark side! You're not Anakin anymore!
  Anakin: [with a growing angry look and voice] I don't want to hear any more about Obi-Wan. The Jedi turned against me. Don't you turn against me!
  Padmé: [crying] Anakin, you're breaking my heart! You're going down a path I can't follow!
  Anakin: Because of Obi-Wan?
  Padmé: Because of what you've done... what you plan to do! Stop! Stop now... come back... I love you!
• Loved I Not Honor More: Subverted. As a Jedi, Anakin is supposed to be a Celibate Hero as to avoid attachment and has tried to do this, but always fails because he is too afraid of losing those closest to him, especially Padmé.
• Love Hungry: Combined with a strong need for validation. He also has this badly over the course of Revenge of the Sith regarding Padmé's love. This is most apparent when he encounters Obi-Wan on Mustafar, reacting angrily and violently towards any perceived threat to his relationship with Padmé.
• Love Makes You Evil: He and Padmé provide the trope image. Anakin's downfall seems like a living morality tale to explain why the Jedi believe that love is an inherently corrupt emotion that ultimately leads to the Dark Side. Although, it wasn't so much love that made him evil as it was overall circumstances.
  • Creator such as Dave Filioni plays with this, noting that while the Jedi teachings were meant for noble purposes, their attitude towards affection and attachment contributed to the Republic's downfall.
  Filioni: Not that Luminara is indifferent, but that Luminara is detached. It’s not that she doesn’t care, but she’s not attached to her (Barriss Offee) emotionally. And at the end of the day, one of the questions that I guess I pose is, is that really a good thing? Is Anakin’s way of being so compassionate wrong? Because on a certain level, you have to accept that the Jedi lose the Clone War. So there is something that they’re doing that’s wrong.
• Love Redeems: So very much this in the end. It was Anakin and Luke's emotional bond as father and son which allowed Anakin to pull a Heel–Face Turn and gain the courage and power in ending Palpatine and the Sith while finally finding peace.
• MacGyvering: He built his own podracer from Watto's junkyard. He also won the Boonta Eve Classic with it.
• Machine Empathy: He was able to recognize R2-D2's voice through an emergency transmission on a radio.
• Magically Inept Fighter: During the Clone Wars, Anakin somewhat struggled against Force attacks in battle; an irony given his natural talent as a Jedi. Notably, this weakness has allowed foes such as Dooku and Ventress to counter Anakin's raw strength during every lightsaber match. When holding back, his resistance to telekinesis also weakens significantly, thus failing to outmuscle Bariss and Obi-Wan's Force pushes. Subverted by the Original trilogy though, having refined his Force techniques under Palpatine's tutelage. In fact, when confronting Luke in Bespin, Anakin/Vader telekinetically threw several large objects without so much as a gesture.
• Manchild: The tragic kind. Anakin's unresolved issues from childhood and adolescence are largely what fuel his later flaws and mistakes. Fortunately, this is remedied after death, enabling Anakin to become a spiritual guide of sorts.
• Manly Tears: If Anakin is crying, it generally means shit's going down. He completely breaks down after his mother dies and he confesses to Padmé that he slaughtered the Tusken Raiders responsible. In Revenge of the Sith, he is seen weeping as he contemplates siding with Palpatine to save his pregnant wife, briefly sheds tears after helping Palpatine kill Mace Windu, and also sheds a Single Tear after slaughtering the Separatist leaders as a result of being burdened by the many crimes he committed following the execution of Order 66, including killing the Younglings (which visibly tears him up before he does it).
• Man on Fire: His whole body was severely burned from a lava flow's heat. If Anakin weren't the Chosen One, he definitely wouldn't have survived an injury of this caliber. Even then, Anakin required a life-support system and special mask for basic movement.
• Master Swordsman: By age 22, Anakin is easily one of the best swordsmen in the Jedi Order, with his preferred style being Form V: Shien and Djem So. At this age, Anakin's greatest lightsaber feats include defeating Count Dooku and killing countless other Jedi after turning to the Dark Side, losing to Obi-Wan because Obi-Wan's defensive style countered his and because he was suffering from emotional turmoil and got impulsive. Near his death, Anakin may very well have surpassed all his predecessors in pure technique.
  • In Star Wars Rebels, Anakin made adjustments to the classic Form IV: Ataru techniques and deflect several blaster bolts, something Yoda, a master of this form couldn’t do.
• Meaningful Name:
  • His first name means "warrior", which is appropriate for him because he is an aggressive and powerful Jedi.
  • Anakin Skywalker is an Ace Pilot.
  • As noted by Janina Gavankar from starwars.com:
  "Jett (Lucas) recently told me a very interesting character tidbit about Anakin, and the origin of his name: Anakin is based off the Greek goddess of inevitability, Ananke. This made me stop in my tracks. That was what I was always feeling. The slow, burning throttle of inevitability. It was inevitable that Luke and Vader would meet like this. It was inevitable that good would triumph over evil, no matter how long chaos reigned, because it was inevitable that someone would come along."
• Meaningless Villain Victory: By the end of Revenge of the Sith, Vader succeeded in bringing forth the rise of the Galactic Empire and survived his fight with Obi-Wan, but he suffered immense injuries and became a severely crippled cyborg. Worse, Padme and several others have died because of him, all while not getting to learn the secret in attaining eternal life like Palpatine promised.
• Messianic Archetype: He was prophesied to defeat evil, was born in a desert to a virgin, and eventually died for the sake of others. All this serves to call Jesus to mind, which also makes Anakin's turn to the Dark Side all the more shocking.
• Metaphorically True: As it turns out, Anakin's almost as bad as Obi-Wan when it comes to this. In Revenge of the Sith, he tells Padmé the Jedi are trying to take over the Republic and that he saw Mace Windu try to assassinate the Chancellor. This is technically true...but he conveniently leaves out the part about Palpatine being a Sith Lord who has been plotting to take over the galaxy.
• Military Mage: Like many other Jedi, he becomes a Jedi General of the Republic after the Clone Wars began, often leading his clone troopers from the front lines or taking on the enemy single-handedly. He actually seems to prefer combat to other Jedi duties, seeing it as a more effective way of keeping the peace.
• Military Maverick: Anakin is very well-known for disregarding orders from higher authorities — whether it be the Jedi Council or the Supreme Chancellor — and still bringing in positive results.
• Mind over Matter: Whenever Anakin uses the Force, it really shows off how powerful he is. Amongst his most impressive telekinetic feats are holding back an explosion with his mind for several seconds and his aforementioned victory over the Son and the Daughter.
• Mirror Character: His son, Luke. Both grew up on the same desolate desert planet before being taken away to train as Jedi Knights under Obi-Wan Kenobi. Both are tempted by the Dark Side to protect their loved ones, but Luke's horror at the realization he is becoming like this father, down to their mechanical right hands, narrowly saves him from falling as Anakin did. Luke's faith in his father manages to save Anakin as well.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: It's pretty evident that a significant part of Anakin's descent to the Dark Side were caused by the Jedi Order's lack of care for him. Not only did they continue to ignore Anakin's increasing PTSD and emotional cries for help, but they also worsened things in the long-run.
  • In The Clone Wars, we see how the Council traumatized him with Obi-Wan's Faking the Dead to go undercover, and when they cast Ahsoka out of the Order in order to save face, it's actually quite impressive it took him this long to basically Rage Quit.
• Momma's Boy: Since he grew up as a slave without a father, he and his mother relied on each other quite a bit and he loved her very much, even being reluctant to leave Tatooine for a better life if it meant leaving her behind. His first big step towards the Dark Side (massacring a tribe of Tusken Raiders) is rooted in his attachment to her.
• Morality Chain Beyond the Grave: When arresting "Rako Hardeen", Anakin tells him that he would've killed him if it was up to him, but that's not what Obi-Wan would have wanted. Unbeknownst to Anakin, the man he's arresting is actually his master impersonating his supposed killer after faking his death.
• Morality Pet: According to Lucas, he and Shmi serve as this for Watto, being the only ones he felt any genuine attachment towards. On Anakin's part, despite never particularly enjoying his life as a slave, he does acknowledge that Watto treated them nicer than an average slave-owner would.
• The Mourning After: He never got over Padmé's death and mourned her for the rest of his life.
• Mr. Fanservice: Anakin has a handful of Shirtless Scenes in the Prequel Trilogy, including one in Revenge of the Sith where it's shown he's in extremely good shape. Obviously, he's not so good-looking when he becomes scarred due to being set on fire after his Face–Heel Turn.
• Muggle–Mage Romance: With Padmé. While Anakin is a Jedi Knight skilled in the Force, his wife is a Badass Normal human.
• Mum Looks Like a Sister: When he finally appears as a Force Ghost before Luke on Endor, he takes on the form of his 22-year-old self before he lost his limbs and got immolated on Mustafar. Because of this, he looks more like a brother than a father to Luke and Leia.
• My God, What Have I Done?:
  • Although he doesn't admit it via insisting he hates them, Anakin is clearly genuinely shaken up by his slaughter of the Tusken Raiders.
  • After attacking Clovis, Anakin suddenly stops mid-punch when Padmé pleads with him and is visibly stunned. He seems very shaken by what he did and later tells Padmé he doesn't know what came over him.
  • He looks visibly shaken after executing a beaten and unarmed Count Dooku on Palpatine's orders and even says that he shouldn't have done that because it wasn't the Jedi way.
  • Anakin says this (minus the "My God") after watching Palpatine kill Mace Windu, which happened because Skywalker impulsively cut off the Mace's hand, causing him to lose the lightsaber he'd been using to defend against Palpatine's Force Lightning and planned to kill Palpatine with.
  • He also briefly seems to be hit by this immediately after Force choking Padmé in a fit of rage, staring at her unconscious form with an expression akin to shock. However, he quickly goes to blaming Obi-Wan instead for "turning her against him".
  • When Anakin, newly turned into Darth Vader, gets out of surgery and is told that he killed Padmé by Sidious.
• My Greatest Failure: His belief that he failed to save his mother from dying also has a big impact on his character, with him outright stating at her grave that he will "never fail again". He's also devastated when Ahsoka chooses to leave the Jedi Order.
• My Greatest Second Chance: Killing Emperor Palpatine to save his son. The last time he was in a similar situation over two decades ago, he stopped Mace Windu from killing Palpatine and ended up allowing evil to triumph. This time, he makes the right choice.
• My Own Private "I Do": He and Padmé get married on Naboo when he escorts her home after the First Battle of Geonosis. Due to the relationship being a secret one, only R2-D2 and C-3PO attend it. Despite this, Padmé still managed to find a lovely dress for the occasion; Anakin sticks with his Jedi robe, though he does have a shiny new robotic arm.
• Neck Lift: He frequently employs the Force choke as a means of interrogation.
• Necromantic: In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin turns to the Dark Side so he can learn how to keep his wife from dying and if necessary bring her back from the dead before she's actually dead. Then, he becomes evil, which causes Padme to die from grief.
• Never Accepted in His Hometown: Averted, Anakin was very popular with his friends on Tatooine, unlike Luke. It was the Jedi Temple where he was never accepted in.
• Never Got to Say Goodbye: He was never able to say goodbye to his Parental Substitute Qui-Gon before his untimely death, contributing to his fear of loss. In Revenge of the Sith, it's revealed that the last time Anakin ever saw his beloved wife Padmé alive, he had just Force-choked her in a blind rage. He later learns that she died, at least partly because of what he did to her. He couldn't even attend her funeral as he was in the middle of a days-long operation to fit him with a cybernetic life-support suit. Years later, Vader is shown to be haunted by his last memories of Padmé and deeply regrets what he did. The only solace he finds in any of it is when he finally discovers his offspring with Padmé didn't die with her as he was lead to believe.
• Never My Fault: A trait that becomes more and more severe and damaging the more he edges to the Dark Side.
  • A humorous example. He frequently blames his tendency to crash his ships on the ship rather than himself. Ahsoka takes note of this during one of their crashes.
  • In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin blames Obi-Wan for turning Padmé against him. It couldn't have been your sharp descent into violent murder and villainy, no...but Obi-Wan is quick to call him out with a sharp "YOU HAVE DONE THAT YOURSELF!"
  • Later on, Anakin, waking on the slab, initially has this reaction to being told that he had killed Padmé. Although it's really more out of disbelief and shock than anything.
• New Child Left Behind: Downplayed, as Anakin finds out he's going to be a father before Luke and Leia are actually born. He accidentally gets Padmé pregnant while on leave from the Clone Wars before having to go fight in the Outer Rim. Padmé presumably didn't find out until after he'd left and had no way of contacting him, and she has to keep the pregnancy secret because Anakin's not supposed to be fathering kids with his wife. When he returns to Coruscant several months later in Revenge of the Sith, she informs him she's pregnant; although shocked, he's overjoyed by the news, insisting it's the "happiest moment of [his] life."
• Nice Guy: As a child, he was an honest soul despite the hardships faced. In adolescence, so long as he wasn't in distress, Anakin still remained a friendly, polite, and caring guy. By the time he became a Force Ghost, Anakin fully moved past his struggles with the Dark Side, once again helping others out of genuine altruism.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Revenge of the Sith - which presents him becoming a Villain Protagonist by the end - could almost be considered Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Movie. Anakin's attempts to save Padmé and their unborn children, end the Clone Wars, and restore peace and order result in the Jedi being all but wiped out, a Sorcerous Overlord turning the Republic into a tyrannical Empire, his wife dying in childbirth, his children having their deaths faked for them, and being Separated at Birth in order to protect them, and Anakin ruining his own life. In the end, he's stuck in a life-support suit due to horrific injuries and everyone he loves is dead or has turned on him. His actions continue to have severe consequences for decades to come.
• Nice Mean And In Between: He's the Mean to Padmé's Nice and Obi-Wan's In-Between via being a lot more aggressive and hotheaded.
• Noble Male, Roguish Male: With Obi-Wan. Anakin is the Roguish to Obi-Wan's Noble.
• Noodle Incident:
  • When his lightsaber is destroyed in Attack of the Clones, he mentions that it's not the first time.
  • Thrawn reveals that the title character learned about Palpatine because he met Anakin during the Clone Wars. The only known details are that it happened in the Thrugii asteroid belt and probably during the fifth season of The Clone Wars.
• Nom de Mom: Justified. Since his mother conceived and raised him without a father, Anakin took her last name.
• Not Good with Rejection:
  • Downplayed in Attack of the Clones. When Padmé says they can't be together after he confesses his love for her, he gets upset and tries pressing the matter, even suggesting a Secret Relationship. However, he backs off when Padmé plainly lays out all the issues that would come with it and they remain on good terms (and then they decide to pursue a relationship after all). To be fair to him, Anakin already has attachment issues and has no idea how to navigate romantic relationships, seeing how he was raised by the Jedi (who frown on such relationships).
  • Exaggerated in Revenge of the Sith after he turns to the Dark Side. He quickly becomes angry and accuses Padmé of turning against him when she turns down his offer to run the Empire together. Upon seeing Obi-Wan, he immediately assumes she's plotting with him and strangles her with the Force.
• Not Helping Your Case: Anakin's frustration towards the Jedi Council is understandable, but he himself doesn't help matters at times by behaving in a very arrogant, childish and insolent manner, which just reinforces their opinion of him. His reaction to them denying him the rank of Master in Revenge of the Sith is a prime example (though mitigated with the implication it was try and use him to spy on Palpatine.)
• N-Word Privileges: He gets upset when Padmé referred to him a slave, but he talks about himself as a slave and continues to use the word at times as an adult.

O–R

• Official Couple: With Padmé as of Attack of the Clones.
• Oh, No... Not Again!: In Attack of the Clones, Anakin dives off a speeder in the middle of aerial traffic, and all Obi-Wan can come up with is a mildly disgruntled "I hate it when he does that." Anakin also commented that his lightsaber had been destroyed once before.
  Anakin: Awww, not again... [sighs] Obi-Wan is gonna kill me.
• Older and Wiser: Subverted as Darth Vader, in regards to his wisdom. While appearing more stoic from being reconstructed as a cyborg, it's clear that he is extremely distressed and unstable. Only by completing his training as a Jedi in the afterlife did Anakin truly become this.
  • This is best illustrated in "From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi", where both Obi-Wan and the narrative imply that the Force itself deemed Anakin worthy to be a Jedi Master, hence his new robes.
• Older Than They Look: Unlike other Force Ghosts, Anakin appears as his 22 year old self despite dying at the age of 45. Word of God explains that this stems from Anakin "reverting" back into his heroic self as a Jedi (though with a restored flesh-and-bone right arm).
• One Head Taller: He is taller than Padmé or their children via standing 6'2" (188 cm) as an adult. Had she survived Revenge of the Sith, she might have had trouble believing that the rebuilt Vader was Anakin since he became 6'8" (203 cm) with his cybernetic legs plus his helmet, boots, and armor.
• One-Man Army: By The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith, he's such a powerful Jedi that he can single-handedly turn the tide of battle with his appearance. Captain Rex lampshades this aspect of him in "The Unknown" when they're about to infiltrate a Separatist hangar to save Tup.
  Captain Rex: There must be a hundred droids in that hangar, not to mention the starfighters. This is stretching it even for you, sir.
  Anakin Skywalker: Rex, you're beginning to sound like Obi-Wan. You got a better idea?
  Captain Rex: Look, I don't doubt you could pull it off, but I'm just not sure Fives and I would be around to see it happen.
• Open Secret: His Secret Relationship with Padmé was becoming this by the end of the Clone Wars. Although not widely known, it was quite obvious to those close to the pair that something was going on between them: Palpatine and Rex knew, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka are all but stated to have figured it out, Bail and Yoda are unsurprised when they learn about it, Rush Clovis figures it out pretty quickly, Thrawn didn’t actually realize their relationship was supposed to be secret until Anakin denies there’s anything between them and decades later Mon Mothma tells Leia she’d suspected her true parentage for years but kept it quiet. In fairness, the two aren’t exactly subtle at times, particularly Anakin; they even act like a married couple (be it kissing or arguing) in public places where they could quite easily be spotted.
• Opposed Mentors: Anakin has to choose between his loyalty to Mace Windu or Palpatine's service. At that fateful moment, he chooses Palpatine and turns to the Dark Side.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Invoked. After donning the cybernetic suit, Anakin asks Darth Sidious what happened to Padmé and by extension the baby/babies. Palpatine tells him that not only did Anakin kill his wife, but his children also did not survive.
• Papa Wolf: To his children, Leia and Luke (more so the latter).
  • He spent most of Revenge of the Sith trying to find a way to prevent his unborn child(ren) from suffering a possible death. However, he takes it to Knight Templar Parent levels when he turns to the Dark Side in order to try and protect them. Following his attack on the Jedi Temple, the first thing he does before going to Mustafar is rush over to Padmé's apartment to "make sure [she] and the baby are safe". Even after losing it and Force-choking his pregnant wife, the first thing he asks Palpatine following his operation is if his family is safe, only to be told they died.
  • Seeing Palpatine torturing his son prompts his Heel–Face Turn, sacrificing his own life to protect Luke and end the Sith legacy.
• The Paranoiac: Increasingly so over the course of Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars, culminating in his Face–Heel Turn in Revenge of the Sith. He comes to believe that the Jedi are plotting to take over the Republic and that Padmé is planning to betray him; neither of these is true. ^note  Well, technically, the Jedi were intending to take control of the Republic, but this was only going to be a temporary thing whilst they dealt with Darth Sidious; they aren't just out for power as Anakin thinks. The inciting incident of his turn is also his fear that his wife will die based on a hazy Force vision (it turns out, he is the one that causes her death). By the end of the film, he meets all seven criteria for this trope (He tends to blame everyone but himself for things going wrong, exacts Disproportionate Retribution on those he feels has wronged him, is suspicious over his wife and the Jedi, takes several levels in Jerkass, turns into a Control Freak who thinks totalitarianism is the only way to achieve peace, has a huge ego, becomes increasingly self-absorbed, and thinks everyone is out to get him or is a traitor.)
• Passed-Over Promotion: Doubles with Dude, Where's My Respect? above. Part of Anakin's resentment against the Jedi Order stems from being expected so much from them, despite his "slow" promotion rate.
  • It also didn't help that Anakin's Padawan Ahsoka was forced to leave the Jedi Order, since one of the requirements to be a Jedi Master is to train a Padawan into Knighthood. Had the Jedi Council not disillusioned her, Ahsoka would have definitely attained this rank.
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • In Attack of the Clones, Anakin's killing the village of Tusken Raiders is clearly meant to be seen as the first step in his Jumping Off the Slippery Slope into the Dark Side. But seeing how those Tusken Raiders did torture his mother and several other innocents to death, many viewers couldn't help but feel that his actions were pretty justified. May or may not apply to the women and children though...
  • In The Clone Wars, he commits several morally dubious actions against individuals who had it coming; he had Force choked Poggle the Lesser in an interrogation to get information on the brain worms, the latter had been war profiteering off the sale of droid armies and was complicit in the brain worm plot himself; igniting his lightsaber In the Back of Tal Merrick, who sought to detonate the Coronet; his No-Holds-Barred Beatdown of Rush Clovis, who had not only been collaborating with Dooku to gain control of the Banking Clan (albeit for noble reasons), but had attempted to forcibly kiss Padmé against her will, though the last case leaves him horrified; and he threatened Admiral Trench before impaling him in defense, with Trench himself having taken advantage of Echo's tactical algorithm (which the Techno Union gained through horrific methods) and plotting to detonate Anaxes to guarantee a Separatist victory.
• Pet the Dog: Compared to Obi-Wan and several other Jedi, Anakin shows little prejudice towards droids, treating C-3PO and R2-D2 as his dear friends. Heck, not only does Anakin understand R2's words, but he is quite protective of the astromech, outright choosing to keep him after becoming Darth Vader.
  • Likewise, he is also half of the Jedi that don't treat clones as expendable, even being A Father to His Men towards Rex and the others.
• Physical God: Word of God says that had Anakin not been crippled at Mustafar, he would've eventually ended up as this, with only his son an equal in potential. Shown to have become this as a Force Spirit.
• Plagued by Nightmares: Anakin has a recurring nightmare of his wife, Padmé, dying in childbirth, something that Anakin believes to be a prothetic dream. Sure enough, this ends up being the case.
• Platonic Life-Partners: A master/student variant with Ahsoka. They form a deep, sibling-like bond throughout The Clone Wars, with Ahsoka acting as one of Anakin's Morality Chains and her having a great admiration for him. Enough that he still is fond of her decades later.
• Please, Don't Leave Me:
  • When he finds his battered mother clinging to life in the Tusken Raider camp, he tearfully says "Stay with me, Mom." She dies in his arms moments later.
  • When Ahsoka decides to leave the Jedi Order, he is left futilely begging her not to leave him.
  • When Padmé confronts him about turning to the Dark Side, he angrily states "The Jedi turned against me. Don't you turn against me!" It soon leads into If I Can't Have You….
• Politically Incorrect Hero:
  • Understandably, Anakin grew to strongly dislike the Tusken Raiders, Zygerrians, and the Hutts from his experiences on Tatooine — feeling contempt for their cruel cultural ways. That said, he is willing to put aside these feelings at times. Examples include his seeming remorse for killing a tribe of Tsuken Raiders in "Attack of the Clones", and when pitying Queen Miraj in her final moments.
  • He also has authoritarian political views which are rapidly warped into totalitarian ones when he becomes Darth Vader. Even as a Jedi, he disliked the democratic process and believed that dictatorships were more efficient, being jaded by the Republic's corruption and incompetence. When his girlfriend started looking worried during one of his pro-dictatorship rants, he backpedaled with a "Just Joking" Justification.
• Power Levels: The "Midi-chlorians" concept was introduced in order to establish that Anakin is an extremely powerful Force user, complete with his Midi-chlorians being obscenely high. George Lucas clarified that that Anakin is meant to be (potentially) the strongest Force-user in the Canon, equaled only by his son. See also Cybernetics Eat Your Soul.
• Pragmatic Hero: Particularly compared to other Jedi, Anakin will do whatever he feels he has to for the good of the galaxy or those he loves, sometimes resorting to more ruthless methods. He eventually develops into a full-blown Well-Intentioned Extremist and Knight Templar.
• Precocious Crush: Anakin and Padmé first met each other when they were nine and fourteen, respectively. He was instantly smitten with her.
• Pride: At times, Anakin's determination to prove himself makes him dangerously overconfident and unable to handle blunt criticism. Said hubris also further alienates him from the Jedi, who espouse humility and temperance. This is magnified as Darth Vader, causing him to continue chasing after Obi-Wan in a duel, despite having the clear advantage; the end result of this is Anakin needing a cybernetic suit and mask to stay alive due to severe injuries.
• Primary-Color Champion: In The Clone Wars, his main outfit in the first few seasons is a mix of red and blue.
• The Protagonist: Anakin is a main character in the Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars as well as a central character in the Original Trilogy. He actually serves as the central character for George Lucas' story of Star Wars.
• Properly Paranoid: He is correct how the Jedi Council don't trust or respect him as much as they should. Had they acknowledged this instead of solely blaming Anakin's faults, things would have likely been very different for everyone.
• Protagonist Journey to Villain: Anakin grows progressively darker over the course of the Canon, culminating in his story arc in Revenge of the Sith.
• Psychic Dreams for Everyone: Anakin suffers from nightmares of his mother suffering in Attack of the Clones; it turns out she was kidnapped by Tusken Raiders, and dies before he can do anything to save her. He tries to prevent this in Revenge of the Sith when he starts dreaming of Padmé's Death by Childbirth, but ends up being the one who causes her to die.
• Psychic Powers: As a highly Force-sensitive little boy, he was able to use them in some situations (podraces, for instance) without really knowing where it came from. He learned to master them during his Jedi training.
• Psychological Projection: During his Heroic BSoD in Attack of the Clones, he accuses Obi-Wan of being jealous of him and deliberately holding him back from progressing through the Jedi ranks. However, there's never any indication that Obi-Wan is jealous of Anakin and the reason he won't let him take the trials is because he feels he's not ready rather than out of malice. Anakin, on the other hand, is implied to be envious of Obi-Wan, particularly in Revenge of the Sith, as he has things he doesn't, such as the rank of Jedi Master and the trust and respect of the Jedi Council. It's also implied that some of Anakin's later accusations of the Jedi being evil traitors is him projecting his own guilt and self-loathing for his actions onto them.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He becomes one in Revenge of the Sith after his Face–Heel Turn. After he receives his armor and fully transforms into Darth Vader, he behaves in a more composed and stoic manner.
• Punch Catch: He pulls this on Ventress during their scuffle in The Clone Wars episode "The Wrong Jedi".
• Purple Is the New Black: Starting with the third season of the The Clone Wars, Anakin wears robes that have a dark purple shade.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Sure, Anakin's actions as a Sith ended the Clone Wars and allowed the Empire to rule the galaxy. But he ends up losing Padmé, isolated his friends, became racked with immense guilt and unimaginable pain, and was turned into a slave for Palpatine.
• Rage Against the Mentor: He calls Obi-Wan out on his questionable actions during the Deception arc in The Clone Wars. He also spends much of Attack of the Clones complaining about him behind his back.
  Anakin: He's overly critical, he never listens, he doesn't understand... it's all Obi Wan's fault!
• Rags to Riches: Downplayed. As a Jedi Knight, Anakin isn't rich, but is in a respected position of high social status (even becoming a general), and he has a far better life as one than he did as a slave. Plus, he is secretly married to the Queen of Naboo.
• Rebuilt Pedestal: Near and after death, Anakin becomes this towards Luke, Obi-Wan, Yoda, R2-D2, and Ahsoka. At least to an extent, this might also extend to the other Jedi from the Clone Wars, if their cooperation against future threats is anything to go by.
• Red Baron: He is known as "The Hero With No Fear". It's ironic considering how much fear he carries. He was driven to the Dark Side in the first place because he was terrified of death, and more specifically, losing those he cared about.
• Redemption Equals Death: He dies as Anakin Skywalker, not Darth Vader. It is made more clear in the Special Edition of Return of the Jedi, where his Force spirit is portrayed by his younger self over his old, decrepit, and burnt body.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He is the Red to both Obi-Wan's and Padmé's Blue. Fittingly, he becomes the Blue to Ahsoka's Red.
• Reforged into a Minion: In Revenge of the Sith, Emperor Palpatine's conversion of Anakin into the infamous masked cyborg counts, although Anakin had already turned to the Dark Side and was significantly weaker afterwards.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: Anakin shows shades of this from in Ahsoka. While redeemed as a Force Spirit, he is still willing to deliberately evoke the ruthlessness of his past as Vader in his lesson to Ahsoka.
• Relationship Upgrade: He and Padmé. They start off as friends when they first meet in The Phantom Menace; a young Anakin instantly fell in love with her while Padmé saw herself as a surrogate Cool Big Sis to him. By the end of the film, they part ways (Anakin taken in by the Jedi Order and Padmé continuing her reign as Queen of Naboo before entering politics) but remain in each other's thoughts during their ten year separation. When they meet again in Attack of the Clones, Anakin is still deeply and obviously in love with Padmé, but it takes her a little bit before she returns his feelings. However, Padmé thinks it would be best to remain friends because of the potential hurt they would be put through if they enter into a romance. Anakin begrudgingly but respectfully agrees to her wishes. This changes when they both are held prisoners and Padmé thinks they will die, leading her Anguished Declaration of Love to Anakin before sharing a kiss with him. By the end of Attack of the Clones, the two decide to marry in secret.
• Renowned Selective Mentor: Inverted. Due to his unusual affinity with the Force, Anakin gets mentoring and attention from high-ranking Jedi beyond that given to other Padawans. Unfortunately, it wasn't exactly the kind he personally needed.
• Refused by the Call: Yoda and the rest of the Jedi Council initially refuses to let Anakin become a Padawan because he's "too old", fearing that his attachments and emotions will prove harmful. He's only accepted after Qui-Gon's death as it was his last request.
• Reports of My Death Were Greatly Exaggerated: Several works set in the Expanded Universe show that most of the galaxy's population is unaware that Anakin and Darth Vader are the same person. It's widely believed that Anakin was one of the victims of the Great Jedi Purge, with many even assuming Vader was the one who murdered him. Obi-Wan Kenobi even shows that Obi-Wan, Owen and Bail thought Anakin had died from his injuries on Mustafar, with Obi-Wan only finding out that he's alive and is really Vader from Reva ten years later.
• Resigned to the Call: It's rather interesting, though earlier material pictured Anakin as someone who Jumped at the Call of being The Chosen One, it's revealed during the Mortis arc in The Clone Wars that not only did he not think of himself as such, he didn't even believe in the prophecy. Then, when he proved it to himself as well as to the Father, he still refused to stay on Mortis to keep the Daughter and the Son in balance. It took the demise of all three Force-wielders for him to seemingly accept it.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin tries to argue that Mace should spare Palpatine to stand trial, even saying that killing unarmed prisoners is not the Jedi way. Considering the immense moral and political issues, this is actually agreeable. However, Anakin's main reasons for arguing this is because of his "bond" with Palpatine and belief that the latter can save Padme from dying.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Anakin performs one of these on a camp of Tusken Raiders after they kill his mother.
• Rogue Protagonist: Chronologically, Anakin is the protagonist of the Canon and eventually becomes one of the antagonists before redeeming himself by sacrificing his life in order to save someone.
• Rugged Scar: Between the events of Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars, he received a noticeable scar over his right eye, symbolizing how much more experienced and badass he's become as a result of fighting during the Clone Wars.

S–T

• Sanity Slippage: In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin's Trauma Conga Line finally catches up to him and begins taking a toll on his mental wellbeing. He becomes increasingly paranoid, unhinged and prone to violence, culminating in him getting completely Drunk on the Dark Side in the climax. Padmé is pretty freaked out by it, even declaring that she doesn't know who he is anymore. It gets to the point that Anakin assumes Padmé is plotting against him, chokes her with the Force and then accuses Obi-Wan of turning her against him, before viciously dueling him with little regard to his personal safety. It doesn't end well. By the end he seems to have regained his sanity, at least enough to realize the extent of what he's done.
• Saved by Canon: Because of his major role as Darth Vader in the Original Trilogy, Anakin cannot die no matter how much he suffers in the Prequel Trilogy and The Clone Wars.
• Scars Are Forever: Despite regaining all of his limbs and being completely healed from the wounds received by Mustafar's magma, Force Ghost Anakin somehow still retains the scar on his right eye.
• Secret Relationship: He's secretly married to Padmé. Deconstructed in The Clone Wars episode "The Rise of Clovis", which comes to show that a secret marriage isn't a very healthy one, a fact that carries over into Revenge of the Sith.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Anakin spends most of Revenge of the Sith fearing that his pregnant wife and possibly their unborn baby will die in childbirth. And despite his efforts to prevent it, this is exactly how they die (or at least as far as he knows in his child's case, as he was unaware of Luke and Leia's survival). Then there's the fact that Anakin is partly responsible for the death of his wife (and, he believes, their child); he shattered Padmé's will to live from Force choking her into unconsciousness, all because he couldn't control his anger.
• Self-Proclaimed Knight: At the end of The Phantom Menace, Anakin is allowed to be trained as a Jedi even though he is "too old". He vents his frustration to Padmé in Attack of the Clones that he's ready to be a Jedi Knight, but they won't let him move on.
• Self-Inflicted Hell: This is clearly a big reason for why Anakin chose to serve the Empire after the events of Revenge of the Sith, being consumed by an overwhelming desire to punish himself as Darth Vader. It's rather poetic, since his entire body was covered in 5th to 6th degree burns.
• Serial Prostheses: Anakin loses a hand in Attack of the Clones and then loses all his remaining organic limbs in Revenge of the Sith. He re-loses some of those limbs and, in Return of the Jedi, Luke cuts off his arm again.
• Shadow Archetype: Although Anakin is most frequently compared and contrasted with Luke Skywalker, he's actually this to Leia Organa as well. At their core, Leia and Anakin have very similar personalities, both of them being quite opinionated, hot-tempered, and proactive; at one point in Bloodline, when Leia is enraged at being powerless to help a friend, she wonders if this how Anakin felt just before he turned to the Dark Side. Fortunately for Leia, she had a happy and stable upbringing, has very supportive family and friends, and strongly values liberty and democracy over control. Anakin, unfortunately, lacks these things; he had a very unstable upbringing first as a slave then as a Jedi, consistently loses or becomes alienated from his loved ones, and came to desire control as a means to cope. Viewing father and daughter side by side, Anakin embraces or exacerbates many of the negative traits Leia is able to cope with better, and one can't help but wonder if Leia would've ended up like Anakin - or vice versa - if their lives hadn't been so different.
• Shipper on Deck: In "Voyage of Temptation", Anakin serves the role as this trope for Obi-Wan and Satine, as he smugly smiles when the two start bickering and calls Satine "Obi-Wan's girlfriend."
• Shirtless Scene: Anakin has two after waking up from a nightmare in both Attack of the Clones" and Revenge of the Sith''.
• Shout-Out: His fate in Revenge of the Sith, where he is defeated by Obi-Wan and cast into a fiery pit, is evocative of Lucifer's fall in Paradise Lost. Like Anakin, Lucifer was also a handsome, but prideful paragon who ultimately sealed his own fate by rebelling against his former friends and allies.
• Sickeningly Sweethearts: He has a little bit of this with Padmé during the balcony scene in Revenge of the Sith. Half the stuff they say to each other doesn't even make much sense, given that they haven't seen each other in months and they're both giddy with happiness at Padmé being pregnant.
• Signature Move:
  • While Anakin was a master of most forms of lightsaber combat, the one trick that was distinctly his was catching an opponent's arm in his hand, sometimes using his mechanical grip to crush their wrist and cause them to drop their weapon from the pain. He uses this move on Barriss Offee for example.
  • Another move he uses frequently is raising his lightsaber above his head and bringing it down on an opponent in a two-handed power strike. Ironically, his son Luke uses this same attack to defeat him in Return of the Jedi.
  • One from Hayden's portrayal is spinning his lightsaber behind his back and then bringing it around to his front for a strike.
• Significant Haircut: Throughout The Phantom Menace, he wears his hair in a bowl cut. At the end of the movie, he restyles it into a shorter cut with a braid, signifying his initiation into the Jedi order.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: Anakin's clothing becomes increasingly dark in color over the course of the canon, reflecting his growing amorality and inner conflict. In Attack of the Clones, he primarily wears black and brown outfits in contrast to the light-colored outfits he wore as a child back in The Phantom Menace. In The Clone Wars, he wears a blue and red outfit as a result of being more mature and grounded, but eventually starts to wear dark-colored outfits due to both the war and issues in his personal life taking a toll on his mental/emotional state. In Revenge of the Sith, he dresses in almost entirely black, culminating in him receiving his iconic suit and mask to complete his transformation into Darth Vader. Notably, following his Heel–Face Turn and death in Return of the Jedi, his Force spirit is depicted wearing brown and white Jedi robes, symbolizing that he has finally found inner peace and redemption.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Anakin was in love with Padmé since he was nine years old and his love never weakened even though they didn't meet each other again until Attack of the Clones (which is set ten years after The Phantom Menace).
• Single Tear: After murdering hundreds of Jedi and Separatist leaders, Anakin looks out into the hellscape that is Mustafar and silently sheds a tear of remorse.
• Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Because he was Born into Slavery, Anakin has a seething hatred for slavers and becomes very tense and hostile at the sight of them. He furiously slaughters a bunch of Battle Droids after seeing them use Kudons as slaves in a factory and crushes a hologram of a Zygerrian who was talking to Obi-Wan in a fit of rage.
• Sleep Deprivation: In Attack of the Clones, he's been having trouble sleeping lately because he keeps having nightmares about his mother. It doesn't help his emotional state. He the same issue in Revenge of the Sith when he starts having nightmares about his wife dying in childbirth, with it far worse than before.
• Slowly Slipping Into Evil: Slaughtering the Tusken Raiders in Attack of the Clones is Anakin's first major violation of the Jedi way, specifically intended to foreshadow his eventual turn to Dark Side. The Clone Wars subsequently presents his slowly increasing aggression and cynicism.
• Small Name, Big Ego: In Attack of the Clones, he regards himself as being on Yoda's level when it come to lightsaber combat and thinks that he's better than Obi-Wan in many ways despite only being a young and relatively inexperienced Padawan because of how talented he is. Obi-Wan has to frequently remind him of his place and he suffers a painful reality check when Count Dooku skillfully defeats him in a lightsaber duel and slices his right arm off.
• Smart People Build Robots: In The Phantom Menace, Anakin is shown to have a preternatural talent for all things mechanical, in particular robots. Used to show his immense potential.
• So Happy Together: He and Padmé have quite a few of these moments in The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith, though one that stands out in the latter is their happy reunion after the Battle of Coruscant, where Padmé tells Anakin she's pregnant and then discusses her baby plans with him. In the very next scene, Anakin has a nightmare about her dying in childbirth, which is essentially the beginning of the end.
• So Proud of You:
  • In his final moments, the unmasked Anakin's smile to Luke just beams with this sentiment.
  "At last Anakin sees Luke not as a Jedi or a warrior or a threat or a mistake, but as his son. And Anakin smiles. Not a crazed grin like the Emperor's. Not even a smirk like Anakin might've shown Ahsoka back in his Jedi days. A real smile. A smile only Padmé ever saw."
  • When Ahsoka finally embraces the lesson he's been trying to teach her, Anakin proudly smiles and congratulates her. He later appears to her as a Force Ghost on Peridea, partially to assure her she has a purpose yet to be fulfilled there, but also to congratulate her for everything she's done since their confrontation.
• Something Only They Would Say: Played With. When Anakin meets Watto again and asks where Shmi Skywalker is, Watto wonders if he is Anakin, but then decides he really is Anakin after he notices that his pit droid was fixed.
• Spanner in the Works: Anakin's destroying the Trade Federation's droid control station in The Phantom Menace was a massive stroke of luck, to the extent that not even he realized what was happening; he just hid in an unmanned Naboo fighter and stuff happened.
• Spirit Advisor: As a Force Ghost, he becomes this to the living, especially towards Luke and Ahsoka.
• Spoiled Brat: In Attack of the Clones, he struggles to contain his pessimism towards the Jedi Order and Obi-Wan's teachings. He's better about this in The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith (at least before he turns to the Dark Side).
• Starcrossed Lovers: With Padmé. Due to their respective roles as Jedi and Senator requiring them to be on different planets, they were often literally star crossed. Even their romance theme was entitled "Across the Stars". As a result of being a Jedi, Anakin is forbidden to have romantic or familial attachments, forcing them to keep their relationship secret. By the time of Revenge of the Sith, this overlaps with Dating Catwoman to an extent since Anakin eventually sides with Palpatine and becomes a villain, while Padmé remains loyal to the Jedi and the ideals of the Republic (and helps found the future Rebel Alliance in some deleted scenes). It does not end well.
• The Starscream: He's this trope to the Jedi Order as a whole and tries to be this to Palpatine twice. In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin believes he can overthrow Palpatine and rule the galaxy with Padmé, likely foreshadowed in Attack of the Clones with his mistrust in Senatorial politics. Then, he tries it again with his son in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Special mention given because it does not involve the typical Sith MO of killing their masters over power, for it seems more like Anakin does not like how Palpatine rules, and wants to supplant him and perhaps do it better.
• Stern Teacher: With Ahsoka. Though Anakin genuinely cares for Ahsoka as her Master, he nonetheless makes her undergo rigorous training to protect herself and is hard on her when he feels that she's substandard to her abilities. Even in Ahsoka's own series, Anakin's lesson in helping her understand the will to live is not without its challenging hurdles, including adopting his Vader persona to ensure she fights against him with all her might.
• Start of Darkness: The Prequel Trilogy was created to show Anakin Skywalker's progression from a nice boy into a ruthless Sith lord.
• The Strategist: He's very skilled at thinking outside the box.
• Student–Master Team:
  • With Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones, The Clone Wars, and the first part of Revenge of the Sith.
  • He's also this with Ahsoka Tano during The Clone Wars.
• Stunned Silence: In "Old Friends Not Forgotten", Anakin is left practically speechless when he sees that the person contacting him is Ahsoka.
• Strict Parents Make Sneaky Kids: Obi-Wan's strict mentorship is a huge contributing factor to his disobedient and secretive behavior, with Anakin frequently hiding things from him as a result. His relationship with Padmé is the biggest example of this.
• Supernatural Gold Eyes: A sign of how corrupted he is from the Dark Side. In The Clone Wars episode "Ghosts of Mortis", Anakin's irises turn yellow after he turns to the Dark Side from the Son showing future images of him causing so much pain and death as Darth Vader. However, this is short-lived since the Father later confronts Anakin and erases his memory of the terrible vision the Son had shown him. In Revenge of the Sith after the newly minted Darth Vader kills the Separatist council, his eyes are shown with yellow irises with red rims. His eye color goes back to normal for his last meeting with Padmé and his fight with Obi-Wan, but after he's defeated and lands close to the lava flow, they are seen turning back to yellow and red. They stay that way until Anakin is unmasked at the end of Return of the Jedi, where he's no longer a Sith and dies with his original eye color.
• Superpowered Evil Side: According to Word of God, this is how Anakin defeats Count Dooku in Revenge of the Sith, but it has the cost of causing him to edge closer to the Dark Side. Ironically subverted as a Sith, with Anakin becoming unable to outmuscle Obi-Wan in their Force push.
• Supporting Protagonist: He is The Protagonist of the Prequel Trilogy in that his Protagonist Journey to Villain is the most important character arc, but he isn't the lead of any of the films. Qui-Gon is the main character of The Phantom Menace (where Anakin doesn't even appear for about 30 minutes), and Obi-Wan is The Hero of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, being the one who participates in the A-plot and has the most significant action scenes. Anakin's story in the latter two films mostly consists of character-driven scenes with Padmé and Palpatine.
• Surpassed the Teacher: Zigzagged. Initially as Darth Vader, Anakin deludedly came to assume that he has surpassed Obi-Wan and/or Palpatine in prowess. It actually took around two decades for this trope to be played straight, the latter requiring Anakin to overcome his emotional trauma.
  • Ironically, Obi-Wan acknowledged Anakin as a superior Jedi in Revenge of the Sith when the latter showed humility. Combined with the above, it can be theorized that Anakin's inner struggles were largely to blame for his slow progress.
  • As a Force Spirit, Anakin has likely gained full access to his cosmic potential as The Chosen One, which Word of God explains is unrivaled by all Jedi, save for Anakin's son Luke.
• Sword and Fist: He incorporates punching, kicking, and choking into his already aggressive Djem So lightsaber form, which just emphasizes how vicious he is in combat. This is especially most prevalent during his duel with Obi-Wan on Mustafar where he frequently gives these to Obi-Wan as cheap shots because his lightsaber swings can't break through his master's defense.
• Sword and Gun: During the Crystal Crisis arc, he used one of the blasters along with his lightsaber before discovering the huge kyber crystal. Later, he used a battle droid blaster rifle when rescuing Obi-Wan.
• Symbolic Mutilation: In the climax of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin losing his remaining organic limbs and his body being horrifically burnt symbolizes how he has outwardly become as ugly, twisted, and inhuman as he is within. And there's the whole symbolism around a once proud and mighty Fallen Hero being cast into a pit of fire.
• Sympathy for the Devil:
  • Despite his hatred for slavers and telling Count Dooku he wouldn't care if he killed her, he genuinely looks upset when Miraj Scintel dies in his arms and realize that she was just another pawn of Dooku and a slave like him.
  • Despite hating Dooku as well, he felt remorse for executing him. It is implied as during his time as Darth Vader, Anakin began to feel what his nemesis had felt his entire life.
• Sympathetic Murderer: Played with in Attack of the Clones when he kills the Tusken Raiders. Though the incident is still portrayed as shocking and disproportionate, Anakin is clearly deeply disturbed by what happened. He also only killed the Tusken Raiders because they continuously torture and murder innocents, with Shmi's death being the final straw. It's averted after he turns to the Dark Side and starts killing Jedi, though – there, his actions are unambiguously presented as evil (though he is still slightly sympathetic, since he clearly isn't in his right mind and feels conflicted, alongside a desire to save Padme and their unborn offspring).
• Talented, but Trained: Anakin is naturally very strong with the Force, but also receives a decade's worth of training from Obi-Wan, who himself is a highly adept Jedi, as well as other Jedi Masters. By adulthood, Anakin is equal to more experienced Jedi, with Darth Sidious predicting that he would become more powerful than both himself and Yoda. Even as a crippled Darth Vader, Anakin is still quite an exceptional Force-user. Lastly, once full regaining himself in death, Anakin reached an unprecedented level of prowess.
• Talking to the Dead: At Shmi's funeral, he kneels in front of her grave and apologizes for failing to save her, promises never to fail again and finally tells her how much he misses her.
• Tantrum Throwing: In Attack of the Clones, Anakin does this while ranting about how Obi-Wan's "holding him back". To note, this was more from feeling grief than anything, with Anakin immediately shocked by this sudden outburst.
• Tears of Remorse: Anakin as the newly-forged Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith, while massacring a roomful of untrained kids in the Jedi Temple and after slaughtering a roomful of surrendering Trade Federation leaders and their bodyguards. Also, very likely one of the reasons he's weeping while he's telling Padmé about killing the Tusken Raiders.
• That Liar Lies: In the climax of Revenge of the Sith, he sees Obi-Wan emerge from Padmé's ship and proceeds to call her a "LIAR!" when she tells him she loves him. He believes that Padmé intentionally brought Obi-Wan to Mustafar to kill him; he's actually mistaken and Padmé had no idea Obi-Wan was there, but Anakin ignores her pleas and Force-chokes her.
• Then Let Me Be Evil: His turn to the Dark Side is partially this. It had been made clear to him since the get-go that no one on the Jedi Council wanted Anakin to be a member, fearing his potential for evil. Likewise, the Jedi Order and the Republic later do several morally dubious acts which dishearten him. These two aspects strongly serve Palpatine by Revenge of the Sith.
• There Are No Therapists: Sort of; while Anakin does seek help for his premonitions of Padmé's death, the fact that he does so from Yoda while not being able to explicitly explain the problem only worsens the situation.
• These Hands Have Killed: While admitting that he killed the Tusken Raiders in Attack of the Clones, Anakin looks at his hands, implying this trope.
• They Died Because of You: In Revenge of the Sith, Palpatine tells him he killed his wife Padmé (and by extension, their unborn child as well). He doesn't take it well. Palpatine, on the other hand, is secretly thrilled at severing Anakin's last ties to the Light.
  Darth Vader: Where is Padmé? Is she safe? Is she alright?
  Palpatine: It seems in your anger, you killed her.
  Vader: I... I couldn't have. She was alive, I felt it!
  [cue everything telekinetically imploding]
• Third-Act Misunderstanding: In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin comes to believe that Padmé and Obi-Wan are conspiring against him because they've been talking to each other about their concern over him.
• This Cannot Be!: Upon being told he killed his pregnant wife, he initially insists it can't be true, as he'd sensed she was still alive (he also can't believe that he would fatally harm her).
• This Is Unforgivable!: Massively deconstructed. Anakin's a kindhearted guy who grew to hate others like Count Dooku, Rush Clovis, Separatists, Tuskens, and slavers for justified reasons. Sadly, instead of strengthening his heroic resolve, it caused him to submit further to the Dark Side. Likewise, his self-loathing and shame as Darth Vader largely became a leash for Palpatine to use. Fittingly, forgiveness would serve as a key component for Anakin's redemption.
• Thrill Seeker: Anakin's an adrenaline junkie who gets a kick out of action. As such, he's often seen visibly enjoying himself when he's getting into speeder chases, dogfights, lightsaber duels, and ground warfare.
• Til Murder Do Us Part: Played with. Although he doesn't directly murder her, Anakin's actions cause his wife Padmé to die at end of Revenge of the Sith after he snaps and Force-chokes her until she passes out. Padme's extreme emotional distress and birth of twins results in her death, just as Anakin had dreamt. Palpatine simply tells Anakin that "in [his] anger, [he] killed her" without giving any further details, leading Anakin to believe that he slaughtered Padmé and their unborn child(ren). Unlike some examples of this trope, Anakin was in fact trying to save her for most of the film, but he became so warped by the Dark Side that he falsely came to believe she is plotting to betray and kill him. Predictably, he was filled with remorse once gaining regaining some lucidity.
• Together in Death: He and Obi-Wan are finally reconciled following Anakin's Redemption Equals Death; their Force spirits are shown standing together during the celebrations on Endor, alongside Yoda.
• Too Dumb to Live: In Revenge of the Sith, he is nearly killed because he tries to jump towards Obi-Wan standing at the sloped shore of a lava river. He gets most of his arms chopped off and his whole body burnt to a crisp for his trouble, and would've died if Palpatine didn't arrive in time to rescue him. However, he's currently in the grips of extreme Sanity Slippage at this point.
• Took a Level in Badass: Between Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars, Anakin became a full-fledged and very powerful Jedi Knight. While even more powerful by the time of Revenge of the Sith, this has flip-flopped by the time of the Original Trilogy, with him being more ruthless and physically stronger as a cyborg, but also horribly crippled and less powerful with the Force. As a Force Ghost, this trope is played completely straight.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: In a sense. Compared to "The Phantom Menace", Anakin's social skills have significantly waned in "Attack of the Clones", acting more awkward and unsure in general. He's also far less level-headed overall, making rash decisions constantly.
• Took a Level in Jerkass:
  • Between The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones, Anakin grew from a wide-eyed, kindly child into an arrogant and angsty young man. Not exactly surprising, since he was obviously going through a rebellious phase.
  • By the time of The Clone Wars, Anakin became a much more well-balanced, noble, and kind individual after training Ahsoka to be his Padawan. However, he starts to slip down the path of being a jerk once Ahsoka is framed for the bombing of the Jedi Temple hangar. After she is expelled from the Order, he is increasingly bitter with the Jedi Council and angrier almost to the point of leaning close to the Dark Side.
  • Anakin took this trope to a great extent in the latter half of Revenge of the Sith. But this is kind of the whole point of the Prequel Trilogy.
• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • For much of the time in The Clone Wars, Anakin is more mature, friendly, likeable, heroic, and self-assured than he was back in Attack of the Clones. He is also nicer in the first part of Revenge of the Sith. Tragically, we know this will soon be subverted.
  • This essentially happens after he chooses to to destroy Palpatine and save his son's life at the cost of his own, spending his final moments in life reassuring Luke that he was successfully saved.
  • As a Force Spirit, Anakin becomes much more grounded and stable, imparting words of wisdom to others in need.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Anakin has a bad habit of rushing into decisions without properly thinking them through. His hasty actions and fear are used to turn him against the Jedi. Furthermore, he impulsively presses his attack against Obi-Wan during their lightsaber duel on Mustafar, resulting in being maimed, horribly burned and sealed into a life-support suit for the remainder of his life.
• Tragic Hero: Anakin was a Jedi who was a hero of the Republic, got the girl, helped win the war, and saved his master a number of times. Palpatine eventually manipulates his flaws and turns him into the ever-popular Sith Lord Darth Vader.
• Tragic Mistake: Anakin betrays the Jedi Order via unintentionally aiding Palpatine in killing Mace Windu.
• Trauma Conga Line:
  • In Attack of the Clones, in a rather short space of time, his mother dies in his arms after being brutally tortured for a month, he, his secret girlfriend, and his master are sentenced to death, he sees dozens of his fellow Jedi killed in battle, his girlfriend is almost killed and he's forced to leave her behind, he gets zapped by Force lightning, his master is badly injured and he gets his arm cut off.
  • He seems to have recovered by the time of The Clone Wars, but things get way worse for him. As a Jedi Knight and General, he more often than not sees clone troopers, many of whom he has grown close to, die. Then, his Padawan Ahsoka Tano gets corrupted by the Dark Side and dies (but she is brought back to life). He also sees visions of his future crimes as Darth Vader and is broken as a result, which leads to him temporarily turning to the Dark Side and the Father wiping his memory of the future. He sees his master get assassinated by a bounty hunter, only to find out the Jedi Council deceived him about the murder. Ahsoka is cast aside by the Council with the Senate's orders and Anakin is devastated by her leaving in the aftermath. One of his clone friends, Fives ends up dying as a madman and Anakin’s relationship with his wife is shaken by a Separatist traitor.
  • At the end of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin ends up estranged from everyone that cared about him, is maimed and horribly injured in a duel with his former best friend, sealed into a suit of life-supporting armour (which he would have to wear for the rest of his life), and learns that his beloved wife died as a result of his actions. After all of this, it's really no surprise that Vader crossed the Despair Event Horizon.
• Troubled, but Cute: Anakin is quite a handsome fellow, but he is riddled with emotional issues.
• Twirl of Love: He does this to Padmé in Revenge of the Sith after being reunited with her after several months apart.
• Two Roads Before You: Anakin struggles with being loyal to the Jedi and joining the Sith, eventually choosing the latter. He later faces a similar situation again, but this time he makes the right decision.
• Tyrannicide:
  • Anakin's killing of Count Dooku during the Battle of Coruscant is viewed as such, but most people are unaware at this time that he was actually The Dragon to Darth Sidious (a.k.a. Chancellor Palpatine) and it's all part of his plan to seduce Anakin into turning to the Dark Side and seize power. Anakin himself is conflicted over killing Dooku since killing unarmed prisoners is not the way of the Jedi.
  • Upon having a Heel Realization, Anakin sacrifices himself to kill Emperor Palpatine, severely cripplingly the Empire's powerbase – they were defeated about a year after the Battle of Endor. Everyone throws a galaxy-wide party upon hearing the news.

U–Y

• Undercover as Lovers: Invoked and subverted in "Hostage Crisis". Anakin was trying to convince Padmé to take a break from politics and go on a vacation with him where they could act as husband and wife instead of senator and Jedi because no one would've recognized them.
• Unexplained Recovery: How he comes back as a Force spirit immediately after his death has not yet been explained. The Yoda arc in The Clone Wars established that knowledge of how to become a Force spirit was something that only a select few could learn, and it took some time for both Yoda and Obi-Wan to accomplish this feat. Dave Filoni said that George Lucas had an explanation for this, but they aren't ready to reveal it just yet. It might be justified by the fact Anakin is strongly implied to have been conceived from the Force in the Prequel Trilogy.^note The same is also true for his daughter Leia, despite giving up her Jedi training rather abruptly.
• The Unfettered: Anakin, already less fettered than your average Jedi, edges closer and closer to this trope as the installments go on.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Anakin starts to show signs of this in The Attack of the Clones when he accuses Obi-Wan of being jealous towards his skills as a Jedi. In Revenge of the Sith, he apologizes to Obi-Wan for this attitude. Unfortunately, Palpatine later prompts Anakin into a Face–Heel Turn not long after.
• Universal Driver's License: He can pilot anything from a Podracer in his youth to an old Corellian G9 Rigger-class light freighter as well as a Separatist flagship with ease. One of his most impressive feats is landing "half" a ship from outerspace.
• Unskilled, but Strong: His primary lightsaber fighting style, Form V: Djem So, is arguably this compared to the other forms of lightsaber combat. It prioritizes brute force above all else, aggressively dishing out powerful strikes and parries followed by strong counterattacks but also at the expense of mobility and agility. This is why he's able to demolish Count Dooku's precise and fluid bladework but is outlasted and outmaneuvered by Obi-Wan's unbreakable defense, being unable to get past it even while fighting dirty.
• Unstoppable Rage: Anakin has serious issues with anger, rage, and controlling his temper. He becomes better at outwardly restraining himself after this costs him the majority of his body.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: As Darth Vader. If Anakin didn't build his protocol droid in The Phantom Menace, things could have been very different. One possible unfolding: R2-D2 would have never been sold to the Lars family without C-3PO's endorsement, and thus stayed with the Jawas and fallen into the hands of the Empire, and Leia's message never reaches Obi-Wan. Unlike most victims of this trope, it turned out to be a good thing for Anakin.
• Unwitting Pawn: For Palpatine, who manipulates him into turning to the Dark Side.
• Upbringing Makes the Hero: Played With. Although he had a loving mother and was freed and raised by the Jedi, his beginnings troubled him well into adulthood. The Jedi, unknowing of Palpatine's true nature, allowed Anakin to come under his toxic influence, muddying the waters further.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He develops from an innocent, bright-eyed mother's boy who builds robot buddies into, well, Darth Vader.
• Villain Protagonist: He becomes this in the second half of Revenge of the Sith, which documents his ultimate turn to the Dark Side as he looks for a way to save his wife from death.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Of a sort and entirely unintentional on Anakin's part. It's generally assumed by most people that Anakin died heroically as a result of Order 66 with few knowing about his turn and many even believing Vader was the one who killed him. Many are shocked to find out that Anakin is actually Vader.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Gender-inverted and deconstructed. Anakin is extremely protective towards his main love interest and wife, Padmé, often putting her safety and well-being ahead of his duties. However, Anakin's protectiveness over Padmé is the final step needed to turn him to the dark side.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Obi-Wan, but the vitriol is definitely of a deadpan variety.
• Vocal Evolution:
  • Matt Lanter's voice for Anakin in The Clone Wars was initially slightly adolescent and similar to that of Hayden Christensen. His voice changes over the course of the series through becoming significantly more mature and slightly resonant.
  • Hayden's own voice also matured between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. And at the end of The Rise of Skywalker when he's reaching out to Rey through the Force, his voice has lowered to a register similar to Matt Lanter's. It's even more prominent in Ahsoka, where Hayden intentionally invoked aspects of Matt's performance to tie Anakin towards his Clone Wars portrayal.
• Voice of the Legion: In "Overlords", when he controls the Son and the Daughter.
• War Hero: He fought in the Clone Wars and earned the rank of General. Everything after said conflict on the other hand...
• Wartime Wedding: He and Padmé get married in secret shortly after the outbreak of the Clone Wars.
• We Can Rebuild Him: When he truly became Darth Vader, it was required for him to wear a suit of armor equipped with life support as a result of getting maimed by Obi-Wan and set on fire.
• We Can Rule Together: In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin tries to convince Padmé to become his Empress so they can rule the galaxy and "make things the way we want them to be!". Her horrified reaction is similar to their son Luke's when Anakin as Darth Vader eventually makes a similar offer to him in The Empire Strikes Back.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: His relationship with Obi-Wan is shaped by his desire to earn his master's approval, which is rarely forthcoming. Obi-Wan and Anakin share such a moment in Revenge of the Sith, where Anakin is upset over being denied the rank of Jedi master despite receiving a seat on the Jedi Council. Obi-Wan tries to pacify Anakin's anger by complimenting him and advising that he not be so distraught over the perception of others. In the moment, Anakin brushes this aside, until later having a Jerkass Realization.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Anakin comes to believe that the Republic is corrupt (true) and that the Jedi are conspiring to take over the galaxy (not true). He also became Darth Vader partly from desperation in ending the Clone Wars to save the lives of others, particularly Padme and their children.
  Ahsoka: [about Anakin] You might find some of his thoughts on the future eh... a bit radical.
  Barriss: Really? Why?
  Ahsoka: Let's just say my master will always do what needs to be done. I'm not even sure how peacetime will agree with him.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Obi-Wan after Anakin's Face–Heel Turn in Revenge of the Sith. It is taken further by Obi-Wan's feelings of betrayal since he considered Anakin as a brother instead of simply a friend.
• What You Are in the Dark:
  • Despite his Fantastic Racism and strong distain towards Queen Miraj, he tried to save her from death, showing some semblance of pity when she did die.
  • As angry as he was at Rako Hardeen for "killing" Obi-Wan, Anakin still chose to do things the Jedi way, partly as a means to honor his master.
  • Given that Anakin and Obi-Wan's friendship isn't the most stable (especially after what happened in the Deception and Fugitive arcs), he could have easily left his unconscious Master behind at Palpatine's urging. He chooses otherwise.
  • When learning of Palpatine's identity as a Sith, Anakin held enough self-control to not attack him. Since a Jedi is taught to treat Sith Lords as absolute evil, as well as all the tragedies Palpatine caused, this is actually quite impressive. Even more, Anakin later reported the events to Mace Windu of all people, showing that his dedication as a Jedi wasn't completely clouded by Palpatine's false friendship.
  • A slight example in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Though he does terrible things and tries to convince himself they're justifiable, on a few occasions he's seen shedding Tears of Remorse.
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: As a nine-year-old boy in The Phantom Menace, he kept an upbeat disposition of helping people with no want of personal gain. Once he becomes a child soldier though, it all starts to go to his head.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: The more powerful Anakin becomes, the more aggressively Palpatine attempts to corrupt him into becoming a Sith Lord. Explicitly the case as Darth Vader, with Anakin being drunk on the Dark Side. Ironically subverted much later, as it was Anakin's decision to return to the light side which granted him the power to fulfill his destiny as The Chosen One.
• Wonder Child: To Shmi Skywalker. Although she never explicitly mentions wanting a child, she clearly loves her son and regards him as a bright spot in her life. Nine years after his birth, she's still baffled as to how she even became pregnant because as far as she knows there wasn't a father, and though she isn't familiar with the term Force-sensitive she's aware that her son has unusual abilities such as precognition.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds:
  • He is briefly this in The Clone Wars episode "Ghosts of Mortis". After being shown his future as Darth Vader, he turns to the Dark Side and becomes willing to unleash the Son upon the galaxy in order to prevent that future from coming to pass.
  • In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin's final transformation into Darth Vader is shown to be caused by losing everything and everyone he cares for due to his own actions.
• Worf Had the Flu: As Darth Vader, Anakin was plagued with inner conflict, contributing in his defeat against Obi-Wan. Combined with immense physical injuries, he also failed to kill Ahsoka in their duel, receiving a wound on his face as well. Finally, by Return of the Jedi, he ended up being overpowered Luke in their duel, despite having more physical strength and experience.
• World's Best Warrior: Word of God explains Anakin's innate abilities as a lightsaber duelist to be above Master Yoda and Emperor Palpatine combined, something that was fully realized by the New Republic era.
• World's Strongest Man: Played with, given his decreased prowess as Darth Vader. In pure potential, Word of God confirms Anakin to be this, with only Luke as an equal. Notably, from possessing the highest midichlorian count in written history, Anakin was even capable of simultaneously defeating the Son and the Daughter, embodiments of the Dark and Light sides respectively. Likewise, in "Return of the Jedi", Anakin defied all odds and stopped Palpatine, something which no other individual at the time could have accomplished.
  • Played completely straight after becoming a Force Ghost, granting Anakin powers beyond what his predecessors displayed. Notably, he can outright switch between the Light Side and Dark Side in an instant, utilizing the latter without losing his sense of self.
• Would Hit a Girl: Even aside from the Tusken Raiders, Anakin will not hold back against female foes that present a threat, such as Ventress and Barriss. At his lowest point as Darth Vader, he is shown killing several female Jedi and strangling his wife in a fit of rage.
• Would Hurt a Child: He slaughters the Tusken Raider's children after his mother dies in Attack of the Clones and Jedi younglings in Revenge of the Sith.
• Wrecked Weapon: Count Dooku destroys his new green lightsaber in Attack of the Clones during their duel to show how deadly of a swordsman he is.
• Wrestler in All of Us: At one point during their duel on Mustafar, he dropkicks Obi-Wan after his former master made him drop his lightsaber by kicking him in the back.
• Wrong Assumption: In Revenge of the Sith's climax, Padmé confronts Anakin on Mustafar and tries to turn him away from the Dark Side. However, when Anakin sees Obi-Wan emerge from her ship, he immediately assumes that she betrayed him and intentionally brought Obi-Wan here to kill him, prompting him to Force choke her until she passes out. This wasn't true at all; Padmé had in fact refused to tell Obi-Wan anything to protect Anakin and he stowed away on her ship without her knowledge, but by this point Anakin is too paranoid to listen to reason.
• Yandere: For Padmé. They develop from "old crush" to "husband and wife" over the course of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones. This results in Anakin nearly killing Rush Clovis when he saw him trying to kiss Padmé in The Clone Wars. Then, after Anakin foresaw through a dream that Padmé will die of childbirth in Revenge of the Sith, he turns to the Dark Side to prevent it and Force chokes her to near death because he got it into his head that she betrayed him for Obi-Wan.
• Yank the Dog's Chain: Anakin has "the happiest day of my life" when seeing Ahsoka again, defeating Dooku, and finding out Padmé is pregnant. Then, everything comes collapsing down.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • He is on the receiving end of this twice in Revenge of the Sith. When Anakin apologizes to Obi-Wan for his childish attitude, Obi-Wan reassures his student that he's very proud of him and that Anakin is both "strong and wise" enough to surpass himself. Much later, when Padmé learns that Anakin has turned to the Dark Side, she desperately tries to convince him to turn away from this path, insisting he is "a good person". While Anakin did start to rethink things from this, Obi-Wan's poor timing further convinces himself that he's in the right.
  • In Return of the Jedi, he also gets a lot of this from his son Luke, who believes he can be redeemed and urges him to let go of his hate despite his belief it's "too late". Near the end, Anakin's Heel–Face Turn allows him to acknowledge this.
  • Fittingly, he comes to encourage this towards Ahsoka, stating that their legacies as Jedi are more than simply war and violence. Shows that, in death, Anakin has learnt to take Obi-Wan, Padme, and Luke's words fully to heart.
• You Are Not Alone: As Darth Vader, Anakin received this from Ahsoka and Luke, significantly affecting the Dark Side's hold on him. In the afterlife, Obi-Wan also helps Anakin atone for his sins, having acknowledged the latter's change of heart.
• You Are Worth Hell: An extremely tragic variation. Anakin/Vader thinks to himself that every terrible thing he's done and all the physical and emotional suffering he's gone through will be worth it if he can save Padmé and their unborn child. However, when he gets out of his operation, he learns that Padmé not only died, rendering it all pointless, but it was his fault. He promptly hits the Despair Event Horizon and sinks deeper into villainy...until he learns that his son with Padmé actually survived and still believes he could redeem himself.
• You Can't Fight Fate: In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin foresees his beloved Padmé's death and tries to find ways to prevent it, which leads him into turning to the Dark Side. Not only does he fail to prevent Padmé's death, he ends up being the direct cause of it.
• You Could Have Used Your Powers for Good!: Obi-Wan laments his turn to the Dark Side in Revenge of the Sith, stating that he was supposed to destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force. Funny how things turned out.
• Younger Than They Look: Anakin was in his 40s at the time of his death, but he was portrayed by Sebastian Shaw, who was 77 years old at the time of filming Return of the Jedi. Just like Palpatine, this can most likely be attributed to the corruption of the Dark Side as well as his injuries on Mustafar.
• Your Tradition Is Not Mine: Understandably, Anakin runs into conflicts with the traditions of the Jedi Order, being extremely upset at being denied many basic rights (e.g. have a family, mourn, etc...). It ends up pushing him to secretly marry Padmé at the young age of 19. Much of what helps Palpatine convince him into turning to the dark side stems from offering things Anakin knows the Jedi Order would never let him have.
• You Were Trying Too Hard:
  • It's implied that Anakin's attempts to prove himself towards the other Jedi is precisely part of the reason why Windu and several others deemed him as "untrustworthy", having percieved his actions as purely reckless behavior. Similarly, it is clear that Anakin's desperation to end the Clone Wars was what caused his downfall in "Revenge of the Sith", something noted in "From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi".
  • As Darth Vader, Anakin tortured himself every day by being Palpatine's slave, believing it to be a form of atonement for all the tragedies that he created. At the climax of "Return of the Jedi", Anakin fulfills his destiny as The Chosen One precisely because he wasn't controlled by said feelings of shame, being focused on saving Luke instead. If anything, it could be argued that the only thing Anakin needed by then to stop Palpatine was to forgive himself.

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"There's hope for you yet."

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