Anakin Skywalker

Anakin Skywalker was a Force-sensitive human male who served as a Jedi Knight of the Galactic Republic and was identified as the Chosen One of Jedi prophecy, the one destined to bring balance to the Force. Born into slavery on Tatooine, he was discovered by Qui-Gon Jinn and trained as the apprentice of Obi-Wan Kenobi. He won fame as the Hero With No Fear during the Clone Wars, but his fear of loss and his manipulation by Palpatine drove him to the dark side, where he became the Sith Lord Darth Vader. Decades later he was redeemed by his son Luke Skywalker and destroyed his master, fulfilling the prophecy at the cost of his own life.

Birth and discovery#

Anakin Skywalker was born in 41 BBY on the desert world of Tatooine in the Outer Rim Territories. He was the son of Shmi Skywalker, a slave who conceived him without a father. His blood carried over twenty thousand midi-chlorians, more than Yoda or any other Jedi in the galaxy, leading Qui-Gon Jinn to believe he had been conceived by the midi-chlorians themselves and was the Chosen One prophesied to bring balance to the Force.

Qui-Gon Jinn discovered the boy during the Invasion of Naboo in 32 BBY, when Anakin was still a slave child known as Ani. After the Battle of Naboo, the Jedi High Council admitted Anakin into the Order as the apprentice of the newly knighted Obi-Wan Kenobi, though many on the Council felt he was too old and too emotional to follow the Jedi Code.

Jedi Knight of the Clone Wars#

Anakin remained a Padawan into the opening of the Clone Wars, a conflict set in motion by Count Dooku and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. In violation of the Jedi prohibition on attachment, he secretly married Senator Padme Amidala of Naboo.

During the war he served as a Jedi General in the Grand Army of the Republic, leading the clone troopers of the elite 501st Legion against the Separatists and earning the moniker Hero With No Fear. After his knighting he took on his own apprentice, Ahsoka Tano. When Tano left the Jedi Order in 19 BBY after being falsely accused of a crime, Anakin was left struggling with feelings of failure toward both his apprentice and the Order.

Fall to the dark side#

Following the death of Count Dooku at the Battle of Coruscant, Anakin's faith in the Jedi eroded further when he was placed on the Jedi Council but denied the rank of Master. He then learned that Supreme Chancellor Palpatine was Darth Sidious, the hidden Dark Lord of the Sith who had engineered the war to seize the galaxy.

Tormented by visions of Padme dying in childbirth and convinced that the Jedi had failed and betrayed him, Anakin came to believe that Sidious alone held the power to cheat death. He pledged himself to the Sith and took the name Darth Vader. As Vader, he led his legion against the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, where its inhabitants, including younglings, were killed as part of Order 66 and the Great Jedi Purge. Sidious then dispatched him to Mustafar to wipe out the Separatist leadership.

Darth Vader and the Empire#

On Mustafar, Vader fought his former master Obi-Wan Kenobi and was gravely maimed, losing his remaining limbs and being burned nearly to death. Sidious, now the self-proclaimed Emperor of the Galactic Empire, recovered him and rebuilt him as an armored cyborg dependent on a life-support suit. Padme died giving birth to the twins Luke and Leia, who were hidden from their father and the Emperor as the Empire rose.

For most of the Imperial Era, Vader served as the Emperor's Sith apprentice and enforcer, the Emperor's Fist, eventually elevated to supreme commander of the Imperial fleet and treated as the de facto commander of the Imperial Military. After killing Kenobi aboard the first Death Star and the subsequent Battle of Yavin, he discovered that he had a son and set out to turn Luke to the dark side.

Redemption and death#

Luke Skywalker sought to become a Jedi like his father before him and believed that some good still remained in Vader. At the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, Vader defeated Luke in combat, but the young Jedi refused to kill his father in anger. Enraged, the Emperor began torturing Luke with Force lightning. The sight of his son's agony awakened the part of him that was still Anakin Skywalker, and he turned on the Emperor, hurling him to his death.

Mortally wounded by the same lightning, Anakin made peace with his son and died redeemed, having destroyed the Sith and fulfilled his destiny as the Chosen One. He became one with the Force.

Legacy#

Anakin Skywalker was among the most powerful Jedi and Sith in galactic history, and the Force ran especially strong in his bloodline. His grandson Ben Solo, the son of Leia Organa, would himself fall to the dark side as Kylo Ren during the rise of the First Order, before finding his own redemption by sacrificing himself for Rey. His legend endured long after his death, the Chosen One remembered both as the Hero With No Fear and as the dark lord he became.