#and any other sith apprentice could've led a troop of mind-controlled soldiers into a temple to kill some kids

[kanansdume]

Love seeing people talk about how powerful Anakin is because like. It doesn’t even matter. Anakin fails at everything despite apparently being the most powerful force user in existence.

Is he able to become a good Jedi? No, he sucks ass at being a Jedi and kills them all, there is no argument to be made ever that Anakin was a good Jedi. Anakin himself says more than once he’s a suck-ass Jedi and while he’s an unreliable narrator at the best of times, the narrative itself supports that statement, so I’m willing to accept that one as truth.

Is he a good Sith then? Eh, I guess? He kills a lot of Jedi, that’s pretty much the defining aspect of being a good Sith, I suppose. But Palpatine never seems all that happy with him as an apprentice and he’s CERTAINLY less useful than Dooku was as an apprentice, despite Dooku’s constant attempts to overthrow Palpatine, he’s also arguably Palpatine’s most successful apprentice. And everything Anakin does to annihilate the Jedi could’ve been done by Dooku or Maul. Or no apprentice at all. Anakin comes up with no Sith-y plans of his own and apparently can’t even figure out how to open a Sith Temple to access a Sith holocron. So while he’s a PASSABLE Sith, he’s honestly not that good at being  a Sith, either, I’d argue. Not because he’s a good person, he’s just... not that smart or capable in general and that remains true as much as a Sith as it did as a Jedi.

Is he a good student? Nope, sucks ass here, continuously goes against any teaching we ever see him given by the Jedi OR his mother. And then proceeds to repeatedly try to kill his own teacher after throwing him away like chopped liver to make sure his wife lives.

Is he a good teacher? Not really, he apparently is pretty unorthodox in how he trains Ahsoka who is already apparently particularly advanced in her skills and the times we see her taught patience, her biggest vice in early Clone Wars seasons, it’s actually through OTHER MASTERS like Plo Koon and Tera Sinube and Anakin is repeatedly called out for being the reason Ahsoka struggles with this he is absolutely incapable of teaching it to her. And then he repeatedly tries to kill her after throwing her away like chopped liver to make sure his wife lives.

Is he a good husband, then? No. He repeatedly ignores Padme’s set boundaries when trying to seduce her and emotionally manipulates her into feeling sorry for him and like she’s the bad guy when she lays out the very logical reasons why they shouldn’t start a relationship and then commits genocide on her behalf and asphyxiates her while pregnant when she’s not super happy about the genocide. I’ll also bring up he was demanding of Padme and didn’t like when Padme didn’t give him attention immediately on his schedule and can and WILL manipulate her into feeling like she’s the bad guy for trying to do her job or focus on literally anything else that isn’t him and will absolutely try to kill someone who kisses Padme against her will as a punishment for PADME because she let it happen. So no, he’s the world’s worst husband and we VERY rarely see a redeeming sweet scene between him and Padme because they’re so intensely toxic for each other.

How about a good father, since he presumably turns back for Luke? No. He’s a terrible father, too. Man chops off said son’s hand to try to torture him into turning Dark so he’ll rule at Anakin’s side. And let’s not forget that trying to save Padme from childbirth had jack all to do with saving the child he thought she carried. It’s PADME who has to ask about whether the baby lives or not and his response is basically to shrug because what does that matter if PADME’S dead. And then he proceeds to asphyxiate Padme while pregnant, which will absolutely kill any child she’s pregnant with too if he succeeds and when Obi-Wan says to let her go, he just DROPS HER. Yeah, I see so much care and love for his child there. He threatens to torture Leia if Luke refuses to turn down the line, he’s very intent on torturing his kids into going dark, it’s a major goal for him. And then the one thing he wants Luke to do after he dies is to make sure Leia knows Anakin WAS a good person all along, gotta make sure the woman he tortured knows that it’s actually all good now, just forget the torture stuff, Anakin really DID have some good deep down inside, he just chose not to act on it when asked to torture her, it’s chill now though!

Pretty sure that’s it, so. Lots of raw power? Sure. Doesn’t stop him from being an absolute fuck-up at literally everything in his life, though. Just goes to show, if anyone tells you natural talent will get you farther than hard work and training and dedication, just remind them that Anakin Skywalker exists as proof positive that this isn’t true!

#anti anakin #anti anakin skywalker #the one thing anakin skywalker succeeds at is genocide and even that isn't that special since it's someone else's years-long plan #and any other sith apprentice could've led a troop of mind-controlled soldiers into a temple to kill some kids