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[chaoticacademic-geek]

The Best Star Pilot in the Galaxy: A Ridiculously In Depth Recount of Anakin Skywalker

Companion to the 6 hour playlist I just made that details the entire chronological rise, fall, and redemption of Anakin Skywalker, where I explain why I chose specific songs, highlight lyrics, analyze his character, and describe where they fall in his timeline

(you have to have the playlist pulled up or else it’s just gibberish ahahaha)

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4c7ePc7eEAeQozvFwxz7Ct?si=BwE0Len_Tqie4p-t4qVZiA

(This is very long but if you love Star Wars as much as I do it’s really cool!)

Attack of the Clones

I started this at the beginning of AOTC because no one cares about whiny baby Anakin sorry. Don’t You Know is Anakin at the beginning when he is obsessed with Padme and wants nothing more than to be with her, which transitions into Too Good which I feel represents the I don’t like sand scene and the night at Naboo when they both realize they want the *forbidden romance*. Style is the happiest song on this playlist, which I chose for the Naboo field scene since they seem the most carefree and in love there. Light through Cosmic Love is the progression of their relationship over the rest of AOTC, with Across the Stars being the kiss before the Geonosis scene of course. Take Me to Church and Death of a Bachelor are in reference to both the almost obsessive devotion Anakin has to Padme as well as their wedding. The entire concept of DoaB is that the narrator *becomes a new man* upon his marriage and *kills* the old version of himself (particular emphasis on “the lace in your dress, tangles my neck, how do I live? The death of a bachelor” symbolizing how the wedding solidifies Anakin’s emotional attachments which ultimately lead to his *death*). 

Clone Wars

Born Ready through Young God are the Clone Wars era, switching from the less sure movie version of Anakin to the self assured, witty, badass leader we see in the show. You’re Gonna Go Far Kid represents this version of the character well, encompassing both the strong Jedi aspects of himself, as well as the irrational and passion driven side that often impacts his decisions, which make him a brilliant leader but also a flight risk. “See the lightning in your eyes, see them running for their lives” specifically reminds me of the couple scenes in the show where Anakin lets his emotions fully drive his actions and is slightly scary because of how fiercely he wants to protect those he loves (one that comes to mind being when he fights Barriss).

 The Kids Aren’t Alright is sort of an anthem to the Clone Wars squad, particularly the clones and Anakin with Ahsoka, how none of them really asked for the situation they’ve been thrown into but are making the best of it together. Play With Fire through Rockstar mainly encapsulate Anakin’s cockiness and badassery, no other real reason. The Good The Bad and The Dirty chorus “if you wanna start a fight, you better throw the first punch and you better make it a good one, and if you wanna make it through the night, you better say my name like the good the bad and the dirty” and the whole song in general wraps his style of leadership with his secret relationship to Padme, and also brings out the darker side of his character we see more in the show. Fourth of July and Alone Together are along the same lines as TKAA, they’re the more light hearted friendship and comradery side that the whole gang builds, along with general epic vibes. Angel of Small Death through Sweater Weather are more Anidala songs. Elastic Heart is more insight to how Anakin is slowly becoming disillusioned with the Jedi, but ultimately sticks with them at this point, “you did not break me, I’m still fighting for peace, I’ve got thick skin and an elastic heart, but your blade might be too sharp” captures this idea, and “it’s hard to lose a chosen one” really connect this song to Anakin toward the end of the series and even foreshadows his future fall to the dark side. Then the Mortis arc hits...the best arc in all of Star Wars but that’s a topic for another crazed essay. Anakin Sees His Future, which is where everything starts to accelerate downhill, the fear of becoming what he sees in the vision drives him down the path to the dark. “Being me can only mean, feeling scared to breathe, if you leave me then I’ll be afraid of everything” in Afraid represents the fear and confliction he feels after the vision. 

Revenge of the Sith 

Young God through Centuries are the transition from Clone Wars to the scene rescuing Palpatine where Anakin has really grown into himself since the last film and is feeling pretty confident about everything. Small Bump and Come What May are the last calm, happy interlude--before everything starts to really go to shit--where he finds out Padme is pregnant. The Room Where it Happens (I KNOW I HATE HAMILTON TOO IT JUST FITS) represents Anakin’s anger at not being made a Jedi Master on the council, the anger that Palpatine inevitably preys upon. Angel on Fire and Evil take place during a conversation he has with Obi Wan at some point after this (if I remember correctly there’s a line where he goes I’m not like you? Maybe I’m crazy). The part of Angel on Fire “nobody seems to recognize me in the crowd, in the background screaming ‘look at me’” shows his anger and frustration at being excluded from Council decisions, and the lines “can I be a little evil sometimes, can I fake a smiling ego when I’m not fine’ and  “I don’t see like you, and I feel evil sometimes” in Evil show how he does feel different and more emotional than the other Jedi. This song could also occur in the scene on Tatooine after Anakin kills the sand people in AOTC, honestly personal preference. 

Iris takes place around the balcony scene between Padme and Anakin, the entire beginning, and specifically the lines “you’re the closest to heaven that I’ll ever be, and I don’t wanna go home right now” and “I don’t think that they’d understand...I just want you to know who I am” really illustrate how Padme is becoming the only positive part of his life, the only one who really knows and loves him, because at this point he’s disillusioned even with Obi Wan. After this, Anakin’s Dream about Padme dying in childbirth happens, prompting I’ll Keep You Safe, which represents the conversation he has with Padme about the dream. “don't be afraid, our mistakes they were bound to be made, but I promise you I'll keep you safe” and “darkness will be rewritten into a work of fiction” show Anakin’s commitment to protecting Padme and doing whatever possible to change the vision. Infinity and Him and I again show the love and attachment the two have for each other. Fragile represents Anakin’s emotional state at this point, and What If This is All the Love You Ever Get compounds this state; he’s so afraid that if he loses Padme he’ll lose everything and never feel love again. Somebody to Die For occurs roughly around the opera scene where Palpatine tells Anakin how he could possibly save Padme from death, and Icarus builds on this. Anakin is tempted by the dark to gain unnatural powers that would let him save Padme. His descent into the dark parallels Icarus’s fall, who thought he could cheat death and imprisonment but only ended up falling too far and throwing away everything he worked for. 

Running Up That Hill and Achilles Come Down are truly the apex of his internal conflict. Running Up That Hill occurs while Anakin considers Palpatine’s offer to save Padme, “if I only could, make a deal with God, and get him to swap our places” shows his devotion to essentially sell his soul to save her, and “is there so much hate for the ones we love?” articulates his anger at the Jedi for not caring about people; he doesn’t understand why they refuse to let their members form attachments, and believes the Sith will at least let him be with the woman he loves. White Blank Page comes between these, where he again expresses his rage at how his only *evil* was loving, “tell me know where was my fault, in loving you with my whole heart”. 

I have a complex vision of Achilles Come Down, and I could honestly write an entire essay about this as well, but I’ll try to make sense (this part works best if you’re listening to the song cuz I skip between lines a bunch oops). The whole song is a battle for Anakin’s soul, pulling him between the dark and light. Until the line “it’s not much but there’s proof” is Padme trying to convince him that he should stay, and “you crazy assed cosmonaut” through right before “loathe the way they light candles in Rome” is Obi Wan telling him that he’s not alone and he shouldn’t abandon everything and everyone. “Candles in Rome” through “how you will heal and rise above” is Anakin to himself, realizing that while it may seem wrong to shift to the dark, he can use his pain and passion to fuel his powers through the dark side, and again shows that resentment toward the Jedi for forbidding love. “Jump now, you are absent of cause” through “it’s a pointless resistance for you” is Palpatine telling him to let go of the lies of the Jedi, that they’ll never appreciate him and are only holding him back from everything he has ever wanted. “Just put down the bottle” through “it’s more courageous to overcome” is additional chaos and confusion that he feels. Then two voices enter the song, one starts “you want the acclaim” while the other responds “it’s not worth it Achilles”, these are again the dark and light battling within him; Palpatine calls him further to the dark and Obi Wan and Padme try to pull him back to the light. Could I talk about this forever? Yes but I’ll shut up now because it will probably get it’s own elaboration and we need to get to the good shit. 

Between these two songs is the scene where Anakin pledges his allegiance in Palpatine’s office. Deep End is after, where Anakin starts to fully understand his decision, with emphasis on the lines “I’m slipping into the deep end, I’m in over my head, I can’t catch my breath”  “like light in my veins, darkness is sinking in me” and “I can’t help but give in, I’m lost in the deep end” that solidify the fear and his fall, but he figures that it will be worth it because he’ll have Padme. During Broken Crown he lets his hatred for the way of the Jedi have treated him set in, “I’ll never be your chosen one” “the mirror shows not, your values are all shot” and “but in this twilight our choices seal our fate” exemplify how he believes the Order has failed him and he is determined to lead a life without them. 

Salvation through Unsteady occur during the scene where Anakin and Padme are both staring out the windows on Coruscant, knowing that he has fallen. He says Padme is the only good thing left in his life in Salvation, Breathe Me is him realizing that he is losing himself but doesn’t care as long as it saves her “Lost myself and I am nowhere to be found, I think that I might break.” Unsteady furthers this feeling, until Anakin and Padme when they reunite after the events at the temple. (This is a bit out of order but for emotional cohesion I’m taking liberty)

  Already Gone occurs during this reunion, it’s essentially Anakin telling her that everything will be okay when they both know that he is not the same person anymore, “I want you to know, you couldn’t have loved me better” is a reminder that she did nothing wrong, “perfect couldn’t keep this love alive”and “now all our memories are haunted, we were always meant to say goodbye” show how their relationship was destined to fall apart with the interference of the Jedi. Sign of the Times technically falls during the window scene mentioned earlier but again, this fit the emotional narrative better. “Just stop your crying have the time of your life, things look pretty good from here” “remember everything will be alright, we can meet again somewhere, somewhere far away from here” and “it’s a sign of the times” mark the end of Anakin, that it’s too late to change his mind and he and Padme will be better off this way. This song also fits during the scene where Anakin goes to comfort Padme which is why I put it here. 

Control through Anakin’s Betrayal are Order 66 and the attack on the temple. I have to highlight “All the kids cried out please stop you’re scaring me” in Control because younglings..it also just fits his power complex that forms during this part of the film. “The kid has got the dark side, best believe it, push too far you’ll see” in Darkside and “I’m feeling alone and the world’s so cold” in Serotonin are again just extensions of his mindset during the purge. Judas is Padme’s perspective after Anakin leaves and she realizes that Obi Wan was right, Anakin has turned, “I wanna love you but something’s pulling me away from you, Jesus is my virtue and Judas is the demon I cling to”. Jesus is the ideal of the Republic and the Jedi Order while Judas is Anakin, who she can’t just let go of. 

How to Save a Life breaks my mf heart and is also almost as complex as Achilles Come Down but I can shorten this one. I envision it from Obi Wan’s perspective, where he realizes that Anakin has started to fall, and then when he goes to see Padme before she reunites with Anakin after the temple, the second verse “let him know that you know best” through “I pray to God he hears you” is him telling Padme she’s the only one that has a chance at reaching him. “You’ll begin to wonder why you came” refers to both Obi Wan and Padme arriving on Mustafar (specifically that part when they’re on the ship and they just sort of...stare for a second before getting up), each wondering if they have any chance of saving him from the bitterness of the dark side. 

“Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend” and “had I known how to save a life” show Obi Wan’s regrets, wondering if there was anything he did to cause this, or anything he could’ve done to stop it: regrets that he carries until his death. You’re Somebody Else is when Anakin and Padme meet on Mustafar when she says I don’t know you anymore, “you look like yourself, but you’re somebody else, only it ain’t on the surface”. He has fundamentally changed at this point. Are You With Me is her trying to convince him to stay with her in the light “you’re not in the dark, but far from the light, and I need to know now, are you with me?”, she tries her hardest to pull him back and explain to him that they can be happy without his Sith powers. Figure 8 is when she realizes she can’t bring Anakin back with her love, that it’s ultimately too late and the man she loves is gone and he’s taken their love with him “I chase your love around a figure 8, I need you more than I can take, you promised forever and a day, then you take it all away”. When Anakin starts to believe Obi Wan turned Padme against him, Whose Side Are You On fits, “War lines have been drawn, whose side are you on” is Anakin pleading with Padme to join him, while “light and dark are intertwining, standing here face to face, betrayal burns” is his anger with Obi Wan now that he thinks he has been betrayed and Obi Wan corrupted Padme. 

Two Evils occurs when Obi Wan leaves the ship and starts to confront Anakin, where they argue over whose point of view is correct, “This is a game no wrongs no rights, only a winner and a loser, you and I, we’re not the different” and “I’m the lesser of two evils” really capture the message of the scene, where each is trying to convince the other that their side of the force is better, when in reality neither is right and they’re only driving the other further away. We of course get Anakin vs Obi Wan, and The Mighty Fall displays the intensity of the situation and Anakin’s rage overtakes his connection with Obi Wan. The Immolation Scene is the true fracture of their bond, and Bleeding Out is Anakin’s final commitment to ending Obi Wan and leaving everything he knew, “if the last thing I do is bring you down, I’ll bleed out for you” and “you tell me to hold on, but innocence is gone, what was right is wrong” is his full refusal of the Jedi and acceptance of the dark side. 

It feels odd to put Shawn Mendes here but to me, Stitches is the true realization of what’s happened on both Padme and Anakin’s sides while she dies on the table and he is revived as Vader. Their love and Anakin’s fear of losing her ended up badly hurting both of them, and even killed Padme (even though we all know Palpatine killed Padme but).

 If I Killed Someone for You is a great Anakin/Vader song, because he sacrificed everything he stood for, and even killed Anakin, to save her. “Would you love me more if I killed someone for you? Would you hold my hands, they’re the same ones that I used” and “You have to understand, the one I killed was me..I hope it makes you happy, cuz there’s just no turning back” show how he left everything for her, and there’s no way to go back to the way things used to be. When Palpatine tells Vader that Padme is dead, he can’t accept that he has to continue living without her, he feels helpless and worthless without her love. Let Her Go is him eventually coming to terms with her death, and the end of such a gentle song, the last whispers of Anakin’s true self, are trampled by Imperial March: the rise of Vader.

Vader

I’m separating this part because it’s the genuinely evil part of Vader that we see when he fully represses any remnants of Anakin. Gasoline is the initial pain that he feels upon becoming Vader, “you can’t wake up, this is not a dream, you’re part of a machine, you are not a human being” where he’s accepting his new Sith life with only the Emperor to connect with. Dark Side through Blame are this side of Vader, the cold hearted murderous leader of the galaxy. I’m not entirely sure where Burying the Dead fits in that timeline, but of course there we see Anakin get, not really closure but some kind of ending, to his relationship with the clones and Ahsoka. 

You Should See Me in a Crown emphasizes his intimidating, twisted nature now, and Anakin and Ahsoka is Vader’s final confrontation with Ahsoka, where he has let go of his past attachments and is set on destroying his once beloved padawan. Glory and Gore is again just pure Vader, but Blood//Water is when Luke and Leia get involved in the plot, “the price of your greed is your son and your daughter, whatcha gonna do when there’s blood in the water”, it’s a turning point for Vader where he can’t suppress the feelings from his past anymore, particularly in ESB. 

Vader’s Redemption

Battle Scars through The Scientist is his reflection on his past, mostly throughout ROTJ, that being around--but against--his family prompts. Trauma is his feelings of failure that turning to the dark caused, “trade my joy for my protection” can be interpreted as how Anakin sacrificed everything to avoid becoming Vader and losing Padme, but now he is alive and miserable and alone. Silhouette is Vader reminiscing on his relationship with Padme and how it’s been so long that he almost forgot her and how to feel love until Luke showed him compassion, “it’s only been a moment, it’s only been a lifetime, but tonight you’re a stranger, some silhouette”. Losing Your Memory plays into this feeling of forgetting as well, the first verse is Anakin right at his downfall in ROTS, the second is Vader after he lost everything, and the third makes me think of him trying to reach out to Leia (did he even know about Leia?? I’m gonna assume he sensed her somehow cuz it would make me very sad if he didn’t know about his daughter who is so similar to himself) and hoping that she could forgive him for his actions as Vader. Just One Yesterday is again looking back on the past, and House of Memories is the same, where Vader realizes that his love for his wife is what built the Empire, and he can bring it down with his love for his son, “those thoughts of past lovers will always haunt me” and “baby we built this house on memories..and when your fantasies become a legacy, promise me a place in your house of memories”. 

Anakin’s Suffering is his reflection while Palpatine has Luke on the Death Star, where he remembers everything and feels called to the light again, to save Luke. Trainwreck could occur when Vader throws Palpatine over and redeems himself, “Unbreak the broken, unsay these spoken words, find hope in the hopeless”, he finally overcomes all the pain and suffering that he both caused and experienced. The Scientist is Luke and Vader’s connection as father and son, how there is so much Luke wants to know but Anakin needs only to tell him that he succeeded and he saved his father, even if he was about to die, “nobody ever said it was easy, oh it’s such a shame for us to part...I’m going back to the start”. Heirloom is everything he wants to tell Luke, how proud he is of the man and Jedi that Luke has become, the man he never got to be, “you are so much more than your father’s son, you are so much more than I have become”. Cancer is Anakin’s acceptance of his death, knowing that he largely failed in his life, but at least he got to die knowing his son believed in him and gets to live the life he wanted, “cause the hardest part of this is leaving you”. It ends with Victory Celebration, where the balance in the universe is restored, Anakin was saved and got to meet his son, and Luke got to find his family. 

#star wars #anakin #skywalker #skywalkerfamily #padme #prequels #prequel era #revenge of the sith #darth vader #vader #obiwan #luke skywalker #clone wars #clone wars ahsoka #anakin and ahsoka #the mandolarian #baby yoda