Summary

One ofStar Wars’most crucial storylines is Anakin Skywalker ’s fall to the sour side of the Force and transmutation intoDarth Vader , but that transition did n’t come about all at once ; 15 moment in particular defined Anakin ’s turn . Anakin Skywalker is at first one ofthe most powerful Jedi inStar Wars , but he is also one ofStar Wars’most tragic characters . Because of the considerable losses throughout his living and the circumstances of his Jedi path , Anakin ’s turn to the dark side was an incremental one , even if a few key minute spell out out what was to come .

Despite Darth Vader being one ofStar Wars’most powerful villain , his level is rightfully a disaster . His lifespan , from childhood , was fill with traumatic events , and , while that does n’t justify Anakin of the decisions he made and the force he enacted in response , those events do explain and contextualize his arc . These 15 moments specifically defined Anakin Skywalker ’s path to the dark side and deplorably cemented his future as Darth Vader .

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Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn from Star Wars The Phantom Menace, Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker from Star Wars A New Hope, Daisy Ridley as Rey from Star Wars The Force Awakens

15The Jedi Council’s Initial Rejection Of Anakin Skywalker

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Anakin ’s entry to the Jedi represent rejection and being made to feel as though his ( born ) feelings of missing his female parent are not only bad , but also make him a threat . That moment defines his association with the Jedi even after they accept him into the lodge ; although Qui - Gon ’s last means that Obi - Wan agrees to discipline Anakin , Anakin recollect that they initially found him unworthy . This was particularly damaging to Anakin given that he had just left his female parent , the only phratry he had ever known .

14Anakin Skywalker Loses His Father Figure When Qui-Gon Dies

After leaving his female parent , Anakin latches onto two people : Qui - Gon Jinn and Padmé Amidala . While his attachment to Padmé proceed on to be much more significant , Anakin ’s loss of Qui - Gon was a key step on his route to the non-white side because it was his first real loss . Although he ’d been enkindle as a striver , which was a fearsome fosterage , he had n’t lost anyone he loved . Particularly because Qui - Gon had become a father digit to him , this had a monolithic wallop . Anakin felt as though he ’d lost a parent , which pass on to inform his fears about mislay his mother .

13Anakin Is Prevented From Helping His Mom

Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones

While Anakin ’s loss of his female parent is one of the most important moments on his path to the dark-skinned side , the events leading up to her death make it all the more irritating . Anakin had been experiencing nightmare for some time , seeing that his mother was in danger and needed him to pull through her . However , the Jedi refused to allow him the chance to make indisputable she was okay , likely because of their continued fear over his adherence to her .

This no doubt haunted Anakin when he realized he had been correct , but was too late to save her . Anakin knew that his premonition had tried to warn him but that he was prevent by the Jedi from going to his female parent . This is made all the bad by the fact that , had he been permit to go , he in all probability would have been able to save his female parent in time . This also surely worsened his growing bitterness of the Jedi , whom he belike fault , alongside himself , for his female parent ’s death .

12Anakin’s Mother Dies In His Arms

Of course , Anakin ’s unfitness to turn over his mother in time entail that she is already on the brink of death when he finally finds her , and she then dies in his arm . This is one of the major turning points in Anakin ’s journeying . While he had clearly struggled with anger and self-importance in the long time sinceStar Wars : Episode I - The Phantom Menace , he had yet to exhibit true violence . When his mother dies , he is make full with such insurmountable rage that he taps into the dark side and commits one of his worst human activity .

11Anakin’s Tusken Massacre In Attack Of The Clones

Anakin ’s mass murder ofthe TuskensinStar Wars : Episode II - Attack of the Clonesis his darkest deed before to the full becoming Darth Vader . Fueled with hate , he kill the mankind , fair sex , and children of the summer camp in a furore . Even once he returns and has buried his mother , though , he shows no remorse . In fact , he duplicate down on the enactment , referring to the Tuskens as " animals " and saying he detest them .

This was really the start of the ending for Anakin . While he had been disquiet and made refutable choices until that distributor point , including his step up romance with Padmé that directly defied the Jedi Order ’s code , he had yet to solicit into his anger and hatred , and he had yet to remove . While it was n’t necessarily too late for him to turn back , this moment would come to define his willingness to use the dark side and symbolized his lack of control when it came to his adhesion .

10Anakin Is Forced To Become A Soldier

Star Wars: The Clone Wars

On the heels of Anakin ’s drubbing of the Tuskens is a altogether new way of life for him that does nothing to alleviate his growing anger or his history of ferocity . When the Clone Wars lead off at the death ofAttack of the Clones , Anakin is give into war despite being trained as a peacekeeper since childhood . After already enacting such terrible violence against the Tuskens , Anakin is asked to fight and destroy battle droids constantly , smear the line of the principle on which he was raised .

All seven non - chronological season of The Clone Wars take place within a three - year period of time , but where does one twelvemonth oddment and the next begin ?

9Anakin Experiences Extreme Jealousy With Rush Clovis

Star Wars: The Clone WarsSeason 6, Episode 6 “The Rise of Clovis”

Star Wars : The Clone Warsfleshed out Anakin ’s path to the dark side of the Force even more , fulfill in the major gaps betweenAttack of the ClonesandStar Wars : Episode III - Revenge of the Sith . During this time , Anakin underwent some of the most significant change that catapulted him toward the dark side . The show add together a number of new storyline and fictional character , one of them being Rush Clovis , who certainly affected Anakin ’s Jedi path .

hurry is usher in as someone who has a history with Padmé , and while she ’s not entertaining her feelings anymore in igniter of her human relationship with Anakin , it ’s remove the two had something of a romantic connection in the yesteryear . This mystify a threat to Anakin that he had n’t experience before . While he had get jealous inAttack of the Cloneswhen Padmé key out a boy she previously had a crunch on , that was minimal compared to a man who was actively pursuing Padmé .

In response to Rush ’s activity , Anakin attacks him , which is alarming enough to Padmé that she ask for time aside . While this picket in comparability to what Anakin did to the Tuskens , it shows Anakin ’s mounting willingness to be tearing , now for much lesser offenses . It also proves that the result between Anakin and Padmé was n’t on the dot attachment in the manner that the Jedi set it . Anakin ’s real effect was a demand to control .

The poster for Clone Wars season 7 next to Hunter wearing his helmet in The Bad Batch

8The Council & Obi-Wan Trick Anakin Into Believing Obi-Wan Died

Star Wars: The Clone WarsSeason 4, Episode 15 “Deception”

The Jedi Order , unluckily , makes a number of bad decisions throughout the Clone Wars , but one of the most puzzling is the conclusion to manipulate Obi - Wan Kenobi ’s end for the sake of a mission . To pull off the stunt and make it seem believable , the Council keep even Anakin in the dark , make him imagine his beloved champion and master is idle . This was a bewildering alternative by the Jedi Council , who were already so wary of Anakin and worried that he was too reactive , butit also caused serious damage to Anakin ’s family relationship with the Jedi .

Because of this secret plan , Anakin begins to doubt the Jedi , seeing that they could be deceitful even to him . This also furthered his sense that he was outside the Council and even outside the Order . He had n’t been trusted to handle the mystery appropriately , and , worse , the Council had even weaponized Anakin ’s very sincere brokenheartedness to make it seem as though Obi - Wan had really buy the farm .

7The Order Turns Its Back On Ahsoka

Star Wars: The Clone WarsSeason 5, Episode 20 “The Wrong Jedi”

Perhaps the single biggest event contributing to Anakin ’s doubts about the Jedi isTheClone Warsplot when Ahsoka is put for slaying and , rather than believe and protect her , the Jedi Council removes her from the Order , taking her trial from one within the Order to one in the Senate . The Senate then determines that this trial is one that could lead in Ahsoka being put to demise if she is found guilty , which she almost is . It is only because of Anakin ’s unfaltering finding to prove her innocence that Ahsoka survives this ordeal .

Anakin does not forgive the lodge for their function in this situation , and he seems outwardly disgusted by their behavior . In addition to infuriate him because he loved Ahsoka , this event likely also set off an consciousness that Anakin had n’t had before and was extremely detrimental to his kinship with the Jedi . By look how quickly they abandon Ahsoka , Anakin realise that not only would the Jedi not protect him , but also that their loyalty were thin .

6Ahsoka Leaves The Jedi Order

While not Ahsoka ’s geological fault , Ahsoka leaving after Anakin clears her name and decline to rejoin the order of magnitude break Anakin . It was another withering loss of someone who was like a family phallus , a list which now included a founder figure , his female parent , and Ahsoka . It also showed him that the Order was seriously blemished . He spot that not only had they louse up Ahsoka ’s trial , but also that they were the reason she was now on her own . This no doubt made it clear to him that the Jedi were n’t necessarily the correct fit for everyone , perhaps himself include .

Josh Hartnett looking shocked in Fight or Flight

Anakin crying in Attack of the Clones in a red hue to the left and Vader at the end of Revenge of the Sith to the right

Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader Split By a Lightning Bolt

Qui-Gon Jinn looks on in the Skywalker home in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Shmi Skywalker dies in Anakin Skywalker’s arms in Attack of the Clones.

Anakin with his blue lightsaber drawn and dead Tusken Raiders on either side of him.

Anakin wearing his Clone Wars armor during the Clone Wars flashback in Ahsoka Episode 5

Anakin Throws Rush Clovis Away from Padme Amidala in Star Wars The Clone Wars

Anakin Skywalker in the foreground and Obi Wan Kenobi and Rex in the background in Star Wars Clone Wars

Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano in Ahsoka

Ahsoka walks away from Anakin and the Jedi Order in Star Wars The Clone Wars and Anakin watches her leave

Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader

Star Wars