This comment reminded me of the above lines–which are literally like two minutes apart. One of the things that’s really well done about Anakin’s story that I think often gets passed off as “bad writing” is that Anakin is all over the place. He doesn’t have a strong stance about how he wants to be loyal to the Republic, he wants to blame the Jedi, he wants to do this for Padme, he loves her, he chokes her, he wants to create an Empire, he wants to follow Palpatine, he wants to overthrow Palpatine, he wants to follow Palpatine again, etc.
And I think THAT’S THE POINT. This is like how Hayden’s voice is not strong and clear and projecting well in his portrayal of Anakin because that, too, IS THE POINT. This is someone brittle and fragile and unstable, who is coming unhinged and you’re supposed to feel awkward and uncomfortable around him. When you listen to him, it’s not a FUCK YEAH villain moment, but the tragedy of someone crumbling into this horrible, awful tragedy.
This is someone who does not really believe what he’s saying, but he’s literally quoting Palpatine’s lies (“He’ll betray you just as he’s betrayed me.” / “You were right. The Jedi betrayed both of us.” - “The Sith are not afraid of the Dark Side of the Force.” / “I do not fear the Dark Side as you do.” - “Good is a point of view, Anakin. […] yet they are considered by the Jedi to be –” “Evil.” / “From my point of view, the Jedi are evil.”). This is someone who does not really believe in doing this for the Republic, but in a justification for the horrible things he’s done.
That’s why he goes from “I have brought peace to the Republic” to “I have brought peace, freedom, justice, and security to my new Empire” in the span of like two minutes, because it doesn’t really matter what he’s grasping for, just that he’s reaching for something, anything to justify the horrors he’s done, the children he’s murdered, the innocents he’s attacked, the loved ones he’s betrayed.
I think that lack of core central beliefs often gets written off as Anakin not being a clearly written character, when I think the truth is that he’s not supposed to have a clear, solid point of view. That, instead, we’re watching someone who is falling apart, who is scrambling to justify his horrible actions, who is coming unhinged in a really ugly, awful way and that is the point. Having him be coherent about his motivations would have taken away the heart of what was so awful and painful about his fall, what was so heartbreaking and tragic about his fall.
It’s a fundamental character point. Anakin isn’t moved by abstracts. The system has never given him a reason to believe in it. His personal connections have always been the driving force in his life.
Anakin is someone who believes in the system with a big caveat–so long as it goes as he thinks it should.
ANAKIN: We need a system where the politicians sit down and discuss the problem… agree what’s in the best interest of all the people, and then do it. PADME: That’s exactly what we do. The trouble is that people don’t always agree. ANAKIN: Well, then they should be made to. PADME: By whom? Who’s gonna make them? You?
ANAKIN:
I don’t know. Someone. Of course not me. But someone. Someone wise.
This is also one of his biggest problems with being a Jedi–which he wants to be, up to the very last moment, he wants to be a Jedi AND MORE–because they don’t do things the way he thinks they should. “The Jedi Code prevents them from going far enough to achieve victory, to do whatever it takes to win, the very reason why peacekeepers should not be leading a war. Have I offended you?” Tarkin says. “No. I’ve also found that we sometimes fall short of victory because of our methods,” Anakin replies.
And then as Darth Vader, of course, he is all about the system, because that’s what he’s always believed–that it should make people do the right thing, it should go far enough to actually solve this problem, whatever that takes, otherwise it’s not enough.
But that’s only half of Anakin, the other half is that those personal connections so very, very often supersede those beliefs. He has none has Darth Vader for two decades, and then Padme’s child supersedes the loyalty to the Emperor, but he still wants to make Luke a Sith, wants to rule over the system with him. He was willing to throw over the entire system for Padme because he wants to save her. But then he won’t throw away his desire to wield that replacement system (with her in charge, most likely) to run away with her, when she pleads with him to.
Anakin believes in the system, so long as it goes the way he thinks it should go, but he’s also willing to burn it all down, with whatever flimsy justification he needs to make, if it’s standing in his way. You’re absolutely right that Anakin isn’t moved by abstracts, he’s moved by tangible things–so long as those tangible things go the way he wants them to go and do what he wants them to do!
