Anakin Skywalker (TFM)

Anakin Skywalker was a young slave boy from Tatooine. He later became Darth Vader after being corrupted by the Dark Side and taken in by Darth Sidious. His path to the Dark Side was not subtle. He had been twisted and deceived by Sidious for some years. However, Sidious did not know that Anakin knew his true identity until it was almost too late.

As a young boy, Anakin lived on Tatooine, until he was freed by Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn. He was trained in the ways of the Jedi, hoping to become a powerful Jedi Knight. He was handed down to Obi-Wan Kenobi to train, as Qui-Gon went into hiding. Under Obi-Wan, Anakin grew to become the powerful Jedi Knight he had sworn to be. Then the Clone Wars broke out.

Anakin’s skills, bravery, conscience, mind, and patience were tested many times throughout the Clone Wars. It was at the end of the war, that Anakin fell to the Dark Side, becoming Darth Sidious’ apprentice. He became known and feared as Darth Vader. He assisted Sidious in growing the recent evolved Galactic Domain to its fullest strength. It was then that Anakin, now Darth Vader, was faced with a new challenge.

A growing Rebellion was formed to take on the Domain and dissolve it back into the Republic it once was. Darth Vader hunted down the leaders of the Rebellion in an attempt to crush it before it had a chance to spread, but something else stood in his way. His unknown son rose to power within the Rebellion and forced Vader to withdraw for a short period of time. It was through Luke, Vader realized that he had been tricked by Sidious and was finally redeemed.

Beginnings
"So is that why Darth Sidious, the mastermind behind it all, over there is so messed up?"

- Anakin revealing his ability to see the future

He went into slavery, being sold to a Toydarian named Watto, along with his mother, Shmi Skywalker. A couple years later, Anakin was freed from slavery when a Jedi Master named Qui-Gon Jinn came and retrieved the boy. Watto gave him to Qui-Gon just to get rid of him, giving Qui-Gon twenty thousand Republic dataries, a holoprojection of a J-type 3-27 Nubian hyperdrive, and R2-D2. Before leaving Tatooine, Anakin was placed under the watchful eye of Jar Jar Binks.

Once Anakin was in Qui-Gon’s hands, he traveled with them to Naboo to make one final stand against the Trade Federation and their Peace Treaty. While on Naboo, Anakin was placed under the care of Padmé Amidala as Jar Jar went off to fight the droids on the plains of Naboo. During her care, he asked her to marry him. She agreed only, if Anakin could disable the Droid Control Ship. Anakin agreed and flew off to prove his worth; however, while he was in the air, the controls were disabled by one of the droids aboard the ship, and Anakin returned back to the surface. In doing so, he accidentally crashed into the throne room, where Padmé was holding negotiations with the Trade Federation Viceroy, Nute Gunray. He ended up causing the Peace Treaty to fail, once again, which allowed for fair trade for Naboo.

Shortly after the Battle for Naboo, Anakin was taken aside by Qui-Gon to teach him the ways of the Jedi. He also informed Anakin that he would hand him over to his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi. It was here that Anakin first alluded to his knowledge of the future by pointing out that Darth Sidious was the mastermind behind it all. During his stay on Naboo, Anakin was trained by both Obi-Wan and Yoda. He eventually grew up to be a promising Jedi Knight, and each master waited for the day he would be able to prove his skill.

Reemergence
"Just when you sit down to watch a little Smashball"

- Anakin, after receiving a message from Cleigg Lars about his mother.

That day came when he met up with Padmé, along with Obi-Wan, just before she was about to leave to vote on the Frank Creation Act. He arrived just as her ship blew up and agreed to help her find the vandal. He and Obi-Wan immediately chased down the person responsible for the assassination attempt. While interrogating a Clawdite named Zam Wessel, they both discovered the existence of a bounty hunter named Jango Fett. They returned and reported what they had learned to the Jedi Council.

The Jedi Council agreed to send Padmé into hiding and assigned Anakin to protect her. Together they traveled to the lake country. While they were there, Anakin received a text from a man named Cliegg Lars, while watching a Smashball game on HoloNet. The text stated that Cliegg’s wife had been taken by Sand People. Padmé entered and forced Anakin to help Cliegg. In doing so, Padmé tried to teach Anakin to fly on their way to Tatooine.

Once they arrived on Tatooine, Anakin met up again with his former master, Watto. Watto informed Anakin that he had sold his mother to a guy named Cliegg Lars, the same man from the text, and that she was freed and eventually married Cliegg. Anakin insisted on Watto giving him the location of the homestead, but Watto kept diverging the conversation to try and sell something. Finally, Watto gave Anakin and Padmé the location of the homestead and Anakin purchased a speeder, the one Jar Jar broke when Qui-Gon had journeyed to the planet, for one thousand credits. However, Anakin forgot his wallet in his other robe and had to borrow money from Watto to make the purchase.

They made it to the homestead just in time to find C-3PO working on the security cameras. However, Anakin was still learning to pilot and ended up crashing into the front of the homestead. When they reached C-3PO, he immediately informed Anakin and Padmé of Shmi’s capture. Anakin affirmed the information by stating that he had received the text from Cliegg. He asked C-3PO where the Tusken camp was, and C-3PO gave him directions.

Anakin reached the Tusken Camp, only to knock every Tusken unconscious. He found his mother lying next to a moisture vaporator. She woke up and walked over to where Anakin was. She told him that she had missed the turn to Anchorhead and decided to spend the night behind the vaperator and head back to the homestead in the morning.

He took Shmi home to the homestead, where Cliegg came out to meet her. Anakin, Shmi and Cliegg started talking and Anakin told his parents about Padmé and their engagement. Shmi gave her blessing, and the two traveled back to Mos Espa. There they met up with Obi-Wan, who mistakenly traveled to Tatooine instead of Geonosis. They asked him why he was going to Geonosis, and Obi-Wan told them he was tracking the bounty hunter Jango Fett. Together, they traveled to Geonosis to confront Jango and finally figure an end to the rising conflict.

The Clone Wars
They arrived on Geonosis with Obi-Wan, who flew ahead to a different location, and immediately went in search of Jango Fett. However, they stumbled upon a System of Independent Confederates (SIC) outpost and battle droid factory. They watched on as they saw an ensemble of B1 Battle Droids and newer B2 Super Battle Droids. When they tried to return to their ship, they were captured by a Geonosian and taken to Poggle the Lesser and Count Dooku.

They were placed before trial in a large battle arena on Geonosis and were being prepared for execution. Obi-Wan was placed beside Anakin and Padmé in the arena. Count Dooku prepared them for what would happen and released the beast that was to kill them. However, before Dooku could inform them, each person took a guess at was the creature was. Anakin guessed right when he said it was a larger than life, dripping with mucus, green-eyed, sharp toothed, nerf. Dooku released the nerf and watched as they fended off.

Anakin was first to be attacked, but managed to dodge the nerf’s initial lunge. The nerf rammed into the execution column and caused it and the two others to collapse on top of the nerf, pinning it, and freeing the others. Anakin retrieved his lightsaber and met up with Padmé. Obi-Wan used force blast to clear the debris and too met up with the rest of the group. Just at that time, an LAAT/i flew in and picked up the prisoners.

As they were leaving the arena, Master Yoda, who had called in the Clone Troopers, spotted Count Dooku and ordered Anakin to take the controls. However, Anakin was reluctant at first; he eventually agreed to fly the LAAT to chase Dooku down. They followed him to a SIC hangar, where the rest of the SIC leaders were located. As the LAAT came crashing in, literally, the SIC leaders fled, leaving Dooku alone.

Anakin and Obi-Wan came at Dooku from two different sides, hoping to pin him, but Dooku leaped out of the way in time for both Anakin and Obi-Wan to ram into each other. Dooku landed just right that his lightsaber cut off Anakin’s right arm. When Dooku was forced to flee by Yoda, Padmé rushed over and helped Anakin up, commenting on how his arm was missing. Together, they left the hangar and headed back to Naboo.

While on Naboo, Anakin and Padmé finally got married. The ceremony was open to all who wished to come, which included the entire Jedi Council, random members from Tatooine, a Droid escort, and a couple other special guests. When the ceremony was over, Padmé persuaded to get Anakin the mechanical arm, since they had left the real one on Geonosis to get swept away by The Cleaner Guy. They had given him a fake one for the wedding, but Padmé insisted on a permanent mechanical one. It was not long after that Anakin received his first mechanical arm, and his first step towards becoming Darth Vader.

Becoming Darth Vader
"It’s telling you that even though you may seem like you’re killing your wife, even though your child may rebel against you, you’ll still be a great father."

- Yoda interpreting Anakin’s dream before a council meeting.

Shortly after the outbreak of the Clone Wars, Anakin started his path down the Dark Side. He was involved in a master plan to rescue the Chancellor, since Obi-Wan accidentally foiled his own plans when he had to go to the bathroom, and stormed General Grievous’ flagship, the Invisible Hand. They rescued the Chancellor, however, at the price of Grievous’ escape and the retirement of Count Dooku from the head of the SIC.

They arrived back to Naboo, where Anakin returned Palpatine to the Senate and rushed off to be with Padmé, who he had not seen in a long time. When he found her, she gave him the news that she was pregnant. He escorted her back to their place before proceeding onto the council chambers where he was appointed to the council and dubbed a Jedi Master. That night had a vivid dream about him as a parent. The next morning, he visited Master Yoda and told him the dream, giving him every detail. Yoda suggested that it was the future and that Anakin had nothing to worry about.

Shortly after, Anakin had thought about the events of the war and figured it was best to inform the council, since they would not let him before, that Palpatine was Darth Sidious, the mastermind behind it all. When the last remaining council member, Mace Windu, would not listen, Anakin took him to see Palpatine. There, he revealed to Master Windu that Palpatine was Sidious. Mace Windu confronted Sidious, but was defeated, and Anakin was sworn in as Sidious’ new apprentice, Darth Vader.

Anakin, now Vader, was immediately prompted to travel to Mustafar, to deal with the SIC leaders, however, when he arrived, there were none. He wondered around the planet aimlessly until Padmé arrived. When he found her, they started talking about how he had joined up with Sidious so he could save her. Just as they were started talking, a SIC bomber flew by and Anakin went to investigate, thinking it was Grievous.

When he arrived at the SIC bomber, he discovered that it was in fact Obi-Wan, not Grievous. They started talking and Vader informed Obi-Wan that he had joined up with Sidious but it was only temporary. Obi-Wan felt better knowing it was only temporary and commented on how he would have had to fight Vader if it was not. Vader did not see any harm in fighting, so he suggested that they practice for no apparent reason.

The two of them battled it out on Mustafar, where Obi-Wan accidentally defeated Darth Vader. He had accidentally cut off his clip on hair and left arm while they were battling over a lava stream, and when Obi-Wan was catapulted off the platform, Darth Vader jumped after him and was cut in half. Darth Vader revealed his true Dark Side by yelling at Obi-Wan and blaming him for doing it on purpose. However, he redeemed himself by apologizing shortly after and told Obi-Wan to go get Padmé so they could put him back together.

However, Obi-Wan never returned with Padmé, but instead, Darth Sidious arrived with two clones and took him away on a stretcher. They took him back to the main facility on Mustafar and pieced him back together. There, on Mustafar, Anakin became the true version of Darth Vader, the one that would continue to rule the Galaxy with an iron fist.

In the Death Star
"How ya’ll doin?"

- Anakin, as Vader, when he discovered TK-421 and TK-422 in the firing range

Shortly after the construction for the Death Star was completed, Vader took extra steps to establish some ground rules. The number one most important rule he established and enforced - never take off your helmet. He disliked that he could not because it was his life support, so he prohibited others from doing it to.

The second rule he established was to never hesitate. Hesitation, to him, meant uncertainty. He felt that uncertainty in answering a question would later cause uncertainty on the battlefield. He wanted to teach the troopers to act quickly, no matter the consequences. As a punishment for hesitation, he would often sentence troopers to solitary confinement. He also did this for removing their helmets. Two notable stormtroopers he sentenced to solitary confinement were TK-421 and TK-422.

He had other rules, but did not enforce them as intensely as he did with the first two, and especially the first. A more severe punishment that Vader developed was through troopers into the dianoga pit. It was rumored that Darth Sidious kept a dianoga on board as a pet, and Darth Vader used this as a fear factor. Since dianogas changed color to match their last meal, he would purposefully starve the dianoga to the point where it would turn white, and say that it had just eaten a stormtrooper. It was an effective incentive for troopers not to goof off or rebel.

Rise of the Rebellion
Nineteen years after the transformation of the Republic into the Galactic Domain and Anakin into Darth Vader, a new threat had arisen. A rebellion was being formed by his daughter, Princess Leia Organa, who had been adopted by Bail Organa. Both were activists in the formation of the rebellion, which posed a great threat to the Domain.

After learning that the plans to the Death Star had been stolen, he rounded up some men and immediately went in search of it. He discovered that the plans had been sent to his daughter aboard the Tantive IIVI on Naboo. Vader sent a fleet to take apprehend her before she had a chance to escape, but was unsuccessful. He personally tracked her down aboard his Star Destroyer and caught her above Tatooine.

After capturing Leia, he learned that the plans had supposedly been given to two droids who escaped to the planet below. He sent a search team down to pursue them, however, forgot to tell them what to look for, leaving the search team helpless. Vader returned to the Death Star with Leia in hand, so to speak.

He allowed her roam freely within parts of the Death Star for a short period of time, until Tarkin prohibited it and had her sentenced to a detention cell before she was to be executed. Vader personally escorted her to her cell, where he picked up two stormtroopers who were finishing their sentence of solitary confinement. He took them to the hangar and assigned them the task of guarding the entrance to a newly arrived ship.

He walked off to check back on Leia, only to find out that she had escaped. He reached out with the force to locate her and discovered that his old master was on board as well. He went in search of Obi-Wan and eventually found him after he had disabled the tractor beam. Obi-Wan accused Vader of killing the Jedi, but Vader defended himself by pointing out most of them had either quit or had gone into hiding. He also insisted that they pick up where they left off – since both of them had gotten a little rusty.

Vader and Obi-Wan fought there on the battle station, just like on Mustafar, only slower and less elegant. However, Obi-Wan accidentally turned his lightsaber on backwards, turning himself into a Force ghost. Looking upon the accident, Luke caught only a glimpse and thought it to be Vader’s doing. Vader left the Death Star and returned to his fleet to try and track down Leia, and ultimately Luke, though he did not know Luke was his son.

The Domain strikes back
"So, you have come. It’s a fight – to the death."

- Vader to Luke in the carbonite room on Bespin

Vader immediately set out in search of Luke, after he had destroyed the Death Star, to capture him and bring him to justice. His search led him to Hoth where the rebellion had just established a base, borrowing it from Han Solo. He issued an attack on the base to capture Luke and other rebel leaders. However, they narrowly escaped as the command was too preoccupied searching for the hidden shield generator.

As the rebels attempted to escape, Vader’s flagship caught up with the Millennium Falcon as it left the planet and tracked it into an Asteroid field. It lost the freighter twice, briefly, until Admiral Thrawn figured they were merely hiding out among the fleet. When the Millennium Falcon was discovered by Boba Fett, Thrawn proved his hypothesis and reported back to Vader, informing him that the ship was headed to Bespin.

Vader jumped ahead with his fleet and arrived on Bespin before the Falcon, talking to Lando Calrissian in the mean time. He told Lando that he wished to have a quiet meal with his daughter, Leia, and asked that Lando bring them to him when they arrived. Lando agreed and did as he was told. When the others arrived, Lando escorted them to the dining hall, where Vader waited in stormtroopers to meet them.

They sat down and had a quiet meal, but when the meal was over, Vader had everyone escorted to the carbonite room. While they were in there, they tried to freeze Han, but instead, a carbonite slab of himself was created. Boba Fett requested to take Han to Jabba the Hutt and Vader let him, saying that he wanted the room cleared because he had a meeting shortly afterward.

At that moment, Luke, who had been on Dagobah training to be a Jedi, walked in. Vader had the others rushed out of the room and he confronted Luke there. They got into a debate over the plasticity of each other’s lightsabers, which prevented them from killing one another, and decided to just duel instead. The duel led to the outskirts of Cloud City on Bespin, where Vader succeeded in subduing Luke by cutting off his hand. He went to tell Luke something when the railing supporting Luke broke and he fell off the edge. Vader was shocked by what happened; unsure of what to do next, Vader walked away to return to his shuttle.

His shuttle took him back to his fleet where he waited for Darth Sidious to arrive. In the mean time, Vader found out information of the construction of the Death Star II. When he received word that construction was well on its way, he was able to report the news back to Sidious when he arrived at the fleet. From there, they flew off to witness the construction firsthand.

Path to redemption
When Vader arrived on the Death Star II, despite the station’s construction being slightly behind, he did not punish the commander for falling behind schedule. He had just been talking with Sidious, who was complaining about his mother criticizing his reign, and merely wanted to relax. Shortly after he arrived, Sidious came in.

Vader met Sidious in the main docking bay and informed him that the rebels had been informed of the station’s presence. He reported that many were lost in the process, but not killed. They had taken the wrong exit on the hyperspace lane and got lost.

Shortly after the Rebellion arrived on the Forest Moon of Endor, Luke turned himself in and was taken to the Death Star II, where Vader waited for him. While he was there, Luke confirmed Vader’s vice after he showed Luke the possible destruction of the Rebel fleet. However, when word came in that the shield on Endor was down, Vader returned to his soft side.

Sidious, then, turned his chair around to reveal his presence and encouraged the two to fight, tempting Luke with the Dark Side of the Force. However, Luke had no choice and retaliated against Vader when he attacked him. Vader eventually lost to Luke, and in turn, lost his own hand. Sidious insisted that Luke finish him off, but Luke refused since he knew that Vader was his father. Due to Luke’s defiance, Sidious punished him with Force Lightning.

Seeing how his son was willing to sacrifice himself for his father, he stood back up and grabbed hold of Sidious. He picked him up and threatened to throw him off the ledge. Sidious brought up the contract Vader made with him, pledging his loyalty. However, Vader pulled out the contract and read the fine print, revealing that on the last day of 4 ABY Vader was released from the contract.

At that moment, Thrawn walked in shouting “Happy New Year”. With that, Vader tossed Palpatine off the ledge in Padmé’s name and removed his helmet. He was once again Anakin Skywalker, Jedi Master, from the time of the Clone Wars. Sidious returned one last time to finish off Anakin and Luke, explaining that Anakin had merely thrown him off the platform. Sidious was defeated and Anakin returned to Endor with Luke to celebrate the Rebel victory.

Personality and traits
"Anakin Skywalker, the bratty kid from right around here, why did you wreck my speeder?"

- Watto

On Tatooine, Anakin was treated as a bratty kid, often blamed for things he did not do. Despite what people thought, Anakin was very humble, receiving every blow and rebuke with humility. He was slow to rebuke. Outsiders, like Qui-Gon, appreciated this and would step in to defend the boy. He was apt to learn whatever he could while he could, whether it was ridiculous or not, accepting it as true. This became apparent when Qui-Gon gave him the four points to being a Jedi.

He was also affectionate. This was his main insecurity and would often be too forward when confronting women. An example of this was when he asked Padmé to marry him shortly after seeing her. Though he claimed love-at-first-sight, their relationship needed time to blossom before she was willing to accept him. His insecurity was also built on the fact that he could not channel his powers into his ability to pilot, often blaming it for his poor discernment and bad actions.

Anakin was known, as well, for his loyalty. Even though he may not have agreed with what was happening at the time, his devotion to the promises he made was top priority. This eventually led him to the Dark Side as he promised to keep Padmé safe, joining with Sidious to complete that. However, when his contract with Sidious was done, he did not hesitate to leave and seek other means of protecting her.

Powers and abilities
Anakin Skywalker had the unique and uncanny ability to predict future events and know exactly what would happen. With this ability, Anakin managed to learn the true identity of Palpatine, Darth Sidious, and that he was the mastermind behind it all. He persisted in informing everyone else, but was shut out as no one wanted to hear it. They felt that details of such importance should not be spoken as to ruin the affect.

Anakin, on top of this unique feat, the basic Force powers present in all Jedi. He could manage Force Push, Force Pull, Force Jump, and Force Speed with ease and skill. However, his ability to channel the powers to his talents was slim. Because of this, he had trouble piloting a vehicle. He thought too much about the process and never let anything simply flow from his mind.

During his time on the Council, and after becoming a Master at the same time, Anakin soon learned the ancient Chinese secret dialect. He started off slow, but since he had been around Obi-Wan for so long, it did not take him long to learn it. Once he got through the first few weeks, he became a master as transiting between the dialect and his normal accent, like his master Obi-Wan.

Behind the scenes
The creators of The Fanon Menace entitled Anakin the bratty young slave boy from Tatooine, which was inspired by the actor who played the character in George Lucas’ Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Jake Lloyd. At the time of filming Season 1: Part 1, the creators decided to give Anakin the uncanny ability to know everything just to throw a spin into the series, and originally, no one was going to be able to hear Padmé. However, the creators corrected this after reviewing the draft for Part 1, realizing that the relationship between Anakin and her would be hard to maintain if one could only hear the other.

Later on, for A Day in the Life of a Stormtrooper, the creators decided to which actors for the voice, Joshua McGraw playing Anakin, and have Seth Hoover do the voice for Darth Vader. The decision was made as Anakin’s voice was supposed to change due to the suit. The creators gave Vader a new title, the beat to Imperial March, which was played in the background every time his name and title were spoken; similar to Obi-Wan’s amazing Jedi back flip. This was introduced in Season 2, and only used once throughout the season, in the first episode.

To record Vader’s voice, actor/director Seth Hoover spoke into a glass cup. This was used to muffle the voice as well as give it a hollow sound. However, due to the reverb from the cup, the audio level had to be lowered in order to prevent it from peaking too high and cutting off. This required individual audio editing every time Vader spoke. The only other characters to need this were Chewbacca, because of his growl, and Jabba the Hutt, because his lines were played backwards and slowed down. Anakin/Darth Vader was also the only character to be voiced by two different people in the same episode.

Appearances

 * Season 1 of The Fanon Menace
 * The Fanon Menace: A Day in the Life of a Stormtrooper (officially first time as Darth Vader)
 * Season 2 of The Fanon Menace (as Darth Vader)