Anakin Skywalkeris undeniably partially responsible for his fall to the dark side, but I still believe the Jedi are largely to blame for Anakin's fate in Star Wars. Anakin Skywalker's turn to the dark side is one of the most important moments in the Star Wars timeline. Although Palpatine's plan was already well underway, Anakin's fall and the birth of Darth Vader cemented the end of the Jedi Order and the Republic and the emergence of the Galactic Empire.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace shocked viewers by revealing that this wasn't always Anakin's nature, though. When Anakin first appeared in the prequel trilogy, he was just a young boy, trapped on Tatooine in slavery alongside his mother. Rather than already seeming like the Sith Lord he would become, Anakin was innocent, kind, and thoughtful. In light of that, Anakin Skywalker's Star Wars timeline reveals the influence the Jedi had on Anakin's path, alongside other factors such as his love for Padmé, Palpatine's manipulations, and Anakin's own traits.
In The Phantom Menace, Anakin Skywalker Was A Relatively Normal Child
Anakin Was Strong With The Force, But He Had No Signs Of The Dark Side
George Lucas very intentionally made Anakin a sweet, compassionate young boy in The Phantom Menace. This ended up becoming one of the main complaints about the prequel trilogy, as many had hoped or at least expected Anakin to be a powerful Force-user and perhaps a burgeoning Sith Lord even in his backstory. Lucas wanted to use Anakin's story to show that even the most innocent can be twisted into someone evil when put in the right circumstances.
George Lucas very intentionally made Anakin a sweet, compassionate young boy in
The Phantom Menace
.
Whether intentional or not, those circumstances ended up having plenty to do with the Jedi themselves. Anakin was brought to the Jedi Temple by Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace. At 9 years old, he had never known anything other than a fairly typical family dynamic with his mother, which included love and, yes, attachment. Despite Qui-Gon being the one to ask the Jedi to break their rule about the age of Jedi Initiates, it was Anakin who was treated as though he was on trial.
Anakin stood before the Council, who questioned him about his feelings of fear and missing his mother. Although the Jedi are meant to lead with compassion, they failed to see how Anakin's emotions were only natural; Anakin hadn't been raised in the Temple, so there would be no reason for him to have resisted forming an attachment to his mother. Rather than take that into account, the Jedi treated him as a threat. Yoda specifically told Anakin that these feelings he had could lead to the dark side—a terrifying concept for someone new to the Force and the Jedi.
Anakin Skywalker's Life In The Jedi Order Was One Of Isolation
Outside Of Master And Apprentice Dynamics, Anakin Didn't Have A Friend Or Ally
The Jedi eventually accepted Anakin into the Jedi Order, although only after they had rejected him and then changed their minds following Qui-Gon Jinn's death. That initial rejection continued to be felt by Anakin long after his acceptance into the Order (arguably, that feeling never went away and was partly behind Anakin's resentment of the Jedi in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith). Anakin's existence in the Order was therefore one in which he felt isolated and ostracized.
Although the Jedi Council initially rejected Anakin from the Jedi Order, they changed their mind once Obi-Wan Kenobi was going to be his master.
That sense of isolation and feeling of being an outsider was also clear in the relationships Anakin formed when he was at the Jedi Temple. Anakin became quite close with Obi-Wan Kenobi as his Jedi Master, and he eventually became very close with his own Padawan, Ahsoka Tano. Outside those two master and apprentice relationships, however, Anakin's only close connection was Padmé. This no doubt intensified the already very intense feelings Anakin had for Padmé and made him that much more desperate to keep her alive, lest he lose the one person he felt genuinely close to.
When he lived on Tatooine, Anakin not only had a bond with his mother but also had a friend.
This loneliness was brand-new to Anakin, though. When he lived on Tatooine, Anakin not only had a bond with his mother but also had a friend. Kitster, another child on Tatooine, was Anakin's best friend and someone who supported him even when the odds were very much stacked against him. It would make sense for Anakin to have gone on and developed friendships at the Temple, but perhaps as a direct result of Anakin seeming so different, he never developed bonds like that within the Order outside the master and apprentice to whom he was assigned.
This sense of ostracization was compounded by the pedestal upon which Anakin was placed as the Chosen One. Anakin was at once seen as a danger to the Jedi Order and the prophesied being who was meant to bring balance to the Force and destroy the Sith, essentially safeguarding the future of the Jedi. It's not difficult to see why Anakin never felt as though he was truly accepted or why he felt so alone.
The Jedi Order Constantly Pushed Anakin In Terrible Ways
The Jedi Didn't Tread Carefully, Despite Their Concerns About Anakin
The tensions between Anakin and the Jedi (especially the Council) extended far beyond just Anakin's rocky introduction in The Phantom Menace or even their continued wariness of him. Star Wars: The Clone Wars revealed that the Jedi were willing to cause Anakin distress if it served their purposes. This was most evident when they tricked Anakin (and everyone else) into believing that Obi-Wan had died.
Unsurprisingly, the 'death' of Obi-Wan was brutally painful for Anakin. In addition to this being an odd choice because it could very easily have led to Anakin falling to the dark side (which the Jedi should have considered, given their larger concerns about Anakin), this was simply a cruelty. Anakin believed his former master, someone he truly cared about, had died, and it was all a lie the Jedi came up with to achieve their own ends.
The echoes of this incident were almost certainly felt by Anakin when the Jedi asked him to spy on Palpatine for them in Revenge of the Sith. He already had reason to doubt the Jedi at that point and believed they were willing to lie and deceive. It makes sense, especially in light of his bond with Palpatine, that when he was asked to spy on the Chancellor, his doubts about the Jedi grew.
Even Just Before His Fall, The Jedi Doubted Anakin Skywalker
Anakin Spent Years Trying To Prove Himself, But It Wasn't Enough
Anakin was not a perfect Jedi. There were many moments when he exhibited emotions (particularly ones associated with the dark side) that should have been of concern to the Jedi. This is true even without the Jedi knowing some of Anakin's most egregious acts, such as the massacre of the Tusken Raiders, or how gravely he had gone against the Jedi way by marrying Padmé.
Yet, Anakin also worked for years to prove his loyalty to the Jedi and the Republic. This was especially true throughout the Clone Wars, during which he fought valiantly on the frontlines. When it came down to it, and in spite of his doubts, Anakin also did take the side of the Jedi over Palpatine when Palpatine finally revealed that he was a Sith Lord in Revenge of the Sith.
When Anakin informed Mace Windu of the truth about Palpatine, however, it only reinforced that the Jedi (or, at the very least, Mace Windu) never truly trusted Anakin. In response to Anakin bringing him this information, Mace Windu told Anakin that if what he said was proven true, Anakin would have earned his trust. On the one hand, this reveals that, even at that moment, Mace doubted Anakin and what he was telling him. More surprisingly, Mace's comments prove that, despite everything that had happened since The Phantom Menace, Anakin had yet to earn Mace's trust.
Mace's comments prove that, despite everything that had happened since
The Phantom Menace
, Anakin had yet to earn Mace's trust.
I don't believe Anakin is blameless, of course. He committed numerous acts throughout the prequels and even in The Clone Wars that prove he had long struggled against the dark side. Even so, the Jedi's treatment of Anakin, particularly as a threat from such a young age, left Anakin feeling isolated and ostracized. This, combined with the Jedi never truly trusting Anakin and making decisions that undermined his trust in them, contributed to his fall. While the Jedi are not entirely to blame, they did have a major impact on Anakin Skywalker's turn to the dark side in Star Wars.
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