What Really Turned Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader: A Buddhist Take on Star Wars

Being a Buddhist has made me look at the Star Wars franchise through a Buddhist lens, including its characters. In the original Star Wars trilogy, Darth Vader is depicted as a ruthless, treacherous, formidable villain. In the Skywalker saga, we see what events led Anakin Skywalker to the dark side. While we can say numerous factors contributed to his Sith ways, it’s not so much the events or people Anakin faced, but the emotions and thoughts that led to his future actions. Both Jedi and Buddhists share the belief that positive emotions and thoughts can bring enlightenment and alleviate suffering.

In Buddhism, suffering isn’t only about illness, aging, and death; we accept these as a part of life and something everyone will experience. The suffering in Buddhism is more about the things that make us happy, like our pleasures, and the things that don’t make us happy, our displeasures. Whether something gives us happiness or not; ultimately, it leads to the three unwholesome roots in Buddhism: greed, aversion, and delusion. Darth Vader is the accumulation of the three roots, and to some extent, we have remnants of Darth Vader in us.

Anakin’s Greed Was Holding On Too Much

Greed is much more broad than what people think. In Buddhism, greed has to do with our desires, specifically, our desire to give us pleasure. Attack of the Clones is where we see Anakin’s greed. Greed for Anakin wasn’t just about having more power; although he eventually admits to that, it is clear that Anakin is attached to those close to him like his mother and Padmè. I want to be clear that Anakin falling in love with Padmè did not cause him to become Darth Vader; however, his inability to let go of his attachments did. While our attachments give us pleasure, they do not last, and everything in this world is impermanent. His fear of losing loved ones made him want to become a powerful Jedi, so he could learn how to stop people from dying. Anakin’s fear of pain and death makes him a relatable character for us all, which is what makes his dark transformation a tragedy. What we can learn from Anakin is even what we think are selfless desires are facades of not accepting what already is.

Aversion Pushed Anakin Away From Those He Cared About

Aversion is the manifestation of anger, hatred, and violence. Darth Vader is, if not all of the above, on the aversion scale; it is Darth Vader’s anger that made him menacing but made him a powerful Sith. George Lucas wasn’t even subtle when showing the Darth Vader tantrums in the young Anakin. But what we can see in Attack of the Clones and all theRevenge of the Sith, is often Anakin is angry when he’s passionate about protecting people. But more notably, he gets frustrated when he’s not in control. For example, Anakin has felt overshadowed by Obi-Wan, even going as far as to say that his master is holding him back. As time goes by, and with the help of Darth Sidious, Anakin’s anger manifests toward hatred for Obi-Wan.

Apparently, in the deleted scenes in Revenge of the Sith, Sidious planted seeds of doubt about Padmè’s faithfulness and suggested Padmè and Obi-Wan had a relationship of their own (feel free to disagree with this statement since it’s a deleted scene; it can be an open interpretation of Anakin’s doubts). This leads us to the infamous Mustafar scene. At this point, Anakin feels betrayed by the Jedi, his master, and possibly Padmè; basically, everything he thought was good. This is why the violence Anakin inflicts at the Jedi Temple, in his mind, is for the greater good since he thinks the Jedi are corrupt. Here’s food for thought: before Anakin and Obi-Wan battle, it seemed like initially, Anakin was willing to kill Obi-Wan not because he heated him but because he would have gotten in his way, which is why he said: “You’re either with me or against me.” It’s until after Obi-Wan leaves him for dead; correct me, if I’m wrong, he tells him he hates him. A key takeaway from Anakin’s aversion is to be mindful of our thoughts and not let our anger envelop us to the point of hatred.

Delusion Was Anakin Skywalker’s Enemy

Delusion in Buddhism is described to be a mental darkness, a blocking of clear thinking. In other words, ignorance. Ignorance is the root of our suffering. Ignorance misleads our understanding of reality. It derails our acceptance of impermanence, and ignorance is what fuels our greed and anger. Anakin Skywalker has proven to be ignorant whenever he gets emotionally attached and angry. But where we see Anakin most ignorant is in his efforts to not let his visions of Padmè dying from childbirth come true. This leads to one of my favorite quotes from Yoda: “You have to train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.” This advice actually would have made Anakin not ignorant and accept that death and pain are a natural part of life. But Anakin is convinced that his mother died because he wasn’t powerful enough to save her, which is why he felt he had to become powerful to save Padmè. His ignorance of not accepting how things are in the present, rather than worrying about the future and mourning the past, had made him susceptible to Darth Sidious's influence, further distorting Anakin’s perceptions of the Jedi council. I also found it interesting that in Anakin’s first vision of Padmè, she cries, “Help me, Anakin,” which she never said. This could suggest that Sidious was also manipulating Anakin’s visions of Padmè’s death. Either way, he let his fear of loss outweigh the goodness in him.

Conclusion

After analyzing Darth Vader’s character, I understand more than ever that we choose the path we take, and that nothing is predestined. We can argue that it’s inevitable to be caught up in greed, anger, and delusion, but not impossible to overcome. If we fall victim to the very things that destroy our good judgment, then we’ll be the ones writing our tragedies. Don’t be a Darth Vader.