Rebellion and Revolution of Anakin Skywalker
Rebellion is a major theme in the Star Wars saga. In the original trilogy, the entire narrative arc consists of the story of the rebel alliance, led by Luke and the other protagonists, taking down the empire. Luke, a farm boy on a remote planet in the outer rim, yearns for adventure, to join the rebellion maybe (even before the empire murders his aunt and uncle). Han Solo is a smuggler who rebels by simply not abiding by the Empire’s laws. Before all of them, there is Anakin, who goes through many different stages and types of rebellion. This paper seeks to examine the way Anakin fits into Camus’ model of a rebel and the way these rebellious impulses become corrupted and lead him down a violent path as a murderous revolutionary. This analysis is both an interesting way of understanding one of the most important characters in the saga, Anakin/Darth Vader, and also applicable to the real world.
Anakin Skywalker embodies, at different times in his life, many characteristics of the rebel as Camus defines it. Applying Camus’ ideas from The Rebel to Anakin’s life and choices helps explain many of his decisions and actions. One of Camus’ ideas that applies is the distinction between rebellion and revolution. [1] He discusses this idea in the context of historical rebellions. [2] Another concept that relates to Camus’ ideas about revolution is that of cycles of abuse or oppression, wherein the abused becomes the abuser, the oppressed becomes the oppressor. Lastly, the final applicable concept is metaphysical rebellion, a type of rebellion against nature itself. [3]
First, Albert Camus makes a definite distinction between rebellion and revolution in his essay The Rebel. Rebellion is the act of turning toward one’s oppressor and saying “no more,” “up to this point yes, beyond it no.” [4] The rebel refuses to accept the continuation of a long string of offenses, of intolerable infringements against his rights. Beyond blind disobedience, he disobeys on the basis of a refusal to accept some higher moral wrong. A rebel is a slave rebelling against the violation of his rights, of his liberty, and affirming that he has a right to be free, to not be enslaved. Revolution, on the other hand, is a revolt against a government that is behaving unjustly but with the explicit objective of instituting a new government to replace it. [5] Rebellion does not imply anything beyond the moment of rebellion, it is “by nature, limited in scope. It is no more than an incoherent pronouncement.” [6] It ends at the point of rebellion. In contrast, a revolution implies the existence of a plan to be implemented after the revolt. It contains “the absolute certainty of a new form of government.” [7] Being a revolutionary means one has a desire or plan to become the ruler, and thus the oppressor.
When applied to Anakin, these concepts correlate to different moments in his transformation from a young Padawan to an accomplished Jedi to a Sith apprentice who leads a revolution against the galactic republic. [8] He had been a slave as a child, and seen the horrors of war firsthand from a very young age. As a young Padawan he sees slavery and rampant organized crime in the outer rim. As a result he desires to end slavery and bring peace to the galaxy. [9] He sees injustice in the world and rejects it; he refuses to accept it and wishes to become powerful enough to fight back and rebel against it. During this phase he is a rebel because he simply refuses to accept what he sees as wrong and wishes to rebel against it; he does not have any plans beyond abolishing the oppressive system.
From the moment he joins Palpatine, having assisted him in murdering Mace Windu, [10] Anakin becomes a part of a revolution. They plan to overthrow the political establishment of the Senate and the Jedi Order and then institute a new government. Despite revolution being the “logical consequence of metaphysical rebellion,” [11] the two are incompatible with each other. A revolutionary is at the beginning simultaneously a rebel, but a true rebel ends up taking sides against the revolution since “every revolutionary ends by becoming either an oppressor or a heretic,” [12] The two attitudes are caught in contradiction as he who was a rebel, and denounced his oppressor, becomes the oppressor himself. When Palpatine recruits him as his apprentice, Anakin begins working toward a total restructuring of political power in the galactic government. Initially they rebel against the status quo rulership of the Jedi Order and the Republic, but then later the objective becomes the concentration of power and the establishment of a galactic empire with Palpatine at the helm. This causes a contradiction, and therefore Anakin becomes a revolutionary and not a rebel. And as Camus discusses in his section on historical rebellion, revolutions almost always leads to more oppression, not less.
In his section on “historical rebellion,” Camus discusses the historical phenomenon where violent revolutions result not in an improvement of the condition of the people, but instead in a growth of the oppressive state, or more precisely the creation of a new, even more oppressive state (e.g. the Soviet Union, Mao’s China, Khmer Rouge, etc.). [13] This is essentially the society scale version of the tendency of parents who themselves were abused as children to abuse their children—the vicious cycle of abused turned abuser and oppressed turned oppressor. Perfectly analogous to Anakin’s progression, this is exactly what happens in the Star Wars saga. The Galactic Empire becomes far more oppressive than the earlier Galactic Republic had been, and Anakin (Darth Vader) becomes its enforcer, an intimidating symbol of its dominance.
Over the course of his life, Anakin goes from being an oppressed slave boy to the enforcement arm of a brutal imperial regime via revolution. Anakin is abused and treated as a subordinate by everyone. In barely a single moment of his life is Anakin not in some sort of oppressive relationship. As a child he is a literal slave, working as a mechanic for Watto on Tatooine. [14] Qui-Gon Jinn frees him only for him to become what is essentially a slave to the Jedi order. [15] With its oppressive amount of rules, regulating everything from what they are allowed to study to their relationships, and the requirement that they refer to their teachers as “master,” a Jedi’s life is hardly free, especially considering that the children are not given a choice of whether to become a Jedi. Jedi are taken away from their homes at an extremely young age and raised in the cult-like religion of the Jedi order. Furthermore, the Jedi order held him back from reaching his true potential because they were afraid of his power. After finally breaking free from that repressive cult, he immediately became the apprentice, and therefore servant, to Darth Sidious.
Considering this long line of master/slave relationship in which he is controlled and oppressed, it is no surprise that he repeatedly lashes out in acts of unnecessary brutality, beginning in episode 3 during the purge of the Jedi:
And continuing after he becomes Darth Vader:
He absorbs and internalizes the oppression he endures and then unleashes it on the world once he is the one in power, which, coincidentally, perfectly aligns with the sith philosophy of transforming one’s pain into anger and that anger into power instead of taking measures to heal oneself. He fails to emotionally deal with his pain earlier in his life, which may have added to his inability to accept the reality of death.
In the end, what turns Anakin to the dark side is not temptation, anger, hate, or lust for power, but his refusal to accept Padme’s imminent death.16 This is a near perfect example of what Albert Camus calls metaphysical rebellion, which he defines as “the movement by which man protests against his condition and against the whole of creation.” [17] He refuses to accept the natural order of the universe, to accept
the reality of death. He truly is “protesting against…the whole of creation.” As a result, his only desire is to acquire the power to use the Force to manipulate the midichlorians in order to prevent Padme from dying during childbirth.
This causes him to totally submit to the dark side of the force and to his new master, Darth Sidious, who promises to teach him how to do this. [18]
Anakin exemplifies rebellion at its best. He demonstrates a downfall of rebellion into violent and futile revolution. And he shows what a metaphysical revolt against nature looks like. Anakin and his transformation through the films perfectly illustrate the crucial difference between a rebel and a revolutionary. He is also a good example of the phenomenon where the oppressed becomes the oppressor as Camus described in his historical rebellion chapter. Analysing Anakin’s downfall through this lens shows the importance of the ideas in The Rebel and how they can offer insights worthy of serious consideration when facing decisions in real life. While Anakin’s specific experience is obviously unique to the Star Wars universe, the fundamental decisions and situations he is faced with are relevant to and have parallels in the real world. Applying what we learn from this and how everything plays out for Anakin could help us with our own decisions in life.
Written by Luca Barton-Cain
Luca Barton-Cain asserts that in the Star Wars prequel movies, Episodes I, II, and III, Anakin’s rebellious impulses against the Jedi Order become corrupted and turn him into a murderous revolutionary. This follows his transition from Jedi to Sith. However, I believe that Anakin is essentially only a metaphysical rebel during the prequels. Anakin’s lack of healing over loss in his own life creates an existential struggle, allowing him to be manipulated by Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious, despite his desire to take the middle way, or that of a Grey Jedi—neither completely Dark nor Light.
In his paper titled “Can Jedi Be Rebels?” (9), Lance Tebay states that while Anakin Skywalker is not a rebel because of his adherence to the tenets of either the Jedi Order or Sith Order, Luke Skywalker rebels against the Jedi and Sith by becoming a Grey Jedi instead. According to Lance, Grey Jedi are “ the jedi that walk the line between the light and the dark without giving into either side.” Mentally, Anakin operates in the space between the two Orders’ rules and value systems, joining the Dark Side because it seems the most likely to help him save the ones he loves, not out of a fundamental belief in its dogma. When the Dark Side harms his son Luke, he defects back to the Light Side by killing Sidious (Episode VI: Return of the Jedi).
Anakin is not a rebel against the Jedi Order, but against the nature of life itself. As Luca states, his refusal to accept the death of his loved ones is what drives him to the Dark Side and allows Palpatine/Sidious to manipulate him in the first place, not just his defiance or rebellious feelings towards the Jedi Order. It is even possible to see Anakin as a rebel against the dichotomy of Sith and Jedi. Instead of being primarily worried about who controls the galaxy, Anakin’s primary directive is saving Padme. This may have been possible if the Jedi and Sith did not deal in absolutes and instead recognized that parts of both the Light and Dark Sides of the Force are useful.
Palpatine uses Anakin’s fear, not just his rebellious anti-Jedi instincts, to manipulate him into a revolutionary who uses violence in service of a revolution. In The Rebel, Camus claims that if a rebel does not strike against his oppressor, he is not a rebel. Anakin only ever uses violence against the Jedi Order in service of Palpatine/Sidious and his revolution. Therefore, Anakin’s lack of violent rebellious action against the Jedi Order means that Anakin is not a rebel against the Jedi Order.
Even if he is not a rebel against the Jedi Order, Anakin could be considered a metaphysical rebel when he refuses to accept his mother’s death and instead murders an entire village of sand people in retaliation (Episode II: Attack of the Clones). In fact, his deepest motivation for violence throughout the prequel series is revealed to be fear of loss. Anakin Skywalker ultimately becomes Darth Vader because he loses his mother and is afraid to lose Padme. As Luca puts it, he “fails to emotionally deal with his pain earlier in his life, which may have added to his inability to accept the reality of death” (9). The Jedi Order’s inability to help him accept the loss of his mother and move past the fear of losing Padme leads to their downfall.
Though Anakin is certainly angry at the Jedi Order as an institution, this is because they could have done more to help him redirect his violent metaphysical rebellion into becoming a more powerful and balanced Jedi, but they did not. Instead this impulse is manipulated by Palpatine/Sidious into a violent revolution and necessitates the training of a new Jedi, Luke Skywalker.
Works Cited:
Barton-Cain, Luca. “Rebellion and Revolution of Anakin Skywalker.” 2017.
Camus, Albert. The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt. Vintage International, 1991.
Star Wars: Episode II: Attack of the Clones. Dir. George Lucas. 20th Century Fox Film Corp., 2002.
Star Wars, Episode III, Revenge of the Sith. By George Lucas. Dir. George Lucas. Prod. George Lucas and Rick McCallum. 20th Century Fox, 2005. DVD.
Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi. Dir. George Lucas. Lucasfilm Ltd, 1983. DVD.
Tebay, Lance. “Can Jedi Be Rebels?” 2017.