Anakin's official history

It's only speculation and hypothesis, but with new films coming soon, specially the standalone films that could fit within the timeframe of the OT, I think there are some things that could (or should) be approached, and would be nice to discuss or speculate, at least, between us the fans.

I named the thread official history, because I believe there are many plot holes regarding what the galaxy knows and supposes about the events between ROTS and ROTJ; some of them, as Vader "betraying" the Emperor have been recently brought up in reddit, but there are others that could as well be used as significant plot devices:

a) How much does the galaxy know about Jedi General Anakin Skywalker, (who in old cannon was wide known as "the hero with no fear")? Is his reputation wide known?

b) Why is Vader so secretive about his identity considering that, had Mustafar never happened, his identity would have been public? Which leads us to

c) What is all that stuff about Vader's double personality, and referring to himself in third person? Vader IS Anakin Skywalker, and he knows it in the films, he says "I am your father". When he denies being Anakin in ROTJ, it could well be a metaphor of his election of the Dark Side to Luke.

d) If Anakin Skywalker, widely known as a war figure across the galaxy officially "died" in Coruscant, how comes he is no martyr to the rebellion, or never gets even mentioned, except as a "great pilot"?

e) If the Rebels held Anakin's figure as a martyr, how would that impact on Vader?

f)If Vader's identity was known, how would that impact on Luke between the rebels

g) How comes no one outside the rebellion recognizes/associates Luke Skywalker with the other "mythical" Skywalker that freed planets in the clone wars.

h) If this happened, how would that impact on Vader?

i) Would anyone who knew Darth Vader's identity inside the Rebelion (read Ahsoka or ObiWan if at some point he joins for some mission in the new cannon) keep it a secret, if Anakin's figure was to be held in high regard for morale of the troops?

Again, the whole double identity of Anakin Skywalker/Vader wasn't in the original plans of the emperor. From what is seen in the PT, you can tell that there is never such a pronounced double identity in Dooku/Tyrannus or Sidious/Palpatine; and even if it is the suit what allows it, Skywalker/Vader is something that could really not have happened.

Then why is Anakin so secretive about it? It seems way too convenient for the plot.

Vader in the OT never references Anakin in any direct way.  He only references him in the ESB SE during the new Palpatine segment

He only says "That name no longer has any meaning for me".  That part of himself is gone, or so he thought.  But that's not really referring to himself in 3rd person.

The Rebels Season 2 premiere has him referring to Anakin in the 3rd person.  I think that's the first time we hear Vader refer to him as a separate person.  I'd say that's a rare error on Filoni's end.

As for the republic knowing about Anakin, that character basically disappeared after Order 66.  It's doubtful most people of the galaxy put Vader and Anakin together as the same person.

As for Luke Skywalker, maybe it's a common name or not a rare name in the galaxy.  Or the people on Tatooine like Wormie and Fixer just don't care.  When ANH was written, Luke's father was simply a great pilot and jedi so his son living on some backwater planet is not that far fetched.

The answer is almost always, "Because George Lucas was working without a story bible and was not very good at fitting things together on the fly."  Other then that, there have been numerous cringe-worthy retcons over the years that explain all of this.  Now that those retcons have been relegated to legend status, feel free to just make up a theory.  No matter how crazy it seems, it won't be less believable than what they are sure to inevitably come up with.  

This makes me wonder... how many people/aliens/intelligent life with names are there in a galaxy?

unamochilla2 said:

This makes me wonder... how many people/aliens/intelligent life with names are there in a galaxy?

Depends on the size of the galaxy and how many life-supporting planets/non-planetary environments there are in the galaxy. =P 

And how many people/aliens/intelligent lifeforms there are in the galaxy. :P

ray_afraid said:

ratpack1961 said:

As for Luke Skywalker, maybe it's a common name or not a rare name in the galaxy.  Or the people on Tatooine like Wormie and Fixer just don't care.

 Isn't Wormie Luke's nickname?
And how do ya think he got that nickname?
Does he often eat bad foods that give him worms?
Something to do with sandwordms? (I hate those things, huhhuh.)
Is it ever mentioned anywhere?
Can I ask some more questions?

 Yep, your right! Wormie was Luke.  I should have said Fixer and Windy (the girl).

I think we definitely need a Wormie explanation.  Lucas needs to start using twitter so we can bug him with this kind of thing.

Obviously what happened was Lucas wasn't really sure what the deal was. Probably the main reason he deleted the mention of red leader referring to Luke's father in the SE because he didn't know what he would do with the Anakin in the PT. If you go by the old EU things are certainly complicated. Been reading a bit and apparently Anakin and Obi-Wan were like the biggest heroes of the clone wars. But there isn't actually any indication of that in the films. From the perspective of the movies Anakin could easily have been seen as just another jedi, and one who was killed by Vader during the purge. OT or PT Tatooine is a remote planet that likely doesn't get many jedi visitors so I doubt anyone there would know of Anakin. 

As far as the split personality thing goes, as others have said in the movies it's more like "Anakin isn't my name anymore." Referring to himself in third person as he does in the EU (and the Emperor sort of makes it sounds like they're two different people in the SE) is more of a metaphorical thing that fits with Obi-Wan's certain point of view speech. As for why Vader seemed to adopt a new identity unlike Palpatine or Dooku, well those two kept their names for political purposes. Anakin could have still pretended to be Anakin after he turned (the propaganda being that the hero of the republic has become the hero of the empire) but with the addition of the suit I think he was given a rebranding as a symbol of terror that strikes fear into the hearts of the remaining jedi and rebels. If that's what Palpatine was going for with the suit makeover then it makes sense that the hero Anakin persona would be dropped in favor of a cold and faceless imperial killing machine.