Anakin Skywalker is perhaps the most crucial person in the entire Star Wars Galaxy. He is the chosen one, the one that the prophecy proclaimed would bring balance to the Force, and ultimately the most tragic character in the entirety of the Star Wars franchise. The story of Anakin and his character is key to the story of the movies, and his traits, tendencies, and temperament shape the Galaxy.
Anakin's fall to the Dark Side was not entirely his fault; there were a lot of contributing factors to his turn that were out of his control. Nevertheless, Anakin was still prone to doing the wrong thing. So, here are ten mistakes Anakin Skywalker made - that we can learn from.
Rushing into a fight with dooku
Anakin's hotheadedness, lack of patience, and tendency to ignore Obi-Wan's advice and commands is something seen frequently throughout the Clone War era. In Attack Of The Clones, Anakin rushes into a lightsaber duel with Dooku he was far from ready for and loses a hand for his troubles.
He got cocky. Anakin believed he could take Dooku and had such a level of anger towards in he rushed in without taking a minute to strategize, to think about the situation, and listen to the advice of someone trying to aid him (Obi-Wan), someone much wiser.
Losing His Lightsaber
Despite Obi-Wan's comments in Attack Of The Clones, Anakin Skywalker only owned two lightsabers, with Vader holding a third. Nevertheless, Anakin constantly was losing his lightsaber and lost his first one permanently.
Obi-Wan drilled it into Anakin, and Anakin drilled it into Ahsoka the importance of the lightsaber to a Jedi. It is clumsy and reckless of Anakin to keep losing it. What we can take from this is that when something is drilled into you so much, listen, and try and be careful with the essential things, and less clumsy.
Not Confiding in Obi-Wan
The romance between Padmé and Anakin is poorly executed in the prequel trilogy, beautifully tragic in the idea, and improved upon in The Clone Wars. It has been hinted at on many occasions, most recently and obviously in season seven of the clone wars, that Obi-Wan has an idea of the couple.
We see that when Obi-Wan tells Anakin, he hopes he told Padmé hello from him, that Anakin is visibly annoyed, not wanting him to know about Padmé. It is unlikely but, had he trusted Obi-Wan and told him that he would have had him banished from the Jedi Order, they were brothers. Had Anakin told Obi-Wan, perhaps Obi-Wan could have helped his dreams, his fears, and who knows what would have happened. It teaches us to put some more trust in the people that have earned it, and even maybe ask for help.
Slaughtering The Tusken Raiders
Anakin's infamous slaughter of the Tusken Raiders is a critical moment in his life and his fall to the Dark Side of the Force. It follows the death of his mother and shows us his first real cinematic flurry of anger and hatred.
It was a massive mistake by Anakin. Understandably, emotions were high at that moment; it is even understandable that he wanted them all dead. But, in the grand scheme of things, slaughtering a whole village, which included children was wrong. Other than not killing a village, it teaches us two wrongs do not make a right, and neither does vicious violence.
Mistrusting Padmé
Anakin's jealousy when it comes to Padmé comes up a couple of times, mainly when talking of past romances. These are just examples of a seeming mistrust Anakin has towards Padmé at points.
The most severe point of mistrust, of course, comes as Anakin has just begun his reign as Darth Vader, and is still transitioning into it. He Force chokes Padmé when Obi-Wan comes off her ship, assuming she had led him there to kill Anakin. Anakin's mistrust of Padmé, as well as his jealousy, shows that we really should put more faith in loved ones, especially those who have earned it and to realize how unhealthy it is to be jealous to such an extreme extent.
Constantly Using Heart-Over-Head
There are so many examples of Anakin allowing his emotion to take over him and immediately siding with his heart, rather than stepping out of the moment to look at the bigger picture. His obsessiveness with Padmé, or his willingness to sacrifice everything to run and be the hero, or to run and save an individual he cares about when he could wait and plan accordingly.
It is, of course, ok to think with your heart, but Anakin takes it to the extreme on a lot of occasions, specifically through the Clone War. It shows us that while it is ok to use your emotions as a guide, you sometimes need to take a step back, think with your head, and look at the bigger picture.
Impatience & Arrogance with the jedi
To say Anakin had his issues with the Jedi High Council is an understatement. There were points where the Jedi's ancient ideologies held back Anakin's life and times when Anakin's impatience led to more tension and mistrust from council members, his arrogant nature never helped.
Anakin's comments on being better than this or that Jedi, or this or that Jedi holding him back, only served to aid his fall to the Dark Side. So too did his impatience with getting on the Council. Confidence is reasonable, cockiness is not, and a little patience goes a long way - even if you are harshly done by - it is a simple mistake, one that played a part in costing Anakin his life.
Trusting Palpatine
It is arguably unfair to say that Anakin's trust of Palpatine is his fault. After all, Palpatine befriended him from childhood, picked away at his mind, and seduced him to the Dark Side. However, Anakin's constant, almost blind trust to the Supreme Chancellor at every turn cannot be ignored.
The Jedi were always wary about Palpatine and could sense there was something dark surrounding him. Anakin though defended him at every turn. You should not just be mistrusting towards friends. Still, at the same time, you must be mindful of who you surround yourself with and take into consideration the opinions of others relating to that person, especially if they are as shady as Sheev.
Not Confiding in the jedi council
Just as his trust of Palpatine is understandable to an extent, so too are his feelings towards the Council and their ideologies. Anakin does not necessarily mistrust the Jedi Council the whole time, but certainly is conscious of how they would react to his relationship with Padmé. Nevertheless, he should have confided in them more.
Anakin knew the Jedi were keeping tabs on Palpatine, but never thought to mention the Darth Plagueis speech. Even before that, he should have sought advice from the Council or at least Obi-Wan about Padmé's possible death. Overall, what to learn from this is twofold, be mindful and take a step back to separate the good from the bad.
Darth Vader
All the entries on this list have one common denominator; they all impacted Anakin's turn to the Dark Side of the Force and his transformation from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader.
From killing younglings to giving Mace up to Palpatine, to everything he went on to do, Anakin teaches us lots of lessons through his biggest mistake which is falling to the Dark Side, and Darth Vader. Try not to let one emotion such as anger rule your life, also try and step outside of a situation to realize what you are doing. Above all else, the biggest lesson learned from Vader is that it is never too late.