The ultimately devastating tale of Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the dark side often points to his arrogance, impulsiveness, or fear of loss. However, a deeper look that considers the pressures and moral complexities in the time of war that he faced, suggests a more tragic flaw: his unwavering commitment to the purest ideals of the Jedi.

In the 2022 comic miniseries, Star Wars: Obi-Wan, written by Christopher Cantwell with art by Ario Anindito, Anakin’s true heart is revealed. The five-issue series depicts Obi-Wan and Anakin's comionate struggle to save a Republic hero who is suffering a mental breakdown amidst the carnage of a galactic conflict.

While General Yularen orders the Jedi to assassinate the man who was once an ally to them both, Anakin outright refuses, deepening the respect Obi-Wan held for his apprentice. Anakin’s unwavering dedication to preserving life, even in the face of war and destruction, serves as a heartbreaking foreshadowing of his eventual, ironic transformation.

Anakin's Unyielding Idealism Blinded Him To The Messy Reality Of War

Star Wars: Obi-Wan; Written By Christopher Cantwell With Art By Ario Anindito

Anakin's deep-rooted empathy and pureness of heart, qualities that should have been his greatest strengths as a Jedi, ultimately became his undoing. While many Jedi, including his own master, ired Anakin's convictions, this very rigidity prevented Anakin from accepting the imperfections inherent in the Jedi Order. Unlike what his Padawan, Ahsoka Tano, would come to realize, Anakin held the Order to an impossibly high standard of righteousness; a standard that, when inevitably unmet, shattered his faith completely. This inability to reconcile the Jedi's ethical shortcomings with their foundational principles led to the disillusionment that would eventually send Anakin over the edge.

Anakin’s inherent goodness demanded an absolute code of ethics; a purity that the Jedi Order could not always maintain. Unlike those like Obi-Wan who might have tolerated the Order's flaws and sought to enact change from within, Anakin's uncompromising idealism saw unsympathetic orders, like that given by Yularen, as an unforgivable betrayal. This black-and-white perspective left no room for the shades of gray that often dictated how the Jedi approached the Clone Wars, leading Anakin to a slow realization that the Jedi were not merely imperfect, but actively deceitful and evil.

The Contrast Between Anakin's Purity And The Jedi's Realism Led To His Fall

Anakin Was Never Able To See Shades Of Gray

Qui-Gon Jinn, for instance, understood the Jedi Order's imperfections and chose to operate within its confines, working to guide it towards its better nature. Qui-Gon's own disregard for certain Council decrees and his willingness to challenge the establishment stemmed from a deep understanding of the Force and a recognition that the Order, while noble, was not infallible. He sought to bend the rules for what he believed was the greater good, yet he remained fundamentally loyal to the spirit of the Jedi. If not for Qui-Gon’s nuanced view of the way the Force operated, Anakin would never have escaped enslavement on Tatooine.

This clash between his personal, unyielding moral com and the Jedi's pragmatic, often messy, reality laid the groundwork for his tragic fall.

Anakin, conversely, demanded the ethically right decisions be made by those in power. When the Jedi Council, under the immense pressure of the Clone Wars, made ethically dubious decisions or engaged in acts that contradicted his stringent code, he didn't see it as a necessary compromise or a reflection of the Order's struggle. Instead, Anakin saw it as a deep betrayal and a corruption of the very ideals he held so dear. This clash between his personal, unyielding moral com and the Jedi's pragmatic, often messy, reality laid the groundwork for his tragic fall.

This inherent idealistic conflict makes Mace Windu's desperate attempt to kill Palpatine in Episode III: Revenge of the Sith even more significant. From Anakin's perspective, Windu's act of seemingly abandoning the Jedi code for the sake of stopping the Sith Lord was yet another damning example of the Order's hypocrisy. It confirmed his growing suspicion that the Jedi were no different from the Sith in their willingness to compromise their principles for power. This mindset, fueled by his own rigid idealism, pushed Anakin Skywalker further into the darkness, as he sought an alternative that promised the absolute power to enforce his own uncompromising vision of justice.