Hello, I have another question. Everyone talks about the Jedi responsability and Palapatine’s responsability in Anakin’s turning. But what I want to know is how great or how little is Anakin’s personal responsability in his own turning?

padawanlost:

Hey 🙂

Anakin is
completely responsible for his own actions. When we talk about other people’s
responsibility we are not talking about their responsibility for Anakin’s
choices, we are talking about their own responsibility and how their choices
affected Anakin.

We often
talk about the Jedi’s responsibility in Anakin’s fall so let’s explore that
first and see how it’s different from Anakin’s personal responsibility.

The Jedi
Order took Anakin in when he was a child and from that moment on they became responsible
for Anakin’s upbringing (the same way a parent is responsible for their child).
They were responsible for Anakin’s emotional and physical health, for his
education, for the friendships he kept, for his leisure, etc. And so they
became (partly) responsible for what he became. Shmi, Watto, Gardulla,
Palpatine and everyone who was ever been responsible for Anakin when he was growing
up share some of that responsibility.

These character
are responsible for their choices and how these choices affected Anakin. And
Anakin is responsible for his own choices and how they affected everyone else.
One doesn’t negate the other because everyone is accountable. The Jedi Council
is responsible for deciding to put Palpatine and Anakin together and how
that influenced Anakin but they are not responsible for Anakin’s choice to join
Palpatine. Anakin had agency and the power to decide for himself. He alone is responsible
for his own fall. He had the power to say no but chose yes. Palpatine was responsible
for manipulating him and the Jedi were responsible for failing to support him
but they were not responsible for Anakin’s actions.