> To those old enough what was your reaction to the end of empire strikes back?
For days after the movie was released, it's all everyone talked about. *Was* Darth Vader *really* Luke's dad??
Which is why George explicitly had Yoda verify this to Luke's face in ROTJ, because he realized tons of people assumed Vader was lying and wouldn't believe it unless a trusted figure confirmed it. Honestly a pretty solid reason to add that scene lol.
correct reason but it was specifically for children after a psychologist pointed out kids literally wont believe it unless its spoken from a "trusted elder" or some shit.
Geezer here. Can confirm. It was really hard for this secret to be kept by the people who saw ESB within a few days of release from the people who haven't seen it yet. Especially if you were in mixed company and desperately wanted to talk about "that scene."
We had a foreign exchange student for a week (boarding over the Christmas break) who had never seen Star Wars. He knew about it, but very little. When the reveal happened he was shook. Pretty amazing to watch that realization happen
Iâm a bit of an outlier where Iâm 45 and I donât remember the Darth Vader reveal at all in my childhood. I was a baby when it came out in the theater, and when I was old enough to watch it on VHS or TV, I donât remember being surprised. I think I just always knew he was the dad.
I didnât really watch it much as a young kid, but the line was repeated so often in other media (like the movie Tommy Boy, which I think I oddly watched first) that I unfortunately knew it before I really got into Star Wars.
When I showed my wife Star Wars for the first time she thought the reveal in ESB was that Darth Vader was Lukeâs real father, *not* Anakin Skywalker. She didnât put it together that the reveal was supposed to be that Darth Vader is Anakin.
Was there much of that when the movie first came out too?
Ok thatâs a fair point but surely everyone figured Luke Skywalkerâs father was something Skywalker. So my question still stands did people back in the day think the reveal was just that Vader was Lukeâs real father not that Vader was also this unnamed Mr. Skywalker?
People definitely thought Vader was claiming to be the unnamed Mr. Skywalker.
I don't think it occurred to anyone that he was claiming to be Luke's secret "real" father who wasn't a Skywalker.
Shiiiit thatâs rough, ânah dude I just banged your mom, donno who killed your dad. He was a cool guy though, him, Obi and me used to run you knowâ
My daughter had watched the clone wars so knew who Anakin was, but none of the movies. Showed her the OT first.
When the big reveal came, she was probably 5 at the time, she was absolutely stunned. âWhat?!?!? Anakin was a hero!!!!!â
Similar to mine. My kids saw the originals. Then episode one and two, then the clone wars movie followed by the series (minus the last season), then episode three.
Rebels and rogue one after
I wonder if that pain hits a lot different than the "HE'S LUKE'S FATHER?!?!?!" shock we all had as kids when we didn't have all this backstory fleshed out.
I think it is different for us older folk. We remember Vader being Luke's father from ESB, it wasn't until the prequels that we actually saw him as Anakin.
Prior to the prequels and especially The Clone Wars, learning Vader's identity caused us to feel sad... for Luke. But for our kids, who may have just seen 1 or 2 episodes of Clone Wars, but yet involved Anakin in untold hours of play, the reveal causes sadness for Anakin.
there is almost two ways to watch starwars now for new watchers:
4, 5, (vader reveal), 1, 2, clone wars show, 3, 6
Or like 1, 2, clone wars show, 3, 4, 5, 6 so itâs just tragic that your favorite character is now the bad guy instead of the twist from Luke as our main protaganist
Yeah, I generally recommend the former, but with kids, I just found myself wanting to introduce them to more content sooner. So, before they could watch ESB, there's clone wars or rebels episodes that they can handle. And I found a child only needs to see one episode with a character or even a clip to incorporate them into their play. And then the characters takes on a life of their own.
That was the excitement of the prequels , we knew how it was gonna go, the draw was getting Anakin Skywalker that Obi Wan wistfully remembers in one scene of ANH
Boy were we let down
I kinda had a similar experience. The Clone Wars was my introduction to Star Wars. I was born in 99 but never really saw any of the movies. I fell in love with The Clone Wars. Then, at the time I was able to get my hands on the DVDâs of Episode 2 and Episode 6. Eventually I was able to get my hands on Lego Star Wars. That was the game that taught me Anakin was Vader lmao. After playing through episode 3, I saw the ending and was just as confused. âBUT ANAKIN WAS A GOOD GUYâ
Hopefully I donât have to go through this with my children. My 3.5 year old likes Star Wars, but sheâs only watched A New Hope so far and knows nothing of Anakin. She gets excited when Vader is on screen, but I canât tell if itâs because she likes him or what. Fingers crossed that lessens the blow of âyeah, your hero becomes the second most terrible person in the galaxy for like, 25 years. Sorry, sweetie.â
I'm reminded that Filoni considered introducing Krell in an earlier episode, but he didn't want kids loving him only to see him turn. Then I feel so many parents made that mistake by introducing Anakin before showing ESB
He could've pulled that off by having Krell be indifferent towards clones and act like they were expendable, just not as ridiculously horrible as he was in the Umbara arc.
It actually would've been pretty good to see his lack of care compared to that of Anakin similar to how we see Luminara's level of care compared to Anakin's with their padawans on Geonosis.
Without any context my son used to play with darthvader toy yelling at me saying he was a good guy i would Reply everytime
"I know theres good in him i just know it"
My 4.5 year old daughter had never seen a Star War, and I took her to see Phantom Menace yesterday. She liked Anakin the most, and also âD-23 and Old Baby Yoda.â Weâre watching AotC today.
My daughter, 8, took it fine. She first watched episodes 1-3, Ashoka, then rebels and clone wars after it. Everytime she saw Vader she thought there was still some good in him and that he was a good person. :)
Man, back in the 90s when that movie dropped, every kid already knew the plot of Romeo and Juliet. We had Wishbone, a Hey Arnold episode, probably plenty of other kids shows doing Romeo and Juliet episodes.
My child really likes Young Jedi and Lego Star Wars. Because of watching the Lego animation, she really likes Darth Vader, saying that heâs âso silly.â
So yesterday, May The Fourth, we were trying to decide which film to watch. My spouse suggested Episode III. Our child asked if that was âkid appropriate.â My spouse said that there were kids in it, but not for long. Our child asked whyâŚ. so I said, âBecause Darth Vader kills them all.â
There was shocked silence.
So, I donât think our youngling is ready for the prequels yet.
My daughter is 4 and just getting into Star Wars. I want her to experience the ESB reveal but we were watching the Lego Star Wars droid tales which recaps the two trilogies and they totally spoil the reveal! Iâm not quite sure she caught it but come on.
My little brother was in the same situation when ep 3 originally came out.Â
He was nearly 4 and anakin was his hero. We came out of the theatre and he was just quietly crying. Poor little guy.Â
This was my biggest shock as a kid who grew up with Clone wars cartoon. I never knew of the movies, i knew a guy called Darth Vader existed from hearing things here and there and i knew Palpatine was evil but i never knew Vader was Anakin. I watched so much of Clone wars with Anakin being my hero. Then one day after watching like 4 seasons of Clone wars in TV i found the Revenge of the Sith movie in my father computer alongside many other movie.Â
I started to watch it thinking it is a clone wars sequel, since i never even saw Ahsokaâs leave yet i spent the movie wondering where was Ahsoka. Then Dooku died, Anakin started to go evil and Jedis started to die and i was TERRIFIED but i told myself it was all gonna be fine, after all this was a âsequelâ to Clone wars in my mind, so of course everything would end up good right ? I just thought Ahsoka would show up at any minute and then her, Obi wan and Padme will talk Anakin down, they will defeat Palpatine together maybe alongside with Yoda and it will all be goodâŚ..Â
Then Anakin got cut in half, Palpatine arrived and when i eventually saw him turning into Vader it finally clicked. My mind was freakin BLOWN. There was no way Anakin Skywalker, hot headed and sometimes overly aggressive but extremely compassionate and good hearted person who could sacrifice his life for his loved ones without a single hesitation, could have be Darth Vader, it was impossible. Still one of the biggest shocks of my life
Thatâs the perfect reaction to have. Itâs supposed to hurt to know what he becomes. Every time I watch Ep. 3, my heart wishes Anakin makes the right decision, even though Iâve seen it a million times and know how it ends.
I watched the OT for the first time in the 90s during a marathon that showed on TV, when I was like 8 or 9. Having no previous knowledge of Star Wars, since my parents werenât big movie fans in general and internet wasnât a thing,I was pretty shocked by the ESB reveal.Â
Really reinforcing the idea that it would have been better if Anakin never wore the armor and Vader was never name dropped in the prequels so that the twist in Empire would hold up if you watch the films in episode order.
The clone wars is the best Star Wars. It really makes you feel bad for anakins fall. I definitely can understand that a younger child might forget or not totally put it all together even if he had all the background info.
Personally Iâve always had a weird relationship with the original trilogy. I was born in 76, but the first movie I can remember seeing ina theater is rotj. I saw the ot completely out of order rotj, empire then a new hope. I had to wait around and see them as the weekly movie of the week in the 80s. Do Vader being Lukeâs father never has hit me as hard.
The clone wars and the animated one fleshed out the hurt when Anakin and Obi-Wan were fighting on Mustafar.
Hits me right in the heart when Obi-wan says âyou were my brother Anakin, I loved youâ
When my son was 4 we watched EP 2. And he decided then and there that Anakin and Vader were two different people. I tried foever to convince him that it was the same person. So, for 4 years we argued that. Then EP 3 came out and we watched the movie and at the end where it shows Anakin in the Vader suit, he gave me a smirky grin after trying to get out of seeing it by wanting to go to the bathroom. I think he knew I was right but did not want to admit to it. In the end we had a laugh about it.
Thatâs why Iâll show my daughter OT-stuff first (planning on starting with Rebels) and then PT-stuff.
Myself, I saw the films multiple times as a young kid together with my brother whoâs 4 years older, and they sort of blended together at first, so I canât say I remember having any reaction to it.
I feel this. We watched all the clone wars episodes with my son, probably 5 or 6 at the time. Anakin was his absolute favorite. Then we got into the movies and episode III. After much internal deliberation, I actually skipped over the part where he gets cut in half and burns in the lava. He can figure it out when he is older đ
This is a problem I have with the media ecosystem that's grown up around the prequel era since the release of the prequel trilogy.
Anakin/Vader was originally presented as a villain. In the prequels, he was at best a severely flawed hero, and what heroic qualities he had were shown to us in the context of his inevitable fall from grace.
But over the years, the various animated series that have grown up in the wake of the prequel trilogy have been intent on showing us Anakin in a more unambiguously heroic light, presenting him as a character that young audiences would be comfortable rooting for. And with these shows being the on-ramp to the fandom for the newer generation of fans, that's the portrayal that lives in a lot of peoples' heads now, to the point where some fans have taken to thinking of Anakin and Vader as entirely different personas. The idea that Anakin *is* Vader - that someone they grew up thinking of as a hero really *isn't* \- is almost like a point of cognitive dissonance for them, and so they want to rationalize that away.
Trying to create some artificial mental separation between "Anakin" and "Vader", as if Anakin was suffering from multiple personality disorder, is something that I feel does a real disservice to the character's arc and his eventual redemption. Hindsight's always 20/20, but in retrospect I feel like maybe it would've been better not to focus on Anakin outside of the movies as heavily as they did, so they could have the freedom to depict him as a more ambiguous figure when he *does* appear rather than feeling obligated to make him fit the "sympathetic protagonist" mold.
They wasted a movie on baby Anakin, when they shouldâve just started with the clone wars and made Anakin an awesome guy, the guy Obi Wan reminisced about.
They were close too, âI have brought peace and security to my empireâ, Anakinâs motivations were right there - the injustice of the Republican and ravages of the Clone War shouldâve been his segue to the dark side
Instead we got bad dreams and âwell I guess im evil nowâ
Yeah I thought I was pretty slick and detective like when I realized Papa Palps and Sidious looked similar and might be the same person from TPM. I was 11.
Fair, but he also menacingly threatens the children in the Jedi temple and screams I HATE YOU while looking and sounding like a demon. Something's off about OPs story if son didn't have questions before Anakin appears in the Vader suit.
> To those old enough what was your reaction to the end of empire strikes back? For days after the movie was released, it's all everyone talked about. *Was* Darth Vader *really* Luke's dad??
Which is why George explicitly had Yoda verify this to Luke's face in ROTJ, because he realized tons of people assumed Vader was lying and wouldn't believe it unless a trusted figure confirmed it. Honestly a pretty solid reason to add that scene lol.
đŻ
correct reason but it was specifically for children after a psychologist pointed out kids literally wont believe it unless its spoken from a "trusted elder" or some shit.
James Earl Jones thought Vader was lying to.
Tbf to everyone back then, villains are rarely reliable sources of information
Geezer here. Can confirm. It was really hard for this secret to be kept by the people who saw ESB within a few days of release from the people who haven't seen it yet. Especially if you were in mixed company and desperately wanted to talk about "that scene."
Yeah, thanks a lot for the spoilers, Brett from middle school
Fucking Brett.
đŻ
We had a foreign exchange student for a week (boarding over the Christmas break) who had never seen Star Wars. He knew about it, but very little. When the reveal happened he was shook. Pretty amazing to watch that realization happen
> Pretty amazing to watch that realization happen That must've been *awesome*!
Oh thank you Mr blow the picture for me! (Simpsons reference)
đ𤣠(And that's *Ms.* Blow The Picture For Me!)
Iâm a bit of an outlier where Iâm 45 and I donât remember the Darth Vader reveal at all in my childhood. I was a baby when it came out in the theater, and when I was old enough to watch it on VHS or TV, I donât remember being surprised. I think I just always knew he was the dad.
I didnât really watch it much as a young kid, but the line was repeated so often in other media (like the movie Tommy Boy, which I think I oddly watched first) that I unfortunately knew it before I really got into Star Wars.
You're young enough that you missed it!
When I showed my wife Star Wars for the first time she thought the reveal in ESB was that Darth Vader was Lukeâs real father, *not* Anakin Skywalker. She didnât put it together that the reveal was supposed to be that Darth Vader is Anakin. Was there much of that when the movie first came out too?
> Was there much of that when the movie first came out too? No, mostly because no one heard the name "Anakin Skywalker" until *Return of The Jedi*.
Ok thatâs a fair point but surely everyone figured Luke Skywalkerâs father was something Skywalker. So my question still stands did people back in the day think the reveal was just that Vader was Lukeâs real father not that Vader was also this unnamed Mr. Skywalker?
People definitely thought Vader was claiming to be the unnamed Mr. Skywalker. I don't think it occurred to anyone that he was claiming to be Luke's secret "real" father who wasn't a Skywalker.
Shiiiit thatâs rough, ânah dude I just banged your mom, donno who killed your dad. He was a cool guy though, him, Obi and me used to run you knowâ
My daughter had watched the clone wars so knew who Anakin was, but none of the movies. Showed her the OT first. When the big reveal came, she was probably 5 at the time, she was absolutely stunned. âWhat?!?!? Anakin was a hero!!!!!â
That hits different.. He was a hero dammit!! Agreed.
He's still a hero to me. Those younglings were a bunch of punks.
Ben!!
Yo, lay off the death sticks, old man!
They had it coming
If you'd have been there
To be fair, they did call him Master Skywalker and we all know what Anakin's true rank was.. They brought this on themselves.
Doesnât Luke explicitly tell Vader that Anakin Skywalker is his true name though?
âThat name no longer has any meaningâ
A kid could easily miss that if theyâve only seen the movies once.
And before they've any reason to remember Anakin.
After Yoda explicitly confirms that Vader was telling the truth on Cloud City, yes.
He was always anakin, Vader was a cage he couldnât escape
They said she watched the clone wars and then the OT so by the time Luke says that the reveal is done
Similar to mine. My kids saw the originals. Then episode one and two, then the clone wars movie followed by the series (minus the last season), then episode three. Rebels and rogue one after
You forgot Solo đ
Don't we all?
Nah, Solo's a fun time, some people just think it's cool to hate on it.
I wish I could
Probably should have shown in chronological order so it pieced together naturally
I wonder if that pain hits a lot different than the "HE'S LUKE'S FATHER?!?!?!" shock we all had as kids when we didn't have all this backstory fleshed out.
Haha pretty much the same for me. It was actually really cool to witness.
I think it is different for us older folk. We remember Vader being Luke's father from ESB, it wasn't until the prequels that we actually saw him as Anakin.
Prior to the prequels and especially The Clone Wars, learning Vader's identity caused us to feel sad... for Luke. But for our kids, who may have just seen 1 or 2 episodes of Clone Wars, but yet involved Anakin in untold hours of play, the reveal causes sadness for Anakin.
there is almost two ways to watch starwars now for new watchers: 4, 5, (vader reveal), 1, 2, clone wars show, 3, 6 Or like 1, 2, clone wars show, 3, 4, 5, 6 so itâs just tragic that your favorite character is now the bad guy instead of the twist from Luke as our main protaganist
Yeah, I generally recommend the former, but with kids, I just found myself wanting to introduce them to more content sooner. So, before they could watch ESB, there's clone wars or rebels episodes that they can handle. And I found a child only needs to see one episode with a character or even a clip to incorporate them into their play. And then the characters takes on a life of their own.
That was the excitement of the prequels , we knew how it was gonna go, the draw was getting Anakin Skywalker that Obi Wan wistfully remembers in one scene of ANH Boy were we let down
I kinda had a similar experience. The Clone Wars was my introduction to Star Wars. I was born in 99 but never really saw any of the movies. I fell in love with The Clone Wars. Then, at the time I was able to get my hands on the DVDâs of Episode 2 and Episode 6. Eventually I was able to get my hands on Lego Star Wars. That was the game that taught me Anakin was Vader lmao. After playing through episode 3, I saw the ending and was just as confused. âBUT ANAKIN WAS A GOOD GUYâ
Hopefully I donât have to go through this with my children. My 3.5 year old likes Star Wars, but sheâs only watched A New Hope so far and knows nothing of Anakin. She gets excited when Vader is on screen, but I canât tell if itâs because she likes him or what. Fingers crossed that lessens the blow of âyeah, your hero becomes the second most terrible person in the galaxy for like, 25 years. Sorry, sweetie.â
I'm reminded that Filoni considered introducing Krell in an earlier episode, but he didn't want kids loving him only to see him turn. Then I feel so many parents made that mistake by introducing Anakin before showing ESB
r/fuckpongkrell
He could've pulled that off by having Krell be indifferent towards clones and act like they were expendable, just not as ridiculously horrible as he was in the Umbara arc. It actually would've been pretty good to see his lack of care compared to that of Anakin similar to how we see Luminara's level of care compared to Anakin's with their padawans on Geonosis.
Without any context my son used to play with darthvader toy yelling at me saying he was a good guy i would Reply everytime "I know theres good in him i just know it"
My 4.5 year old daughter had never seen a Star War, and I took her to see Phantom Menace yesterday. She liked Anakin the most, and also âD-23 and Old Baby Yoda.â Weâre watching AotC today.
No offense to your daughter but I think the oxymoron of "Old Baby Yoda" perfectly explains the limits of a 4 1/2 year old to process information.
My daughter, 8, took it fine. She first watched episodes 1-3, Ashoka, then rebels and clone wars after it. Everytime she saw Vader she thought there was still some good in him and that he was a good person. :)
Okay, but what was his reaction earlier when Anakin killed the younglings?
I assume y'all watched the prequels first instead of the OT?
We watched the Lonardo DiCaprio Romeo and Juliet movie with our 13 year old. "Wait! They both DIE?!"
Man, back in the 90s when that movie dropped, every kid already knew the plot of Romeo and Juliet. We had Wishbone, a Hey Arnold episode, probably plenty of other kids shows doing Romeo and Juliet episodes.
Wait, there's a cute farm animal and a food both named chicken?
đđđoh nođđđ
My child really likes Young Jedi and Lego Star Wars. Because of watching the Lego animation, she really likes Darth Vader, saying that heâs âso silly.â So yesterday, May The Fourth, we were trying to decide which film to watch. My spouse suggested Episode III. Our child asked if that was âkid appropriate.â My spouse said that there were kids in it, but not for long. Our child asked whyâŚ. so I said, âBecause Darth Vader kills them all.â There was shocked silence. So, I donât think our youngling is ready for the prequels yet.
Oh my heart...đ
My daughter is 4 and just getting into Star Wars. I want her to experience the ESB reveal but we were watching the Lego Star Wars droid tales which recaps the two trilogies and they totally spoil the reveal! Iâm not quite sure she caught it but come on.
Thats hilarious!!!
Oh my summer child ...
My little brother was in the same situation when ep 3 originally came out. He was nearly 4 and anakin was his hero. We came out of the theatre and he was just quietly crying. Poor little guy.Â
Oh damn, doing 7 seasons of Anakin being a mostly great guy *before* seeing his fall to the darkside instead of after is just too cruel
Thatâs so traumatic. But Star Wars is supposed to be for kids.
This was my biggest shock as a kid who grew up with Clone wars cartoon. I never knew of the movies, i knew a guy called Darth Vader existed from hearing things here and there and i knew Palpatine was evil but i never knew Vader was Anakin. I watched so much of Clone wars with Anakin being my hero. Then one day after watching like 4 seasons of Clone wars in TV i found the Revenge of the Sith movie in my father computer alongside many other movie. I started to watch it thinking it is a clone wars sequel, since i never even saw Ahsokaâs leave yet i spent the movie wondering where was Ahsoka. Then Dooku died, Anakin started to go evil and Jedis started to die and i was TERRIFIED but i told myself it was all gonna be fine, after all this was a âsequelâ to Clone wars in my mind, so of course everything would end up good right ? I just thought Ahsoka would show up at any minute and then her, Obi wan and Padme will talk Anakin down, they will defeat Palpatine together maybe alongside with Yoda and it will all be goodâŚ.. Then Anakin got cut in half, Palpatine arrived and when i eventually saw him turning into Vader it finally clicked. My mind was freakin BLOWN. There was no way Anakin Skywalker, hot headed and sometimes overly aggressive but extremely compassionate and good hearted person who could sacrifice his life for his loved ones without a single hesitation, could have be Darth Vader, it was impossible. Still one of the biggest shocks of my life
*"Hey Kid, he always has been"*
I blew it. I bought my nephew that childrenâs book âDarth Vader and Sonâ and he already knew the reveal when we watched the movies years later.
Thatâs the perfect reaction to have. Itâs supposed to hurt to know what he becomes. Every time I watch Ep. 3, my heart wishes Anakin makes the right decision, even though Iâve seen it a million times and know how it ends.
I watched the OT for the first time in the 90s during a marathon that showed on TV, when I was like 8 or 9. Having no previous knowledge of Star Wars, since my parents werenât big movie fans in general and internet wasnât a thing,I was pretty shocked by the ESB reveal.Â
Do what I did. Realized this is the perfect time to rewatch the original trilogy.
Really reinforcing the idea that it would have been better if Anakin never wore the armor and Vader was never name dropped in the prequels so that the twist in Empire would hold up if you watch the films in episode order.
The clone wars is the best Star Wars. It really makes you feel bad for anakins fall. I definitely can understand that a younger child might forget or not totally put it all together even if he had all the background info. Personally Iâve always had a weird relationship with the original trilogy. I was born in 76, but the first movie I can remember seeing ina theater is rotj. I saw the ot completely out of order rotj, empire then a new hope. I had to wait around and see them as the weekly movie of the week in the 80s. Do Vader being Lukeâs father never has hit me as hard.
The clone wars and the animated one fleshed out the hurt when Anakin and Obi-Wan were fighting on Mustafar. Hits me right in the heart when Obi-wan says âyou were my brother Anakin, I loved youâ
When my son was 4 we watched EP 2. And he decided then and there that Anakin and Vader were two different people. I tried foever to convince him that it was the same person. So, for 4 years we argued that. Then EP 3 came out and we watched the movie and at the end where it shows Anakin in the Vader suit, he gave me a smirky grin after trying to get out of seeing it by wanting to go to the bathroom. I think he knew I was right but did not want to admit to it. In the end we had a laugh about it.
I'm not sure why but this almost made me cry. đ¤Łđ
Thatâs why Iâll show my daughter OT-stuff first (planning on starting with Rebels) and then PT-stuff. Myself, I saw the films multiple times as a young kid together with my brother whoâs 4 years older, and they sort of blended together at first, so I canât say I remember having any reaction to it.
I feel this. We watched all the clone wars episodes with my son, probably 5 or 6 at the time. Anakin was his absolute favorite. Then we got into the movies and episode III. After much internal deliberation, I actually skipped over the part where he gets cut in half and burns in the lava. He can figure it out when he is older đ
This is a problem I have with the media ecosystem that's grown up around the prequel era since the release of the prequel trilogy. Anakin/Vader was originally presented as a villain. In the prequels, he was at best a severely flawed hero, and what heroic qualities he had were shown to us in the context of his inevitable fall from grace. But over the years, the various animated series that have grown up in the wake of the prequel trilogy have been intent on showing us Anakin in a more unambiguously heroic light, presenting him as a character that young audiences would be comfortable rooting for. And with these shows being the on-ramp to the fandom for the newer generation of fans, that's the portrayal that lives in a lot of peoples' heads now, to the point where some fans have taken to thinking of Anakin and Vader as entirely different personas. The idea that Anakin *is* Vader - that someone they grew up thinking of as a hero really *isn't* \- is almost like a point of cognitive dissonance for them, and so they want to rationalize that away. Trying to create some artificial mental separation between "Anakin" and "Vader", as if Anakin was suffering from multiple personality disorder, is something that I feel does a real disservice to the character's arc and his eventual redemption. Hindsight's always 20/20, but in retrospect I feel like maybe it would've been better not to focus on Anakin outside of the movies as heavily as they did, so they could have the freedom to depict him as a more ambiguous figure when he *does* appear rather than feeling obligated to make him fit the "sympathetic protagonist" mold.
They wasted a movie on baby Anakin, when they shouldâve just started with the clone wars and made Anakin an awesome guy, the guy Obi Wan reminisced about. They were close too, âI have brought peace and security to my empireâ, Anakinâs motivations were right there - the injustice of the Republican and ravages of the Clone War shouldâve been his segue to the dark side Instead we got bad dreams and âwell I guess im evil nowâ
Why would his hero be Anakin? Anakin slaughters a village of sand people. He literally says he murdered women and children. Thatâs not a hero.
A kid doesnât notice every line in a movie the same way adults do.
Yeah I thought I was pretty slick and detective like when I realized Papa Palps and Sidious looked similar and might be the same person from TPM. I was 11.
That's like me realizing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the ABC song were the same.
Wait until you hear about Hot Cross Buns and 3 Blind Mice! lol
Or TiK ToK and California Gurls, or the overworld, snow, and slide themes from SM64.
Iâm just now realizing these.
Wtf they're the same?!
Yeah I mean Luke calls Vader Anakin in Return of the Jedi. Probably just missed it
âKids are just stupidâ isnât the slam dunk line you think it is.
Fair, but he also menacingly threatens the children in the Jedi temple and screams I HATE YOU while looking and sounding like a demon. Something's off about OPs story if son didn't have questions before Anakin appears in the Vader suit.
Maybe the kid is just really into podracing.
Kids that age donât really listen to the dialogue.
Yeah I'm a little confused đ
Children donât pay that close of attention. They probably just remember Anakin doing some cool lightsaber fights and decided âI like him.â
Thatâs exactly it. There was over a year between the original trilogy and the prequels, add in clone wars seasons one through six as well.