General Skywalker
Now I’m reading Thrawn Alliances by Timothy Zahn, about Darth Vader and Grand Admiral Thrawn together exploring an anomaly. The Emperor sent them, two of his right hand men, specifically, because it’s where they met, many years ago, as Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and an unknown explorer, Thrawn. There are multiple threads: Anakin’s secret wife, Senator Padme Amidala, came to a far away planet looking for one of her friends and allies, and found her friend dead. Padme disappeared while investigating. Anakin met Thrawn when he arrived at the planet, and teamed up with him at Thrawn’s request. They fought off a group of smugglers who attacked them, and set out to follow Padme’s trail. In the process Anakin became increasingly angry and short of patience. Thrawn had to remind him that revenge is not the goal. To Thrawn, the goal of this mission is victory. To Anakin, the goal is rescue. Anakin’s fears lead to revenge if Padme dies.
Media portrayals of Anakin show impatience, arrogance, uncertainty, insecurity, grief, fear; they also show an admired general with great strategic ability and awesome talents for fighting. He’s well suited to the battlefield. He cares about the welfare of his troops, in soldierly fashion. That is, he won’t leave anyone behind who can be rescued, but they better do their jobs. He’s working really hard to win this war; it’s everything to him. He tells himself that he’s fighting to save the galaxy so his wife will be safe, so everyone else he cares about will be safe.
He doesn’t realize that he’s being played like a fiddle; his impatience and insecurity lead him to rely on Chancellor Palpatine, whose political savvy and underhanded plotting is running rings around him.
What I’m realizing, reading this book, is that Anakin learned how to listen to insight, how to pay attention to thoughts and feelings. The Jedi Order took this ability and trained him to problem solve for others, including the use of force, small f-force, the kind that doesn’t allow dissent. The Jedi think they know what is best for the galaxy; they push their agenda every bit as much as Palpatine pushes his.
Neither of them thought to teach Anakin how to be a good man.
