Star Wars: Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker’s top 15 moments

Photo Credit: Lucasfilm

11. Anakin’s duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi

As opposed to the prior top moment, Revenge of the Sith’s concluding duel captures Anakin at his most irredeemable.

By this point, Anakin is well and truly damned himself. He is betrayed by the Republic and the Jedi Order. He has coldly slaughtered a group of innocent children and he has fatally wounded his wife.

Now all that’s left is to betray his best and oldest friend. After absurdly blaming Obi-Wan for the nightmare he’s made of his life, Anakin brushes off his Master’s condemnation with some empty fascist conversation. What follows is a long and pitched battle between brothers.

Although its outcome was never in doubt, Anakin and Obi-Wan’s duel still resolves in an unexpected way. Due to a key tactical error on Anakin’s part, Obi-Wan wins and brutally makes his former apprentice a multiple amputee.

In a mirror of the film’s opening, Obi-Wan also sets aside the Jedi Code in dealing with a defenseless adversary. Instead of bringing the erstwhile Jedi Knight to justice, Obi-Wan explains the totality of Anakin’s failure. He then takes his Anakin’s lightsaber and leaves him to an excruciating death.

And for his part, Anakin doesn’t seem to mind. After impotently voicing his rage, Anakin gives his former mentor one last pitiable look. Although he says nothing, it’s obvious that he knows how far he’s fallen.

That because of the horrors he’s committed, he no longer deserves the mercy the Jedi Code affords him. So he says nothing and lets the fire consume him without a word. But as the viewer knows Anakin’s suffering would not end at Mustafar.