Anakin’s fall was always a given, but could his wife Padmé have been able to prevent his fall to the Dark Side or have been capable of bringing him back to the light?
For years, Star Wars fans have always questioned whether Padmé would’ve been able to turn Anakin back to the light side or have been able to prevent his fall. After watching Star Wars Explained’s weekly Q&A video, I thought I would give my answer to whether it was possible to either of these situations.
I’m going to cover how far gone Anakin was by the time Padmé found out and if she had known sooner, could she have done something to prevent his fall altogether.
What Padmé knew about Anakin’s previous dark deeds
Padmé was well aware that Anakin had committed dark crimes that would’ve started his fall to the dark side. He even confessed to her that he had massacred an entire Tusken Raider village to avenge his mother, leaving no one alive.
She could have reported him to the Jedi Council, but she didn’t as she knew he was grieving. Also, she’d fallen in love with him by this point and there was no way she would’ve betrayed his trust. Padmé knew better than to interfere with something that had nothing to do with her. She allowed Anakin to work through his struggles on his own but was always there if he needed someone to talk to.
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During the early days of the Clone Wars, Chancellor Palpatine informed the senator that her husband had been accused of kidnapping Jabba the Hutt’s infant son. Knowing this wasn’t true, she went to Ziro in an attempt to clear the air but her mission almost failed. Also, she was aware of Anakin’s history with the Hutt clans as he and his mother had once been sold as slaves to Gardulla. If Padmé had not stepped in when she had, there would’ve been bloodshed.
Signs of Anakin’s pending dark side fall
Despite not seeing Anakin a lot during the war, Padmé would’ve noticed signs that could’ve lead him down the dark path. His constant butting of heads with Rush Clovis was one example. When the senator went to kiss his colleague Skywalker flew into a blinding rage but did not use the Force in his attack.
Padmé was forced to break the pair up and confessed she had grown frightened of her husband’s dark behavior. This lead to her temporarily calling time on their relationship until Anakin got a handle on his temper. She forgave him after Clovis sacrificed himself to save her from a collapsing balcony.
Towards the end of the war, Anakin’s demeanor changed to the point it was hard to determine what might happen next. However, when he started to experience visions of his wife’s demise in childbirth, this is where things began to take a turn for the worst.
Determined not to allow his wife and unborn child to fall prey to the same forces that took his mother from him, Anakin frantically searched for a way to save her. However, it came at the price of his soul when he pledged his alliance to Palpatine who issued him an empty promise.
When Obi-Wan arrives and tells Padmé that Anakin was behind the killing of the Younglings in the temple, she refuses to believe he would do such a thing. However, she knows Kenobi too well and has no reason to doubt his message to her. He loved his former student like only a big brother could and was willing to accept his flaws for what they were. But killing innocent people was not on and he had to tell someone who would believe him.
What happens on Mustafar, stays on Mustafar
Before Obi-Wan tells Padmé of Anakin’s fall, the embattled Jedi Knight reveals to his wife that he is being sent to the Mustafar system. Now, the heavily pregnant senator had an idea of where her husband was going but didn’t know why.
When Kenobi shows up and asks when the last time she saw Anakin was, she tries to lie but Obi-Wan is quick to call her out. He then reveals why he needs to find his former student which Padmé deduces is to kill him. He then questions if Skywalker is the father of her unborn child. When Padmé doesn’t respond, he knows what the answer is before he leaves to confront the man he once considered to be his brother.
Amidala, knowing she has to do something and to bring her husband back to light, journeys to Mustafar, despite Captain Typho’s objections. Unbeknownst to her, Obi-Wan had hidden away on her ship which is later seen as a betrayal by an unhinged and dangerous Anakin.
While it’s not made clear, during the flight to Mustafar, Padmé has time to reflect on what she should say. She knows she wants to take her husband and their child to someplace that is safe and away from the Republic. However, when she tries to convince Anakin of this, he says he is more powerful than Palpatine and has the power to overthrow him.
What makes the situation even more complicated is the appearance of Obi-Wan on the ship’s ramp. This sends Anakin into a massive fury and he uses the Force to choke his wife into unconsciousness, which prompts her to go into premature labor.
Padmé’s Pleading
Padmé loved Anakin and there was no denying that. She would not have married him or fallen pregnant with his twin children if she didn’t. She thought the love they had for each other would be enough to bring him back which was why she followed him to Mustafar.
When she meets up with him on the volcanic planet, she begs him to run away with her and to raise their child someplace safe. However, at this point in time, he is so far past being able to be redeemed that he basically shrugs her off. It’s here that she realizes the man she married and the father of her child had changed to someone she did not recognize. It terrified her that the guy she loved and respected would kill innocent people just to prevent her from suffering a fate he could not control.
Did she think her pleading would snap him out of his outrageous thought process? Perhaps she did, but she was desperate. Her child needed their father and she wanted their lives together to continue. But given what Obi-Wan had told her, she would’ve known there was a slim chance to get through to him, but she had to try for the sake of her family.
Could Padmé have prevented Anakin’s fall?
There is basically zero way Padmé could’ve prevented Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side. Sure, she had experience with his dark temper, but there is no way she could’ve predicted his visions or Palpatine’s influence over him. Yes, she had her own issues with the way the Chancellor ran the Republic, but that was a political and professional matter, not a personal one.
The Clone Wars shows on several occasions that Padmé and Anakin were on very different sides of the conflict. During the season 3 episode “Heroes on Both Sides,” we learn that Skywalker is pro-war while his wife and by extension, his Padawan Ahsoka are anti-war.
Now, whether Padmé was aware that Anakin’s pro-war stance was because of his loyalty to Palpatine is unclear. However, she would’ve known that the pair were very close. It was also evident that she was trying to distance herself from the Chancellor, despite having been the one to call the Vote of No Confidence during her reign as Queen of Naboo against Finis Valorum. She, much like Anakin, had been a pawn in the then-Senator Palpatine’s lust for power.
There are still a load of unknown factors that we still don’t know. Were there other hints to Anakin’s potential fall that Padmé saw but simply dismissed? Where there things that Ahsoka and/or Obi-Wan could’ve told her? Perhaps Rex mentioned something, given he knew of the secret marriage between his general and friend and the senator from Naboo. We’ll probably never get a full picture.
I should also note that Padmé wasn’t Force Sensitive and would not have been able to sense Skywalker’s emotions the way Ahsoka and Obi-Wan would have. Anakin was also known to push his negative feelings away and not want to talk about them.
Could Padmé have bought Anakin back to the light?
Going back through all the information we have and our other question of whether Padmé could’ve prevented her husband’s fall, we need to say that she would not have been able to prevent his conversion nor would she have been capable of bringing him back.
As Anakin says to her on Mustafar, love simply wasn’t enough at least in his case. By the time she discovered he had fallen, it was simply too late. There is no rule in saying that you cannot believe in hope even if it is lost. Padmé, despite her grief, soldiered on and knew even as she lay dying. There was good within Skywalker, a belief that carried on through her son, Luke who would use to redeem his father.
Many people have asked the same about Ahsoka and whether she could’ve redeemed her former master. Like with Padmé, the answer would be a definite “no.” The only person who could’ve redeemed Anakin was Luke or even Leia as Alex and Mollie pointed out. Why it had to be one of the twins is uncertain.
However, it should be noted that Leia used the belief her brother had in order to redeem her son, Ben who had always teetered between both sides of the Force.
In conclusion, Padmé was just a stepping stone to Anakin’s eventual redemption. She helped put into motion the belief that Luke developed and strongly believed in. She might not have contributed to her husband’s return to the light directly, but her belief became instilled in their son who would follow his father’s footsteps in becoming a galactic hero.
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