Ever since we met the child version of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, he was already given the status of the Chosen One due to the circumstances of his birth. As such, Qui-Gon Jinn wanted Anakin to learn the ways of the Force to fulfill the Prophecy of the Chosen One in the future. However, while things didn’t happen according to plan, Anakin still fulfilled the prophecy. So, how and when did Anakin fulfill the Prophecy of the Chosen One?
Anakin Skywalker fulfilled the Prophecy of the Chosen One when he redeemed himself by returning to the light side to kill Emperor Palpatine. The act of killing Palpatine also killed Anakin, which led to the destruction of the only two Sith Lords alive at that time, thereby fulfilling the Prophecy of the Chosen One.
The Prophecy of the Chosen One was always about a powerful Force user that could bring balance to the Force by destroying the Sith. That means Anakin fulfilled his destiny as the Chosen One when he destroyed the Sith right at the end of his life, even though things didn’t happen as the Jedi thought. So, with that said, let’s talk more about Anakin fulfilling the Prophecy of the Chosen One.
Anakin Fulfilled the Prophecy of the Chosen One
One of the things that we know about Anakin Skywalker when we first saw his child version in The Phantom Menace was that he was believed to be the Chosen One that was supposed to bring balance to the Force. Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi Master with an uncanny way of doing things, learned about this prophecy from a Jedi Holocron, as it was said there would be a Chosen One that would bring balance back to the Force.
Of course, Qui-Gon believed that this Chosen One was Anakin because he was created by the Force and had a midi-chlorian count higher than any other Jedi in history. That means that his potential was the highest in the galaxy’s history. And that was why Jinn sought to train the boy in the ways of the Force, as he believed that he was the Chosen One.
Nevertheless, Obi-Wan Kenobi and a few other Jedi Council members thought this boy was dangerous. But because Qui-Gon wanted Anakin to be trained as a Jedi, Kenobi decided to heed his master’s dying wish. That was why he trained Anakin to become a powerful Jedi Knight. But it was his attachment to other people that brought out his inner darkness, as Sheev Palpatine, who was secretly Darth Sidious, sought to pull him over to the dark side of the Force.
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Long story short, Palpatine succeeded in corrupting Anakin and turning him into Darth Vader. Palpatine and Vader worked together to bring down the Jedi Order, as Obi-Wan was frustrated about how Anakin was supposed to be the one to destroy the Sith instead of joining them. For more than two decades, Palpatine and Vader ruled the Galactic Empire with an iron fist, all while Yoda and Obi-Wan were banking their hopes on Luke and Leia, thinking that they would succeed where their father failed.
During the Rebellion, Luke became the galaxy’s new hope when he trained to become a Jedi. Meanwhile, Leia was one of the leaders of the Rebels. As such, the siblings rebelled against their father and the Empire, as Luke eventually discovered that Anakin was Darth Vader the entire time.
Luke, instead of seeking to kill his father, knew that there was still good left in Vader. He tried to bring the good out of his father when they met again in the Death Star II. Vader, however, lured Luke into using his inner darkness in their duel, as the younger Skywalker defeated his father. But when Darth Sidious told Luke to kill Vader so that he could replace him as his new apprentice, Luke decided against it because he was a Jedi like his father before him.
An angry Palpatine decided to execute Luke by blasting the defenseless young man with Force Lightning. Luke pleaded with his father to help him, which was when Anakin’s parental instincts kicked in. Vader threw away his Sith persona to become Anakin again as he threw Palpatine through the Death Star II reactor shaft, killing Darth Sidious. But because Palpatine’s Force Lightning destroyed his life-support system, Anakin died.
So, the fact that Anakin killed Darth Sidious and died in the process of doing so was what allowed him to fulfill the Prophecy of the Chosen One. After redeeming himself, he destroyed the Sith and brought balance back to the Force. As such, he was always the Chosen One, as he was the one that destroyed Palpatine’s original body while leaving the future of the Jedi in the hands of his son.
Was Anakin Turning to the Dark Side Part of the Prophecy?
Of course, we all know that Anakin turned to the dark side of the Force before he eventually fulfilled the Prophecy of the Chosen One. As such, in the eyes of the Jedi, he took a detour when he became a Sith Lord. But was it ever in the prophecy that Anakin needed to turn to the dark side to fulfill it?
The Prophecy of the Chosen One was always a bit vague as it said,
“A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored.”
Nothing in the prophecy says that Anakin had to become a Sith to fulfill the prophecy. At the same time, nothing in it said that the Chosen One was supposed to be a Jedi.
As such, the prophecy can be a bit vague, but the fact is that the Chosen One probably didn’t need to be a Jedi. That means that even a Sith Lord could be the Chosen One, which happened when Anakin fell to the dark side before he fulfilled the prophecy.
George Lucas, in a commentary, once said that the Jedi often misinterpreted the Prophecy of the Chosen One. As such, he probably meant that nothing in the prophecy says that the Chosen One should be a Jedi. The only important part is that the Chosen One should bring balance back to the Force.
Did Anakin Believe in the Prophecy?
Throughout the storyline of Star Wars, there was hardly ever a point wherein Anakin called himself the Chosen One or even tried to fulfill his role as the Chosen One. That’s because he knew that the only thing that he wanted to do was to bring peace to the galaxy and keep his loved ones from dying. Of course, we also saw Anakin meeting the Father, the Daughter, and the Son during the events of Star Wars: Clone Wars, and they were referring to him as the Chosen One.
That means Anakin probably believed in the Prophecy of the Chosen One but was too preoccupied with the things that mattered the most to him. And, to a certain degree, he must have also believed that being a Sith was the only way for him to bring true peace to the galaxy.
Let’s not forget that Anakin became disillusioned during the Clone Wars. That means that he started losing faith in the Jedi due to the different actions that the Jedi took and because he believed that the Jedi Code was too rigid. As such, he went as far as believing that the Jedi were the ones that were wrong in the galaxy, and that was probably one of the reasons why he wanted to destroy the Jedi, as doing so would have allowed him to fulfill his role as the Chosen One.
Is Anakin or Rey the Chosen One?
While prophecy did say that the Chosen One was supposed to bring ultimate balance back to the Force, this “ultimate balance” didn’t last long due to the events of the sequel movies, wherein the dark side rose once more in the form of Snoke, Kylo Ren, and the reborn Palpatine. And we know that Rey defeated Palpatine and the Sith once and for all before adopting the Skywalker family name.
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In that sense, Rey can also be interpreted as the Chosen One because she defeated all of the Sith in Palpatine during their final confrontation. But what needs to be considered here is that George Lucas said that Anakin was always the Chosen One.
So, while Lucas said that before Disney acquired Lucasfilm and created the sequels, we are still considering what the creator of Star Wars has to say regarding the Chosen One. Nevertheless, Rey, in her own way, might also be a special “chosen one.”
