"The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed, but I assure you my resolve has never been stronger".
Emperor Palpatine - Revenge of the Sith

We all know that Palpatine's scars were somewhat self-inflicted, but it got me thinking about the whole idea of scars and how they shape our physical looks as well as our emotional state and how emotional scars can shape our overall being. An obvious case in point for all of this is Anakin, but I'll get to him later.

Physical scars come in all shapes and sizes on the human body. They can result from minor mis-haps which may cause a small scar from a slight wound, to scars from a surgical procedure to deforming scars resulting from a major catastrophe in one's life. Whatever the scar is or wherever it is, it tells a story. It is the physical story of something that happened in a person's life that was enough to leave a mark. I'm sure most of us can point to any scar on our body and recall the reason they got it almost right away. It may have been traumatic enough of an event to bring it to mind and make you feel some kind of connection to it because they shape our beings. There is a reason for getting the scar. It may be a lesson learned from a fall, it may be from a life-saving surgery, it may be from a fight you found yourself in. Whatever the reason, a scar is normally a reminder of what took place and what lesson you may have taken away from it. They leave an imprint on us, even when they have healed over.

Emotional scars do the same thing. Though we cannot see them, they are the result of an event that has had an effect on our mind, our psyche and our emotions. It may have been an event that was so powerful that it changed our thinking, scarred over the thoughts that used to dwell in the same spot, to be replaced by something raw and rough. Emotional scars can leave just as noticeable an imprint on us as physical scars, even when they too are healed over. And do they heal over quite so easily? How can you put any kind of ointment on an emotional scar? I can think of certain kinds of salve to heal over a scar like that ... love and forgiveness.

Which brings me to Anakin. He was the epitome of bearing both physical and emotional scars. As a Jedi, he bore a scar on his face by ROTS that, to me, represented his scarred life so far. I know he got it in battle as a Jedi, but he felt as if he'd been battling for much of his life ... that scar is a part of that battle.

But of course, his most significant scars come after his fight with Obi-Wan. Here his life is represented in his most pitiful physical existence. His limbs have been severed, his face burning and his insides consumed by heat and fire. The injuries he sustained and the scars that would become his body have now shaped his life. But what drove him to this physical condition are the emotional scars he carried with him to Mustafar. He felt scarred by the separation of his mother at an early age, and the subsequent reuniting with her as she died in his arms. He felt scarred by fact that he felt the Jedi held him back from achieving his potential. He felt scarred by the fact that he couldn't proclaim his love and his life with Padme to all who would listen for the Jedi rules that governed his life. He felt scarred by the fact that, in the end, he thought the only one who would listen and help him was this man in front of him who was now also scarred.

And Anakin took the physical and emotional scars into the suit with him, but they still existed. The scars he had on his body were a gross reminder to him of what his life was and now is. No, he couldn't see them anymore, but he knew they were there ... they still continued to shape his actions. Palpatine eliminated all that Anakin cared about so his scars wouldn't heal and hid him behind a veil of blackness so that those scars would be forever an imprint on his body and soul.

But what Palpatine didn't count on was that there was a treatment to heal Anakin's scars that he himself helped to create ... his son Luke. I mentioned above that love and forgiveness are two very important things that can help to heal over emotional scars and Luke gave Anakin that when he needed it most. And that same love didn't waver when looking into the scarred face of his father, when both had just saved each other's lives. What Palpatine tried to eliminate, Anakin still held within for all those years.

Palpatine said that his resolve was stronger after he mentioned his scars. And perhaps that is what is important when looking at your physical or emotional scars ... to stay strong despite the weakened condition a scar may cause, the pain it may cause. To focus on something in your life that will give you love. Anakin realized this in the very end, and the scars faded away.