You've probably all seen calendars or books that are solely devoted to lighthouses. Pictures and stories that define the beautiful and wondrous structures that were built as a protection system, a guidance for ships that might be off course. Their majesty is caught in pictures of windswept and wave-lashed beauty, or calm and serene watchfulness. And if you travel to one, they can be monstrous and looming, but eerily calm and protective.

And of course, their sole purpose is to guide wayward ships at night away from the shallow waters and rocky outcroppings. The light can be seen from a distance, warning the ship of the danger that it lies upon. They are beacons in times of uncertainty.

Of course, they aren't used for this purpose quite as much anymore, in this age of technology that sees navigation systems that can guide a ship. But for the purpose of this blog, I'd like to travel back in time to when that was what they were intended for ... not just to fill the months of a calendar.

Now if I put lighthouses in the context of Star Wars, in the metaphorical sense they popped up in Anakin's life from time to time to try and steer him away from dangerous waters. He was floating along the currents of the Force, which I will view as the ocean here. The Force was whipping his life up and down much like the waves of the ocean. In TPM he was guided by the Force though he didn't really know it ... he felt highs and lows through his sensitivity to it, such as his elation in winning the Boonta Eve Classic and the despair at having to leave his mother behind. Yet he always had a lighthouse with his mother and his ideals when he lived on Tatooine. She guided him in the right direction and taught him values and morals that he employed daily, such as giving shelter to Qui-Gon when the windstorm came up. His ideals of becoming a Jedi also served as a lighthouse for him. It steered him away from thinking he would spend the rest of this life as a slave and giving in to the dangerous rocks of despair ... it guided him to the stars instead of the rocks of Tatooine. It gave him hope and longing ... which served him well in leaving the life of a slave.

In AOTC, the ocean of the Force, of his life, was getting more tumultuous for him each day. He was progressing fast and getting impatient ... he wanted to use the Force more and more for his own learnings of his power and to become the greatest Jedi ever. But he was held back by Obi-Wan. He was held back by the dreams of his mother and the anguish he still felt at being apart from her and not protecting her. He was held back by the tenents and rules of the Jedi Order which he almost felt that he was better than. And along came Padme back into his life who gave him the direction and light of a lighthouse, away from the feelings of anger and impatience he was giving in to. She helped to steer him into new waters ... that of deep and romantic love that would put him on a new course, a course that was still not right but would for now guide him away from a rocky collision. Of course, he did alter his direction somewhat when he decided to take down all the Tusken camp, but Padme's lighthouse still guided him away from the potentially rocky shore that kept his ship afloat. She fulfilled his every desire of destroying loneliness when she married him, but also fed the engine that would keep that ship steaming on into the night.

And in ROTS, Anakin's lighthouse was still Padme (and now with their child), but it was also Palpatine. He provided Anakin with the light to keep his ship moving towards power and the ability to provide ultimate protection for the ones he loved. Palpatine shone his light bright into the ocean of the Force for Anakin to see so that Anakin would not crash and burn before he was ready (pardon the pun). He wanted Anakin to stay in the rough waters in the dark of night so that he would not truly see the way of the Jedi and follow the Order, instead of the Sith. He knew by goading Anakin with his lies and promises of saving others from death that he would keep him at bay and bring him in to his own port. He fed Anakin's desire for protecting the ones he loved and achieving a power like no other and churned the waters even further for Anakin, to the point that he didn't even see Palpatine's lighthouse anymore, as he expressed his desire to rule the galaxy with Padme. Which made his crash into the rocky shores of the lava river on Mustafar even more devastating for him. He no longer had Padme. He no longer had Obi-Wan or the Jedi. He no longer had his mother. And he no longer had himself. The ship that was Anakin was no more as Palpatine's lighthouse continued to shine.

But of course, part of Anakin was left floating along the ocean of the Force, and would be called into the shore by the lighthouse of his son Luke. But this time it was a saving grace, a light to guide his way to safety, and not a warning to stay away from the rocky shores ahead.

So for Anakin, these symbolic lighthouses served as lights that were apart from the Force. The Force gave him power and desire, but it also gave him confusion and rocky shores. It was the ocean that he travelled upon, be it day or night, but it was the lighthouses that truly guided him, for good or bad. They were, for him, beacons in his times of uncertainty.