It seems as if there are plenty of reasons to blame every character in Star Wars except one for the crimes of Darth Vader. It seems easier to blame Obi-Wan for somehow screwing up the training of Anakin, or Mace for attempting to bring justice to the nice old Supreme Chancellor. Or perhaps it was Padme's fault for marrying Anakin and sending him off the deep end. Maybe Qui-Gon should have left the boy in slavery on Tatooine instead of taking him away from his mother. But seeking to place blame on anybody besides Anakin for the decisions he made is to seriously weaken and almost destroy his character.

First off, Qui-Gon did not remove Anakin forcibly from Shmi. He merely gave Anakin the choice to leave the life of a slave behind and have freedom. While it can certainly be argued that the Jedi were taking enormous risks by removing children from their homes and cutting them off entirely from their families to train them in the Order, Anakin had a choice. He chose to go with Qui-Gon. It's what he(Anakin) wanted to do.

It was Anakin who chose to slaughter the Tusken Raiders. Shmi didn't plead with him to avenge her death. Anakin lashed out in anger because it's what he wanted to do. When Padme fell off the gunship, Anakin insisted that the ship be put down because it's what he wanted. He stated that he didn't care if he would be expelled from the Jedi Order. The only reason he backed off was when Obi-Wan asked him what Padme would have wanted. In the confrontation with Dooku, Anakin rushed into the fight alone because he wanted Dooku to pay for what all the Jedi he'd killed that day. Again, Anakin did what he wanted to do, and such impatience would cost him his arm.

In the second confrontation with Dooku, Anakin gained the upper hand and this time he killed Dooku. He knew it was wrong to kill a defenseless man, but he wanted revenge, so he gave into those dark desires and killed Dooku. Anakin's killing of Dooku is not like Obi-Wan's defeat of Darth Maul. Darth Maul was armed and about to kill Obi-Wan. Nor was it like Mace's killing of Jango. Jango had attempted to assassinate Padme. He had also killed Jedi in the arena that day and is now charging Mace blasters firing. What's Mace supposed to do? Just stand there and let Jango kill him? But Dooku was defenseless. He had no weapons. But Anakin wanted revenge for losing his arm. He chose to kill Dooku.

In the confrontation with Mace in Palpatine's office, Anakin chose to cut off Mace's hand. If he naively believed that Palpatine wouldn't kill Mace, then he was a fool. Anakin chose to disarm Mace because he wanted to save Palpatine. He knew that Palpatine was a Sith Lord. So what if he wanted Palpatine to live because he allegedly held the secret to saving Padme. After Palpatine killed Mace, Anakin says, "What have I done?" He knows he's done something horrible, yet he still chooses to follow Palpatine. He drops to a knee and tells him he will do whatever Palpatine asks him to. And when instructed to kill all the Jedi in the Jedi Temple, he does so. Palpatine did not make him do it. Palpatine asked Anakin to do it, and Anakin did.

When Padme confronts Anakin about what he's done, Anakin doesn't deny it. He tells Padme that he's brought peace to his Empire. He tells her that he's doing this to save her. He tells her that he will kill the Emperor and then they can rule the galaxy together and make things the way they want them. But Padme has never believed this. He knows that she believes in democracy, yet he offers her the chance to rule with him as the new Emperor. And Padme understands that he's not the man she fell in love with. He has changed, and now she's going to get away from him. She fears for her life and the life of the baby. When Anakin sees Obi-Wan he accuses Padme of conspiring with Obi-Wan to kill him. And then he chooses to attempt to end the life of the very woman he is allegedly trying to save. No one forced him to raise his hand in an effort to choke the life out of her. He chose to do it because it's what he wanted to do. If she wouldn't be with him, then she wouldn't be with anybody.

Then he chose to fight Obi-Wan. He chose to make the attack against Obi-Wan when Obi-Wan had the high ground. And Obi-Wan, knowing that Anakin would kill him, defended himself. Is Obi-Wan supposed to let Anakin kill him? This defense would maim Anakin for life. The injuries he suffered would lead to the armored prison that would hold him for the rest of his life. But this is what Anakin chose. He wanted to be a Sith. He chose evil and therefore became evil. He could not escape the consequences. Does he miss Padme? Certainly, but he knows that Obi-Wan didn't kill her. The last time he saw her she was lying on the ground, unconscious from his efforts. To say that Anakin had no choice in what he became is to say that he is little more than a battle droid, programmed to do whatever his master wanted him to do. His programming could be changed just as soon as someone else got a hold of the controls to reprogram him.

But Anakin is not a battle droid. We like the character because there's some complexity to him. He's not a stupid automaton that says "roger, roger" to everything he's told to do. Anakin made choices. His decisions determined his destiny, right up until the very end.

And the end is what is key here. Luke faced similar challenges in his life. His parental figures were brutally murdered. He too was far older infancy when he began the Jedi training. Luke lost his hand in a battle with a Sith Lord, and then learned that his father was the scourge of the galaxy. Yet Luke responded differently. Where Anakin tried to save Padme with power, Luke sought to save his father with love. When Luke was in the position to kill a defenseless Sith Lord and avenge all the wrong that the Sith Lord had done to him, Luke did not respond in kind. Yet he knew that Vader had ordered the killing of Owen and Beru. Luke knew that Vader had chopped off his hand. Yet he refused to take his revenge. Luke had a decision to make too. And he chose differently. He chose not to kill his father, knowing that such a choice could cost him his life. Luke looked at what he was becoming and decided not to give into hate and fear. He told his father that he really could change. Becoming Darth Vader was not Anakin's predetermined destiny, but rather the destiny that he chose. And Luke's decision to remain a Jedi told his father that he could still choose. He could choose the good.

Well, if Vader was not responsible for all his choices, then he didn't really to choose to save his son here, did he? If Vader had no choice in the matter of the decisions he made, his final redemption seems pretty cheap to me. If Anakin had no choice in everything he did, then he didn't really love Padme. Some thing made him love Padme. By that logic he didn't really love Luke either. If he had no choice, then his final return to the light is meaningless because he didn't choose to give up his life for his son, but instead it became something he was forced to do regardless of whether or not he really wanted to change and begin to make amends for what he had done.

Abolving Anakin of his crimes ignores the reality of making decisions. I guess Luke didn't really choose to be a Jedi, like his father before him. He had no choice in the matter. I guess the struggle of the Rebellion against the Empire was pointless. A lot of people were killed in meaningless battles because the rebellion was going to win anyways since they had no choice in the matter. If Anakin did not choose to join the dark side, but was rather destined to, then I guess the Force is some sort of cruel dictator, looking on as those who have truly sought to make others lives better suffer pain, grief and death while those who have sought to gain control and rule over others achieve near total power and inflict pain and death on all those who they don't like, whatever that reason may be. If Anakin had no choice, then I guess Dark Helmet really was right. "Evil will triumph because good is dumb."

Anakin had choices to make. The lesson of Anakin Skywalker if you will is that you cannot have good come from evil choices. The decisions he faced are what make him make him sympathetic in our eyes. The very fact that he chose to become Darth Vader is what makes him a tragic figure. And it is the very fact that he chose to turn back to the light that makes his final redemption so sweet. Why? Because that choice shows that love matters. Love is what helps us cope with the difficulties and sometime cruelties that come in life. If Anakin had no choice in the matter, then his love for Padme is pointless because he couldn't have chosen to love her. Her compassion for him is meaningless because she did not choose to see that there was still good in him. If there is no choice, then Luke didn't really choose to love his father. He didn't really believe that there was indeed still good in his father since he had no choice in the matter. And on that note, the story becomes pointless because it no longer has any meaning.

And yet, the story has meaning. The meaning of Star Wars comes in the triumph of the heroes. Faith in your friends is not a weakness. Love for others, in spite of the wrongs they've done, is not a bad thing. Sometimes, it can even help those people choose to be good again as in the case of Vader. Meaning comes in seeing the hard work of good people rewarded in the end. It comes in the meaning of seeing a woman long dead find the principles she believed in triumph through the efforts of her children and compassion for her husband, in spite of what he done. It comes in seeing Yoda and Obi-Wan, admirable though imperfect beings, find that their belief in peace and justice triumph. It comes in seeing the Emperor, who had spent his entire life in gaining power and being cruel to others lose because a son loved his father and saw what his father could become, even if his father had spent most of life as a monster.

A saga without choice becomes a saga without meaning. And a saga without meaning becomes just what the critics say it is, a collection of spectacular visuals with no real heart and soul. Yet we know that the heart and soul of Star Wars continues to beat strongly, relying upon the strength of timeless themes of the triumph of good over evil, light over darkness, and compassion over selfishness. The heart of Star Wars lies in the ability to choose, for better or for worse our destiny. The comfort lies in knowing that if we so desire, we can choose to return to the light, just as Anakin did. He may have chosen to become Darth Vader, but he also chose to love his son, and just as earlier choices led him to become Vader, this choice led him to become Anakin Skywalker again.