'Doctor Aphra' Hints Podracing May Have Had A Huge Impact On Anakin's Role As Darth Vader

"Now THIS is podracing!"

-Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars Episode I: The Phaton Menace)

Darth Vader, one of the most infamous villains throughout the entire Star Wars saga, was introduced to audiences as his earlier self, a 9-year old slave boy from Tatooine named Anakin Skywalker in The Phantom Menace. In the movie, young Skywalker is instrumental in helping the heroes of the time, a young Queen and two Jedi Knights obtain the parts needed to repair their starship and continue on their important mission. In the process, Anakin wins his own freedom and is able to leave Tatooine and pursue the possibility of becoming a Jedi Knight.

Key to this accomplishment was winning a hotly contested podrace, a dangerous race through a desert full of natural dangers and bloodthirsty opponents. Anakin suffers a systems malfunction during the race due to a vicious opponent's sabotage that nearly costs him the race and very nearly his life. However, what's seen as a heroic effort on behalf of his new friends may have had darker implications that foretold Anakin's fall to the dark side of the Force and transformation into the fearsome cyborg we all know and fear as Darth Vader.

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These implications are discussed in a recent Marvel Star Wars comic Doctor Aphra #12, featuring the adventures of infamous and double-dealing galactic archeologist, Dr. Chelli Aphra, somebody who, throughout her storied career, has had several dealings with the Dark Lord of the Sith, whom she later betrayed, earning his ire. During a brief but significant conversation with a companion named Sana Starros during an underworld mission to a Crimson Dawn auction, Starros discusses with Aphra her observation that all podracers seem to share a common trait, specifically that they have no sense of self-preservation and that they will take extreme risks to win at all costs, a trait that Aphra actually seems to share with Vader.

Podracing is well-known throughout the Star Wars galaxy as an extremely dangerous sport that practically invites death for all of its participants. In The Phantom Menace, young Anakin's mother, Shmi, talks about how she fears for her son's life every time he participates in a race. Prior to the events of the movie, there has already been an incident where Anakin's pod's wrecked by a fellow competitor with no qualms about seeing him dead. Anakin, however, motivated by concern for his newfound friends, chooses to enter the upcoming Boonta Eve Classic podrace and, once engaged, makes a self-sacrificing and ultimately successful effort to win the race.

It is the same recklessness that Anakin goes on to demonstrate later in the movie, when he, albeit somewhat unintentionally, flies a Naboo starfighter right into a pitched space battle and then into the heart of a Trade Federation Control Ship, blowing it up from within. This same recklessness and lack of self-preservation becomes a trait that goes on to define Anakin for the rest of his life.

In Attack of the Clones, an older Anakin, now a Jedi Knight in training, is seen several times demonstrating similarly reckless behavior, much to the annoyance of his calmer Jedi Master, Obi-Wan-Kenobi. Throughout the course of the movie, Anakin is seen jumping out of a speeder into the heavy Coruscant traffic during heir pursuit of a bounty hunter, traveling the Tatooine badlands to find his missing mother and facing off against an entire camp of Tusken Raiders, rushing to Geonosis to help save Obi-Wan Kenobi and winding up captured.

Finally, and most importantly, he charges headlong into a duel with Sith Lord Count Dooku, which very nearly results in their deaths. During the Clone Wars, Anakin's reputation among the Jedi for being a fearless Jedi Knight grants him a certain amount of independence from the Jedi Order, as it helps the Republic win several battles against their Separatist opponents. Toward the end of the Clone Wars in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin, who has now renounced the Jedi Order and become a Sith Lord, endures some of his worst losses due to his recklessness.

However, it is also the same recklessness and disregard for self-preservation that Vader actually seems to need to survive and sustain himself. Recent Vader comics have shown him struggling to survive a dark and punishing quest that requires all of his focus and hate-fueled determination in order to survive. For many years, no matter the risks, death is simply never an option for Vader. For most of his later adulthood, his only purpose in life is to survive and serve the Empire and his master, Emperor Palpatine. He demonstrates his lack of self-preservation on several instances throughout the original trilogy, singlehandedly facing an entire squad of armed Rebels in a crowded corridor in an attempt attempt to recover the stolen Death Star plans in Rogue One, piloting a Tie Fighter against several Rebel ships to defend the Death Star in A New Hope, and personally leading a ground invasion of Hoth Base and taking a fleet of Star Destroyers through an asteroid field to capture the Millennium Falcon in The Empire Strikes Back.

Ironically, while his determination to survive is fueled by hate and rage following his transformation into the infamous Sith Lord and apprentice to Emperor Palpatine, Anakin/Vader occasionally demonstrates that his lack of self-preservation is not absolute and sometimes leads him to attempt to save others. In Revenge of the Sith, Anakin, through some tempting by Palpatine, ultimately betrays the Jedi Order in a misguided attempt to save his wife, Padme, from his visions of her impending death. That attempt to save her, however, ends up having negative galaxy-wide consequences. It also backfires badly for him personally, costing him Padme's love and life, as well the near total destruction of his own body. This lack of self-preservation, however, has a happy ending. In Return of the Jedi, it leads him to make a heroic turn, when he sacrifices his life to save his son, Luke, from being killed by Palpatine, and ending his master's domination of the galaxy.

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Written By Mara Butler

Source(s): Screen Rant

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