Stealth Moose
Umbrella Elite
Originally posted by Dolos
He admitted, "I know I'm better than this" in AoTC, he did not believe it was okay to kill Sand People women and children.
That's like Stalin saying "Oops" after killing people, or Hitler. Recognition of guilt with the subsequent refusal to atone and/or learn from it does not equal any kind of good moral standing. Anakin is headstrong, selfish, aggressive, dominating, amoral when it comes to people who have no personal attachment to him, and manipulative. He's a rotten bastard.
Anakin had lost his sense of morality and was purely following orders to eliminate Force sensitives who've been initiated into the Jedi teachings for Palpatine.
Again, would you firebomb a German school to kill Hitler Youth? Would you slash North Korean children born under the current regime?
This isn't an ethical argument; it's apologist rhetoric and it fails to stand to scrutiny.
How is that selfish? It's an intrinsically motivated sense of morality.It served as an indicator that a part of Anakin remained in that he was unable to put his responsibilities as Emperor's Executor over his natural, altruistically driven paternal instincts.
1. A planet blows up. He doesn't care.
2. He tortures his own daughter unknowingly. Doesn't apologize.
3. He helps the oppression and murder of perhaps millions during the Empire's lifetime.
4. He slaughtered younglings, Jedi unaffiliated with him, and others at the drop of a hat, because Sidious promised him life for his wife.
5. He then suddenly has this need to connect to Luke. So instead of being motivated to turn because of all that wrong doing, he's motivated by a personal connection and a personal need to do right by his own son.
That's my point. Incredibly selfish.
People change every moment of their lives, Lucas makes a clear distinction between Anakin, Vader, and redeemed Anakin.
And padawan Obi-Wan is not the same man as RotS Obi-Wan or ANH Obi-Wan. But the point remains that Vader is self-serving and amoral to those outside of his sphere of personal connection.
In the end "good is a point of view"; from a certain point of view Sidious was a hero for destroying the Jedi.
And Rome 'civilized' the West by killing, enslaving, and conquering much of Europe, Asia Minor, and north Africa.
You can use "from a certain point of view" to establish subjectivism, but not any kind of general moral truth. If I say stealing is wrong, this isn't from a "certain point of view" but from the viewpoint of society, an overwhelming majority. They don't equate.
Anakin is a failed hero, and his moral standing is entirely questionable, which explains why I've had nothing but utter loathing for him since AotC hit the theaters.