Anakin's/Vader's Goal Complexities

 Greetings everyone! Welcome back to my character study of Anakin Skywalker/ Darth Vader of the Star Wars Universe. Today we will be looking at his Goals and the complexity of his goals. Looking at the factors behind his goals like his reasons, what kind of goals, and his achievement motive. As I said in my previous posts Anakin’s number goal was to become the greatest Jedi Ever in galactic history so that he could fulfill the prophecy of the Chosen One. This Prophecy states “ A Chosen One shall come, born of no father, and through him will ultimate balance in the Force be restored.” Now whether you believe Luke or Anakin is the Chosen, this blog follows the creator’s mindset and which George Lucas himself has stated that Anakin is the chosen one and that the Jedi interpreted the prophecy incorrectly. Now Anakin’s secondary goal was to have a life beyond that of an ordinary Jedi, which was realized through his secret marriage with Padme Amidala. 

To Look at Anakin’s/ Vader’s Goals we are going to use concepts from Self-Determination theory along with Hierarchal Goal Complexes. Something I did not discuss on my SD theory post was what kind of regulation Anakin and Vader had. When looking at Anakin it is very easy to detect that he was going in between Introjected and Identified regulation. Introjected means that you choose to do the activities because someone wants you to do it, and Identified means you have assigned a particular characteristic or categorization to yourself and you have more moderate autonomy. I say this because if you look at Anakin’s story, he is constantly fighting to follow the Jedi Code and fulfill the prophecy as the Chosen One. The Jedi Code and the extreme Pressure of fulfilling this prophecy make Anakin 1) become a Jedi which he will identify himself as for 30 years of life 2) Cause conflict with his understanding of emotions and attachments 3) make him extremely arrogant with high self-efficacy but with low self-esteem. So Anakin is introjected by the Jedi Code, the Jedi Council, and the Prophecy of the Chosen One, but he Identifies as a Jedi and the values of the Republic as a system to protect people, even though he is not a fan of democracy and is for more fascists or authoritarian governments. 

Anakin and Padme Discussing Democracy 

Vader on the other hand is flipping between Integrated and Intrinsic Regulation. Vader is fully into the Dogma of the Empire because the Empire is ruled under his master Palpatine. Palpatine promised to save his wife Padme and in Anakin’s mind he killed her which he attributed fault to the Jedi and his old friend and master Obi-Wan Kenobi. I Vader is Identified because he likes the system of the Empire which is of peace through force and one singular entity making all the decisions. It also because he is now following the Dark Side and the Sith Code. I do also say Intrinsic which is where he is at complete autonomy because Vader’s goal changes from following his Master’s will and growing from his teachings to wanting to rule the galaxy for himself. 

The Sith Code of which Vader Followed for 25 years

Now back to Anakin and his achievement motive combination. I would say that Anakin while he was a Jedi and on the light side was an optimist which means he was pure success-oriented, mastery focused, and his performance provides information. I have stated that he did have problems with performance-approach goals, but I do think know that only pertained when people gave him criticism. I do think he thought of himself as very skilled but not in high esteem. Vader on the other hand is hard to understand or put a label, I think the best one to put him under is oversriver. I say this not because Vader had a fear of failure because he thought he could fail. Vader was extremely self-confident in his abilities in the Empire, but his fear was of punishment from his master, in which Vader said in Star Wars Lords of the Sith how at any moment his master could kill him with those hands of electricity and force lightning. This caused Vader to become a wild dog, his own daughter Princess Leia, saying how she knew Tarkin was holding Vader’s ‘leash’. 

I think that if Anakin was given insight to how other individuals handle their attachments like in the Siege of Mandalore arc on the show Star Wars the Clone Wars Obi-Wan shared how he loved Satine, but he had to let go of that attachment, and how if he could have received that acknowledgment from the rest of the Jedi he may not have become Darth Vader.