An ancient dark side warning mentioned in Adam Christopher’s Shadow of the Sith Star Wars novel links to Anakin’s eventual fall to the dark side. Although Star Wars: The Force Awakens suggested that the Sith were no longer a threat in a post-Return of the Jedi galaxy, recent sequel-era stories like Shadow of the Sith reveal that this was never the case. In fact, Luke and Lando learn how mistakes from an ancient past could happen again.
As important as the Sith are to Star Wars, it was only during the Star Wars prequels that audiences were introduced to the ancient Jedi enemies. The Sith returned during Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace after being gone for millennia, an event that set Star Wars‘ Clone Wars in motion. The Sith’s return would also eventually lead to Anakin’s fall to the dark side in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
An Ancient Force Proverb Foretold Anakin’s Experience
Though Shadow of the Sith was published years after Revenge of the Sith and followed Luke and Lando after the events of Return of the Jedi, it offered more insight into the secrets of the Sith, as suggested by the novel’s title. Shadow of the Sith opens with an ancient message from a “darker time,” warning about the dangers of the dark side of the Force. The Shadow of the Sith passage mentions that, in the end, “the shadow is all you have left.” It also tells how the dark side of the Force “understands” and “forgives” a person, all of which link to Anakin’s fall to the dark side.
The Shadow of the Sith opening actually borrows from how Matt Stover’s Revenge of the Sith novelization described Anakin’s fall (via SW Connections). The Revenge of the Sith novelization mentions how, in the end, the shadow was all Anakin had left. It also mentions how the dark side of the Force understood and forgave Anakin, as well as how the shadows gather Anakin unto themselves. While the Revenge of the Sith novelization came before, this ancient warning about the Sith had been there for millennia in terms of Star Wars chronology. Anakin’s experience of falling into the dark side was foretold, including how he would “burn” within his “own flame.”
How Anakin Skywalker Lived Out This Dark Side Warning
By the time Anakin emerges from the medical facility with most of his body replaced by machines, there was nothing else waiting for Skywalker other than the dark side of the Force. The shadows were all Anakin had left, as Darth Vader had destroyed everything Anakin once cared for and believed in, including Padmé, Obi-Wan, and the Galactic Republic as a whole. Anakin found the power he was looking for in Revenge of the Sith. However, achieving it meant losing everything else., Anakin had regrets about everything that happened, yet the shadows understood and forgive him. Centuries — if not thousands — of years later, Anakin proved the ancient Sith warning right.
With Padmé dead because of Anakin and the former Jedi Knight having contributed to destroying the Jedi Order – including the younglings – Anakin could have been consumed by guilt and regrets. That is why the dark side of the Force was so dangerous, as it offered the forgiveness Anakin was now looking for. Anakin burned all the bridges to become Darth Vader in Star Wars, which makes the “burn” in their “own flame” passage from the Sith warning work both literally and figuratively. There was very little left of Anakin Skywalker in Darth Vader, with the shadows being all that remained for the Star Wars villain.
