Anakin
Anakin, forty-five years old (Return of the Jedi), the only one strong enought to kill the Emperor, restores balance to the Force.
Anakin, nineteen years old (Attack of the Clones), roiling with emotion barely suppressed, a real teenager today, but not a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, where teens become Queens. When Padme - innocently wearing that Madam Lash outfit - says of an illicit affair, “We’d be living a lie. I couldn’t do that. Could you Ani?” I know what his internal response is. When he takes hideous revenge for his mother’s murder, he knows he’s done something wrong, but there’s no one to tell him in the grey world, except the ghost that pushed him into it. He runs from his emotional commitments in the middle film to a world of detached adventure. (Luke, in his middle film, runs from detached adventure to his world of emotional commitments.)
Anakin, nine years old (The Phantom Menace), “already a great pilot”. He’s a wonder in his own world, but Qui-Gon takes him to the grey world to fulfil a prophecy. Anakin, born to Shmi Skywalker and the Midichlorians. (Forget the Christian spin on virgin births, women have been falling pregnant without the aid of men throughout mythologies.) Anakin was brought forth to bring balance to the Force, the mystical energy field that the Midichlorians mediate. But when Qui-Gon finds him, he’s too old to be trained in the way of the Jedi, the wrong age to be taken away from his mum. He is attached, something the Jedi, the Republic, forbids. The Republic’s age is one of trade disputes and economic sanctions, there is no room for getting emotional. The truth is something that can be acted on summarily. There is no room for attachment. These are lessons that Anakin will return to the Republic a thousandfold. They know the price of everything, he will teach them the cost. Such is the way of the Force.
Anakin, forty-one years old (A New Hope), contemplating the ashes of the Republic. A lesson about nature: that a bushfire might burn down a forest to rejuvenate it. That it might smash the grey to make room for more colourful characters.