What Anakin Skywalker Can Teach Us About Writing Fallen Heroes

By Sandrina de Klerk

You may love them, you may hate them. 

Fallen heroes. Perhaps you love reading them, but you’re unsure how to approach writing one. Or maybe you’ve tried to before and failed miserably. 

Don’t give up just yet! 

Fallen heroes can add emotional depth, complexity, and much more to your novel. They’ll grab your reader by the heart strings, and make said reader sob as the once hero begins to fall. 

Many others have succeeded in writing these tricky fellas, and you can too. 

In this article, we’ll be breaking down the journey of a famous (or infamous?) fallen hero. Anakin Skywalker. By taking a look at some of the specific aspects of this character’s path, we should be able to take some tips on how to write fallen heroes who your readers will love--or hate. 

Onwards! 

1. Motivation 

Motivation is what drives your character. Why are they doing what they are doing? What’s the core reason? 

This is a pretty important factor in any character, whether protagonist or antagonist.  Oh, also, the character’s “why” has got to be better than, “I just had a really bad childhood!” As Christian writers, we must always be wary of blaming evil deeds on someone's past. Sin is sin.  As John MacArthur pointed out in The Truth About Forgiveness:

“I am sick” is much easier to say than, “I have sinned.” But it doesn’t deal with the fact that one’s transgression is a serious offence against a holy, omniscient, omnipotent God.”

The same is true with writing villains. It’s often easier to shove the blame on a past event, treatment, or experience, but in the end, it’s a choice to go against what we know is right.

(Endgame spoiler ahead) 

Let’s take Thanos (he’s not a fallen hero, but the point of his motivation works the same). He had a bad childhood, as we find out later on. But does this make him a bad villain? 

Thanos’ goal is to wipe out half the universe. None of us (hopefully) agree with that point, but when we find out his motivation, we at least understand the why. He’s seen the suffering, and the lack of balance. In some small way, we can see why, and sympathise, though we don’t at all support him. So this means that “a bad childhood” is not a useless and cheesy motivation.

(Spoiler finished)

A lot of what we term “bad motivations” such as: background, revenge, romance, power, money, etc, are all good motivations! They are realistic and work well. It’s the how and the execution of it’s writing that’s important here.

If you think about it, “I had a bad childhood” is not a bad reason or motivation, it actually makes a lot of sense. We are hugely affected by how we grow up, who raises us, what we spend our time doing, how we’re treated, etc. A character’s past shouldn’t excuse their actions, but it can explain them.  

Look at our example, Anakin Skywalker. 

His upbringing affected his future. And not just his early childhood as a slave on Tatooine. His time as a padawan and a Jedi Knight played a part in his motivation, too. As we just discussed, his backstory is not an excuse for evil actions, but we can see how the Council’s rude treatment of Anakin actually encouraged (unintentionally) his friendship with the Chancellor. Every time Anakin felt Obi-Wan dismissed him, or didn’t listen, or treated him like a child, added to a growing frustration and anger. Everything plays a part in the journey!

The thing to remember when writing motivation, is that we do not always have to agree with the character, but we must sympathise. At the very core of the various goals, Anakin’s motivation is to protect those he loves. 

The reason why he left his mother in the first place was so that he could return to free her. The reason he wanted power was so he’d never have to watch someone he loved suffer in the same way again. Some of the things Anakin does (which we’ll discuss later), we would never agree with, but we do sympathise. We don’t love him for it, but we don’t hate him either. 

In the beginning of The Phantom Menace, Anakin wants to get off Tatooine.

“I’m a pilot, you know. And someday, I’m gonna fly away from this place.”  

As it should, his goals naturally change as we get further into the movie. He wants Obi-Wan to stop treating him like a child, he wants to save his mom, he wants to be the most powerful Jedi, he wants to save Padmé, he wants to protect, he turns to the dark side because he believes by becoming the most powerful Sith, he’ll finally be able to protect those he loves. 

So, when you are in the process of writing a fallen hero (or I suppose, a falling hero), find a compelling and sympathetic reason/motivation, and keep it running through the story, even if the goals change. 

Ask Yourself:

What is my character’s motivation? 

What is my character’s goal?

How do their goals change as they begin to fall?

Have I used small things in the character’s life to add to their reasoning?

2. Conflict

Conflict, and internal conflict, is essentially Desire vs. Fear (Thanks, Abbie Emmons).

Writers love this, right? What better way to make a scene more interesting than to throw in some conflict and make your characters suffer?  

Anakin is conflicted from the very beginning. He’s unsure of whether to leave his mother, he’s afraid as well as excited for the future, he wants to obey his master but is constantly irritated with being treated as a child.

When Anakin starts to “fall”, he is somewhat aware. 

“I’m not the Jedi I should be.” 

“I shouldn’t have done that. It’s not the Jedi way.” 

“I’m a Jedi, I know I’m better than this.” 

“I want more and I know I shouldn’t.”

Anakin desires to be a Jedi, but his fear is to lose his mother/Padmé. These two things constantly pull him in different directions. When he’s offered a way to keep them from dying, his fear pulls him toward it, even though he knows what he’s doing is wrong. His fear overwhelms him, blinding him to the morals he once held, even to the point where he kills younglings.

Why is this important when writing a fallen hero? 

Conflict is part of what makes a character compelling and sympathetic. Keep this in mind when writing your own! 

Desire vs. Fear. Figure that out, and begin to work it through your character, their dialogue, their actions, and the scenes you write.

Ask Yourself: 

Have I used my character’s desire and fear to create internal conflict? 

How does this affect their fall?

Am I showing their conflict through interesting scenes? 

3. Gradual Descent

The most compelling and well done fallen-heroes I’ve seen, have a gradual journey to the dark side. Small events building onto others, little moments, little glimpses, moral gray areas, till we reach the final flick of the switch. 

Made up example: say you have a hero who  completes the first mission they were given, but uses less ethical methods than they used to. Then next time, he questions the mission, but still does it. The time after that, he disobeys entirely, and the time after that, he actively attacks the side he used to be on.

See how that becomes worse and worse gradually? Rather than one day just a character flipping over to the opposing side, it’s a flip we start to see and dread.

Essentially, this is foreshadowing. Not always super obvious in the beginning maybe, but building up to something, and having the viewers holding their breath. It might seem unexpected, but when you think back, it wasn’t. 

Gradual is realistic. New catchphrase. 

Anakin is the perfect example of this. His journey starts when he’s just a boy, scared, and missing his mom. But let’s begin tracing it from the scene where he has a nightmare/vision about his mother in great pain.

He goes back to Tatooine and tracks her down until he finds the people who killed her. This is where things really kick off. Anakin murders the Sand people.

“I killed them. I killed them all. They’re dead. Every single one of them. And not just the men, but the women, and the children, too.” 

This scene kind of makes you freeze and then shiver. Here he’s acting out of weakness, fury at the ones who killed his mother. When he begins speaking, he’s in shock, and as he continues, you see the anger and the hate continue to grow.

“Why couldn’t I save her? I know I could’ve.” … “Someday I will be. I will be the most powerful Jedi ever. I will even learn to stop people from dying.”

At the end of the film, Anakin goes behind the back of the Jedi to marry Padmé . Smaller events happen in between, Padmé  tells Anakin she’s pregnant, and not long after Anakin has a dream, or nightmare, rather, that Padmé  dies in childbirth.

 Determined not to let his dream become a reality again, Anakin grows desperate for power. Chancellor Palpatine slowly works on him, tells him of a Sith Lord who learned to stop people from dying.

“Can I learn this?” “Not from a Jedi.”

Anakin gives into his hatred of Count Dooku and uses the dark side to overpower him, Palpatine tells Anakin to kill Dooku, and after a moment of hesitation Anakin obeys.

“What have I done!” “Become my apprentice.” “I will do whatever you ask--just help me save Padmé 's life.”

Not long after, Mace Windu comes to kill Chancellor Palpatine, but before he can, Anakin kills Windu. 

We then come to the scene that makes us wince. Anakin slays the younglings. 

This is the breaking point. Fear finally took hold, and the final nail in the coffin was hammered in. The decision that drove him over the edge.

In pretty much every good story, heroes have a breaking point. In fallen hero arcs, it might be the death of a loved one, or a betrayal. But the event leads to some sort of high-pressure situation where the character has to make a choice, and they choose the wrong one. Everything has been building and brewing under the surface, and at this point, comes to the surface, and hits the character in the gut. 

After his breaking point, Anakin finds Padmé and tells her he has found a way to save her, and needs to leave. He does so, and Obi Wan comes to Padmé. Broken-hearted, he tells her Anakin has turned and he must find him. If you’ve seen the movies, you know the tragic end. Thinking Padmé  has betrayed him, Anakin hurts her and turns to duel Obi Wan. When Obi Wan is victorious, he walks away with tears, leaving Anakin to burn. Padmé  dies, leaving twins in the care of Master Kenobi. 

So why does making the fall gradual work well and why should we do it? Simple, really. It gives the viewer/reader time to sympathize with the character. Basically, you grab the reader with this hero, and tear their heart out as they see them make more and more bad decisions. It’s realistic, and makes it more painful for the reader. 

Which of course is not at all what we writers try to do. 

Make sure you consider how each small decision has led up to this fall. A fallen hero's journey is more like stumbling down a rocky slope than it is walking off the edge of a cliff.

Ask Yourself: 

Is my character’s journey gradual?

Have you brought your character to a breaking point? 

Does this breaking point bring them to a point of no return? 

So, give your character a motivation that explains their actions, but does not excuse them. As always, create conflict in and for your character, and make sure when writing their journey, it’s not abrupt and out of place. 

A final tip. Keep them human! In the end, one who stole one piece of candy, and one who robbed a bank, will both stand condemned on the day of judgement! The only hope any of us have is Christ and Christ alone. Everything we write as Christians should point to our Savior, and when you write fallen heroes, keep that in focus! 

So go forth, my brave writers! Go write some fallen heroes! (And if you give them a redemption arc in the end, you will probably make me happy). 

What is your favorite example of a fallen hero? Why did you like it? What made it work?