Who Is Anakin Skywalker’s Father? Comics Reveal Darth Vader’s Parents

One of the most mystifying parts of Star Wars is the prophecy of the Chosen One, who is supposed to be Anakin. That’s because the prophecy is quite vague, and that goes perfectly well with how vague Anakin’s origins are because there haven’t been any exact details regarding where he came from and how he came to be. All we know is that Shmi carried him and gave birth to him. So, who is Anakin Skywalker’s father?

As Shmi Skywalker said, Anakin Skywalker has no father. She just simply got pregnant with him for an unknown reason, as there was never anything confirmed regarding how Anakin came to be. Even the Lucasfilm Story Group disproved the notion that Palpatine was Anakin’s actual father.

For a very long time, fans believed that Anakin’s father was the Force and that it was Palpatine and his master, Darth Plagueis, that created him. However, this has all been proven to be false by Lucasfilm. In that regard, the entire story of Anakin’s origins and father is still a mystery that Lucasfilm has decided to stay away from. So, with that said, let’s get into this topic in detail.

Does Anakin Skywalker Have A Father?

Ever since George Lucas released Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 1999, the story behind Anakin has become quite a mystery. Of course, we do know that Episode I was made to shed some light on how Anakin Skywalker became a Jedi because of the fact that his transformation into Darth Vader is one of the biggest moments in the history of the franchise.

While we do know that Anakin grew up in Tatooine as the son of a slave woman named Shmi, things became quite complicated when Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn sensed a strong connection to the Force within the young boy. That was when he checked him for Midi-chlorians and realized that he had more than any other Jedi in recorded history. This made him think that Anakin could be the prophesized Chosen One that would bring balance to the Force.

But the more confusing part was that, When Qui-Gon asked Shmi Skywalker who the father was, she said that there was no father and that she just simply carried him, gave birth to him, and raised him all on her own. So, did Anakin Skywalker have a father?

If we go by Shmi’s word, then it is truly possible that Anakin never had a father in the conventional sense. This means that he was created in a manner that’s similar to the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary in Christian stories. And while God was the one responsible for Mary’s immaculate conception, the Force is the one that influenced the cell division within Shmi so that she would end up getting pregnant with Anakin without a father.

Nevertheless, even though he never had a father, Anakin did have a few father figures. For a while, Qui-Gon acted like a father to him before his untimely passing. There were also times when Obi-Wan was also like a father to Anakin even though they were more like brothers. But the one man that he always regarded as a father figure for more than two decades was Palpatine.

Anakin Skywalker and Sheev Palpatine first met when the young boy came to Coruscant after Qui-Gon released him from slavery in Tatooine so that he could train him as a Jedi. After that, he became closer to Palpatine during the Clone Wars when he was seen conversing with the then-Chancellor from time to time. And when he was asked to rescue Palpatine from Dooku and become his bodyguard, that was when he started looking up to the Chancellor and soon-to-be Emperor as a father figure.

After betraying the Jedi to join the Sith as Palpatine’s new apprentice, Anakin now treated him as a father figure that he wanted to please and obey. Even though he had no reason to do all of the horrible things he did as Darth Vader, Anakin still did so because he wanted to please the master, who he also saw as his father figure. And Palpatine being his father figure was more than enough for him to want to continue on with his reign of terror as the Empire’s enforcer. 

Did Palpatine Create Anakin?

While we do know that Anakin, as Darth Vader, looked up to Palpatine as his father figure for many years, there are people who believe that it was the Emperor who created Anakin. This theory came about when Palpatine told Anakin the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise, who was powerful enough to influence the Force to create life.

Of course, Palpatine was implying that he also had this kind of power so that he could pull Anakin over to the dark side. He was, after all, Darth Sidious, who learned all that he needed to learn from Darth Plagueis. So, with that said, was Palpatine the one who created Anakin?

Another reason why fans believe that Palpatine was indeed Anakin’s “father” and was the one who “created” him was the fact that there was a canon Darth Vader comic book that showed Palpatine in the background overshadowing Shmi. That scene made fans think that Lucasfilm has now made the idea of Palpatine being the father of Anakin canon. But that isn’t really the case.

The Lucasfilm Story Group is a group of people that Lucasfilm put in charge of handling all of the different details regarding the canon storyline of the Star Wars continuity. There was a good reason to create this group because the line between what’s canon and what’s not has become confusing after Disney acquired Lucasfilm. In that regard, the stories that were written before the Disney acquisition are now covered under the Legends storyline of Star Wars.

Of course, the Lucasfilm Story Group is also involved in all of the different Star Wars projects because they are the ones who dictate what can be included in the story of a new Star Wars movie, series, game, or book. The group makes sure that anything officially created or written about Star Wars will not encroach upon the already established canon.

The Lucasfilm Story Group said that the scene in the comics involving Palpatine overshadowing Shmi is merely Anakin’s vision. That was how he perceived Palpatine as he saw the Emperor as the father figure that he never had.

It was also mentioned by the representatives of the group that Star Wars fans should take what Palpatine said about being able to create life with a grain of salt. He was telling the truth when he said that he could save lives, considering that he was able to transfer his own consciousness to a different body. However, the Sith are never reliable in terms of the things that they say.

Palpatine and Plagueis may have tried to influence the Force to create life, but that doesn’t necessarily prove that they were the ones who created Anakin. There are even accounts that say that Anakin is their punishment for trying to create life as the Force created the Chosen One so that he could punish the Sith for disrupting the balance of the Force.

So, with that said, while Palpatine may be Anakin’s father figure, he was never his real father. Anakin only saw him as a guiding figure that helped him through a good part of his life, but the Emperor did not have a hand in Anakin’s creation. In fact, the creation of Anakin Skywalker is something that the Lucasfilm Story Group would like to leave a mystery out of respect for George Lucas’s creation.