Star Wars Confirms Anakin’s Podracing Showcased His Darkest Quality

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Star Wars: Doctor Aphra #12

In the latest issue of Doctor Aphra, Star Wars confirms that Anakin Skywalker’s podracing showcased one of his darkest qualities he would carry into adulthood as Darth Vader. In the new issue, Doctor Chelli Aphra and Sana Starros have infiltrated Crimson Dawn’s gala to auction off the infamous smuggler Han Solo, and it’s here that Sana clarifies one of the key traits all podracers seem to have: no sense of self-preservation. As a result, one can imagine that Anakin Skywalker shared this trait as well, and it led to Darth Vader’s dark fearlessness where death was simply not an option for the Dark Lord, allowing him to achieve incredible feats and dark acts in the name of the Empire and his master Darth Sidious.

While Doctor Aphra once worked Darth Vader, she eventually fell out of favor with the Dark Lord and he tried to kill her. However, she did survive and later trapped Vader himself in a Force confessional on the planet Tython, incapacitating him long enough to hack into his systems to delay the Empire finding the Rebel base on Hoth before The Empire Strikes Back. That being said, while Aphra certainly has her heroic moments, she’s more or less a scoundrel who’s managed to anger every single guest of the criminal underworld invited to Crimson’s Dawn’s auction in Doctor Aphra #12 from writer Alyssa Wong and artist Minkyu Jung.

This is what prompts Sana to make her comment about podracers having no sense of self-preservation. Podracing is one most dangerous sports in the galaxy, and it’s one that young Anakin Skywalker participated in during the events of The Phantom Menace. However, this same psychology and predilection seems to exist in Aphra as well, which has motivated the need for her and Sana to be disguised so as not to cause a scene with everyone wanting a piece of the rogue doctor. Furthermore, it’s this same mentality and recklessness that has made Darth Vader so fearsome and formidable as a Sith Lord.

Recent issues from Marvel Comics have seen Darth Vader literally crawling his way out of a dark quest meant to punish him and push him to his very limits. Furthermore, he absolutely would have died had he not used his hate and immovable determination to keep going. Keeping with the idea of having no sense of self-preservation, Vader laser-focuses on the task or goal at hand, doing whatever he has to to achieve that goal regardless of how much suffering or trials he must endure to achieve his victory.

Vader has no fear of death or overwhelming desire to keep himself alive. Instead, death is simply not an option. There’s only the next mission, goal, and task given to him by his master. In the past, this was a simple carelessness and reckless behavior similar to Doctor Aphra that put him at odds with the Jedi Council (while previously making him an excellent podracer). However, it transformed into a dark quality of hate-fueled determination once Darth Vader became a Sith Lord, allowing him to accomplish feats no one else in the Star Wars galaxy ever could.

About The Author

Kevin Erdmann
(2531 Articles Published)

Kevin Erdmann is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers. With a major in Cinema Studies and a minor in Comics and Cartoon Studies from the UofO, Kevin is pretty sure he’s writing for the right site. While Kevin is a huge Marvel fan, he also loves Batman because he’s Batman and is a firm believer that Han shot first. Disney also shares a big part of his fan patronage. Kevin lives in Oregon with his wonderful wife and sinister cat who is no doubt currently plotting his demise.

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