The old saying claims that suffering builds character, but in the case of Anakin Skywalker, it only served to turn him towards the dark side of the Force, which ultimately led to him becoming the most fearsome and deadly villain in the entire galaxy. Suffice to say, character was not built, but an all-time great villain was.
Ever since he was a child, the future Darth Vader’s entire existence was marked by disappointment, death, misery, and seething anger. Whether it was the fate of his mother, Padme, those Younglings he mercilessly chopped down, the battle against Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar that left him a smoking husk, his children being sent to opposite corners of the galaxy, and on and on it goes.
He’s definitely had a tough run has old Anakin, but fans over on Reddit have been debating whether he’s suffered more than anybody else, although we should point out that the top-voted comment suggests “everyone who had to deal with Anakin” has gotten it much worse.
Darth Maul comes up quite often, as does Mace Windu for reasons that are more tongue-in-cheek than anything else. Naturally, this being the internet, Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote are also thrown into the conversation despite being figures that hail from neither the sci-fi or fantasy genres.
It’s one of those never-ending debates that isn’t going to throw up a definitive winner, but it does at least make you stop and think about the decades-long onslaught of misfortune that plagued Anakin’s existence. Dealing with that much grief and tragedy would turn anyone into a villain, regardless of whether they had Ewan McGregor trying to convince them otherwise or not.