Star Wars fans baffled by Anakin Skywalker's real father reveal

Star Wars fans have just figured out who Anakin Skywalker’s dad is, and you may be surprised to find out that Palpatine is not actually his Ana-kin.

You remember near the start of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, when Qui-Gon Jinn and Anakin’s mother, Shmi Skywalker, have that oddly stilted conversation about who Anakin’s father is?

When pressed on his parentage, Shmi only has this to say: “There was no father. I carried him, I gave birth, I raised him, I can't explain what happened.”

Alright, well, that doesn’t really explain anything, does it? So surely at some point in the prequels, they allude to who Anakin’s real father is, right?

Uh, sort of. I’ll let the folks over on the Star Wars subreddit r/MawInstallation handle this one.

“He doesn’t have a father. Anakin was very explicitly created by the force”, commented user KainZeuxis.

“He was created to act as a counter balance, to eradicate the sith, and bring balance to the force. There was never any man involved.”

Huh. But I could have sworn there was a comic where Darth Vader hallucinated Palpatine being his father. Oh, wait, never mind– someone in that comments explained that bit too.

“Anakin does have a vision of Palpatine potentially being his father but the reality is that he was created in response to him”, replied user RedBaronBob.

“Not that Palpatine is actually his dad. He explicitly had no father. His mom and father figures are all he had. But he never actually had a genetic father. It’s just Shimi and space magic.”

So, Anakin’s father is… the midichlorians. Shmi was impregnated by a microscopic, sentient lifeform. Right. Ok. Sure. It’s not that I don’t believe it, it’s just… what kind of drugs were they on when they wrote the script for the prequels?

George Lucas really wasn’t trying to be subtle with the Space Jesus allegory, was he?