Star Wars fans aren’t too happy with a recent official update regarding Anakin Skywalker’s strength, which has doubtlessly delighted the folks over on the r/powerscaling subreddit.
Retcons in Star Wars never go down well. Obi-Wan’s original teacher being retconned from Yoda to Qui-Gon in the prequel films, Poe and Rey’s first meeting being retconned to having taken place in The Last Jedi, and, of course, the whole Han/Greedo shot first debacle.
Now retcons aren’t something exclusive to either Lucasfilm or Disney, but by god does it seem like these are way more prevalent in Star Wars than any other franchise in existence.
Well, we just got hit with a new one regarding Anakin Skywalker’s official power levels, and oh boy, has this one upset some people.
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As revealed in an article by The Direct’s Klein Felt (per @sw_holocron), an official display featuring Anakin at the San Diego Comic Con noted that Anakin actually only “had the potential to become one of the most powerful Jedi ever”.
But that’s just some random display at an event. Surely it’s not actually canon, right?
Uhhh, nope. As Felt spotted in their article, the official Star Wars website updated their databank section on Anakin to feature the exact same quote, and fans on Star Wars Holocron’s Tweet are not happy about it.
“He *is* the most powerful Jedi. Full stop”, commented user @bushido49ers.
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“He was the most powerful. But not the best because of his arrogance”, replied user @Azeltix.
So, firstly, clearly he wasn’t the most powerful if he got absolutely rocked by Obi-Wan twice. He literally had to wait until Obi-Wan was an old man to actually have a shot at beating him, and even then bro just basically let it happen.
However, the whole thing is a little bit confusing. Darth Vader is supposed to be the best of the best, so what’s this whole “potential” thing about?
Well, I did find one comment in that thread that I think clears the entire thing up.
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“Misunderstanding. It doesn't mean he never achieved max power, it means that when he did, he was no longer a Jedi”, commented user @JBisfree3443.
Now there’s some logic I can get behind.
As a Jedi, Anakin had the potential to be the strongest. As a Sith, he WAS the strongest. Makes perfect sense to me.