> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://mythicmindfellowship.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Who Failed Anakin Skywalker? (Mythic Mind, ep. 197) - URL: https://mythicmindfellowship.com/who-failed-anakin-skywalker-mythic-mind-ep-197/ - Published: 2026-11-02T18:38:38.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-09T14:23:01.000Z - Description: Who failed Anakin Skywalker: the Jedi, Palpatine, or Anakin himself? On Exploring the Psyche, Andrew reads the fall through disordered desire, Boethius's wheel, and the harder freedom of ordered love. - Author: Andrew Snyder Mythic MindEpisode 197 # Who Failed Anakin Skywalker? (Mythic Mind, ep. 197) Dr. Andrew Snyder 2 November 2026 [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) ## In this episode Right-wing X has been full of pro-Anakin posts, including one Elon Musk shared of an AI image of Emperor Anakin with Padme and their children in Imperial uniforms, captioned “This is what they took from us.” Some of that is just meme energy. Underneath it sits a real claim: that the Jedi, read as a bloated liberal order, failed a gifted young man, and that Palpatine at least affirmed his passions and offered a path of belonging. On Mythic Mind Exploring the Psyche, Dr. Andrew Snyder asks who actually failed Anakin Skywalker. Was it the Jedi who raised him, the chancellor who empowered him, or Anakin himself? He grants plenty of the grievance. Qui-Gon dies early. Obi-Wan clearly loves Anakin, yet treats as a brother the young man who needed a father. The Order treats love as a liability to manage more than as a fire to order toward the good, and the council wants Anakin’s power while withholding the rank of master. Palpatine, though, loves him the way the witch loved Hansel. The candy is real sugar, and the house is still a trap. Anakin’s fall rides disordered desires that each begin in something genuine: a love of Padme that becomes the glory of being her savior, a hunger for justice that becomes impatient revolutionary will, a longing for paternal affirmation that accepts a false name from a devourer, and underneath them an attempt to make fortune’s wheel stand still under his hand. Drawing on Kierkegaard’s call to be “in the truth,” Boethius on the wheel of fortune, C. S. Lewis’s men without chests, and Edmund Burke on inheritance across the living, the dead, and the yet unborn, Andrew argues that soft licentiousness and hard empire are two faces of the same refusal of ordered love. Luke does not save his father by matching power with power. He lays down the saber. The harder freedom is responsibility under what is true, good, and beautiful. ### People **Dr. Andrew Snyder**Host and speaker ### Key themes - Pro-Anakin posts and the question of blame - Four disordered desires - Palpatine and the candy house - Boethius and the wheel of fortune - Soft culture, hard empire, and men without chests - Ordered love and the harder freedom ## Chapters 1. [0:00Pro-Anakin posts and the question of blame](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=0s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 2. [1:49Why Anakin resonates now](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=109s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 3. [4:26Jedi failure, Obi-Wan, and Palpatine the witch](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=266s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 4. [5:39Thrownness and cultivating the right affections](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=339s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 5. [7:10Four disordered desires](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=430s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 6. [7:29Padme and the power of rescue](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=449s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 7. [11:13Justice, relativism, and impatient revolution](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=673s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 8. [15:26Paternal affirmation and the candy house](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=926s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 9. [17:37Looking outside for what must be appropriated](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=1057s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 10. [18:37Boethius, fortune, and the wheel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=1117s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 11. [20:28Luke, Return of the Jedi, and a self in the truth](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=1228s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 12. [21:28Who failed Anakin most fundamentally](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=1288s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 13. [22:11Will to power, soft culture, and men without chests](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=1331s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 14. [24:07Thrownness, gratitude, and ordered love](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=1447s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) 15. [27:08If you see yourself in Anakin](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=1628s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) Choose a chapter to jump the video to that moment. > “Luke does not save his father by matching power with power. He lays down his saber.” Dr. Andrew Snyder, at [28:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKs8fvJ24Z4&t=1737s&ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) ## Related - [**The Abolition of Man, Part 1: Men Without Chests (Mythic Mind, ep. 111)**Watch the episode](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/the-abolition-of-man-part-1-men-without-chests-mythic-mind-ep-111/) - [**Kierkegaard’s Concept of Anxiety: Anxiety Is Not an Ailment to Be Removed (Mythic Mind, ep. 196)**Watch the episode](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/kierkegaards-concept-of-anxiety-anxiety-is-not-an-ailment-to-be-removed-mythic-mind-ep-196/) - [**Oblivion’s Sheogorath and Kierkegaard’s Sickness unto Death (Mythic Mind Games, ep. 34)**Watch the episode](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/oblivions-sheogorath-and-kierkegaards-sickness-unto-death-mythic-mind-games-ep-34/) - [**Revenge of the Sith: The Fallout of Disordered Loves (Mythic Mind Movies, ep. 7)**Watch the episode](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/revenge-of-the-sith-the-fallout-of-disordered-loves-mythic-mind-movies-ep-7/) ## Books mentioned - [**The Sickness unto Death**Søren Kierkegaard](https://bookshop.org/a/129785/9780691020280?ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) - [**The Consolation of Philosophy**Boethius (Relihan translation)](https://bookshop.org/a/129785/9780872205833?ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) - [**The Abolition of Man**C. S. Lewis](https://bookshop.org/a/129785/9780060652944?ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) - [**Reflections on the Revolution in France**Edmund Burke](https://bookshop.org/a/129785/9780199539024?ref=mythicmindfellowship.com) ## Go deeper The Cosmos ### [Venus](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/cosmos/) The Third Heaven Find it on the Cosmos ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/-EPxVQMOpBc/mqdefault.jpg) Related episode ### [Revenge of the Sith: The Fallout of Disordered Loves](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/revenge-of-the-sith-the-fallout-of-disordered-loves-mythic-mind-movies-ep-7/) Mythic Mind Movies, ep. 7 Watch the episode ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/voOEKAzHrk0/mqdefault.jpg) Related episode ### [The Abolition of Man, Part 1: Men Without Chests](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/the-abolition-of-man-part-1-men-without-chests-mythic-mind-ep-111/) Mythic Mind, ep. 111 Watch the episode ![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/iqA5coEKKnk/mqdefault.jpg) Related episode ### [Kierkegaard’s Concept of Anxiety: Anxiety Is Not an Ailment to Be Removed](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/kierkegaards-concept-of-anxiety-anxiety-is-not-an-ailment-to-be-removed-mythic-mind-ep-196/) Mythic Mind, ep. 196 Watch the episode Fellows and Companions study every course in the Academy, current and future. [View Membership Options](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/membership/) [Previous in Mythic MindKierkegaard’s Concept of Anxiety: Anxiety Is Not an Ailment to Be Removed](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/kierkegaards-concept-of-anxiety-anxiety-is-not-an-ailment-to-be-removed-mythic-mind-ep-196/)[Next in Mythic MindYou Have Forgotten Who You Are: Boethius' Consolation, Book I](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/you-have-forgotten-who-you-are-mythic-mind-ep-198/) [All episodes in The Gallery](https://mythicmindfellowship.com/videos/)