You know who gets a bad rap: Darth Vader. I mean, he was complicit in the creation of the Galactic Empire which killed hundreds of millions of people on Alderan alone and likely murdered billions more off screen, but who’s counting? That and he killed little kids at the Jedi temple, but what where the Jedi doing taking kids that young away from their parents anyway? And he tortured his own daughter, though he didn’t know Leia was his daughter when he used that little ball device in Episode IV. Though given how strong with the force he was, I suppose he should have felt bad or something. (Admittedly, most people would feel bad for torturing a teenage girl regardless of other issues.)

Okay, starting over, the main rap against ole’ Darth is that he was supposed to “bring balance to the force” and instead he betrayed the Jedi, helping set up the Galactic Empire in the process. That’s what Obi Wan said on Mustafar.

I think it’s horseshit. Anakin did bring balance to the force. How you might ask? Well, by doing just what he did. Stick with me. There are two sides of the force, right? Light side and dark side. Or pure side and dark side. They really aren’t clear what the good side is called. So for the force to be in balance, the amount of good and evil in the world has to be roughly equal, right?

Episode I, if you can stomach remembering that film, introduces us to the world of the Galactic Republic before the Imperial period. It’s a world where a large part of the Galaxy has been governed peacefully through democratic means for millennia. The Sith haven’t been a factor in a thousand years. We later learn there are currently two of them. By comparison, there are hundreds of Jedi, and they are directly connected to the governing structure of the Republic. The Trade Federation is causing trouble, but they get beat by Jar Jar Binks and a pint size Jedi who accidentally gets stuck in a fighter ship. There’s a lot more good in this world than evil.

By the end of Episode III, that’s all gone. The number of Jedi and Sith are roughly equal. Yoda, Obi-Wan, and apparently, Ashoka, are out there on one side, and the Emperor, Darth Vader, and Darth Maul, are out there on the other. Now, you can argue that with the Galactic Republic becoming the Empire, a polity that has no problems blowing up planets and shooting moisture farmers for fun, the amount of evil in the universe is now greater than the amount of good.

That’s actually kind of a complex question philosophically though. There are arguments that the Empire was on the whole good for the galaxy because it was better able to enforce rules against slavery. I personally am a little skeptical of that. I haven’t seen much evidence that slavery was abolished on Tatooine, as Jabba the Hutt has women in chains in his palace in Return of the Jedi. That being said, while evil, the Empire still performed a lot of the basic functions the Republic did, such as maintaining the peace between systems, enforcing the law, and enabling trade between the various planets. Even a tyrannical government can be said to do some good by performing the normal tasks a government is supposed to do.

In any event, that argument becomes moot by Episode VI. By betraying the emperor, Darth Vader allows the Rebel Alliance to claim a major victory over the Galactic Empire, leading to revolts across the Galaxy. It does not lead to the end of the Empire. From the Mandalorian the Sequel Trilogy, we know that the Empire continues as “imperial holdouts” or “the First Order.” New name, same great service. Return of the Jedi implies the Empire is gone and the galaxy is at peace, but really what has happened is that the Rebellion has blossomed into a full-fledged civil war.

So, in the end, Anakin Skywalker fulfills the prophecy: he has brought balance to the force. At the end of his life, the powers of good and evil are relatively equal in the universe, a situation which guarantees decades of conflict that millions of people will doubtlessly die in. You’re welcome.

This brings us back to the original point: why would the Jedi want there to be balance in the force to begin with? At the beginning of Episode I, evil’s pretty much been beaten, save for a small revolt by some Asian stereotypes. Why would you want balance between good and evil? That’s not like other kinds of balance, like work-life balance, or balancing between recklessness and cowardice. You don’t want a balance between good and evil. You want evil to not exist. That’s because evil is well…evil. Yet the Jedi talk about Anakin like he’s supposed to be some sort of Messiah, and are then surprised when he turns out to be space Hitler. What did they think “bringing balance to the force” meant?