Would Anakin be able to defeat Sidious?

[Sketcher]

Assuming Anakin never gave into the temptation of the Dark Side, and instead attempted to fulfill his destiny and destroy Palpatine in ROTS, would he have been powerful enough? Or did the Force somehow know that a one-on-one confrontation involving lightsabers would never be successful, thus Anakin's fall to the Dark Side was all part of his destiny leading to the final events in ROTJ?

 

[Ithekro]

In ROTS, Anakin is not yet powerful enough to take on Palpatine without tapping into the Dark Side, and even then he probably is not powerful enough. When Anakin arrived during the duel between Palpatine and Mace Windu, all he could see was a blur of red and purple. They were both going faster than Anakin could even see.

Palpatine did state that Vader would eventually become more powerful than either Palpatine himself or Yoda, and it is likely that Anakin Skywalker has the potential to be more powerful than Palpatine in a Force duel or lightsaber duel, but not in the state the Chosen One was in during the end of the Clone Wars. Too much conflict within him there was. Clouded his mind became. Unable to use the balance and let the Force flow through him to the levels he would need to stop Palpatine without falling to the Dark Side.

Even then, it might come down to not fighting Palpaine, but bringing the situation to a point where Palpatine makes his own mistake that costs him the galaxy.

 

[USS Firefly]

Maybe Anakin would be powerfull in 10 years but not before I think

 

[LJones41]

In ROTS, Anakin is not yet powerful enough to take on Palpatine without tapping into the Dark Side, and even then he probably is not powerful enough. When Anakin arrived during the duel between Palpatine and Mace Windu, all he could see was a blur of red and purple. They were both going faster than Anakin could even see.

Did George Lucas claim this? Or is this some assumption?

And I don't recall a blur of red and purple during the Palpatine/Windu duel. I do recall seeing the two Force users.

 

[fireproof78]

It's part of the novel.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

As I recall, Anakin did defeat Sidious. He picked him up like a rag doll and tossed him down a ventilation shaft. This assumes that -- at that moment -- Vader went back to being Anakin (which I think is reasonable).

 

[kirk55555]

I don't think he could have beaten Palpatine in RotS, but by the OT he probably could have beaten him even in a fair fight. But I think Palpatine's real skills was in manipulation, so even when Vader was strong enough to beat him he probably wasn't even aware of it himself, which is one of the reasons he wanted to team with Luke to defeat the Emperor.

 

[Voth commando1]

If he had achieved his full potential without a doubt.

 

[Ithekro]

The main things holding Darth Vader back after ROTS were his suit and his depression. All he had left was the Emperor, really. His reason for doing everything was dead. His future was gone. Until Luke appeared, Vader had nothing really to attempt to achieve other than his master's bidding.

His suit seems to be crippled by Force Lightning, which might be intentional on Palpatine's part. One more thing to keep Vader in check.

 

[Tuskin38]

The what if Anakin won ending for ROTS video game had him outright just stab him after getting his new lightsabre, it is dumb.

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[WarpFactorZ]

As I recall, Anakin did defeat Sidious. He picked him up like a rag doll and tossed him down a ventilation shaft. This assumes that -- at that moment -- Vader went back to being Anakin (which I think is reasonable).

Kicking my own comment here -- why am I ignored?

It stands to reason that when Vader saw Luke being killed, the Dark Side was vanquished and Anakin resurfaced. He was powerful enough to defeat Sidious... although at a cost.

 

[LJones41]

Why don't someone write to George Lucas and ask?

 

[Amaris]

As I recall, Anakin did defeat Sidious. He picked him up like a rag doll and tossed him down a ventilation shaft. This assumes that -- at that moment -- Vader went back to being Anakin (which I think is reasonable).

Indeed he did.

When I think Anakin, I think young Anakin, and I believe that even young Anakin could have defeated Sidious in terms of sheer force power, but skill on Sidious' side may have won out there.

 

[fireproof78]

Somewhere out there, there is a fan fiction idea where Anakin is trained by Qui-Gon and volunteers to infiltrate the Chancellor's inner circle to expose the Sith.

 

[ichab]

Assuming Anakin never gave into the temptation of the Dark Side, and instead attempted to fulfill his destiny and destroy Palpatine in ROTS, would he have been powerful enough? Or did the Force somehow know that a one-on-one confrontation involving lightsabers would never be successful, thus Anakin's fall to the Dark Side was all part of his destiny leading to the final events in ROTJ?

No way. Yoda couldn't defeat Sidious and he was the best swordsman of all the Jedi.

 

[Ithekro]

As seen, it wasn't swordsmanship that was key to victory. It was more or less a mastery of the Force in balance, that defeats Palpatine. Palpatine, who had been using the Dark Side to cloud the vision of the Jedi for a long time, finally has the Light Side cloud his vision at the end, when it comes to Luke Skywalker, and what was left of Anakin Skywalker. Palpatine, great foreseer of all thing, didn't sense Luke Skywalker had come to Endor, but Vader had. Palpatine's view of how things were playing out were likely as clouded as the Jedi's had been during the time of the Clone Wars.

For swordsmanship, Palpatine didn't like using his lightsabers, it was probably beneath him. However, sometimes he's do it for fun, like when he used both sabers to take on the two Night Brothers on Mandalore. He was having fun there. In his office, when Windu entered, Palpatine decided to have some fun again, slaughtering three Jedi Masters in about a minute. Windu's combat style seems to be the only reason he remained to fight Palpatine. Be it that he was having his Dark Side powers channeled back to himself by Windu, or if he was stalling for Anakin to come so he could finish the corruption....that is still debated.

 

[fireproof78]

No way. Yoda couldn't defeat Sidious and he was the best swordsman of all the Jedi.

Yoda was the past. Anakin was the future.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

Anakin was not too bright. Despite his buying into the "Chosen One" story, when it came to top level force users (Kenobi comes to mind), he--no matter how skilled and/or Force sensitive he believed himself to be--was outclassed, outmaneuvered and was not as knowledgeable in the Force, hence his quick defeat in ROTS once Kenobi stopped holding back. He would end up the same way against Sidious if they faced off in ROTS.

 

[USS Firefly]

But If Anakin were older and more mature I think he would have won from Sidious

 

[Mage]

People mistake raw power for skill. Yes, Anakin was THAT powerfull. But because he was cocky and arrogant and never listened to his teachers properly, he was never able to fully use his powers. So personally, I say no. He wasn't capable of taking down Sidious, someone not only very powerfull in the Force, but also willing to wait, and learn, and plan and plot. His knowledge and skill equaled his power in ways Anakin's never did.