A genuinely good hero gets crushed by responsibility and slowly goes insane

[u/Outrageous_Gene_7652]

Hal Jordan (Green Lantern): Civilian life in shambles, overworked superhero life, spiralling mental health for years and unable to cope with the fact that he was'nt able to save his city because he was on another mission, Hal loses his mind, literally trying to bring back the dead, killing the entire corp and later literally erasing space and time to rewrite the universe

Zero (To Be Hero X): Being the first hero of the world and being worshipped for being so since he was 10, Zero achieved Godhood as a 15 year old but ultimately the pressure got to him and he went mad at 17 and nearly caused the end of humanity.

[u/almighty_smiley]

While it's specific to the novelization (and the Legends continuity as a whole), this is implied to be a big reason that Anakin Skywalker falls to the Dark Side in Revenge of the Sith.\

https://giphy.com/gifs/l4FGASU6s5Na7Fngs

As the Hero With No Fear, Anakin is the face of the Republic war effort, and while he largely lives up to his reputation it makes his failures hit all the harder. As the commanding officer of the 501st, he feels personally responsible for each soldier lost. Though he's only ever admitted it to two people, he still carries the weight of what he did to the Tusken Raiders following the death of his mother. He has - against the statutes of the Jedi Order - taken a wife in the form of Padme Amidala; a union that will end both of their careers were it ever discovered. The Republic that he's fought tirelessly for years is warping into something he doesn't like despite his Herculean efforts to save it. Last but not least, Anakin is widely believed to be the Chosen One of Jedi legend (a status that even his main Jedi opp Mace Windu doesn't deny), foretold to destroy the Sith once and for all; a destiny that may well be coming given that the Clone Wars were begun at the behest of a Sith Lord. And this is all before the Battle of Coruscant, mind you.

Following the battle, he's hit with two major blows; Padme is pregnant, and the dreams that accurately foretold his mother's suffering and death at the hands of the Tuskens have returned, now featuring her. As a result, Anakin not only has to deal with everything he already was, but now he isn't sleeping for fear of what his dreams will bring. While it's never made especially clear exactly how much time passes between the Battle of Coruscant and Anakin's kneeling before Darth Sidious, Anakin is not sleeping at all.

[u/Fearsthelittledeath → u/almighty_smiley]

Its been established the majority of events in RotS happens over the course of more or less 5 days

Day 1: Battle of Courscant and Anakin learns Padme is pregnant and has his bad dream that night

Day 2: Anakin is appointed on the council, Yoda leaves to Kashyyyk and Anakin learns about Darth Plagueis

Day 3: Anakin and Obi-Wan say their final goodbyes as friends as Obi-Wan leaves for Utapau. Anakin learns that Palpatine is a Sith and Mace comes to arrest him where Anakin falls to the dark side. Order 66 happens

Day 4: Bail rescues Obi-Wan and Yoda. They assault the Jedi Temple and learn about Vader and split up. Palpatine and Yoda has their duel. Vader and Obi-Wan has theirs.

Day 5: Twins are born, Padme dies, and Vader is put in the suit

Unknown days for the funeral and montage at the end of seeing the Death Star construction.

So Anakin had his bad dream and fall to the dark side with slaughtering younglings in less then 2 days.

[u/XelanEvax → u/Fearsthelittledeath]

This sent me into a tailspin, and multiple sources are telling me it’s true but there’s no way that timeline is correct

Edit: at least it FEELS like it can’t be true. Iv always had the impression it took place over a few months minimum to account for the pregnancy but reading padme just hid it with different clothes feels like im being gas lit haha

[u/New-Advertising3600 → u/XelanEvax]

Right? MF you telling me she hid 9 months of pregnancy from the man she lives with? Even if they were preemies which they didn’t appear to be that’s what 6? 7? 8? Months? As a man whose wife is about to pop no fucking way that’s accurate. Maybe she hid the first trimester, but she was carrying twins…silly as fuck

[u/Fearsthelittledeath → u/New-Advertising3600]

Anakin was away for about 6 months due to the Outer Rim Siege and Padme did not tell him. She wore dresses and gowns to hide the pregnancy, if you rewatch the movie.

Natalie Portman wore the same pregnancy prosthetic for the entire course of RotS. Filming with real babies is heavily regulated for their safety and you won't really get a real premature baby that would look like that in most cases to film. None of the principal actors even interacted with the real babies you saw in the movie as they only used rubber dolls in those scenes and the baby for the Polis Massa scene was composited in. For the twins hand off which was a different baby, only the close up where you see the baby's face was actually filmed with a real baby and those had the babies real mother be the body double for Queen Breha and Aunt Beru. Otherwise Ewan was cradling a rubber doll.

Fun fact, A New Hope takes place over the course of 4 days and Luke only knew the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi for less than 24 hours and got a few hours of Jedi training before Obi-Wan died. He was acquainted with Ben Kenobi, but not as a good friend, just someone who lived nearby and was friendly with.