Annikin Skywalker

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"You just have to accept that you might have a destiny greater than you realize. As long as you can accept that it might be true, then when the time comes you’ll make the right choice."

—Sarus, consoling Annikin after the latter learned that he could be the Chosen One^[src]

Annikin Skywalker, also called Optivum Servator by the Ophuchi Clan, was a citizen of Tatooine where he was a swoop racer who loved just outside the city of Anchorhead, though he went on to become a Jedi Hopeful during the Invasion of Utapau. After a brief Anchorhead sandstorm, Annikin offered to help Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and the crew of Utapau Queen Sabé Arcadia’s starship fix their damaged hyperdrive and allow them to stay at his home while he worked.

The next day, Annikin was able to cultivate a friendship with Obi-Wan while they worked, and hours later they and Jedi Master Jard Dooku met a man named Sarus, the leader of the Ophuchi Clans, who convinced them, Arcadia and Jar Binks to join him on a pilgrimage into the Dune Sea. After they arrived at the Ophuchi Sanctuary, Sarus explained writings on a cave wall, including the Prophecy of the Chosen One which Sarus said Annikin was going to fulfill. Annikin wanted nothing to do with it, though he was convinced to accept the possibility that it was true. Two days later, he was able to negotiate a deal with Bib Fortuna that would allow him to get out of his part of the sharecropping contract his family had with Jabba the Hutt, though he would have to beat rival racer Sebulba in a swoop race.

The day after the negotiations, after working through the night to repair his swoop racer, Annikin took part in the swoop race with his family, the outsiders and Sarus watching on. The race was close and he was nearly killed pulling a stunt while trying to take the lead, but in the end Sebulba's racer was destroyed and Annikin won the race, thus winning his freedom. That same day, Annikin said goodbye to his family, and Sarus admitted that he had sabotaged Sebulba's racer. Before Sarus left, he did something to Annikin that caused him to have visions that he could not explain. Shortly thereafter, Annikin left with the outsiders for Coruscant.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Revelations 1.3 Release 1.4 A new life 2 Personality and traits 3 Behind the scenes 4 Appearances 5 See also 6 Notes and references

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Annikin Skywalker was born at the beginning of a nearly two-decade long drought on Tatooine to Shmi Skywalker, who had mysteriously become pregnant with him while she was a virgin. Nine months later, after being attacked by a dark assailant, she gave birth to Annikin with assistance from an Ophuchi named Sarus. Sarus suggested the name Annikin when Shmi could not think of a name, and she choose to give her baby the name. Sarus also meant for Annikin to be brought to the Ophuchi Sanctuary when he was thirteen years old as he believed that Annikin was a savior, but Shmi made the choice not to bring him there out of fear of losing him.^[1]

When he was old enough, Shmi told Annikin a false story that his father was a man who was a navigator on a spice freighter in the Outer Rim Territories. When he was a boy, Annikin and Shmi were working for a Toydarian in a junk shop, and although they were not slaves they felt as if they were because they had no place else to go. It was around that same time when Annikin met his best friend, Kitster Banai. When Annikin was ten, he and his mother met Cliegg Lars and his son Owen. Cliegg and Shmi cultivated a relationship, and after they married one year later Shmi and Annikin moved to the Lars homestead outside of Anchorhead.^[2]

Owen and Annikin became step-brothers, which Annikin assumed would have been a good experience as he had always wanted a brother. However, Owen frequently was distant and he argued with Annikin, even though Annikin did nothing but try to be his friend and brother.^[3] Owen frequently pushed Annikin away, and for that reason Annikin always had Cliegg to be a good father to him, as Cliegg hoped Annikin would be given some sort of male figure in his life for support. Annikin was grateful for this and considered him his true father, though he still tried to reach out to Owen.^[2]

While living on the Lars homestead, Annikin and his family worked as sharecroppers, as their property was owned by Jabba the Hutt. Annikin always felt that Jabba did nothing but prey on the weak, specifically those who lived and worked on his property, by raising taxes to the point that no one could afford to pay them without sacrificing their livelihood and ordering armed searches of the premises. While Annikin always knew that other families were in far worse shape than his, it did not take away the fact that he felt they were prey to a predator they had never met before.^[3]

As Annikin became a teenager, he took an interest in swoop racing. After many years, he began to race as well. In one of his final racers, many felt that he was poised to win his first championship, which would bring a large amount of money in winnings for his family. During the race, a well known Dug racer named Sebulba cheated; as they rounded the last corner, Sebulba moved in close and nearly blinded Annikin with steam from his illegal vent ports. Sebulba was able to win, and Annikin felt that if swoop racing had been what it was centuries earlier, where racers raced against the clock, he would have likely had a better chance of winning the money for his family.^[2]

When Annikin was in Anchorhead one day, he founded the discarded and gutted head and chassis of a broken protocol droid in the streets. Annikin smuggled it home piece by piece to reassemble it as a servant and occasional worker droid to help on the farm.^[2] When he was working on it, he made a mistake that nearly destroyed the chassis, and with Cliegg's help he was able to learn that success came from experiencing failure.^[4] After a few months, however, Annikin was able to make it functional again and named the droid C-3PO, though he was unable to afford droid coverings.^[2] Around that same time, Owen also met and fell in love with Beru Whitesun. After months of dating they became engaged to be married, but Beru later left him because she could not put up with his trust issues.^[3]

When he was in his late teen years, Annikin occasionally made small bets on swoop races with his fiends, though he generally did not make large bets that would worry him financially. However, he one day decided to make a bet with Greedo and lost enough to where he was unable to pay it back. Greedo frequently reminded him of that fact, though Annikin tended to ignore it as he knew that Greedo was likely not going to do anything rash to try to collect on his winnings due to the Rodian's cowardly nature.^[5]

[edit] Revelations

One year later, Annikin was in Anchorhead to pick up supplies when he stopped at the Anchorhead Cantina for a glass of water. As he was leaving, he had another encounter with Greedo, though Annikin still did not pay the money. When he stepped outside, he saw a sandstorm approaching, and a starship flying towards it. The ship grazed the edge of the storm and crashed, so Annikin jumped into his speeder and rushed to the site of the ship to make sure no one was hurt. He was able to slip inside the ship before the sandstorm hit it..^[5]

Inside the ship, Annikin was in a small cargo hold. As he almost opened the hold doors, someone from the other side opened them and he was tackled to the floor by two guards. Two men walked in and introduced themselves as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Jard Dooku, and Obi-Wan told the guards to let Annikin go. When Annikin introduced himself and said why he had come to the ship, Dooku mocked him but Annikin tried to brush it off. Annikin also noticed a lightsaber hanging from Obi-Wan’s belt, making him believe that they were Jedi.^[3]

Annikin learned that their hyperdrive was damaged, so he offered to help repair it after they let him inspect it. Because he would have to shut down all of the systems on the ship, Annikin offered to let the entire crew stay at his home. Obi-Wan presented the idea to Utapau Queen Sabé Arcadia, who approved it. Before Annikin and Obi-Wan left to speak with Annikin’s family, Annikin could overhear Dooku chastising Obi-Wan about wasting his time with Annikin. Annikin tried to ignore what Dooku said, though it was difficult.^[3]

Because Annikin’s speeder was damaged, he and Obi-Wan walked back to the homestead. They spoke with Cliegg who, after being reassured by Shmi, agreed to let them stay, although Owen did not approve and confronted Annikin over it because he did not trust outsiders. Annikin told him that he trusted them and cited Beru as an example of Owen’s lack of trust. This almost resulted in a physical fight, but Shmi made her presence known and Owen decided against it. When he left, Annikin opened up to his mother about how arrogant he believed Owen was, but Shmi said that he just had to give his brother more time.^[3]

Early the next morning, Annikin woke up a few hours earlier than usual to finish his homestead chores as quickly as he could, and he was assisted by the others while doing it. When they were done, he and Obi-Wan, along with C-3PO and the Utapau astromech droid R2-D2, returned to the ship and began the repairs. They worked throughout the day, during which time Annikin and Obi-Wan got to know one another. They spoke about their pasts and Annikin said that he knew Obi-Wan was a Jedi, after which Obi-Wan told him about some Jedi philosophies. During the talk, Annikin became tired and made a mistake, causing the engine to spark and parts of it to break off. With the repairs set back by a few hours, Annikin took Obi-Wan’s advice and they returned to the homestead.^[2]

Later on, everyone gathered for dinner. When they were done, Annikin hoped to see the sunset outside, though he missed it by a few minutes. When he was looking out into the desert, he saw lights at the starship and then movement when he looked through micro-binoculars. He ran back to the house to tell everyone, and they went to the ship to find out more. When he, Obi-Wan, Dooku, Arcadia, the guards and Jar Binks arrived, they found that the people were from a group of hermits led by Sarus, who told them that he needed to speak with Annikin and the two Jedi. After a few minutes of consideration, they agreed to go with him on a pilgrimage into the Dune Sea, as did Arcadia and Binks.^[2]

After having walked for nearly eight hours, Annikin and the others arrived at the hermit compound, a self-sufficient village underneath the ground, where they learned that the group was called the Ophuchi Clan. Sarus led the group to a feast that they accepted, despite being surprised by the hospitality. After becoming uncomfortable with the silence of the meal, Annikin was able to learn about a prophet on a statue he had seen while walking it. That led to a discussion on the Ophuchi themselves, which in turn led to a discussion on the Stark Hyperspace War. Annikin again felt uncomfortable when Sarus and Arcadia got into a brief argument about Nute Gunray, the leader of a conflict on Utapau.^[6]

After the feast was over, Sarus led the group through a group of catacombs to a cave sanctuary that the Ophuchi had been going to for thousands of years that had numerous ancient writings and cave paintings on the walls. After explaining how the Ophuchi were led there by the Shaman of the Whills, an ancient prophetic figure, Sarus told them about the Prophecy of the Chosen One, which spoke of the one who would bring balance to the Force. Intuitively and because Sarus kept looking at him while speaking, Annikin became worried that Sarus believed Annikin was the Chosen One. Annikin asked who the Chosen One was, and Sarus said that it was Annikin himself.^[7]

Sarus went on to explain a painting that showed a dove, which represented the Chosen One, being freed from metaphorical chains by one called the Argus and then slaying a serpent, but Annikin did not want to hear anything further so he left the catacombs for a ledge that overlooked the desert. Sarus tried to comfort him when he followed him, but Annikin did not want to accept his possible destiny. Sarus explained that he too had a destiny where he had to carry a millennias-year old spirit within him at all times. He told Annikin that he learned to accept the possibility of it being true when he was young rather than trying to accept that it was the absolute truth, which made him recognize that he would do the right thing when needed.^[7]

After a few hours of thinking that led him to accepting the possibility he was the Chosen One, Annikin fell asleep in the catacombs. When he woke up a few hours later in the evening, he decided to find the others and began making his way down the catacombs, but as he descended he slipped and fell the entire way down. This cut and strained his neck, though he had no recollection of the fall. To him, it seemed like he kept walking, but he had entered a dream state. In it, he found everyone else murdered in the cave, but he watched Arcadia get stabbed and thrown into the cave. He ran towards her only to have her die in his arms, which made him question his possible destiny. Annikin tried to escape, but he was attacked by a strong wind and the cave became completely dark. Despite the darkness, he could hear a respirator and then a red lightsaber ignited, revealing the completely armor-covered Invader that had killed the others. Before the Invader could kill him, Annikin was shaken awake by the others, and although they said they could wait a few hours Annikin decided that he was well enough to leave.^[1]

[edit] Release

During the walk back home, Annikin tried to not think about what had happened at the caves, but his mind did so anyway. He also assumed that the nightmare was caused by the stress of the prophecy and the fall. When they arrived at the homestead at dawn, the Lars family was there waiting for them, as they were worried about Annikin. Shmi appeared to be in shock when she saw Sarus, and Annikin followed her to her bedroom where she told him the truth about his birth. She also gave him the snippet of Japor that Sarus had given her at Annikin’s birth. All of this, while not having convinced him, made him realize that the odds of him being the Chosen One had increased.^[1]

After speaking with Obi-Wan and Sarus, they agreed that Annikin should be brought to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant so the Jedi High Council could decide if he was fit to become a Jedi. Annikin agreed to go after some consideration, and Shmi gave her blessing as well. However, Annikin would first have to be freed from the sharecropping contract with Jabba the Hutt, so Obi-Wan and Sarus agreed to go with Annikin to Jabba's Anchorhead Office to arrange for Annikin’s release. Before they left, Owen informed them that he had pulled in a few favors to acquire the necessary parts to the queen’s ship, and that he had them installed so the ship was complete.^[1]

One hour later, they arrived at the lodge that held Jabba’s office. Annikin found Kitster there and they agreed to get together that evening before Annikin left. When they went into the office, the manager Bib Fortuna told them that Jabba was on Nal Hutta. Sarus presented their request, but Bib refused. Obi-Wan told Bib that he should not be making decisions for Jabba without knowing exactly what the Hutt would do, so Bib agreed to ask Jabba himself. While he was gone, Arcadia and Binks came in and hortly thereafter, a HoloNet news briefing appeared on the HoloNet Screen and the announcer talked about the situation on Utapau, saying that thousands were reported to be dead. Bib then returned and told Annikin that in order to be freed he would have to win a swoop race against Sebulba the next day, which Annikin agreed to.^[1]

Through the day and night, Annikin worked on his racer with help from Threepio and Artoo, though Kitster never came like they had arranged. While working, Annikin fell asleep, and when he woke up Threepio and Artoo were arguing over whether the racer needed to be painted, an argument that Annikin settled when he said that it was not important. After the droids left, Kitster walked in and told him that he had not shown up because Jabba the Hutt’s men had raided his family’s farm, which Annikin believed had something to do with him. After speaking with Arcadia and Obi-Wan, Annikin helped load his speeder onto a carrier on the back of the family land speeder.^[8]

After arriving at the track, Annikin saw Obi-Wan speaking angrily with Bib, though he did not know why and decided to ignore it. Bib then approached Annikin and they too were in what Annikin felt was a heated exchange, though Bib backed off. When he did, Sebulba himself tried to mock Annikin before being sent away so Annikin could move his racer to the starting line, where Sarus was waiting for Annikin so he could wish him good luck and tell him how much faith he had in him.^[8]

Although Arcadia and Binks were not at the race, everyone else, including the Lars family, wished Annikin good luck, even though Owen disagreed with what he was doing. Obi-Wan also took a moment to personally wish Annikin luck before the group went to a spectator building. The race began a few moments later, and while Annikin went out ahead Annikin’s port stabilizer had fallen lose, so he lost a few seconds from the race before he was able to quickly fix it. They entered a cave where they should have slowed down, and because they sped up instead it nearly killed both of them. The two were tied when they left the cave, and Annikin took the lead after hitting an acceleration pad. The racers became locked together when Sebulba tried to push Annikin into a wall, and Annikin was able to break them free which knocked Sebulba’s stabilizer off in the process, causing Sebulba to crash and Annikin to win the race.^[8]

After the race and the congratulations were over, Bib agreed that Annikin was freed from his contract, although Bib was not pleased. Annikin and the others returned to the homestead, and Annikin was confronted by Greedo when they arrived; the Rodian had found out about the race and bet a large sum of money on Sebulba, only to lose it. Annikin took a few moments to say goodbye to Threepio and Kitster before he was confronted by Sarus, who wished to tell him the truth about the race. Sarus explained that he saw Sebulba sabotage Annikin’s speeder, so Sarus tried to fix Annikin’s speeder and then sabotaged Sebulba’s. Annikin felt betrayed that Sarus nearly murdered someone for him and asked him to leave, but before he did Sarus firmly placed his hand on Annikin’s shoulder and sent him into a dreamscape where he saw a vortex and numerous visions that he could not make out. Sarus was gone when he came to.^[9]

After tearful goodbyes with his family, discounting Owen who just watched him disapprovingly, Annikin left with Obi-Wan to meet the others at the royal starship. Just before they arrived, Obi-Wan was attacked by a dark assailant and Annikin ran for the ship to get help. Once he did, they were able to rescue Obi-Wan from his lightsaber duel, and Obi-Wan told Annikin that he believed the assassin was after the queen and was highly trained in the ways of the Force.^[9]

[edit] A new life

After the ship left Tatooine, Annikin felt very cold on it because of the drastic temperature change. A few hours later, he made his way to the main hold where he found Binks, who took a few moments to explain Gungan religion and an artifact on a carving Binks was making called the Kaiburr crystal. Arcadia was also in the main hold, and she looked very sad and distressed about the situation on her homeworld with the Trade Federation blockade, so he offered her words of comfort about the nature of success and failure. Annikin was pleased that she seemed appreciative of the advice.^[9]

Only a few minutes after the conversation, the ship landed on Coruscant, which impressed Annikin, and the group met with Supreme Chancellor Finis Valorum and Utapau Senator Malus Palpatine. Arcadia, Binks and the rest of the political group headed off on their own, while Annikin, Obi-Wan and Dooku went to the Jedi Temple so Obi-Wan could seek testing for Annikin. After Obi-Wan spoke to the Jedi High Council, Annikin learned that they had reluctantly agreed to meet with him.^[9]

[edit] Personality and traits

Two of the qualities that Annikin felt were most important to uphold in his life were his selflessness and generosity. He frequently tried to put other people first and wanted to help them when they needed help. One specific example of this was when the royal Utapau starship crashed outside of Anchorhead. He immediately went to the crash site to see if they were safe, risking his life in a sandstorm by doing so. Even after he was mocked by Jard Dooku for his actions, Annikin agreed to help them repair their hyperdrive without compensation.^[3]

Even though he did believe selflessness was important, Annikin was also a modest and humble person. He did not want to believe that he could possibly fulfill the Prophecy of the Chosen One, even when more evidence that it was true began to present itself. He had a hard enough time accepting Sarus's advice at the Ophuchi Sanctuary that he should at least accept the possibility that it could be true, and he doubted he would ever fully accept that he was a savior. He felt it was important just to live out his life and to do what he felt was right.^[1] Annikin was also somewhat upset when Jar Binks told him that meeting Annikin helped him realize the Gungan faith was likely incorrect, and it was not until after Binks reassured him that he had lost his faith long before that did Annikin felt comfortable with such an admission.^[9]

Those that knew Annikin noted his compassion and forgiveness, especially when it involved Owen Lars. Annikin had been very excited when he heard he would have a step-brother but Owen was not excited. They frequently got into arguments all while Annikin was trying to be a friend and a brother to him.^[3] Annikin received extra attention from Cliegg Lars because of this, though Annikin continued to try to be Owen’s friend and brother even though he felt it was futile.^[2]

Despite his forgiveness, it was not extended to everyone. When Sarus admitted that he sabotaged Sebulba’s swoop racer to help Annikin win the race against him, Annikin’s sense of honor conflicted with his forgiveness. He was unable to forgive Sarus for nearly murdering someone in Annikin’s name, and asked him never to speak with him again. Even so, Annikin understood why Sarus did it, though he could not forgive him for an act such as attempted murder.^[9]

Honor was an important thing to Annikin. As a swoop racer, he participated in races for fun. He occasionally won smaller youth races when he was a younger racer, and that brought him a sense of pride and with it a sense of responsibility. That was one of the reasons he became disappointed in larger swoop races, as they were filled with cheaters and dishonorable men, especially from people like Sebulba. Such dishonor, in Annikin’s opinion, was why he decided he would no longer participate in swoop races, save for the one that won him his freedom.^[5]

In his opinion, Annikin had a lifetime of real-world experiences that many people his age were unable to receive. While most young people were sheltered in their lives, Annikin was working in the Toydarian’s shop and later on the Lars homestead for most of his days, save for when he was at the small Anchorhead school or studying about the galaxy on his own. This led him to learning important lessons about success and failure in life, specifically that success only came from experiences with failure. He was able to use this to help comfort Queen Arcadia during the trip to Coruscant.^[9]

Annikin was also a curious person. He always felt the need to find out new information about himself and others, especially if the things about other people involved him. This curiosity had landed him into trouble in the past, once involving his capture by a Jawa Sandcrawler when he secretly made his way aboard and once when he got too close to a group of Tusken Raiders while trying to observe them. When Owen, Cliegg and others rescued him from the Jawas and when he escaped the Tusken Raiders, albeit barely, he was reminded that his curiosity was likely going to lead him into trouble in the future if he did not.^[9]

[edit] Behind the scenes

Annikin Skywalker was based on the original character of Anakin Skywalker from the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy written and directed by George Lucas, though like that trilogy the character Annikin Skywalker still utilizes the likeness of Hayden Christensen. The character of Anakin Skywalker took his name from many places, including many words in non-English languages and film director and friend of Lucas Ken Annakin. Despite the change of spelling, Anakin Skywalker was the canonical name for the Chosen One and the one who would become Darth Vader.

Originally, author Brandon Rhea intended to keep the name Anakin Skywalker, as he intended to begin the re-imagining of the Star Wars Saga not with Star Wars: Episode I - The Chosen One but rather Star Wars: Episode IV, which meant the Prequel Trilogy would have been kept intact. When Rhea decided to rewrite the entire saga, fellow Alternative Star Wars Saga author Victor Dorantes convinced him to change the name to Annikin Skywalker as he felt it “look[ed] much better this way”.^[10]

After careful consideration, Rhea decided to change the name to Dorantes’s suggestion based on the fact that the name Annikin was from the original drafts of Star Wars, something that Rhea frequently bases some of his work on. In those drafts, Annikin Starkiller was the proposed lead character of what would become Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, playing a similar role to what Luke Skywalker played. Though the name was later changed to Justin Valor, the name Annikin Starkiller became the source for Anakin Starkiller and then Anakin Skywalker in later drafts and films.^[11]

In the original storyline of The Chosen One, Annikin was not meant to learn about the prophecy from the Ophuchi. Originally, Annikin would have met Obi-Wan Kenobi and the other outsiders the same way he did in The Chosen One, though the Ophuchi Clan would not have become involved after that and Obi-Wan would have instead felt that there was something different about Annikin. After seeing Annikin perform certain feats when working on a pod racer, as the sport had not yet been changed to swoop racing in the story at that point, Obi-Wan would have somehow come to the conclusion that Annikin was the Chosen One.

The storyline did not change until a conversation with Atarumaster88 on the #swfanon IRC channel. During the conversation, Ataru mentioned that he did not like it in stories on Tatooine when characters would mention how insignificant it was, despite it producing a star map found by Darth Revan, as well as characters such as Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker. After some thought, Rhea agreed with this criticism and only then did he create the Ophuchi storyline. By the conclusion of the Tatooine arc in the novel, Rhea felt that the Ophuchi storyline with Annikin was far stronger than the original could have been.

Another frequent source of inspiration for Rhea has been the popular television series Smallville, a story about Clark Kent before becoming Superman. In the television show, Clark is always reluctant to accept his destiny as a superhero and instead wishes he could have a normal life. Annikin not wanting to accept that he is possibly the Chosen One and preferring to have a normal life on Tatooine was based on this plot element, albeit used differently based on the many different circumstances between the two stories.

[edit] Appearances

• Star Wars: Episode I - The Chosen One (First appearance)

[edit] See also

• Anakin Skywalker on Wookieepedia, the Star Wars Wiki

[edit] Notes and references