Anakin Skywalker’s family, more than any other, is powerfully sensitive to the Force. However, with that deepened connection, they also become more susceptible to the corruption of the dark side. While Kylo Ren may believe that he isthe prodigal heir to Darth Vader’s legacy, he is only one of many in the Skywalker line to have sold their proverbial soul for the power of the dark side.
While the origins of Anakin Skywalker’s birth are still shrouded in mystery, he is considered a miraculous child born from the Force itself. Thus, his descendants have all displayed tremendous talent at accessing the powers of the Force. However, theSkywalkers tend to give in to their emotions.The tumultuous nature of the galaxy beats them down and manipulative powers steer them in the wrong direction. Soon, another Skywalker exerts their dominance across the galaxy with the dark side empowering their conquest. Admittedly, not every member of the Skywalker family falls, but these eight certainly did.
Most of the characters on this list come from Expanded Universe materials.
8Anakin Skywalker
The Patriarch of the Skywalker Line
No list of dark Skywalkers can be complete without the patriarch who started it all, Anakin Skywalker. Anakin’s deepened connection to the Force quickly garnered the attention of sinister forces who wished to use the boy’s latent power as their own.Palpatine had preyed on Anakin since childhood, taking every opportunity to stoke his future apprentice’s darker tendencies. As Anakin grew, his rage only deepened. The Jedi Knight had been plagued with ominous visions but left without clear guidance from his masters.
Truly believing that Padme’s life was at stake, Anakin could only turn to the one person who accepted him entirely: Darth Sidious. From there, his destiny was set in stone. Anakin Skywalker would reject the Jedi Order and renounce his name. Soon,Darth Vader laid destructive waste across the galaxy. Worlds cowered in his image and thousands died by his hands. Anakin had become an unparalleled monster, but only the first of many Skywalkers to fall to the dark side.
7Luke Skywalker
A Jedi Hero With a Dark Side
Despite Luke Skywalker’s best efforts to avoid his father’s fate, Luke’s relationship with the Force has had its darker moments. Unlike Anakin, Luke isn’t afraid of his emotions. By embracing his full self,Luke opened himself to the Force in all its entirety.InStar Wars: Dark Empire #1-6- by Tom Veitch and Cam Kennedy - Luke and his allies still faced vehement resistance from the Empire’s remaining fragments following their defeatin Return of the Jedi.While pursuing his duties as Jedi Master, a portal through the Force opened in front of Luke, transporting him to a secret facility.
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There, he discovered that Palpatine lived, surviving through replaceable clones. Luke realized the only way to defeat the Emperor was to play tothe Sith Lord’s interest. He bent the knee to Palpatine,fully embracing the dark side willingly.However, Luke’s control over his emotions kept his heart in check while Leia was tasked with overthrowing the Emperor herself. Realizing that he had been fooled, Palpatine turned on his apprentice as Luke shed his darkness to reembrace the light side of the Force.
6Jacen Solo / Darth Caedus
The True Scourge of the Skywalker Family
One of the more infamous of the Skywalker line, Jacen Solo is the son ofLeia Organa and Han Solo. Like his uncle and grandfather, Jacen is incredibly gifted in the Force. When the Yuuzhan Vong, a race from beyond the galaxy, led a violent culling across the galaxy, Jacen Solo rose and became a war hero like many of his family. However, Jacen could not stand the fractured state the galaxy was left in. The young Jedi believed that the only way to hold together the galaxy was under a single unified power.
Soon, Jacen’s heart corrupted, triggering a rapid and steep fall to the dark side. Abandoning his previous name,Darth Caedus waged his own bitter warthroughout the galaxy. Much like Vader, no atrocity was too far for Caedus in his pursuit of galactic order. Darth Caedus became a scourge across the galaxy but focused his true rage on his family. After killing his aunt, torturing his cousin, and promising to tear downthe Skywalker line, Jacen’s sister Jaina was the one to finally end Darth Caedus’s reign.
5Mara Jade Skywalker
Emperor Palpatine’s Ex-Assassin
Beforemarrying Luke Skywalker, Mara Jade was an imperial agent who served directly under Palpatine. As a Force wielder, Mara Jade had been made into something equivalent to the modern-day Inquisitors. Soon she had becomeone of Palpatine’s best assassins.However, in the years following the Empire’s defeat, Jade went solo, eventually running into Luke Skywalker. While their relationship was tense at first, it eventually prospered into love as the two Jedi built their family. In the years following, Mara Jade completely rejected her nefarious past and joined Luke in his mission to rebuild the Jedi order.
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While no longerattached to the dark side, she was still sensitive to its pulls. However, as Jade continued to embrace her Jedi role, her nephew Jacen began to fall. When Jacen had fully accepted his new identity as Darth Caedus, Jade worried that Jacen was far worse than what Palpatine was before. Terrified to see another Palpatine rule the galaxy,she turned against her nephew.Sadly, Mara Jade Skywalker died in the fight, leaving behind her family to finish the fight in the years to come.
4Ben Skywalker (Luke’s Son)
Trained to Embrace Darkness By Family
As theson of Luke Skywalker, a tremendous amount of pressure was placed upon the only son of the galaxy’s legendary savior. Born into the violent Yuuzhan Vong War, his parents were often away on Jedi business, leaving Ben in the hands of Han and Leia. The young Skywalker grew close to his cousin Jacen, marking the beginning ofBen’s slow descent to the dark sideof the Force. Over the following years, Jacen took Ben under his wing. However, when Jacen began to take a dark path in life, his lessons took a darker tone as well.
Ben wastrained to harness various dark side techniques.Through Jacen’s tutelage, Ben enacted violent interrogations and an assassination, believing his actions would help the galaxy. However, as Jacen fell further and further, Ben realized the nature of his cousin’s darkness and rejected Jacen altogether. Following asecond Galactic Civil Warat the hands of Jacen Solo, Ben grew into his heroic expectations. Years later, when the galaxy faced an unparalleled eldritch threat, Ben succeeded where no Jedi had and forged an alliance with the Sith to save the galaxy.
3Kol Skywalker
A Good Heart With a Dark Fighting Style
The Skywalker familytree had grown significantly in the 100 years following the Battle of Yavin. In his time, Kol was a respected Jedi who the galaxy treated with reverence. However, Kol’s life, as with all the Skywalkers’, was one of tragedy and turmoil. The Sith had grown enormously andthe galaxy straddled another civil war.While his personal mission was to help the Yuuzhan Vong find redemption, Kol was forced to set aside his inherently peaceful ways to face the horrors of a new war.
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In battle, Kol is powerful and unyielding. Fully believing in his altruistic cause, Kol was determined to prevail over his enemies. Like Mace Windu, Kol’s battle tactics touched an aggressive naturemore commonly seen in dark side users.No matter how ruthless he may have become in battle, Kol never fully veered from thelight side of the Force. Following a confrontation with the One Sith, Kol Skywalker laid down his life to protect his mission, the Academy, and his son. In death, Kol reappeared as a Force ghost to help guide his morally conflicted son.
2Cade Skywalker
One Who Truly Walks Both Sides of the Force
As Kol’s son, Cade shares many of the same noble tendencies as his father. However, after his father’s death, something snapped in Cade. Disillusioned bythe Jedi’s peacekeepingways, Cade vowed to avenge his father’s death, no matter the cause. Soon, Cade drew the attention of Darth Krayt. For years, Cade distanced himself from the Jedi Order and hid his parentage and powers from those around him. When Cade finally came face-to-face with Krayt,the Sith Lord proved his dominanceover the Skywalker.
Now having realized that Krayt was behind Kol’s death, Cadeaccepted Krayt’s invitation to train as a Sith apprentice.However, once Cade had garnered the strength he needed, he turned against Krayt and severed his ties to the Sith. Still, Cade always walked the thinnest line between darkness and light. He, more than any Skywalker, successfully learned how to embrace the full powers of the Force. In the final confrontation between Cade and Darth Krayt,Skywalker emerged victoriousand proudly proclaimed himself a Jedi.
1Ben Solo / Kylo Ren
The Real Heir to the Skywalker Legacy
Jumping back to the modern canon, we can’t end this list without talking aboutthe Star Wars franchise’s “edge lord” himself, Kylo Ren. Ben Solo gets more flack than the character deserves. Thanks to comics likeStar Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren, Ben has slowly rounded out as a character. Like every other Skywalker on this list, Kylo Ren is absurdly powerful, but withtoo frail of a heart to channel that powercorrectly. Like Anakin, Ben became the target of Palpatine’s manipulative machinations.
Ben struggled to live up to Luke’s legacy, but unlike his counterpart from the Extended Universe, Kylo Ren believed his salvation lay within the dark side.
Ben struggled to live up to Luke’s legacy, but unlike his counterpart from the Extended Universe, Kylo Ren believed his salvation lay within the dark side. Luke’s fear that Ben would become like Anakin is the very thing that drove him to the dark side.Kylo Ren is a beast of raw emotion,raised by distant politicians and absentee smugglers. By the time Palpatine, through Snoke, had reached Ben’s mind, the boy was desperately searching for recognition and purpose. While not every fan believes that Kylo Ren deserves his legacy, he is no less a mess of confusing feelings and dark temptations than the rest ofAnakin Skywalker’s family.
