Every story has its own hero. In every story, the conflict between whether we have free will or not takes place. In the Revenge of the Sith, the film depicts free will versus destiny for the character Anakin Skywalker. It was destined for him to become the Chosen One, the hero, but was it also destined for him to become Darth Vader? The fallen hero changed his destiny with his own free will. Although Anakin was given many decisions and chances throughout the story, his poor decisions led him to his downfall.
In the beginning of the film, Anakin had a vision of Padme, his wife, dying after the birth of their child. His vision is similar to his vision of his mother's death, however, this time, he will be able to save a life. He makes a promise to protect Padme and their child. On the way to this goal, Anakin also hopes to be promoted from Jedi Knight. However, in the Jedi Council, the council does not trust Chancellor Palpatine. They see the Chancellor as a dangerous man. Because Anakin was a good friend to the Chancellor, he could not be promoted even though he is a great Jedi. If Anakin gets promoted, a leeway of power could be given to the Chancellor. This caused great frustration for Anakin as he began to resent the Jedi Council. From there, his bad decision making began. The poor decisions led him to join the Chancellor in the dark side. His worst decision before joining him was killing Windu instead of the Chancellor. With the thought of saving Padme by saving the Chancellor, Anakin begins to lose himself.
The fear of Padme still disturbs Anakin. However, this fear engrossed him to do rash things such as killing the "younglings". His poor decisions continue as he goes to Mustafar. He decided to not return home with Padme and fights with his master, Obi Wan Kenobi. As Anakin visualizes himself as the most powerful man and having his own empire, a crucial point for Anakin came. He is completely lost. After acknowledging his yearning for his own empire, Kenobi fights with him. Kenobi, who sees Anakin as a brother, tries to find the old Anakin during their battle. However, Kenobi eventually sees that his old apprentice is gone. Anakin is completely with the dark side. Instead of finishing him off, Kenobi left Anakin to burn which cost him his legs, lungs, wife, and also his kids. This caused Anakin to finally become Darth Vader, his fall.
Anakin had plenty of chances of remaining as Jedi. It was all part of his decision making. He would have remained a Jedi if he killed the Chancellor, come back with Padme, or coming to his senses from Kenobi's words and return with him. However, his fear took complete control of him which he had an inability to control. At the end of the film, Anakin learns that Padme is now dead. Yet, he may have also learned that he has made horrible decisions which were causes to his downfall. This shows that Anakin acknowledges that he was completely lost. Anakin knows he could've returned to his old self, but he has failed to do so.
In conclusion, Anakin changed his own destiny with his own free will. He made poor choices only to the point where he became lost during his battle with Kenobi and turned into Darth Vader. He let his own fear eat him. However, after acknowledging his own faults, he may have a chance to change for the better. Those chances are slim, but it takes time to go back on the right track.
