Star Wars Story Group Member Debunks Palpatine and Anakin Theory

Have you heard the tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise? Star Wars fans have, and they’ve long thought that it may hint at Darth Sidious, a.k.a. Galactic Emperor Sheev Palpatine, being the true “father” of Anakin Skywalker, later the Dark Lord of the Sith known as Darth Vader. A comic released by Marvel in 2018, Darth Vader #25, seemed to back up that theory. Whether or not the comic made the theory canon has been a matter of debate for the past year. Now Matt Martin, a member of the Star Wars Story Group, has debunked that theory.

Star Wars #25 by Charles Soule and Giuseppe Camuncoli is the final issue of Marvel’s second Darth Vader series. The series takes place between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Its final arc sees Darth Vader returning to the planet Mustafar in the hopes that he can use the planet’s dark side energy to resurrect Padme Amidala.

Vader does manage to open a portal. He steps through and is forced to relive some of the darkest moments of his life. The first moment is his own immaculate conception by midichlorians, seemingly with some encouragement by Darth Sidious.

What Vader sees here resembles the legend of the Sith Lord Darth Plagueis, a story that Palpatine, then Chancellor of the Republic, told to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith. Plagueis believed he could create a life by manipulating midichlorians using the Force. Star Wars fans long wondered if such power could account for Anakin being born to Shmi Skywalker without a father. Some of those fans took Darth Vader #25 to be confirmation of that theory and Sidioius’s involvement in the creation of the Chosen One.

Palpatine’s relation to Anakin Skywalker has come up in conversation again following the release of The Rise of Skywalker. We won’t get into the details of why since the film is still new, but the discussions seem to have caught the attention of Martin, who squashed the theory.

“This is all in Anakin’s head … I can tell you definitively, as someone who worked on the comic, that is 100% not the intended implication,” Martin said. When someone questioned Martin’s interpretation of the scene, as Martin did not write the comic, Martin tweeted, “It’s part of my job to ensure the stories are aligned with the overall vision of Star Wars. If the intention was to make a direct connection between Palps and Anakin’s birth, I would have had it removed.”

If that wasn’t enough, the person who did write the comic stepped in to confirm Martin’s statements. “I am, in fact, the writer,” Soule tweeted. “Matt and I worked closely on this series and this point in particular. I hate explaining stuff in my work in too much detail, but you need to understand the scenario happening here. The Dark Side is not a reliable narrator.”

The implication seems to be that the dark side of the Force is trying to manipulate Darth Vader with lies and is not showing him the truth. It could be an indication that Vader remembers the tragedy of Darth Plagueis and that the possibility that Sidious was involved in his own birth has been nagging at the back of his mind.

It’s easy to see how this can be misinterpreted since much of the rest of the sequence involves flashbacks to moments that fans know are true because they happened the Star Wars films and animated series. Whichever way fans interpret the issue, the intent was not to confirm the Darth Plagueis theory.

What do you think of this Star Wars theory? Let us know in the comments.