Summary

• Anakin Skywalker's mysterious birth tied to Midi-chlorians may have been a response to Darth Plagueis's force power experiments.
• Palpatine's mentor, Darth Plagueis, sought control over Midi-chlorians in Legends, hoping to manipulate life and death through them.
• Anakin's conception tied to a balance in the Force, with Midi-chlorians creating him in response to Sith's meddling.

Shmi Sywalker famously claimed that Anakin had no father in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, but in Legends there's a surprising story behind his conception. Viewers were taken aback when Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace introduced a Messianic twist, revealing that Anakin Skywalker had been conceived by the Force itself. Anakin was the Chosen One, born according to the will of the Force and destined to bring it back into balance.

No other Star Wars movie addressed Anakin's mysterious birth after The Phantom Menace, but Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith seemingly implied a potential explanation. According to Palpatine, his mentor Darth Plagueis had learned how to manipulate the midi-chlorians to create life. Many theorized that Plagueis was Palpatine's creator, but neither Star Wars canon nor Legends have suggested this. Rather, James Luceno's Legends novel Darth Plagueis offers a more complex explanation.

At least one rough draft of Revenge of the Sith’s script definitively revealed Palpatine to be Anakin’s “father” via midi-chlorian manipulation, but this idea is not canon to either Legends or the Disney era.

Darth Plagueis Sought Control Of The Midi-Chlorians

The Phantom Menace introduced midi-chlorians, revealing living creatures in the Star Wars galaxy live in symbiosis with these microscopic organisms - and this symbiosis is what grants a being access to the Force. The concept was highly controversial among viewers, with many feeling tat a scientific explanation robbed the Force of its more mystical portrayal in the Star Wars original trilogy. It's important to remember, though, that Qui-Gon is not suggesting that midi-chlorians are the source of the Force. Rather, they are a means of measuring one's potential connection to it. Later Legends-era and modern canon works would reinforce this explanation.

James Luceno's Darth Plagueis revealed the titular Sith Lord viewed the Force exclusively through a scientific lens, rather than a mystical one. Ancient Sith had developed the rare dark side power of essence transfer, allowing them to place their consciousness in other bodies or objects to effectively cheat death. Plagueis was aware of this ability, but wished to take it a step further by controlling midi-chlorians. Plagueis believed that controlling midi-chlorians would grant him control over life and death.

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How Darth Plagueis Used His Force Powers - & Affected The Balance Of The Force

Darth Plagueis used advanced Sith alchemy to conduct numerous experiments on midi-chlorians. Many of these focused on the Yinchorri, an alien race who had an inherent resistance to Force-based telepathy and mind control. Plagueis even used midi-chlorian manipulation to excruciatingly kill Naboo's King Veruna (Queen Amidala's predecessor) and the illegitimate Sith Darth Venamis.Plagueis’s experiments also allowed him to induce pregnancies in animals via midi-chlorian manipulation, seemingly implying that he was Anakin Skywalker’s “father,” though this was, ultimately, not the case.

Plagueis was aware of the potential Force power of a sapient being created via midi-chlorian manipulation and attempted to create such a being with Palpatine’s help. This perhaps could have made the two Sith Lords the creators of Anakin, had the experiment been successful. The first step of Plagueis and Sidious’s plan was to unbalance the Force itself through intense use of the dark side. In the end, Plagueis and Palpatine’s attempts to synthesize a sapient being via midi-chlorian manipulation failed, though it did lead to the birth of Anakin, albeit indirectly.

Anakin Skywalker Was The Force's Response To Darth Plagueis' Force Power

Darth Plagueis and Palpatine had tampered with the balance of the Force itself. This led the midi-chlorians to retaliate, responding by conceiving a child in Shmi Skywalker - the Chosen One who would restore the balance and destroy the Sith. Although Anakin Skywalker would become a powerful Sith Lord himself, thanks to Palpatine's manipulations, he ultimately fulfilled the prophecy. This story confirms that Anakin Skywalker had only one parent in Star Wars - Shmi - but explains why the midi-chlorians created him in response to the Sith.