Top 5 Jake Lloyd Lines In ‘Star Wars: The Phantom Menace’

Darth Vader is one of the most recognizable characters in cinema, let alone the Star Wars franchise.  Portraying the Lord of the Sith’s younger self wasn’t going to be easy. Jake Lloyd was just nine years old when George Lucas chose him for the task. Despite criticism of the film, the young actor nevertheless delivered some of the most impactful lines of the film. Though we didn’t know it at the time, these quotes provided significant insight, and foreshadowing, for the character of Anakin Skywalker. Here are our top five Anakin quotes from Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace.

Top 5 Jake Lloyd lines in The Phantom Menace

#5: “I’m a person and my name is Anakin.”

Anakin Skywalker made that declaration to Padmé when she asked if he was a slave. The line, which Jake Lloyd delivered with perfect, adolescent defiance, was seeped in irony. Anakin would go on to shun his past and everything about it to become Darth Vader. He’d even go so far as to later tell Luke Skywalker “that name no longer has any meaning for me.” Likewise, Obi-Wan Kenobi would reflect on how Vader wasn’t even really a person anymore, either. He’d become “more machine now, than man, twisted and evil.” Vader would wipe away the person that was Anakin Skywalker.

#4: “Will I ever see you again?”

Qui-Gon Jinn would take the boy to learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi. Pleadingly, young Anakin asked those words of his mother. In a showing of true emotion, Jake Lloyd delivered a line that would sum up the rest of Anakin’s existence. Would he ever see the women he loved again? Whether towards Shmi Skywalker or Padmé  Amidala, Anakin’s love and fear of loss would tear at him for the rest of his life.

Top Jake Lloyd lines, #3: “I’ll come back and free you mom, I promise.”

From the same scene, the promise to return and free his mother illustrates the failure at the root of Anakin’s eventual rage. His ultimate goal was to protect the ones he loved. He failed. Not only did he fail, but the failure in fulfilling that promise drove him to madness and murder. As Anakin he would slaughter an entire village of Sand People. As Vader, he’d scourge the galaxy. That broken promise was the grain of sand tipping his scales towards the Dark Side for good.

#2. “No one can kill a Jedi.”

We all knew this line was dripping with irony them moment we first heard it. Of course Vader would go on to kill Jedi; he’d help eradicate nearly the entire order. With his Inquisitors, Darth Vader hunted any remaining Jedi down and destroyed them. The apprentice to Darth Sidious would erase every ounce of the naïveté of the Anakin Jake Lloyd portrayed.

#1. “What will happen to me now?”

Anakin asked that question of Obi-Wan Kenobi following Qui-Gon’s death. What, indeed. As we know, Anakin would go on to live a life of torment and manipulation. From that moment on Palpatine would deviously steer Anakin to the Dark Side. Still, for a fleeting moment, he would see his fate (in the Mortis story arc of The Clone Wars). So as to not upset the balance of the Force, however, The Father erased the vision from his memory. We all knew what would happen, even if the elder Skywalker’s younger self didn’t. The rest, as they say, is history.

Do you have any favorite Jake Lloyd lines or scenes from The Phantom Menace? Let us know if the comments!