Anakin’s origin story is the entire focus of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, yet we don’t know anything about how he came to be. In The Phantom Menace, Shmi Skywalker insists he had no father, which made Qui-Gon assume Anakin’s unprecedented levels of midichlorians were a sign he was “born of the Force.”
In The Acolyte Episode 3, we learned Anakin’s not the only Star Wars character with dubious parental heritage. Osha and Mae, the twins at the series’ center, were seemingly “created” by one of their mothers, Aniseya, in a way she’s trying to keep secret from the Jedi. But could the secret of Osha and Mae’s origin be one of the most ridiculed in Star Wars history? Here’s how we could already know their “father,” and what it means for Anakin and the twins.
Most Star Wars fans know the first few lines of Palpatine’s memetic Darth Plagueis the Wise speech, which he gives to Anakin in Revenge of the Sith. But one of the most interesting parts is hidden deeper in the monologue. “Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith,” he says, “so powerful and so wise he could use the Force to influence the midichlorians to create life.”
If that’s true, could Aniseya have learned from a young Darth Plagueis? Could he have taught her — or helped her — create not one life, but two? Notably, Darth Plageuis’ predecessor, Darth Tenebrous, also studied how to create life with the Force, which adds a lot of leeway to the timeline here.
There are some issues with this theory. If creating life was possible a century before the events of the prequels, why did Plagueis keep studying the problem? And why would a Sith Lord feel compelled to help a random witch? But Plagueis has been rumored to be involved with The Acolyte ever since the series was announced, and using him not only brings the infamous villain to life, but sheds light on Anakin’s potential origin. If he’d been plotting to mold the perfect apprentice, Aniseya may have struck a bad bargain.
Whether or not Plagueis actually shows up doesn’t really matter, but if Mother Aniseya was able to create the twins with his help, that would explain why she’s terrified of the Jedi finding out. It would also be a huge step to learning more about his quest to create life that Palpatine would pick up far in the future, and connect The Acolyte to the Star Wars era it feels so distant from.
