Summary SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT One of the strangest debates in Star Wars revolves around the difference in power between Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader, and the answer may just be the difference in their midi-chlorian count. Anakin Skywalker was in his prime near the end of the Clone Wars, when he was agile and skilled enough to singlehandedly take down Count Dooku, a Sith Lord.
Darth Vader Had Fewer Midi-Chlorians Than Anakin Skywalker Vader had no limbs, whereas Anakin had three Close Logically speaking, if midi-chlorians do reside in the cells and tissue of a person’s body, then Vader—who had lost four of his limbs—had fewer midi-chlorians than Anakin Skywalker.
Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader Conceived by the will of the Force itself, Anakin Skywalker was the prophesied Chosen One, destined to bring the Force into balance. Anakin struggled to balance competing attachments to the Jedi Order and his wife Padmé Amidala, and ultimately fell to the dark side, becoming Darth Vader. For years he served as Palpatine's right hand man, but he was ultimately redeemed by the faith of his son, Luke Skywalker.
Even though Palpatine is obsessed with midi-chlorian cloning in The Bad Batch, he obviously missed something crucial in Force-sensitivity science. His own apprentice, Vader, proved that losing limbs—and the midi-chlorians along with them—didn’t stop him from increasing his power in the Force. But until Star Wars explains just how many midi-chlorians are lost in a severed limb, the safe assumption is that Vader was actually less powerful in the Force than Anakin.