Turin vs. Anakin

Watching Star Wars 3 the other day, I was struck by the 'dismal fate' of Anakin Skywalker. It's a common premise, possibly- in a lot of fiction. Anakin is plagued by 'human' weaknesses. They lead him to the Dark Side. These weaknesses are pride and attachment definitely- maybe arrogance if you stretch it a bit and greed if you stretch it a lot and fear if you can sense the Force, but I can't.

What is striking (and what also makes Episode 3 eminently watchable relative to 1 &2) is that the reasons behind Anakin's downfall are understandable. Or rather, his behavior is. The Dark side is not all dark. The descent into the Dark side has a context. (This is possibly also what made Return of the Jedi more complex and interesting than Episode 4, but that is probably disputable).

But the connection I am seeking to make is a different one. It's the motif:
Anakin is brave. He is able. He is in fact the most gifted of all Jedi. He's self made (albeit with some coaching, but he's come up from scratch in any case). He can drive whatever space crafts he lays his hands on faster than everyone else. I can't say if he is smashing looking, but he manages to snare royalty for a girlfriend, so he's doing all right.
In the middle of all this though, he is doomed from the start. He is always going to fall. In fact the higher he goes, the harder he is supposed to come down. And that's not because of immoral decisions he takes, but because of human weaknesses which somehow are the path to the dark side. It's almost as if he is cursed.

Which brings me to Turin Turambar. That dude, seriously gets the short end of the stick. His father goes into battle with the Dark Lord, manages to get his kin cursed and that's that. Turin too has everything going for him. Wise. Brave. Great warrior. Learned in the elven tongue as well. BUT, he is doomed as well. For some of the same reasons. None of his actions are morally wrong. They are proud, angry sometimes. In that sense the dark side casts a shadow over him even though he does not belong to it.

The difference is- Turin never turns. Anakin does. And in that, Turin never becomes the dark one himself. BUT, even so Turin does bring about the destruction of the Middle Earth.