EVERYTHING Anakin Did During Order 66

Anakin Skywalker’s role in Order 66 went far beyond the moment he marched on the Jedi Temple. Once he pledged himself to Palpatine, he became one of the central forces carrying out the destruction of the Jedi and helping the Empire take shape in a single night. 

From the attack on the Temple to the Separatist massacre on Mustafar, Anakin’s actions during Order 66 were not limited to one battlefield. They stretched across the entire fall of the Republic. So if we look at everything Anakin actually did during Order 66, the full picture is even darker than just the moment most fans remember.

One Of Anakin’s First Acts Was Killing The Jedi Temple Gate Master

Before Anakin began slaughtering the Jedi inside the Temple, one of his first victims was Jurokk, the Jedi Temple Gate Master. Jurokk was a Jedi Master and a member of the Temple Security Force whose job was to guard and monitor the entrance to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Earlier that day, after Anakin revealed that Chancellor Palpatine was Darth Sidious, Mace Windu assigned Jurokk and Shaak Ti to help defend the Temple while he left with Agen Kolar, Saesee Tiin, and Kit Fisto to arrest Palpatine.

Not long after, Jurokk spotted Anakin on a monitor and hurried to the Temple Gate. At first, he questioned him about the Jedi Masters and asked what had happened, but Anakin only wanted to know where Shaak Ti was. When Jurokk told him she was meditating in her quarters, he then noticed the thousands of clone troopers standing behind Anakin and realized something was terribly wrong. He demanded again to know what had happened to Windu’s team, but by then it was already too late. Anakin, now turned to the dark side and newly taken as Sidious’ apprentice, ignited his lightsaber directly under Jurokk’s chin and killed him on the spot. According to the Revenge of the Sith novelization, the last thing Jurokk heard was Anakin telling him that he had “no idea” what was going on.

He Slaughtered A Temple Guard Who Still Saw Him As Skywalker

Another chilling detail about Order 66 comes from Force Collector, which briefly revisits the moment Anakin led the clone troopers up the steps of the Jedi Temple. The scene is shown through a vision tied to a dead Temple Guard’s helmet. When Karr touches it, he is pulled back into the opening of the Temple assault and experiences the attack from the guard’s point of view.

As the clones approach, the guard’s first reaction is not pure alarm. It is recognition. The figure leading them is dressed in black, but something about him is still familiar enough to stop the guard cold. Then, under his breath, he quietly says, “Skywalker?”

That one word is what makes the moment so brutal. The Temple Guard does not first see Darth Vader. He sees Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi he once knew, standing at the front of the clone army.

But that recognition changes nothing. Almost immediately, Anakin ignites his lightsaber and cuts the guard down. The moment turns in an instant. One second, the guard is staring at a familiar face in disbelief. The next, the massacre has already begun. Anakin gives him no answer, no pause, and no sign that the name Skywalker still means anything to him. He kills the Temple Guard and leads the assault inside.

He Defeated And Killed Cin Drallig

One of the most important Jedi Anakin killed inside the Temple was Cin Drallig. He was the Jedi Temple’s chief of security, the head of the Temple Guard, and one of the Order’s top lightsaber instructors. His death is especially important because it is one of the moments later seen by Obi-Wan and Yoda through the Temple security holograms. In that recording, Anakin, now Darth Vader, is shown cutting down Cin Drallig and his Padawans during Operation: Knightfall. It is also one of the clearest pieces of evidence confirming to Obi-Wan that Skywalker led the Temple massacre and had fully fallen to the dark side.

Older Legends material, especially Matthew Stover’s Revenge of the Sith novelization, adds much more detail to Cin Drallig’s last stand. In that version, Drallig makes his final stand in the Room of a Thousand Fountains, where he is protecting a group of younglings and Padawans when Vader enters the chamber. The novel’s expanded account says Vader kills the younger defenders, including Whie Malreaux, before ultimately overwhelming Drallig himself.

Slaughtered The Jedi Younglings

One of the darkest parts of Order 66 inside the Jedi Temple was Anakin’s murder of the younglings.

In the film, the children are gathered together in fear while the attack on the Temple is already underway. When Anakin walks in, they do not see Darth Vader. They still see Master Skywalker. One of the younglings steps forward and says, “Master Skywalker, there are too many of them. What are we going to do?” The line makes it clear that the children believe Anakin has come to save them from the clone troopers and the chaos spreading through the Temple. Instead, Anakin looks at them in silence, then ignites his lightsaber.

The Obi-Wan Kenobi series makes that moment even darker through Reva’s memory of Order 66. Reva was one of the younglings inside the Temple that night, which means she saw Anakin Skywalker with her own eyes during the massacre. When the series finally reveals what happened, she remembers Anakin cutting through the Jedi in the Temple and coming for the children as well. That changes the youngling scene in Revenge of the Sith even more, because it shows that at least some of them did not just die offscreen in an abstract way. Reva survived, and she spent years carrying the memory that Anakin was the one who did it.