Did Anakin Skywalker have a genius IQ?

Question

At the age of 8 Anakin Skywalker built his own Podracer as well as a Protocol Droid.

Is there any way to determine that, had he lived on Earth he would be tested to have a 'genius level IQ' (e.g. an IQ of 160 or more)?

Answer 1

I think it's unfair to use a model of IQ that we use currently for somebody in a fictional universe such as Star Wars. In Star Wars robotics and complicated systems far beyond our own capabilities are commonplace, so just because he was able to build and repair stuff at a young age doesn't necessarily mean he is a genius.

Yes Anakin was smart for his age, but whether or not he has a Genius IQ of 160 in our world is really kind of indeterminable.

Answer 2

The novelisation of Phantom Menace suggests that Anakin does possess a slightly higher than average intelligence as well as solid level of low cunning, largely as a result of his Jedi skills and status as slave to Watto;

• Watto trusts him to barter on his behalf for parts with the Jawas

• When negotiating with the Jawas, he secretly records their conversations so that C3P0 can catch their "unguarded remarks".

• Watto recognises Anakin's "gift for taking things apart and putting them back together and making them work better than they had before"

• Anakin himself realises that if he puts a casing on C3P0 it will become obvious that it's in working order and Watto will confiscate it

• Anakin builds a podracer out of scrap parts and, again keeps it a secret "smart enough to realise" that it will get taken by his master.

That said, nothing he does in any of the films or novels would suggest that he has a genius level IQ. Having an affinity for building machines doesn't by definition make you a genius, any more than constantly making ill-advised decisions makes you an idiot.

Answer 3

Probably

Of course, whether Anakin would have a specific number¹ on an IQ test is nearly impossible to determine. However, it seems likely that Anakin was a genius.

Specifically, Bail Organa, who knew Anakin well, described both him and Padmé as "prodigies," in connection with the possibility that Leia had inherited her parents’ intelligence:

He risked a glance sideways to be sure his daughter was distracted by the fish and then opened the latest of his secret files. It was encrypted, of course, but he had it decoded soon enough. He looked sideways again. The trouble with adopting the child of two prodigies was that there was a decent chance she would turn out to be unusually intelligent, as well. He was reasonably certain that Leia hadn’t learned to read while he was on Coruscant for the last senatorial session, but with her, he could never be sure. He wouldn’t be able to keep her out of the mess forever, but he and Breha had agreed they should keep her clear of it at least until she could reliably speak in coherent sentences.

_Ahsoka

There’s a pretty clear implication here that Anakin is at least “unusually intelligent.” Note that Bail was speculating about Leia’s ability to read when she was only a year or two old.

_{1: 130 on the Stanford-Binet, not 160, is usually considered the cutoff for being a genius, in a colloquial sense. Mensa has a requirement around here, for example. An IQ of 160 is significantly rarer.}

Answer 4

Yes, I really do think Anakin is a genius. I know he doesn't do IQ tests like writing on paper or whatever, but building a protocol droid and podracer is really complicated. Not for Anakin! Although somewhat it's kind of fiction because of the so called "The Force" and says that he can predict the future (kind of) is a Jedi trait. But I would really like to see a child as young as 8 years old to be a pilot.

Answer 5

Judging from his adult choices he wasn't smart at all. Overvaluing his strenght at least two times, betraying his friends and wife. Not too smart, I would say.