Anakin Skywalker
Jun. 13th, 2005 07:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakSo, remember when I said I was going to go easier on the Star Wars posts? Well, it is not this day, to quote Aragorn (from the film version). This post won't be analytical, however, nor will it be fictional. No, the Force compels me to collect my favourite Anakin Skywalker moments, to illustrate, perhaps, why I fell for the character (beyond being interested in him already due to the OT - as I said in my general prequel post, the Anakin backstory was what I wanted to know about once the OT was over).
So, the other blond kid from Tatooine. In roughly chronological order.
1. His entrance. For someone who is anything but Mr. Subtlety, Lucas played that one distinctly low key, which I appreciate. Anakin doesn't appear until 20 minutes or half an hour or so within the movie, and when he appears, it's not a dramatic pointed moment, as with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan earlier. He comes in the shop when his owner, Watto, calls (and we don't know his name yet, he's simply addressed as "boy") and starts performing a task for a while while the camera focuses on the conversation between Watto and Qui-Gon. It's not until these two are gone that our attention gets drawn to Anakin.
2. Which happens through his conversation with Padme. Now I realize this is a matter of taste. But I thought "Are you an angel?" was adorable without being sirupy cute. Especially since the much-bashed Jake L. has a quiet intensity here, and the lighting emphasizes his eyes. Also later, when the mood subtly alters because Padme refers to him as a slave, and he says "I am a person, and my name is Anakin". Yes, Anakin's love for Padme is not the poster child for healthy attachment. But there is something mythic about it, and it starts here, in the shop.
3. The dinner. Referred to as a necessary exposition scene in the commentary, and a lot of info is conveyed (about the existence of slavery, the problematic situation with the Republic forbidding it but not bothering to stop it outside of its borders, which is true for the Jedi as well), but I love it also for what it shows about Anakin - the matter of fact and way he describes the security device prohibiting the slaves from leaving, because it really showcases what a child he is (getting blown up is not real for children); his faith that Qui-Gon, as a Jedi, must have come to help the slaves, and the willingness to help Qui-Gon after the later has revealed that this is not the case.
4. The podrace. Sue me. I like it. I skip a lot of the obligatory Lucas chase sequences that grace each and every one of his movies, but I really like the podrace, and somehow I never doubt that kid is really in that racer, not painted there via GCI.
5. The goodbye from his mother. Okay, even when I saw it first, I knew Shmi was a goner (I recognize a redshirt when I see one), but rewatching it after AotC and now after RotS, it's truly heartbreaking for me. When he runs back to her and says "I can't do it, Mom". When Shmi says "Then we'll see each other again. "Don't look back, Ani". But he does. He always does.
6. Handing Padme the japor snippet when she covers him with the blanket. I don't think he's really that cold; but this is when the reality of his having left his mother and gone with Qui-Gon hits him. Yes, at one level it's also the start of the convergence of his feelings for his mother and Padme. (Luke has Daddy issues, Anakin has Mommy issues.) At another, it's simply an attempt to reach out to someone, to be assured there is a connection in this strange new world. I was very happy when the japor snippet made its return in Revenge.
7. The scenes with the Council. Whose brightest hour this is not. As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
merrymaia said, telling a nine-years-old child that his future is clouded and that he's wrong to worry about his mother lays a seed for future disaster here, and not (yet) because of Anakin himself. Also, note that when Mace Windu says they won't train him, Anakin's eyes narrow. Like the "I'm a person" moment, an early display of temper. Incidentally, regarding Child!Anakin you encounter two complaints in fandom: they either find him too nice and too sweet, or complain conversely that he's a spoiled brat. I don't see him as either in TPM - he's a nice child, but he has his moments of exasparation (with Sebulba, too), and being angry at being rejected after having left the only home you've known for this isn't being spoiled.
8. The quick smile Anakin exchanges with Padme, still in her handmaiden disguise, at the official reception on Coruscant, which is the same smile they exchange in the last scene during the victory parade. They're simply being two children here, and that must have been rare enough for Padme. Incidentally, congratulations on casting and acting, because when adult Anakin teases her during the picknick scene, he has the same expression.
9. The scene with Anakin and Obi-Wan during Qui-Gon's funeral. I think this is where their complicated relationship truly starts. Anakin has been introduced to Obi-Wan before, and had overheard on Coruscant that Obi-Wan thinks he's dangerous. Not the best of beginnings. But when Obi-Wan, in reply to his "what will become of me" question says he'll train him, Anakin starts to see him as a potential friend as well. They both look very lost and young here, while Qui-Gon, the only thing they have so far in common, burns.
10. 19-years-old Anakin meets Padme again. Yes, he has the worst pick-up line ever. Which in that particular scene is imo intentional, and which I find truly endearing. It made me feel for the grown up version of Anakin at once when, in reply to Padme's "my, you've grown" (and my, he has), he stumbles from "you too" to "grown more beautiful, I mean" to "for a Senator, I mean". Don't you hate it when that kind of thing happens to you? And as if he doesn't feel embarassed enough, she then shoots him down with "Ani, you'll always be that little boy from Tatooine".
19. Anakin and Obi-Wan pursue Zam Wessell, complete with banter and almost-deaths. Obi-Wan is very much an exasparated father here (or older brother - asfernwithy said, one of the things they miscommunicate about might be that Obi-Wan sees himself as Anakin's older brother whereas Anakin most of the time sees him as a father figure), but you can tell he's having fun with the kind nonetheless, and Anakin enjoys the hell out of teasing Obi-Wan. In other news, though? Given how often Obi-Wan pulls that "my (very) young apprentice/padawan", I'm not surprised Anakin is in the full throws of teenage rebellion. Qui-Gon, who actually was old enough to be not just Anakin's but Obi-Wan's father, could use that expression without making it sound like a put-down, but poor Obi-Wan with his fifteen years age difference can't quite, and probably at this point doesn't want to.
20. After they've said farewell to Obi-Wan and Captain Typho, Padme for the first time admits to being somewhat scared. Anakin says that as this is his first solo assignment, he is, too. Now how many teenage boys do you know who would be ready to admit that to a woman they want to impress, instead of going for the obvious macho attitude of "I'll protect you"?
21. The picknick in view of the waterfalls. The entire picknick, with its swings from fun and teasing to seriousness to fun. And the seriousness in terms of plot implications has nothing to do with romance - it's the "That sounds an awful lot like a dictatorship to me" /"Well, if it works" exchange, because of course Anakin means it. For the record, I really don't think that at this point, he sees himself as a future dictator; his "no, of course not" in reply to "by whom - you?" is without hesitation or overemphasis. But he's dead serious about believing a benevolent dictator would just be a swell idea for the galaxy. (And probably thinks either his friend the Chancellor or Padme would be great in the job.) Which, given that he went from being a slave on a ganster-controlled planet to a apprentice in an extremely hierarchical order and sees the Republic in obvious decline, makes sense for the character. The other reason why I like this scene so much is that as opposed to the fireplace scene, this is where Lucas gets it exactly right - there is nothing over the top here, Anakin and Padme feel like two young people falling in love, and when he clowns around for her benefit and fakes being dead, and they roll in the grass aftewards, the playfulness and laughter make me smile each time, too, despite knowing what's to come.
22. The other scene on the balcony, the one after his nightmare about his mother. For some reason, upon my original AotC viewing this is where it really struck me that Anakin was the future Darth Vader, probably because HC captures the body posture so very well. Also, it's my exhibit A against the "Anakin is a stalker" accusations. This is after Padme said no at the end of the fireplace scene. Note that from this point onwards, she is the one who initializes conversation and physical contact. He respects her wishes and does not, right until she tells him she loves him.
23. Meeting Watto again. The entire Tattoine sequence is my favourite part of AotC, but I'll list individual bits nonetheless. Watto for my money is the most successful of the prequel aliens, and the best of the CGI creatures. I always believe his scenes, be they with Qui-Gon or with Anakin. My compliments to the effects team, as he really does look ten years older. This particular scene is as interesting for what isn't said as for what is, and Anakin repairing another tool for Watto while radiating threat (without ever saying as much) if he doesn't tell him where Shmi is just makes it so nicely ambiguous.
24. Shmi's death. Pernilla August just has this one scene in the film, and I find her immensely moving here, but it's Hayden Christensen who sells me on it as Anakin goes from love and heartbreak to impossible rage. I also appreciate the staging, which is a reverse Pieta - it's the son holding the mother. (It's also a reverse from Anakin's own death four movies later, the moment where the development really kicking in here ends.)
25. Anakin returns with Shmi to the Lars homestead. SW brings out the melodramatic expressions: he really has an aura of the damned around him. We don't know yet (well, I didn't the first time) just what he did - I mean, we saw him start with killing Tuskens outside of the tent, but we don't know the full extent, and these had been Shmi's direct captors - but it's clear he has found far more than his dead mother in the desert. The utter silence by everyone just makes that clearer.
26. The confession scene. This shook me more than anything since "I am your father" in ESB when I first saw it. Starting with the way he says "life is easier when you're fixing things. I'm good at fixing things. Always was. But I couldn't...", acting, directing and writing here manage the trick of letting Anakin confess to a massacre here without either prettifying the enormity of what he's confessing to or making us (well, me, can't speak for my readers, of course) lose sympathy for him. He tries to justify it to himself by the "they're animals, and I slaughtered them like animals" exclamation but at the same time it's clear he doesn't believe it, and knows better, as he says at the end of the scene.
27. The marriage scene ending AotC. Anakin putting his new artificial hand in Padme's, the first outward sign of Vaderization (to match what's going on inwardly) is both a foreshadowing of disaster and an affirmation of the bond between them. I also find it oddly touching that the two droids are the only witnesses, though that matches the final image of ESB of course as it is intended to.
28. Opening sequence of RotS - nearly the first thing we hear Anakin say is express concern for the Clone warriors, not wanting to leave them behind. Anakin's inability to leave anyone behind has its obvious dark and problematic side, but it's also an expression of his capacity for being noble, selfless, a good friend. Also, the banter between him and Obi-Wan is great fun, and it doesn't have the rebelling against authority figure/ exasparated father undertones from AotC anymore - it's clear that the intervening years contributed to making them more equals.
29. "His fate will be ours." Anakin, after just having committed his first murder (executing Dooku), refuses to leave Obi-Wan behind despite being told to by Palpatine. I think that aside from telling Mace about Palpatine later, this is the only time Anakin straight out acts against something Palpatine told him to do. (Of course, Palps isn't thrilled and goes on to remove the competition by arranging it for Anakin and Obi-Wan to be separated later on.) As for what quality this illustrates in Anakin, see above.
30. Elevator scene with Obi-Wan and Palpatine literary both hanging on Anakin. Which is just plain funny. Also none-too-subtle symbolism.
31. Seeing Padme again. The look at his face when she tells him about her pregnancy. Anakin going from being stunned to a moment of terror to delight and joy is just so emotionally realistic. And of course in the long term his happiness at the prospect of them having a child together is heartbreaking.
32. Never mind the dialogue, which btw is the kind of silly thing you say when you're in love; again, the look at his face and the posture when Anakin watches Padme combing her hair. I don't get the complaints about chemistry. Hayden and Natalie are very credible as familiar lovers here (as opposed to awkward young lovers a film earlier), and when he watches her with a smile, it's probably the last time they're ever happy just being with each other. Or happy, full stop.
33. Just about any scene between Anakin and Palpatine - I was hoping the film would fill in blanks about that relationship, and yes, it did - but especially the opera scene. This is a seduction going on, and Anakin responds to all the elements Palpatine brings up - the promise of the power to stop death, the doubts since the Jedi asked him to act against his friend. It's part desperation because he fears for Padme's life, part ego and ambition (always fed by Palpatine), and part anger and confusion because the Jedi themselves seem to break down the boundaries between right and wrong. Anakin falls not just for only one reason, yet another thing I find compelling about the character.
34. The goodbye to Obi-Wan. The last time they'll ever talk as friends, and yes, I know I'm being manipulated, but damn it, it works. Anakin apologizing for being arrogant and not appreciating Obi-Wan enough. Obi-Wan telling him he's proud of Anakin. And that sentence, so often used in the SW films, but somehow touching me here most of all: "May the force be with you, my friend." Wah!
35. The entire sequence from Anakin realizing Palpatine is Sideous to Anakin pledging himself, but okay, details: the two circling each other. Note that Anakin this time does not react by attacking (I always thought he would, because Lucas loves echoes and because of RotJ, but no, it's more complicated), or with giving in to Palpatine. It really surprised me that he went back to the Council even at this point and told Mace the truth. That he still held out and wanted to to the right thing that long. Then, after Mace leaves him behind (brilliant move that, Windu), the last of the Coruscant sunsets as we cross cut between Anakin and Padme. As he looks back (he always does) and changes his decision. This is something immensely cinematic - look at the script, or the novelization, and it doesn't have nearly the same effect. Though the decision-making process is still not completed. When Anakin arrives at Palpatine's office and stops Mace from killing Palpatine, it's for all those things that moved him in the opera scene, but what comes across as settling the matter is really Mace repeating word for word what Palpatine said about Dooku when the told Anakin to kill him, something Anakin knew was wrong. And that's what makes the scene not good but great to me. Anakin turning because of his inability to let go, because of the growing need and greed, allt hat I had expected - but that he'd also do so because of the Jedi Code, because seeing it broken by a Master really makes him believe there are no more differences, that was a complete surprise. For the record, I don't think Anakin is under any more illusions about Palpatine anymore at this point. He looks as if he's nearly throwing up when he makes his pledge. But he makes it, and being the absolutist he is goes off to do the worst thing he can possibly imagine. Which brings us to...
36. The Younglings. I don't "like" the scene in the sense that I enjoy watching it, but I think it was 100% the right decision to include it, both for this film and for Anakin's storyline. Because we needed to see him commit a crime for which he is completely morally responsible. A fall is not a fall if you cop out of that. Not in the way he killed the Tuskens, out of horrible shock and rage; note that his eyes are dead and he's completely dispassionate here. He is, finally, detached.
37. The shot of Anakin staring down into the Mufastar lava, after he has killed the Separatists... and we see he's crying. I think this is where the above mentioned detachment stops working for a while, and the enormity of what he has done catches up with him. Another thing I appreciate: the Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader thing isn't Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It's a step-by-step thing, and even at this stage, he's still capable to feel remorse. It's just not enough to stop him. Plus he does not believe - which of of course the hubris Milton ascribes to Satan - that he could go back.
38. The Duel. Which works so well not just because of the usual breathtaking gymnastics the prequels offer but because it's really an emotional climax. And the hate and love on both sides - it's everything I hoped for, and more, because I really had underestimated just how attached Obi-Wan was to Anakin (which is underlined by the gruesome finale). You know, if it had been Dooku lying there as a burning torso, or even Palpatine himself? Obi-Wan would either have granted them a quick and merciful death, or he'd have saved them. But not Anakin, precisely because he had loved him. And Anakin's expression when he burned... I don't know how they filmed that, but the pain that came across was just incredible. Just as we needed to see Anakin commit an unforgivable crime, see above, we needed to see just what did happen to him in all its painful horror. Nobody deserves that. Nobody.
39. And then Palpatine comes and for the first and last time in the entire saga makes an ambiguos gesture. I mean, yes, Anakin was still useful for him. And later on, when he delivered the "Padme is dead" news, he was positively gleeful and enjoying the last thing that would tie his new creation forever to him. But at this particular moment? When he touched Anakin's forehead and Anakin actually grows more still? It could be the only moment of pity the Emperor ever shows through his life.
49. Wheras the process of completing the Vaderization is just a gruesome exercise of power. Even without the cross cutting to the birth of the twins and Padme's death, I think the implication that this taking of a badly burned torso and changing into a cyborg is burying someone alive would come across. As I wrote in my original review, the moment when the mask descends on Anakin's face and we see the utter horror in his eyes, then see how he'll see for the next twenty years, is devastating. And it is the last time we see Anakin's face, full stop, until his son lifts the mask.
50. While I do think of Vader as Anakin, listing my favourite Vader scenes is somewhat superfluous, as the Dark Lord in his function as villain always was solidly popular. So, no "I find your lack of faith disturbing" - "escape is not his plan" or "apology accepted" here, just the unmasking. "I want to see you with my own eyes, just once." and "I wanted to save you." "You already did." I always found Vader's/Anakin's death moving in RotJ, but now it's also healing, due to my enormous emotional investment in the character.
Addendum: And I'm solidly on the pro-DVD side of the force for RotJ. Meaning that I think Lucas changing Sebastian Shaw as Anakin to Hayden Christensen as Anakin for the last glimpse we get together with Luke, on Endor, was the right decision. HC played adult Anakin in two films and played him when he fell: it feels right that he would embody Anakin one last brief time when the saga ends as well.
So, the other blond kid from Tatooine. In roughly chronological order.
1. His entrance. For someone who is anything but Mr. Subtlety, Lucas played that one distinctly low key, which I appreciate. Anakin doesn't appear until 20 minutes or half an hour or so within the movie, and when he appears, it's not a dramatic pointed moment, as with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan earlier. He comes in the shop when his owner, Watto, calls (and we don't know his name yet, he's simply addressed as "boy") and starts performing a task for a while while the camera focuses on the conversation between Watto and Qui-Gon. It's not until these two are gone that our attention gets drawn to Anakin.
2. Which happens through his conversation with Padme. Now I realize this is a matter of taste. But I thought "Are you an angel?" was adorable without being sirupy cute. Especially since the much-bashed Jake L. has a quiet intensity here, and the lighting emphasizes his eyes. Also later, when the mood subtly alters because Padme refers to him as a slave, and he says "I am a person, and my name is Anakin". Yes, Anakin's love for Padme is not the poster child for healthy attachment. But there is something mythic about it, and it starts here, in the shop.
3. The dinner. Referred to as a necessary exposition scene in the commentary, and a lot of info is conveyed (about the existence of slavery, the problematic situation with the Republic forbidding it but not bothering to stop it outside of its borders, which is true for the Jedi as well), but I love it also for what it shows about Anakin - the matter of fact and way he describes the security device prohibiting the slaves from leaving, because it really showcases what a child he is (getting blown up is not real for children); his faith that Qui-Gon, as a Jedi, must have come to help the slaves, and the willingness to help Qui-Gon after the later has revealed that this is not the case.
4. The podrace. Sue me. I like it. I skip a lot of the obligatory Lucas chase sequences that grace each and every one of his movies, but I really like the podrace, and somehow I never doubt that kid is really in that racer, not painted there via GCI.
5. The goodbye from his mother. Okay, even when I saw it first, I knew Shmi was a goner (I recognize a redshirt when I see one), but rewatching it after AotC and now after RotS, it's truly heartbreaking for me. When he runs back to her and says "I can't do it, Mom". When Shmi says "Then we'll see each other again. "Don't look back, Ani". But he does. He always does.
6. Handing Padme the japor snippet when she covers him with the blanket. I don't think he's really that cold; but this is when the reality of his having left his mother and gone with Qui-Gon hits him. Yes, at one level it's also the start of the convergence of his feelings for his mother and Padme. (Luke has Daddy issues, Anakin has Mommy issues.) At another, it's simply an attempt to reach out to someone, to be assured there is a connection in this strange new world. I was very happy when the japor snippet made its return in Revenge.
7. The scenes with the Council. Whose brightest hour this is not. As
merrymaia said, telling a nine-years-old child that his future is clouded and that he's wrong to worry about his mother lays a seed for future disaster here, and not (yet) because of Anakin himself. Also, note that when Mace Windu says they won't train him, Anakin's eyes narrow. Like the "I'm a person" moment, an early display of temper. Incidentally, regarding Child!Anakin you encounter two complaints in fandom: they either find him too nice and too sweet, or complain conversely that he's a spoiled brat. I don't see him as either in TPM - he's a nice child, but he has his moments of exasparation (with Sebulba, too), and being angry at being rejected after having left the only home you've known for this isn't being spoiled. 8. The quick smile Anakin exchanges with Padme, still in her handmaiden disguise, at the official reception on Coruscant, which is the same smile they exchange in the last scene during the victory parade. They're simply being two children here, and that must have been rare enough for Padme. Incidentally, congratulations on casting and acting, because when adult Anakin teases her during the picknick scene, he has the same expression.
9. The scene with Anakin and Obi-Wan during Qui-Gon's funeral. I think this is where their complicated relationship truly starts. Anakin has been introduced to Obi-Wan before, and had overheard on Coruscant that Obi-Wan thinks he's dangerous. Not the best of beginnings. But when Obi-Wan, in reply to his "what will become of me" question says he'll train him, Anakin starts to see him as a potential friend as well. They both look very lost and young here, while Qui-Gon, the only thing they have so far in common, burns.
10. 19-years-old Anakin meets Padme again. Yes, he has the worst pick-up line ever. Which in that particular scene is imo intentional, and which I find truly endearing. It made me feel for the grown up version of Anakin at once when, in reply to Padme's "my, you've grown" (and my, he has), he stumbles from "you too" to "grown more beautiful, I mean" to "for a Senator, I mean". Don't you hate it when that kind of thing happens to you? And as if he doesn't feel embarassed enough, she then shoots him down with "Ani, you'll always be that little boy from Tatooine".
19. Anakin and Obi-Wan pursue Zam Wessell, complete with banter and almost-deaths. Obi-Wan is very much an exasparated father here (or older brother - as
fernwithy said, one of the things they miscommunicate about might be that Obi-Wan sees himself as Anakin's older brother whereas Anakin most of the time sees him as a father figure), but you can tell he's having fun with the kind nonetheless, and Anakin enjoys the hell out of teasing Obi-Wan. In other news, though? Given how often Obi-Wan pulls that "my (very) young apprentice/padawan", I'm not surprised Anakin is in the full throws of teenage rebellion. Qui-Gon, who actually was old enough to be not just Anakin's but Obi-Wan's father, could use that expression without making it sound like a put-down, but poor Obi-Wan with his fifteen years age difference can't quite, and probably at this point doesn't want to. 20. After they've said farewell to Obi-Wan and Captain Typho, Padme for the first time admits to being somewhat scared. Anakin says that as this is his first solo assignment, he is, too. Now how many teenage boys do you know who would be ready to admit that to a woman they want to impress, instead of going for the obvious macho attitude of "I'll protect you"?
21. The picknick in view of the waterfalls. The entire picknick, with its swings from fun and teasing to seriousness to fun. And the seriousness in terms of plot implications has nothing to do with romance - it's the "That sounds an awful lot like a dictatorship to me" /"Well, if it works" exchange, because of course Anakin means it. For the record, I really don't think that at this point, he sees himself as a future dictator; his "no, of course not" in reply to "by whom - you?" is without hesitation or overemphasis. But he's dead serious about believing a benevolent dictator would just be a swell idea for the galaxy. (And probably thinks either his friend the Chancellor or Padme would be great in the job.) Which, given that he went from being a slave on a ganster-controlled planet to a apprentice in an extremely hierarchical order and sees the Republic in obvious decline, makes sense for the character. The other reason why I like this scene so much is that as opposed to the fireplace scene, this is where Lucas gets it exactly right - there is nothing over the top here, Anakin and Padme feel like two young people falling in love, and when he clowns around for her benefit and fakes being dead, and they roll in the grass aftewards, the playfulness and laughter make me smile each time, too, despite knowing what's to come.
22. The other scene on the balcony, the one after his nightmare about his mother. For some reason, upon my original AotC viewing this is where it really struck me that Anakin was the future Darth Vader, probably because HC captures the body posture so very well. Also, it's my exhibit A against the "Anakin is a stalker" accusations. This is after Padme said no at the end of the fireplace scene. Note that from this point onwards, she is the one who initializes conversation and physical contact. He respects her wishes and does not, right until she tells him she loves him.
23. Meeting Watto again. The entire Tattoine sequence is my favourite part of AotC, but I'll list individual bits nonetheless. Watto for my money is the most successful of the prequel aliens, and the best of the CGI creatures. I always believe his scenes, be they with Qui-Gon or with Anakin. My compliments to the effects team, as he really does look ten years older. This particular scene is as interesting for what isn't said as for what is, and Anakin repairing another tool for Watto while radiating threat (without ever saying as much) if he doesn't tell him where Shmi is just makes it so nicely ambiguous.
24. Shmi's death. Pernilla August just has this one scene in the film, and I find her immensely moving here, but it's Hayden Christensen who sells me on it as Anakin goes from love and heartbreak to impossible rage. I also appreciate the staging, which is a reverse Pieta - it's the son holding the mother. (It's also a reverse from Anakin's own death four movies later, the moment where the development really kicking in here ends.)
25. Anakin returns with Shmi to the Lars homestead. SW brings out the melodramatic expressions: he really has an aura of the damned around him. We don't know yet (well, I didn't the first time) just what he did - I mean, we saw him start with killing Tuskens outside of the tent, but we don't know the full extent, and these had been Shmi's direct captors - but it's clear he has found far more than his dead mother in the desert. The utter silence by everyone just makes that clearer.
26. The confession scene. This shook me more than anything since "I am your father" in ESB when I first saw it. Starting with the way he says "life is easier when you're fixing things. I'm good at fixing things. Always was. But I couldn't...", acting, directing and writing here manage the trick of letting Anakin confess to a massacre here without either prettifying the enormity of what he's confessing to or making us (well, me, can't speak for my readers, of course) lose sympathy for him. He tries to justify it to himself by the "they're animals, and I slaughtered them like animals" exclamation but at the same time it's clear he doesn't believe it, and knows better, as he says at the end of the scene.
27. The marriage scene ending AotC. Anakin putting his new artificial hand in Padme's, the first outward sign of Vaderization (to match what's going on inwardly) is both a foreshadowing of disaster and an affirmation of the bond between them. I also find it oddly touching that the two droids are the only witnesses, though that matches the final image of ESB of course as it is intended to.
28. Opening sequence of RotS - nearly the first thing we hear Anakin say is express concern for the Clone warriors, not wanting to leave them behind. Anakin's inability to leave anyone behind has its obvious dark and problematic side, but it's also an expression of his capacity for being noble, selfless, a good friend. Also, the banter between him and Obi-Wan is great fun, and it doesn't have the rebelling against authority figure/ exasparated father undertones from AotC anymore - it's clear that the intervening years contributed to making them more equals.
29. "His fate will be ours." Anakin, after just having committed his first murder (executing Dooku), refuses to leave Obi-Wan behind despite being told to by Palpatine. I think that aside from telling Mace about Palpatine later, this is the only time Anakin straight out acts against something Palpatine told him to do. (Of course, Palps isn't thrilled and goes on to remove the competition by arranging it for Anakin and Obi-Wan to be separated later on.) As for what quality this illustrates in Anakin, see above.
30. Elevator scene with Obi-Wan and Palpatine literary both hanging on Anakin. Which is just plain funny. Also none-too-subtle symbolism.
31. Seeing Padme again. The look at his face when she tells him about her pregnancy. Anakin going from being stunned to a moment of terror to delight and joy is just so emotionally realistic. And of course in the long term his happiness at the prospect of them having a child together is heartbreaking.
32. Never mind the dialogue, which btw is the kind of silly thing you say when you're in love; again, the look at his face and the posture when Anakin watches Padme combing her hair. I don't get the complaints about chemistry. Hayden and Natalie are very credible as familiar lovers here (as opposed to awkward young lovers a film earlier), and when he watches her with a smile, it's probably the last time they're ever happy just being with each other. Or happy, full stop.
33. Just about any scene between Anakin and Palpatine - I was hoping the film would fill in blanks about that relationship, and yes, it did - but especially the opera scene. This is a seduction going on, and Anakin responds to all the elements Palpatine brings up - the promise of the power to stop death, the doubts since the Jedi asked him to act against his friend. It's part desperation because he fears for Padme's life, part ego and ambition (always fed by Palpatine), and part anger and confusion because the Jedi themselves seem to break down the boundaries between right and wrong. Anakin falls not just for only one reason, yet another thing I find compelling about the character.
34. The goodbye to Obi-Wan. The last time they'll ever talk as friends, and yes, I know I'm being manipulated, but damn it, it works. Anakin apologizing for being arrogant and not appreciating Obi-Wan enough. Obi-Wan telling him he's proud of Anakin. And that sentence, so often used in the SW films, but somehow touching me here most of all: "May the force be with you, my friend." Wah!
35. The entire sequence from Anakin realizing Palpatine is Sideous to Anakin pledging himself, but okay, details: the two circling each other. Note that Anakin this time does not react by attacking (I always thought he would, because Lucas loves echoes and because of RotJ, but no, it's more complicated), or with giving in to Palpatine. It really surprised me that he went back to the Council even at this point and told Mace the truth. That he still held out and wanted to to the right thing that long. Then, after Mace leaves him behind (brilliant move that, Windu), the last of the Coruscant sunsets as we cross cut between Anakin and Padme. As he looks back (he always does) and changes his decision. This is something immensely cinematic - look at the script, or the novelization, and it doesn't have nearly the same effect. Though the decision-making process is still not completed. When Anakin arrives at Palpatine's office and stops Mace from killing Palpatine, it's for all those things that moved him in the opera scene, but what comes across as settling the matter is really Mace repeating word for word what Palpatine said about Dooku when the told Anakin to kill him, something Anakin knew was wrong. And that's what makes the scene not good but great to me. Anakin turning because of his inability to let go, because of the growing need and greed, allt hat I had expected - but that he'd also do so because of the Jedi Code, because seeing it broken by a Master really makes him believe there are no more differences, that was a complete surprise. For the record, I don't think Anakin is under any more illusions about Palpatine anymore at this point. He looks as if he's nearly throwing up when he makes his pledge. But he makes it, and being the absolutist he is goes off to do the worst thing he can possibly imagine. Which brings us to...
36. The Younglings. I don't "like" the scene in the sense that I enjoy watching it, but I think it was 100% the right decision to include it, both for this film and for Anakin's storyline. Because we needed to see him commit a crime for which he is completely morally responsible. A fall is not a fall if you cop out of that. Not in the way he killed the Tuskens, out of horrible shock and rage; note that his eyes are dead and he's completely dispassionate here. He is, finally, detached.
37. The shot of Anakin staring down into the Mufastar lava, after he has killed the Separatists... and we see he's crying. I think this is where the above mentioned detachment stops working for a while, and the enormity of what he has done catches up with him. Another thing I appreciate: the Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader thing isn't Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It's a step-by-step thing, and even at this stage, he's still capable to feel remorse. It's just not enough to stop him. Plus he does not believe - which of of course the hubris Milton ascribes to Satan - that he could go back.
38. The Duel. Which works so well not just because of the usual breathtaking gymnastics the prequels offer but because it's really an emotional climax. And the hate and love on both sides - it's everything I hoped for, and more, because I really had underestimated just how attached Obi-Wan was to Anakin (which is underlined by the gruesome finale). You know, if it had been Dooku lying there as a burning torso, or even Palpatine himself? Obi-Wan would either have granted them a quick and merciful death, or he'd have saved them. But not Anakin, precisely because he had loved him. And Anakin's expression when he burned... I don't know how they filmed that, but the pain that came across was just incredible. Just as we needed to see Anakin commit an unforgivable crime, see above, we needed to see just what did happen to him in all its painful horror. Nobody deserves that. Nobody.
39. And then Palpatine comes and for the first and last time in the entire saga makes an ambiguos gesture. I mean, yes, Anakin was still useful for him. And later on, when he delivered the "Padme is dead" news, he was positively gleeful and enjoying the last thing that would tie his new creation forever to him. But at this particular moment? When he touched Anakin's forehead and Anakin actually grows more still? It could be the only moment of pity the Emperor ever shows through his life.
49. Wheras the process of completing the Vaderization is just a gruesome exercise of power. Even without the cross cutting to the birth of the twins and Padme's death, I think the implication that this taking of a badly burned torso and changing into a cyborg is burying someone alive would come across. As I wrote in my original review, the moment when the mask descends on Anakin's face and we see the utter horror in his eyes, then see how he'll see for the next twenty years, is devastating. And it is the last time we see Anakin's face, full stop, until his son lifts the mask.
50. While I do think of Vader as Anakin, listing my favourite Vader scenes is somewhat superfluous, as the Dark Lord in his function as villain always was solidly popular. So, no "I find your lack of faith disturbing" - "escape is not his plan" or "apology accepted" here, just the unmasking. "I want to see you with my own eyes, just once." and "I wanted to save you." "You already did." I always found Vader's/Anakin's death moving in RotJ, but now it's also healing, due to my enormous emotional investment in the character.
Addendum: And I'm solidly on the pro-DVD side of the force for RotJ. Meaning that I think Lucas changing Sebastian Shaw as Anakin to Hayden Christensen as Anakin for the last glimpse we get together with Luke, on Endor, was the right decision. HC played adult Anakin in two films and played him when he fell: it feels right that he would embody Anakin one last brief time when the saga ends as well.
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Date: 2005-06-13 07:31 pm (UTC)As for people who objected to the squishy balcony scene in RotS--have these people never been around engaged couples/newlyweds/married couples reunited after one's military deployment ends? They're horrible! They don't speak poetry, they speak Squoosh!
Of course, what do I know? I liked the Ewoks.
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Date: 2005-06-13 08:18 pm (UTC)And yes, amen to the dialogue of reunited couples. I mean, we all wish we talked like Joss Whedon characters, with their wit and language, but alas, we don't. As I said about the first encounter between Anakin and Padme in AotC, I actually find it very endearing of him that he really hasn't practice with this kind of thing at all.
The Ewoks were much misunderstood.*g* I'm sure they ate some of the Stormtroopers afterwards.
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Date: 2005-06-14 12:46 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2005-06-13 07:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-13 08:20 pm (UTC)Thank you.
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Date: 2005-06-13 07:58 pm (UTC)Yes. They are like two abandoned children.
I also appreciate the staging, which is a reverse Pieta - it's the son holding the mother. (It's also a reverse from Anakin's own death four movies later, the moment where the development really kicking in here ends.)
Yes.
I watched RotJ again this weekend, and I was very struck by Anakin's response when Luke says, "But you'll die": "Nothing can stop that now."
Anakin's inability to leave anyone behind has its obvious dark and problematic side, but it's also an expression of his capacity for being noble, selfless, a good friend
One moment I found particularly interesting when I saw AotC again: when Padme falls off the speeder and Anakin wants to go back for her. Obi-Wan tells him that he'll be thrown out of the Jedi order, which of course Anakin doesn't care about right at that moment. But then Obi-Wan asks him what Padme would do, and Anakin says, "She would do her duty." And proceeds to do his.
It struck me that this is one of the few times that we see anyone doing a good job at giving Anakin advice. Unlike Yoda in RotS, who advises him to stop being attached to people, Obi-Wan tells him to channel his attachment in a positive direction. I don't think Obi-Wan really realizes why what he said worked - he just sort of stumbled on something that got through to Anakin and he leaves it at that. But I do wonder, if someone had said something similar to him in RotS, if things might have been different.
He looks as if he's nearly throwing up when he makes his pledge. But he makes it, and being the absolutist he is goes off to do the worst thing he can possibly imagine.
Yes. That scene reminds me so much of "The Coming of Shadows" in B5. Both Londo and Anakin start out not knowing what they're dealing with: You got the Eye back for me? Wonderful! You want to be a nice uncritical mentor who appreciates me? Wonderful! But by the time they fully commit, they both are aware of what they're doing...though not, of course, aware that they're selling themselves into two decades of slavery each.
It's interesting, though: Anakin looks far more sickned by what he is doing than Londo does.
He is, finally, detached.
Yup. He finally took Yoda's advice.
I'm solidly on the pro-DVD side of the force for RotJ. Meaning that I think Lucas changing Sebastian Shaw as Anakin to Hayden Christensen as Anakin for the last glimpse we get together with Luke, on Endor, was the right decision. HC played adult Anakin in two films and played him when he fell: it feels right that he would embody Anakin one last brief time when the saga ends as well
I have mixed feelings about it, partly because I can't quite get a fix on Anakin's expression there.
BTW: do you mind if I link to this?
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Date: 2005-06-13 08:39 pm (UTC)I think he knew he was going to die as soon as Palpatine started to unleash the Force lightning. Because that meant either to see Luke die or to kill Palpatine preventing it, and after 20 years with Palpatine he must have been familiar enough with the various grades of intensity the lightning took, and realize this was lethal.
(Sidenote: Dooku used the lightning, too, so it's not like only Palpatine is capable of it. But Anakin never does. He also never uses the mind trick, which presumably he can do; it's interesting that these are the two applications of the Force he stays away from.)
Plus in a way, he has been dying ever since Mufastar...
One moment I found particularly interesting when I saw AotC again: when Padme falls off the speeder and Anakin wants to go back for her. Obi-Wan tells him that he'll be thrown out of the Jedi order, which of course Anakin doesn't care about right at that moment. But then Obi-Wan asks him what Padme would do, and Anakin says, "She would do her duty." And proceeds to do his.
It struck me that this is one of the few times that we see anyone doing a good job at giving Anakin advice. Unlike Yoda in RotS, who advises him to stop being attached to people, Obi-Wan tells him to channel his attachment in a positive direction. I don't think Obi-Wan really realizes why what he said worked - he just sort of stumbled on something that got through to Anakin and he leaves it at that. But I do wonder, if someone had said something similar to him in RotS, if things might have been different.
Oh, good point, and yes, that is one of the few examples of advice well-given. Of course, you could say Obi-Wan and Padme herself say something on Mufastar - when she tells him she can't follow him on this way, and later when Obi-Wan says in reply to "you won't take her from me", "you have done that yourself", but by then Anakin is probably too far gone, at least at this point. But earlier? If, instead of telling Mace Windu about Palpatine and getting told to stay put, he had told Padme and explained what Palpatine had offered him, she could have talked some sense into him.
It's interesting, though: Anakin looks far more sickned by what he is doing than Londo does.
Londo's turn of looking sickened comes somewhat later, when he watches the bombing of Narn with mass drivers. You know, the shot they kept in the credits ever after.
Though of course Londo tells himself he's doing this for Centauri Prime, while I don't think Anakin truly believes by then anymore that he's doing it for Padme. I think he still tells himself that, and wants to believe it, but the self justification process has started to break down.
Link away!
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Date: 2005-06-13 09:17 pm (UTC)Yes, I think so too. I wonder at what moment he decided to kill Palpatine. Was he wavering until just before the moment when he took action? Or did he make the decision earlier, but needed to gather strength and/or wait for the moment when Palpatine was so focused on Luke that he didn't realize what Anakin was about to do?
About the "Nothing can stop that now" line - I was thinking of the contrast with his wanting to stop death. And his recognition that Luke will be able to let go, as he couldn't.
But Anakin never does. He also never uses the mind trick, which presumably he can do; it's interesting that these are the two applications of the Force he stays away from
I hadn't thought of that. Interesting, indeed!
Plus in a way, he has been dying ever since Mufastar...
Yes. I used to wonder why Luke absorbed so much more of the lightning and survived when Anakin didn't, wondered if maybe it interfered with his breathing apparatus. But after seeing RotS - it's obvious he was so close to dead already that it wouldn't take much to push him over the edge.
by then Anakin is probably too far gone, at least at this point. But earlier? If, instead of telling Mace Windu about Palpatine and getting told to stay put, he had told Padme and explained what Palpatine had offered him, she could have talked some sense into him.
She had quite a few opportunities to talk sense into him that she didn't take. When he creepily promises her that he won't let her die in childbirth, why the %$#@ doesn't she set him straight then?
Londo's turn of looking sickened comes somewhat later, when he watches the bombing of Narn with mass drivers.
Yes.
Though of course Londo tells himself he's doing this for Centauri Prime, while I don't think Anakin truly believes by then anymore that he's doing it for Padme.
Yes. I think Londo manages to convince himself for a long time that he's a victim of necessity, that he really had no choice, and that it will all be worth it in the end. I think Anakin realizes what he's done and despairs a lot earlier.
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Date: 2005-06-14 10:31 am (UTC)I think the later two. He had just lost another limb, after all, and was weakened, and he knew he'd only get one shot.
She had quite a few opportunities to talk sense into him that she didn't take. When he creepily promises her that he won't let her die in childbirth, why the %$#@ doesn't she set him straight then?
Leaving totally aside the meta aspect (i.e. me being disgruntled that all the scenes where Padme does something active, like working with Bail or telling Anakin no woman on Coruscant dies in childbirth, got cut out of the script) and remaining within the universe: I don't think she realizes the implications. She probably assumes that he's magnifying his anxieties because of what happened to Shmi, but that it will all be over as soon as their child is born and he sees she didn't die. How much reliability Padme puts on Anakin's visions is a question of itself - I mean, she does know he was right about Shmi - but I don't think she believes she's going to die. If she actually thought she would, then she might have taken precautions. Made it clear to him that the very last thing she wants is for him to behave about her loss the way he did about Shmi's.
Well, that's my theory. A passionate Padme defense post can be found here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/rohandove/567170.html#cutid1).
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Date: 2005-06-13 08:36 pm (UTC)I'm going to hold out on buying I-III until RotS comes out on DVD and I can get a set, but I am really looking forward to seeing I and II with the same news eyes that I watch IV-VI with.
I completely agree with you on the dvd change, too. That moment just filled me with so much happiness for Anakin -- that he was able to finally learn to let go and thus, after, he could see that Obi-Wan and Yoda had forgiven him and were happy to see him again.
I may have to go out and catch RotS again this week.
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Date: 2005-06-13 08:47 pm (UTC)Here's another rewatching observation for you: in ANH, the Anakin/Vader-Tarkin conversation after he has told Tarkin Obi-Wan is here and Tarkin first dismissed it, goes something like this:
T: But if it is really him, he must not escape.
V: Escape is not his plan.
T: (makes move to summon Stormtroopers)
V: I must face him alone.
I think he knew that Obi-Wan had come to die. And it just was too private a thing between them for anyone to witness. (As he has no idea about Luke at that point.)
Also, it's worth noting that later on, it never occurs to him that Luke could have been trained by anyone but Obi-Wan, who actually only could train him for a day or two. (Despite the fact he must know Yoda was still around somewhere - at least I assume Palpatine told him Yoda made it out of Coruscant alive.) It's always "Obi-Wan taught you much" etc.; I guess he automatically assumes Obi-Wan was the one who raised Luke, like he himself was raised.
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Date: 2005-06-14 11:16 am (UTC)Which is such a good point. Of course, why wouldn't he think that? He heard how devastated that boy he later found out was Luke was at Obi-Wan's death (it's actually almost identical to Obi-Wan's reaction to Qui-Gon's death). I mean, Palpatine could probably hear that 'Noooooo!' and he was in a completely different system.
Luke forms tight emotional bonds pretty quickly, much like Anakin himself. He really does trust Obi-Wan very quickly, though, doesn't he? But Luke's a much more easy-going person than Anakin -- partly because he wasn't born a slave, of course, partly because he's also very much Padme's son.
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Date: 2005-06-14 11:50 am (UTC)Nerdy nitpick: No, he couldn't. Because the conversation between Anakin and Palpatine in ESB makes it clear Palps has only now become aware of Luke, and who he is. Whereas of course we know from the start of the movie, when he says "and Skywalker is with them!" re: rebels on Hoth, and of course via the crawling text that Anakin has known for a good while, has looked for Luke specifically and directly lies to the Emperor about it. (Which is even clearer in the DVD version where he pretends not to know anything about any Skywalker at all.)
Luke forms tight emotional bonds pretty quickly, much like Anakin himself. He really does trust Obi-Wan very quickly, though, doesn't he? But Luke's a much more easy-going person than Anakin -- partly because he wasn't born a slave, of course, partly because he's also very much Padme's son.
True. As I said to M., only Luke could have done what Luke did, precisely because he inherited much of Padme. Leia, who is more like Anakin, would firstly never have made that leap of faith to begin with and concluded her father could be brought back, secondly would have killed him during the duel, and thirdly if that somehow went differently never would have cried out for him during the force lightning.
Which we know Anakin wouldn't have done. It occurs to me that the situation on Mufastar on the end is a case in point, in a way, because - what would Obi-Wan have done if Anakin had actually asked for help when he was burning away? But he didn't. Leia wouldn't have, either.
Luke, however, and Padme, have this ability to forgive and feel affection for someone who has deeply wronged them...
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Date: 2005-06-14 12:58 pm (UTC)A Jedi knows nothing of story logic!
Or, possibly, I forgot that part.
*hides*
I mentioned that my intense love for SW is a new thing, yes?
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Date: 2005-06-14 01:17 pm (UTC)Patience, my young Padawan. You learn, in time.
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Date: 2005-06-14 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-16 01:59 am (UTC)But according to the book The Making of Star Wars Episode III, he DID ask for help. I glanced through the book at a bookstore, came across the description of the filming of the immolation scene, and there is a description of Hayden delivering the lines, "Help me, Master!" and "I hate you!" - the former BEFORE the latter: Anakin doesn't say "I hate you!" until he's realized that Obi-Wan isn't going to help him.
I guess they must have cut the line from the film. But I'm not sure that it matters whether Anakin actually said the words "Help me!" - he's pleading for help whether he says the words or not. And nothing can diminish the horror of Obi-Wan leaving him to die in agony.
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Date: 2005-06-16 02:05 am (UTC)I think Obi-Wan's universe has been shattered, and the only way he is able to cope with it is to convince himself that the real Anakin is already dead. It's his version of absolutism.
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Date: 2005-06-16 05:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-13 09:06 pm (UTC)I haven't seen the prequels in way too long, and they're all rented out of my local DVD rental, too :/
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Date: 2005-06-14 06:55 am (UTC)He does, doesn't he? I mean, of course he wants power for himself as well, but I think in his ideal (darkside) world, either Padme or Luke would do the actual ruling. He'd be the power behind the throne who makes sure things run smoothly. Fixing things.
(Which is why Fernwithy's and Ami-Padme's "By the Grace of Lady Vader" AU works so well for me.)
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Date: 2005-06-14 02:51 pm (UTC)Oh, yes, absolutely.
(Which is why Fernwithy's and Ami-Padme's "By the Grace of Lady Vader" AU works so well for me.)
Think I need to read this...
The AU in question:
Date: 2005-06-14 08:31 pm (UTC)http://www.vadersmask.homestead.com/ladyvader.html
and it's sequel:
"The Ascension of the Queen":
http://www.vadersmask.homestead.com/ascension.html
The first departs canon after "A New Hope" and is an AU to "The Empire Strikes Back", the second continues from there into a "Return of the Jedi" AU. You should also know that the first was written after TPM but before AotC was released, hence the use of the name "Amidala", not Padme, with which they were stuck for the sequel, though the sequel incorporates AotC information. And they are really, truly the best Star Wars AUs I've ever read. Because they are what an Alternate Universe should be - they don't make a departure from canon just to "fix" things, rather the contrary. The what if? here is "Vader after ANH finds out his wife is still alive, and they reunite", but the result isn't fluff and happiness and redemption, and makes it clear why it was so important Luke didn't accept that "join me" offer but rather asked Anakin to join him. Because in this version, a Padme Amidala who has given up believing in democracy accepts her husband's offer to make her Empress. And the results aren't pretty. And yet, these stories also manage also to be about hope and redemption after the grimness... just in a different way. You'll see.
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Date: 2005-06-14 02:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 06:56 am (UTC)*Looks at list of communities; sighs; gives in to the Dark Side*
Very well, Master.
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Date: 2005-06-14 06:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-14 06:42 pm (UTC)I think this is the real start of their dynamic, which is of orphaned brothers, the older raising the younger. That's why they don't agree on whether they have a father-son or brother-brother relationship; it's got parts of both, and neither of them is quite sure where the boundaries are.
- nearly the first thing we hear Anakin say is express concern for the Clone warriors, not wanting to leave them behind.
It's also shows his later (Vader) tendency to go out and fight alongside the footsolidier and fighter pilots. He doesn't like being on the command deck when there is a dogfight to get to.
Seeing Padme again
He looks so amazingly *happy* when he goes up to hug her. All that he needed, and she's finally there. That moment actually made me go "oh, that poor thing. He's going to be so hurt..."
but that he'd also do so because of the Jedi Code, because seeing it broken by a Master really makes him believe there are no more differences, that was a complete surprise.
Word.
The second time I saw the film, that moment, when Anakin was arguing with Windu over the Code and 'Jedi don't *do* this' was heartbreaking. Anakin was trying to be Jedi even to the moment that he attacked. He would *not* have turned if Windu hadn't tried exactly what Anakin had already done and regretted.
. Plus he does not believe - which of of course the hubris Milton ascribes to Satan - that he could go back.
I have to say, looking at the whole six movies together, *no* Old Republic Jedi thought he could go back. They believe that once you go Dark, you will always be Dark.
Only Luke, with his amazing and impossible belief, thinks otherwise. And makes his impossible thought real, because he's too stubborn to give it up, even in the face of doom.
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Date: 2005-06-14 07:34 pm (UTC)Yes, especially since they each never had a father/son, or a sibling before. They are unique in each other's lives.
It's also shows his later (Vader) tendency to go out and fight alongside the footsolidier and fighter pilots. He doesn't like being on the command deck when there is a dogfight to get to.
True. I always thought it was inspired that he survived the destruction of the Death Star precisely because it was his natural instinct to do this, instead of gloating on the command deck with Tarkin.
The second time I saw the film, that moment, when Anakin was arguing with Windu over the Code and 'Jedi don't *do* this' was heartbreaking. Anakin was trying to be Jedi even to the moment that he attacked. He would *not* have turned if Windu hadn't tried exactly what Anakin had already done and regretted.
I think so, yes. That was by far not the only reason or cause, but it was the last straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.
I have to say, looking at the whole six movies together, *no* Old Republic Jedi thought he could go back. They believe that once you go Dark, you will always be Dark. Only Luke, with his amazing and impossible belief, thinks otherwise. And makes his impossible thought real, because he's too stubborn to give it up, even in the face of doom.
That's why Luke is the hero. There have been better fighters, sure, and he's not the smartest or coolest person of the saga - but he is the one one who really combines compassion with the refusal to accept that destiny is something unalterable, and thus really wins the battle for Anakin's soul that no one was aware was still running.
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Date: 2005-06-17 11:25 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-17 11:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-06-17 11:33 am (UTC)Here via echostation!
Date: 2005-06-22 01:13 am (UTC)The best mirroring is hat anankin offers to rue the galaxy with both his wife an dhis son, and both reject it and counter with letting go and coming away with them. Agh!