Some Star Wars Saga Thoughts (Preliminary)
The thing that strikes me most of all is just how much this is Anakin's story -- we follow him through each change in his life.
That's the significance of the timing of each episode -- each corresponds with a fundamental shift for Anakin.
In The Phantom Menace, we meet him as a child in slavery and see him becoming Obi-Wan's Padawan. Next, in Attack of the Clones, he becomes a husband to Padme. In Revenge of the Sith, we see his decision to align himself with Palpatine. Then, as Vader, he remains static until Luke comes into his life in A New Hope. He finally feels that he's a father in The Empire Strikes Back. Finally, in The Return of the Jedi, he accepts his own mortality and becomes a true Jedi at last.
But Anakin's story certainly isn't the only interesting one.
I really do envy people who'll get to see the entire saga in order -- the entire thing consists of wonderful bait-and-switch moments. Because, in The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn is placed very much in the 'hero' position, with Obi-Wan as his side-kick.
Qui-Gon Jinn has the first word in the entire saga, in fact (though from off-screen, which is incredibly appropriate, considering).
When we finally get a good look at Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, it's clear that Qui-Gon is in charge (the 'Master' bit gives it away, just a little).
Hmm, about that first conversation...
Obi-Wan: "I have a bad feeling about this."
Qui-Gon: "I don't sense anything."
Obi-Wan: "It's not about the mission, Master, it's something... elsewhere... elusive."
Qui-Gon: "Don't center on your anxiety, Obi-Wan. Keep your concentration here and now where it belongs."
Obi-Wan: "Master Yoda says I should be mindful of the future..."
Qui-Gon: "...but not at the expense of the moment. Be mindful of the living Force, my young Padawan."
Obi-Wan: "Yes, Master..."
In context, this is an extremely interesting conversation. Obi-Wan still has much to learn (before he becomes the best Jedi ever! Not that I'm biased... or anything.), but the fact that his first line is (the reoccurring) "I have a bad feeling about this," shades his character. Obi-Wan senses something 'elsewhere' and 'elusive', something that isn't about this mission. And it's this mission that will introduce them to Padme (the woman who was manipulated into tipping the first domino over that turned the Republic into an Empire and the woman that Anakin will turn evil to try to save). And, because of this mission, they'll end up on Anakin's planet. And Qui-Gon doesn't sense any of this badness, possibly because, you know, he's going to die before most of it happens. And because he's concentrating on the living Force.
So, Qui-Gon is the 'here and now' guy and Obi-Wan is the anxious pupil. Either Qui-Gon is the hero, or Obi-Wan is the hero and Qui-Gon is the mentor who dies. That's typical movie logic.
In their first battle together, Obi-Wan establishes himself as someone who is quite snarky -- "You were right about one thing, Master. The negotiations were short."
During this, we first meet Nute, who ends up being a minor bad-guy. In fact, the Trade Federation is a phantom menace -- all along, Nute was being controlled by the real power, who never intended that side to win. The big win for the Sith is when Amidala calls for a vote of 'no confidence' in the current Chancellor, thus bringing into power the real menace, Palpatine. Palpatine needed his home planet of Naboo to be threatened in order to get into that Chancellor's seat. The entire plot of this episode is incidental -- it's all about that vote, that first domino tipping over.
Speaking of Amidala, she's the next character that we meet. Queen Amidala of Naboo. Through Amidala, we meet the hologram of Senator Palpatine, who is the true driving force of darkness behind everything. We first meet Palpatine via hologram, a projection of light, not the real person at all, just as we have not met Palpatine's true self at this time.
In meeting Jar-Jar Binks we get to find out that Obi-Wan is a little bit of a snob. He likes people and things to be... civilised and elegant. Understandable.
All through-out their time of trial underwater, Qui-Gon is all, "The Force will guide us and protect us," and Obi-Wan is all, "Oh, let me drive. Oh, I'll just go fix that." Obi-Wan is a doer and a very proactive person (and, as he admits later, he can be a touch reckless), while Qui-Gon is much more reactive and meditative, though he certainly acts when he feels that the time is right.
So, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan rescue the Queen and her Handmaidens (including one known as Padme, who is, of course, the real Queen in disguise, a foretelling of our Princess Leia, who was also not who she seemed to be) from the Droids. They all escape via ship so that they can go to Coruscant (home of the Republic and where the Senate meets) so that they can end the Trade Federation's blockade of Naboo. But they don't have enough fuel to make it all the way in one jump.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is the one who spots Tatooine on the star map and suggests it (and we learn that it is 'small, out of the way, poor' and 'controlled by the Hutts'). The Force stepping in? Obi-Wan's path may be destined to collide with Anakin's.
At this time, we also meet a little blue droid, an R2 unit known as R2D2. It saved the ship in the escape, saving the lives of all on board. Padme goes off to clean and bond with R2D2.
It's actually really sweet, that she does all the hands-on stuff herself.
So, they badly need a new engine part, so Qui-Gon and Jar-Jar set off to get one. And Padme insists on going with them. She's very brave and idealistic (and somewhat foolish) here. Luke really does remind me of her (as Leia reminds me of Anakin).
Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan have this exchange:
Qui-Gon : "Be wary... I sense a disturbance in the Force."
Obi-Wan: "I feel it also, Master."
Which makes sense, because they're about to meet the last two of the four mainstay characters of the saga (Obi-Wan, R2D2, Anakin, and C-3PO are the only characters that are in every single episode of the saga).
Just as it is significant that Padme sees just where Anakin comes from, it's essential here that Obi-Wan stays behind with the ship. Qui-Gon needs to establish a relationship with Anakin first, so that he and Obi-Wan are coming from different places on the matter of Anakin.
They seem to run into Anakin by coincidence -- he just 'happens' to be a slave who works in the shop that they choose to go into. And, of course, it's the Force working to put Anakin in the right place at the right time, so that he can make his choices.
Qui-Gon goes off with the shop owner, so Anakin and Padme have a moment to get to know each other.
We learn in this conversation that Anakin is a dreamer who listens to deep space pirates and believes in angels. And that, even at the age of nine, he knows very well that though he is called a slave, he is a person, with a name and an identity. Padme and Anakin are able to engage each other on a conversational level, though they are 'strange' to each other.
And here, we learn their full names.
Anakin Skywalker and Padme Naberrie.
Later, when Jar-Jar gets in trouble with a local named Sebula, Anakin is the one to save him -- he uses what he knows (that Sebula wouldn't want to pay for damaging a slave) to get Sebula to back off. He's gutsy and comes across as fearless, but he does know better.
Anakin: "Fear attracts the fearful. He was trying to overcome his fear by squashing you... be less afraid."
Padme: "And that works for you."
Anakin: "To a point."
Anakin's problem is that, though he knows the answer, his emotions overcome that knowledge, and he ends up acting contrary to how he knows is best. He knows, even here, that fear only leads to destruction and loss, and yet, when faced with fear, he still lashes out. His passion is too great for his mind to overcome.
A sandstorm threatens, so Anakin takes the entire group back to his home, where we meet his mother, Shmi. And here is where we meet the fourth mainstay -- Anakin is building a droid named C-3PO. C-3PO and R2D2 meet and pretty much immediately establish, well, the relationship that they'll have for the entire saga. Some things don't change -- a reassuring message in the face of everything that does change over the course of the saga.
So, when we first meet Anakin, he's a fatherless slave who only has his mother. And he wants more (this is something that we'll hear again and again in the first three films -- he wants more than what he has).
And for all that, he's a sweet child. Smitten by a pretty girl, helpful to strangers and to people he cares about, and a generous and brave soul.
Qui-Gon removes him from his world, his mother. Because Anakin longs to be something more than he is, he's willing to leave all that behind so that he may become a Jedi.
But Qui-Gon, the only Jedi (at the time of TPM), who has complete trust in Anakin, dies. And Anakin is to be trained by a man that he knows thinks that he's dangerous.
You know, the thing that hurts me the most about Anakin's fall is how much sense it makes. So much sense, when thinking about who he was, as established in TPM, and what he feared, as shown in AotC.
Also, watching ANH after RotS is such a perfect fit. Obi-Wan's reactions are dead-on for the relationship with Anakin that we knew he had and for knowing R2D2 and C-3PO. You can feel the weight of surprise in each moment where he realises just how perfectly the Force is putting the pieces together. The droids bringing Luke and Leia to him at the same time? Chewbecca, friend to Jedi, being in the spaceport at the right time? Everything is working toward giving Anakin that second chance to make his choice.
Obi-Wan calls Luke 'son' and my heart pretty much started bleeding all over me (mostly because of the damn RotS novelization where Yoda asks Obi-Wan if he wants to be 'as a father' to the boy and Obi-Wan corrects him to 'eccentric uncle').
Obi-Wan's impulsive act in the bar makes so much more sense after seeing the first three movies -- because it's a mistake, one that he shouldn't make, to use a lightsaber so lightly, so near stormtroopers. But Anakin's son got hurt, is being threatened. He's been watching out for the kid for nineteen or twenty years now, he's damn well not going to let him die in a bar fight. And he has a satisfied look on his face for a moment, having a) taken care of the threat to Luke and b) used his lightsaber for the first time in ages, probably, and then he pretty much immediately realises that he shouldn't have done it.
His affection for the Skywalkers still blinds him, when he's not thinking about it.
I have to say, it's fairly clear to me that Obi-Wan made the right call when he took Luke to Alderaan. Luke says here, after losing his family, that he 'never wants to step foot on this planet again'. Anakin never steps foot on Tatooine after he buries his mother there -- it truly is the one place in the universe that he'd never go on his own account.
It's really hard for me to get involved in the story of Han Solo except as a subsidiary to the Skywalker arcs. And though Luke used to be my favorite Saga character, he's now been bumped down to third, just under Obi-Wan (best Jedi ever!) and then Anakin (the Chosen One!). Leia is still firmly in place just under Luke, while somehow Padme slipped in to land just under Leia. After her, it's R2D2, Yoda, C-3PO, Han Solo, and then everyone else.
Oh, and for the curious, I have a personal Padme fanwank. Really, it's just because I liked her so much in the first two movies that I refuse to accept that she's giving up or being selfish in RotS. She's shown time and again that she is strong and very selfless when it comes to defending her people. And it doesn't get any more 'her people' than her own flesh and blood. So, in my mind, Padme is choosing to die at that moment in order to buy her children time -- she knows that Anakin would be able to find her, would know whether or not she lived or died. Dying was the only way that she could protect the twins. And that choice would fit far more with the Padme that we've gotten to know throughout the first two movies than the simple answer of her 'dying of a broken heart'. She didn't lose the will to live, she actively choose to die in order to save her kids.