Musings Of The Day: Revenge of the Sith (book and movie)
It's well-known that the Revenge of the Sith novelization has a lot of Tearjerkers (of course, we can't rule out the original movie itself), but for some reason, there's one exchange that really hurts my heart when I think about it. It's such a simple exchange, between Anakin and Palpatine, after Anakin saves him from certain death at the hands of
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/So I think the Jedi and the Emperor both share the blame in making Anakin who he was./
To be fair, I think that the movies gave that impression, too. The Jedi in the prequels also share some blame because of their blindness and callousness. They didn't bother to go back to Tatooine and rescue Anakin's mother, they didn't bother to keep tabs on Anakin despite him being the "Chosen One," they didn't bother to do anything about Palpatine until it was too late despite all of the warning signs, and they seemed to care more about petty politics than actually helping people.
/Padme, of course, also had her reasons for confronting Anakin. Anakin was basically destroying everything she ever worked for./
That's another reason why their confrontation on Mustafar was nonsensical and idiotic. I know that Anakin's entreaty to Padmé to rule by his side was probably supposed to mirror his future entreaty to Luke as Vader, but there's a difference. Padmé is a strong and dedicated supporter of democracy. She's a senator who works hard to uphold the principles of the Republic that she serves.
Anakin *knows* this. He's known this for about as long as he's known her, which is quite a long time. He's married to her. He knows that her work and her ideals are important to her. And yet he just randomly expects her to throw all of that away in favor of ruling over an empire with him? He just assumes that she'll be happy to be an empress of an entire galaxy, even though she willingly gave up her position as queen of a small planet? How deluded and oblivious is he? Does he not know her at all?
At least when Vader asked Luke to rule the galaxy with him, it was more understandable because he and Luke barely knew each other and Luke wasn't a politician or someone who was that deeply invested in the Rebellion. Luke became a Rebel because he got caught up in circumstances beyond his control, not because he decided to dedicate his life to overthrowing the Empire like Mon Mothma and Leia did.
Still, just from your thought-provoking points, I'll assume that the novelization did a better job than the movies did, so kudos to you. :)
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I think he'd probably be screaming like Spoony confronted with the WING COMMANDER movie poster (http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/spoony_frightened_of_wc_movie_745.jpg) if he went into it too much. XD
"To be fair, I think that the movies gave that impression, too. The Jedi in the prequels also share some blame because of their blindness and callousness. They didn't bother to go back to Tatooine and rescue Anakin's mother, they didn't bother to keep tabs on Anakin despite him being the "Chosen One," they didn't bother to do anything about Palpatine until it was too late despite all of the warning signs, and they seemed to care more about petty politics than actually helping people."
To quote Confused Matthew, "What kind of Jedi are these? Guardians of truth and justice, my ass!" XD
Seriously, even in the novels, they got under my skin. I mean...fortunately, I played the KOTOR games and learned you didn't necessarily have to be an apathetic dickhole to be a Jedi, but...yeah. Even if I've warmed up to the Jedi a little more, the bullshit that went on in the Order during the PT *and* OT could have one seek medical attention for perpetual facepalming. :P
"That's another reason why their confrontation on Mustafar was nonsensical and idiotic. I know that Anakin's entreaty to Padmé to rule by his side was probably supposed to mirror his future entreaty to Luke as Vader, but there's a difference. Padmé is a strong and dedicated supporter of democracy. She's a senator who works hard to uphold the principles of the Republic that she serves.
Anakin *knows* this. He's known this for about as long as he's known her, which is quite a long time. He's married to her. He knows that her work and her ideals are important to her. And yet he just randomly expects her to throw all of that away in favor of ruling over an empire with him?"
I think he was kind of fed up with the Republic -- even if he didn't show it -- and thought that he and Padme could make things right again. (Or maybe I'm stretching a bit? ;-) I think it's mostly the meadow conversation in AOTC when Anakin complains about how bass-ackward the Republic's set up (basically) and the veranda scene in ROTS...that, or he has really big dreams. (I think it's pretty well-established that he's kind of an idealist, in a sense. YMMV.)
"Still, just from your thought-provoking points, I'll assume that the novelization did a better job than the movies did, so kudos to you. :)"
Awww, thanks! :D
And seriously, check it out when you have the time. It's brilliant. Seriously. :)
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And thanks. :)
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