'Scuse me while I SQUEE!
First of all, I want to thank a million times everyone who responded to my last entry. You guys are awesome. Really. A few hours after posting that entry I was kicking myself, but you were all so, so nice. What you said meant a lot to me. I love you all. :)
Now, I'm once again following the policy that anything spelled out in the trailer does not count as spoilers. I picked up a bunch of new icons from the starwarsicons community, but for now I'm only putting up the ones with pictures from the trailers. This is one of those, which I liked because it pretty much spells out my thoughts after watching the NEW ROTS TRAILER!
Which I will now fangirl squee about. (I have whited out the context things you can't explicitly tell from the trailer.)
It was AWESOME. Chilling. Again.
Of course, there was more of the Battle of Coruscant, which is still as impressive as ever, if not more so. That is going to be a stunner to watch, and no mistake. Lots of pretty flashing things and moving so fast...
There were also shots from the Battle of Kashyyk in this one, with the Wookiees looking completely awesome, especially Chewie. I heart Peter Mayhew. I think it's funny that he's playing a young Wookiee but he's older than all the other Wookiee actor dudes.
Now, onto the parts that really got me.
It starts with a fade in on Palpatine as he says, in a voice that is creepy simply because it is halfway between his Palpy voice and his Sidious voice, "The dark side of the Force is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural." Anakin looks at him, a little tentative, but he is nearing desperation and he is determined. "Is it possible to learn this power?" Palpatine, very matter-of-factly: "Not from a Jedi."
And thus it begins.
The next few scenes of dialogue are simply setting up the inital conflict in the plot. I've put in ellipsis where it sounds like there is possibly some more cut out.
Obi-Wan and Anakin in the Temple. Obi tells Anakin that the Council wants him to report on all the Chancellor's dealings. Ani's all, "That's treason." Obi replies, "We are at war, Anakin." Which is kind of weird, because they're not at war against the Chancellor... but whatever. It sounds cool.
Over a shot of Palpatine putting his arm around Anakin's shoulders in a very paternal way (that creep), we have Mace saying, very accurately, "Very dangerous, putting them together. I don't think the boy can handle it. ... I don't trust him." It really sounds like there is a cut there, so it's just as possible he's saying he doesn't trust Palpatine as that he doesn't trust Anakin.
Then Palpy pulls the old turnaround, acting like he's all helpless, "I need your help, son." Yeah, you're out of Sith apprentices. Anyway, Palpy makes Ani his personal representative to the Jedi Council.
The Council's like, "Screw that." Okay, that's not the line. Mace says to Anakin, "You are on this Council, but we do not grant you the rank of Master." Anakin's all, "What?" Obi-Wan looks a little like he thinks this is dumb also. Nevertheless, the very next clip we get is Anakin ranting at Padmé, "Obi-Wan and the Council don't trust me." She has the same look on her face as she had when he was telling her about the Tusken slaughter. She looks like she's seeing something truly frightening in her husband, but she loves him. She wants to help him and to heal him, but she doesn't even know how to reach out in that moment. She just wants him to stop.
There are more shots of things blowing up, then, over a few shots of ANGRYAnakin, Palpatine starts to speak again. One of these shots is very prettily done, with Padmé in the background, looking like Anakin's saying something she doesn't quite understand, and his back's to her... Basically, the feel of that few seconds is that she wants to put her hand on his shoulder and say, "Ani, stop talking crazy and come back to bed. Please? Because I'm starting feel like something's seriously wrong." And then it's to Palpatine talking, and he doesn't look like that benevolent old man any more. He looks angry, intense... like his eyes could burn holes into the person who is undoubtedly Anakin. "Learn to know the dark side of the Force and you will achieve a power greater than any Jedi."
The music halts. With no background sound except the igniting of lightsabers, Mace Windu leads his posse (Kit Fisto, Eeth Kith, Seasee Tiin) into the Chancellor's office for the showdown. "You are under arrest, Chancellor." Slowly, calmly, the dark lord meets their gaze. Quietly, with barely contained malice, "Are you threatening me, Master Jedi?"
The the saber comes out of the sleeve and he rushes them so quickly, with such horrible decisiveness... no hesitation. He has waited decades for this moment. It is truly almost terrifying. At that moment you know that those Jedi have no chance-- no chance to prepare for this, no chance of survival.
Heartbeat-stlye drum music over muted scenes of battle, of ships traveling, of fights and desperate handholds, of Bail Organa screaming "No!" Looking like his nightmares have appeared before his eyes and he can only watch, horrified.
Heartbeat drums over the countdown to the death of the Republic.
Fade up on the Jedi Temple burning.
Palpatine, looking like Sidious now, over shots of individual Jedi we have come to know and like: "Every single Jedi is now an enemy of the Republic." Chewbacca. The familiar form of the Tantive IV.
Anakin, with a look of anguish, almost, masked by a growing determination.
"Do what must be done."
Anakin, his hood up, striding like the specter of death before ranks of clonetroopers marching in military unison. That same dead, determined mask of a look on his face. Cold, unfeeling, covering a simmering well of hatred. That's it. His face is a mask of hatred. And he is leading an army into the Temple to slaughter babies. To lead a massacre of innocent men, women, youths, defenseless children, and little babies. The first several times I saw those shots, I swear to you I gasped, my hand flew to my mouth, and welled up a little. It's just too horrible. I knew about this plot point, and I freaked out a little when I found out-- that's one spoiler I'm really glad I know-- but seeing it... that's something on another level altogether. Something in me can't believe I'm seeing sweet little Ani turned into a murderer of friends and innocents.
"Do not hesitate. Show no mercy."
Shots of more familiar Jedi, on different worlds, realizing that something is wrong... moments before their troops turn on them, moments before it all goes wrong and before they even have a chance to fight they are cut down.
Shots of Anakin slaughtering the Separatists. Which... ha! How ya like that, Viceroy Gunray? I get a great deal of vicious satisfaction from the knowledge that Gunray goes down before the Naboo Senator he wanted to see dead so much.
Obi-Wan looks at Yoda, not wanting to believe what he's seeing-- what's left of the Jedi Temple. "Who could have done this?"
Anakin, standing on Mustafar, looking like a demon from Hell. Looking like a Sith Lord, wrapped in hatred and dark thoughts... consumed by the dark side.
"Twisted by the dark side, young Skywalker has become," Yoda says.
Padmé is standing on the Verandah of Forbidden Love, her back to us, but it is easy to see that she is upset, that she is crying maybe, that she perfectly understands Threepio's comment: "I feel so helpless."
Then we do see Padmé's face, and she is crying. Heartbroken. She is sobbing like someone who is lost and bewildered and afraid, overcome by grief... simply heartbroken. She has always been more or less in control before, she's always believed that she could help Anakin, that she could fix everything, and now... She does not know what to do. Watching it breaks my heart a little, too.
More shots of battles and the Duel, which looks so awesome. So fast, and so intense. George must be happy.
Palpatine/Sidious laying the Force lightning on an unprepared and frankly shocked (ha! didn't realize the pun into rereading) Yoda. Anakin and Obi-Wan trying to Force-push each other.
The duel, precariously being carried out over lava... visually, emotionally-- wow. Anakin looks like a creature of the underworld as Obi-Wan, poor Obi-Wan, grief-stricken, betrayed, angry, and heartbroken too, yells, in a voice which combines all of those emotions beautifully, "You were the Chosen One!"
And that is The Line of this trailer. That is the emotion of this movie. This conveys the feelings of everyone... You were the Chosen One. You had so much promise. You were supposed to bring balance. We all loved you. Why are you doing this? Why, Anakin?
In the Senate-- in the Senate-- Palpatine uses the Force to hurl Senate pods at Yoda. This also chilled me. Seeing that destruction in the Senate on the eve of the fall of the Republic, and all of it wrought by this man who would rule over it. Yoda looks like he feels pretty much like I did as I watched it. Sidious laughs maniacally.
More battle, more duel, increasingly desperate, increasingly intense.
Title.
Then... the music ceases and mechanical breathing fades in to Vader, standing beside his Master, overseeing the construction of the Death Star.
Wow.
So, that was my detailed synopsis of that.
I watched the new episode of the Clone Wars cartoon today. It was pretty good. It didn't make me laugh at the cheesy cartoon like the last seasons did. Anakin was knighted, and it looked pretty cool. The person who does his voice... I can't decide on. Either he's gotten better or gotten worse, but I'm not sure which. Maybe time will tell. The person who does Padme's voice at least sounds like she's making an honest effort to use Natalie's inflection and tone now. Threepio was shiny, which makes me wonder when this took place, because you'd think she would have made him shiny shortly after she brought him home with her. The A/P dialogue was very cheesy, but I could live with it. It would have been better, again, if they'd had the voices down. I found myself wanting to see the scene written out so I could do the voices right in my head. But I honestly think she actually said something like "In the shadows of Coruscant, and in the deepest chambers of my heart, I will always love you." Argh. They had a clandestine rendezvous in an alley. Anakin made some smooth comment about her looking good in the dark, which disturbed me slightly because they're cartoons. Then Obi commed Ani, and he was like, "Damn, I have to go." Then the Jedi and the Senator were kissy for a sec, then it goes to Ani and Obi in the Temple, and Obi's all, "You're late," and I swear to God Anakin's hair looked rumpled. I was just sitting there snickering and thinking "Dirty!" Then Anakin went in to get knighted. Right after he seriously burned Obi-Wan by saying "Your wisdom is nothing compared to Qui-Gon's," or something. Ouch. Anakin sent his Padawan braid to Padme. And insteand of being like, "Oh... ew, hair," because it was kind of random, she understood immediately and put it in a little box with her japor snippet (Which, why doesn't she wear that all the time? I don't understand. I guess with some dresses she can't, because it would get noticed. Maybe that's it.) and then hugged the box. I don't think I really like the way they draw Padmé in this cartoon. I could maybe see her hugging the box a little bit, gently, but not as enthusiastically as she did. And she does this eyebrow thing I don't think Natalie's even capable of. But whatever. I liked the episode, and I'm looking forward to the next one.
I have 380 spoiler pictures and I'm done. You see, I went to one of my spoiler picture sites and they had leaked pictures of the graphic novel. Like, with dialogue. And I knew that I wanted to wait for this stuff until the movie. I want to be surprised about some things. But I found myself wanting very much to look. Just at one or two. Spoiler pictures are like the dark side. So kudos to Thomas for talking me out of doing something I'd regret. I overcame the temptation. I passed the test. I am a Jedi. And I decided that I'd had enough of spoiler pictures. It's time to stop. So I'm done. I'm not looking at any new serious spoiler pics (things on promotions don't count) or any serious spoilers (things I could get off TFN or the OS without cheating don't count). For the last two months of waiting before the release of Episode III, I shall abstain. Now, when I give in and buy the novel early, as I shall inevitably do, there may be one scene I have to look at. I want to know what to expect with Padmé's death scene. But other than that, spoiler-free!
Whoo!
Now I have to go back and white out all the spoilers. Sithspit.