Watched Revenge on the weekend. By far the best in the PT. It still feels rushed. They really needed more time to convince the audience of Anakin's turn. He went from wanting to kill Palpatine and tattling on him, to joining him and committing genocide in one afternoon. And the fact that the love story sucked made it hard to believe that was the reason he turned.
Exactly. Lucas had the bones of a really good story, but it just wasn't executed in a way that was even halfway convincing. I think that, for his turn to be truly convincing, you needed a series of bigger tragedies that the Jedi must have been perceived by Anakin to have had a hand in. For him to go so far as to want to utterly exterminate the Jedi, and even the children themselves, he had to have become convinced that they were truly evil and a threat to order in the universe. Here is an example of how it the turning could have worked within the storyline Lucas created and could have been a lot more convincing:
-Ep. 1: Anakin is actually more shocked and emotionally distraught when he learns that the Qui Gon and the Jedi are
not there to free the slaves, including Anakin's mother, and he agrees to go with Qui Gon and Obi Wan only after an emotional confrontation with them where they convince him that he can do good as a jedi, but that it is not the jedis' purpose to upset the political order on Tatooine or anywhere else, despite that some practices go on that they may personally be against. Anakin secretly vows to himself that he will someday free the slaves and come back for his mom once he is older and has more influence.
-Ep. 2: Palpatine manipulates things such that the separatists bring the galaxy to the brink of war (which is basically what was going on anyway). Anakin is against war and believes that the jedi and senate should be doing everything they can to prevent prolonged all-out war, even if, ironically, that means swift and decisive military action to squash the threats to peace. The major conflict that begins the clone wars either occurs on Tatooine, killing many of the people Anakin grew up with, or on Naboo, killing people Padme is close to. Anakin feels resentful toward the jedi and senate for (1) not preventing war, and (2) allowing people he cares about to be caught in the crossfire. He also hates the separatists. AND he is fearful that he will not be able to protect the ones he loves if he does not rise up and choose a different path for himself. He reluctantly remains faithful to the jedi way, but these seeds of doubt and dark-side emotions are planted, and Palpatine manipulates them and feeds them behind the scenes. Anakin vows that he WILL find a way to restore order, which includes freeing the slaves and rescuing his mom (who is still alive on Tatooine).
Ep. 3: As war rages on, Anakin distinguishes himself as a great jedi warrior and ally of the republic, which is basically where he was at the beginning of the real ep. 3. But he is conflicted, and is still being driven by the events in Ep. 2 and the horrors and suffering of war in general. The turning happens a bit earlier in the movie. The big event is some sort of conflict where Obi Wan is involved in a battle where Anakin's mother dies JUST as Anakin was finally in a position to go back and bring her away from Tatooine. Anakin's grief and despair take over and he goes berserk and turns into an absolute rage monster, not only blaming Obi Wan and the jedi for not doing enough to establish peace and order, but perhaps actually fomenting war for some sort of political gain. Padme advocates for the republic and the jedi, and Anakin becomes convinced that she is a traitor, and almost kills her. She escapes, but he is convinced that she is dead. Having lost everything, Anakin goes and confronts Obi Wan, and everything becomes twisted during the conversation (due to Palpatine manipulating things to create a misimpression in Anakin's mind), and Anakin is convinced that Obi Wan and the jedi are truly evil. Gets burned in lava and becomes the Vader we all know, but not because of the stupid high ground issue. All of these events, combined with the physical and emotional trauma he has just suffered, push the now deformed Anakin totally over the edge, and he now (in his mind, justifiably) believes the jedi and republic are enemies of peace and order, and vows to exterminate them. Order 66 is initiated and Vader goes and purges the jedi temple as the black armor-clad vader. Montage of events occurring over the next few months, which includes jedi being hunted down and killed; only Yoda and Obi Wan survive, and both go into hiding; Padme survives a few months and delivers the children, and dies in childbirth because the damage inflicted by Vader months earlier injured her more than people realized, and childbirth physically does her in, but Vader knows nothing about this; Gratuitous death star construction scene; roll credits.
Yeah, that is a much darker story. But the problem is, the creation/origin story of a villain as simultaneously complex, powerful, and evil as Vader really is supposed to be HAS TO be dark. And this series of events (or one like it) at least gives a better motivation for the transformation.
Topic: Star Wars Discussion Thread v. Rogue One (Read 456300 times)
