gffa:I WILL DIE ON THE HILL OF HOW, FOR A HOT MINUTE, ANAKIN REALLY DID BELIEVE THAT OBI-WAN WAS GOI
gffa:I WILL DIE ON THE HILL OF HOW, FOR A HOT MINUTE, ANAKIN REALLY DID BELIEVE THAT OBI-WAN WAS GOING TO JOIN THEM AND THAT SO MUCH OF HIS FURY IS AT BEING DENIED WHAT HE WANTS.I will die on the hill that a deep undercurrent of Anakin’s rage and inability to come back down from the mistakes he made during Revenge of the Sith was about feeling like both Padme AND Obi-Wan were abandoning him, were turning their backs on him, and that he wanted them both. Whatever form that took, he wanted them so much more than he knew he should–”I want more. And I know I shouldn’t.”He knows that wanting more means he’s going to someday have to make a choice–he’s going to have to choose between doing whatever he wants versus the Jedi have to have oversight on them, have to have rules to keep their Level 100 Psychic Powers from hurting people. He knows that he’s going to do something that crosses a line at some point and he’s going to have to choose Obi-Wan or Padme. (And so he chooses the one he believes he will choose him back in the way he wants to be chosen. No limits, no control, just being utterly consumed by what he wants.)But he is also so, so, so willing to believe that they’re sneaking around behind his back even before everything goes to hell, he is so, so, so willing to believe that Padme is lying to him and deliberately brought Obi-Wan here to kill him, that Obi-Wan came here to kill him, not to try to help him. But then Obi-Wan tells him how proud he is. But then Padme joins him on Mustafar even after the things he’s done. But then Padme says that Obi-Wan knows and wants to help him. And for a hot minute, when Padme says that Obi-Wan knows about their relationship, that he wants to help them, Anakin believes he’s going to join them.It’s everything he’s been wanting for so long, they’re going to join him, he’s going to have everything he thought he had to choose between, he’s going to get that more that he knew he shouldn’t want.The face he makes is the same one he makes when Obi-Wan praises him, tells him that he’s proud of him, that he’s going to be great. The two people he loves the most in this galaxy (and I’ll also headcanon then that Anakin thinks he can get Ahsoka to join him again as well, if he can get Padme and Obi-Wan to join him) are with him.Then it all comes crashing down, because Padme’s upset that he killed younglings, that he’s fallen to the dark side, Obi-Wan is here and he’s not going to let this happen, his allegiance is to democracy, not to Anakin. Anakin has always prized personal loyalty above anything and everything, this is why he clashes so hard with the Jedi, who are given their authority because they’re loyal to democracy and the Republic, because their powers serve the good of the people of the entire galaxy, rather than the good of a small handful of people that mean something to Anakin personally. This is why he’s so affronted when he’s not made a member of the Council, because he sees it as a personal betrayal, while the Council sees this as a political battle (and it is, because that’s what Palpatine has made it–a personal betrayal for Anakin and a political betrayal for the Jedi, a divide that cannot be crossed, so it drives a deeper wedge between Anakin and the Jedi), because it’s about personal loyalty for Anakin, not about the greater morals.He’s furious, because he sees Obi-Wan’s choice as a personal betrayal, “If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy!” While Obi-Wan sees it as a moral betrayal, that Anakin has “until now you have become the very thing [he] swore to destroy.”Anakin sees this as other people making him do these things, because they’re betraying him personally. While Padme and Obi-Wan see him as having betrayed them first by crossing moral event horizons (killing the Jedi, killing the younglings, aligning himself with Sidious, destroying the Republic for a rising Empire, etc.), and the divide between these things cannot be bridged.Anakin thinks, for that hot minute, that it can be, that they’re finally going to see it his way, that the details don’t matter, that it’s about the things he personally wants, that’s why he makes that face and smiles when Padme says Obi-Wan is going to help him–finally, they see the personal being prioritized over the bigger picture of what’s happening.And then it all crashes down, because the only way they can not be his enemy, the only way they can not betray him, is by agreeing with him, by being with him. -- source link
#star wars#anakin skywalker#padme amidala