gffa:gffa:#THIS MOVIE DOES NOT GET ENOUGH CREDIT FOR THIS#SOME OF IT IS FROM THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT#WHI

gffa:gffa:#THIS MOVIE DOES NOT GET ENOUGH CREDIT FOR THIS#SOME OF IT IS FROM THE ORIGINAL SCRIPT#WHICH SHOWS SO CLEARLY THAT ANAKIN’S JUST PARROTING PALPATINE HERE#HE BELIEVES NONE OF THIS IN TRUTH#IT’S JUST HIS DESPERATE GRASPING AT THE STRAWS PALPATINE HELD OUT TO HIM#BECAUSE HE’S SO AFRAID TO LIVE WITHOUT PAMDE#THAT HE WOULD LITERALLY DO ANYTHING#AND HE KNOWS IT’S WRONG#’WHAT HAVE I DONE!?’ HE MOANS IN PALPATINE’S OFFICE BECAUSE HE KNOWS#HE CRIES ON MUSTAFAR BECAUSE HE KNOWS WHAT HE’S DONE#BUT HE CAN’T FACE THE TRUTH OF WHAT HE WAS CAPABLE OF WITHOUT ANY REAL JUSTIFICATION#HE LET PALPATINE TWIST HIS MIND#NONE OF THIS IS ACTUALLY ANAKIN’S CORE BELIEFS#EVEN GEORGE LUCAS IS LIKE ‘THIS IS JUST A RATIONALIZATION BECAUSE HE WANTED TO SAVE PADME’#BUT ANAKIN DESPERATELY NEEDS SOMETHING TO YELL AT OBI-WAN#SO PALPATINE’S ‘THE JEDI ARE EVIL’ IS THE ONLY THING THAT KEEPS HIS TINY LITTLE ROWBOAT FROM CAPSIZING IN THE OCEAN OF HIS OWN DAMNED CHOICES#AND HE DOESN’T EVEN REALLY BELIEVE A WORD OF IT#THANKS STAR WARS I’M CRYING AGAINI dusted off this nine months old draft because of the previous day’s post about how “if we were meant to think Anakin had a point about his betrayal of the Jedi, Star Wars wouldn’t have shown it through the lens of murdering children”, but I also wanted to further examine how the above (that Anakin doesn’t actually criticize the Jedi in his fall beyond echoing Palpatine’s words) is something I actually really love and I think informs Anakin’s choices in this movie so much.  That we get used to how Star Wars is so blatantly obvious in some ways that we miss the ways it’s sometimes a purposeful paralleling that’s not immediately obvious, yet that is incredibly consistent:That Anakin isn’t expressing genuine criticism of the Jedi, he’s literally just parroting Palpatine’s lines as a justification for his actions.The thinnest veneer of Anakin’s protest, “It’s not the Jedi way!” is stripped away in Palpatine’s office (despite that it’s a blatant hypocrisy on Anakin’s part, given that he killed the actually unarmed Dooku, unlike Palpatine, who was both still physically powerful and in the very central seat of his political power) when the final moment comes.“I need him!”, Anakin cries, because he needs him to save Padme’s life.  This isn’t about the Jedi, this is about Anakin’s fear of loss.Anakin’s immediate horror, “What have I done!?” he moans, showing that even in this moment he knows he’s made the wrong decision, that saving Palpatine was the wrong choice.“Just help me save Padme’s life. I can’t live without her.”  That’s what this is all about at the heart of it, that Anakin can’t stand the idea of losing her, so he’s willing to do anything Palpatine says, including becoming a Sith Lord, including marching on the Jedi Temple, including killing the family that took him in, including killing their children.And his excuses reflect that–they’re nothing that Anakin expressed up to this point, not even his “I’ve been so frustrated with the Council” is given much merit in the movie, because Obi-Wan Kenobi, one of the most narratively reliable characters in this movie (and GL has defended Obi-Wan as telling an emotional truth in the OT, so he’s pretty reliable in ROTS, too) tells him to calm down and that he’s way ahead of things already.Anakin, having just accepted a position granted to him not by the actual body he’s sitting on, but an outsider forcing their will on the Jedi (and Anakin is apparently fine with this act of nepotism and refuses to understand why this would affect the political situation between the Jedi and the Chancellor, if they just gave Palpatine everything he wanted within their already shrinking agency to govern themselves and why they would want to resist and it’s not just about Anakin), is complaining about this, but it’s not exactly well supported in the actual movie.Same for his conversation with Yoda, that GL has indicated that this was very much a pro-Yoda moment, that his advice of learning to let go was Actually Really Good and it’s pretty much one of the core themes of Star Wars, that you’re supposed to let go if the person is going to go.  Protect them while you can, love them while you can, but ultimately people die and you can’t stop death.  Audiences often hate Yoda’s advice, but the movie itself did not. (This is all setting aside that Anakin gave Yoda basically nothing to work with in that scene, he doesn’t tell him any details and just wants a way to Stop Death.)Anakin’s criticism of the Jedi is nowhere to be found in these important moments in the movie.  You could make a case that maybe TCW added some context, but the movie itself makes it very, very clear that this is about his fear of losing Padme, that’s it, that’s what’s going on with him.Further, it’s why George Lucas chose to show Anakin’s immolation scene, precisely because he betrayed his friends.This is not the narrative arc of someone who had a point, but the narrative arc of someone who did an unjustifiable thing:Anakin doesn’t actually believe the Jedi are evil, he has show more than once that he actually believes in the Jedi teachings, in moments like after the Brain Invaders, he helps Ahsoka with finding the line between caring about people and not getting Attached to them (clinging, grasping, so afraid to live without them that you’ll do terrible things, unable to let go when the time comes, that is Attachment as SW defines it).  He teaches her the same thing on Onderon–purpose before feelings, he tells her.  He teaches Rex the same thing on Skako Minor–you hope for the best, but you have to be prepared that Echo might be dead, that you can’t save him.Anakin believes in Jedi teachings until they apply to him.  And then he just absolutely loses the plot because his fears consume him and he can’t handle the idea that he might lose Padme, that he can’t stop death from happening, that he’s wanted this all the way since Attack of the Clones, to learn how to Literally Stop Death.He doesn’t actually believe the Jedi were evil, not in the bottom of his heart–and this is why he ultimately returns to them, appears as a Force Ghost specifically in traditional Jedi robes–but he’s so desperate for an excuse to save Padme that he parrots back Palpatine’s lines as a desperate rationalization for what he’s doing.There’s no actual criticism of the Jedi in these important moments, there’s nothing he throws at Obi-Wan that’s actually about the Jedi, just “I’m not afraid of the dark side!  I see through your lies!  The Jedi were plotting to take over!  I’m going to create a new Empire!  The Jedi are evil from my point of view!”That’s 100% Palpatine right there.  He twisted Anakin’s mind to make him the very thing Anakin swore to destroy.  And Anakin ate it up because he couldn’t face his own fears. -- source link

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