tauntaunting:the-last-hair-bender:whenanangelfalls:Revenge of the Sith | Deleted Scene | A Cry for H
tauntaunting:the-last-hair-bender:whenanangelfalls:Revenge of the Sith | Deleted Scene | A Cry for HelpThe scene where Obi-Wan defeats Anakin was originally slightly longer and included additional dialogue between the two men. After everything what happened between them on Mustafar and after everything Anakin has done Obi-Wan’s first impulse is to reach out to help the man who became his brother and Anakin’s first impulse is to reach out to Obi-Wan for help. Anakin’s cry for help (together with his outstretched hand) is actually left intact in the movie, even though the sound was muted. You can see Hayden Christensen’s lips clearly pronouncing the words. “Christensen groans to get into character, and then gives an emotional delivery of the two lines, ‘Help me, Master,’ and “’I hate you!’” - The Making of Star Wars Revenge of the Sith The Making of Star Wars Revenge of the Sith by J. W. Rinzler documents the filming of that dialogue and there is actual BTS scene footage where Obi-Wan refuses to help the fallen Jedi. It’s only then that Anakin’s eyes turn from blue to the Sith red (the 4th gif). This revelation adds a new dimension to the scene and makes it even more heartbreaking.“I love you but I can’t help you.” - Obi-Wan KenobiAccording to the book, after Anakin implores Obi-wan to save him, George Lucas asked Ewan McGregor to say “I will not…” softer, almost to himself because after Anakin bursted into flames it’s as if Obi-Wan was talking to a dead person. That’s why he also suggested, to drive home this point, that McGregor changed the words in the script to the past tense “I loved you.” Ewan agreed, but pointed out that his subsequent line would have to change to “But I could not help you.” Lucas also explained that what Obi-Wan is basically saying to Anakin is “you were my only hope - you blew it. Now we don’t have any hope.”Okay….. But like. If Anakin had asked for help, I know, in my fucking *bones* that Obi-Wan would have moved heaven and earth for his brother. This son of his heart. Even here, when he’s in the very edge of darkness, I just can’t see Obi-Wan leaving Anakin if he’d asked for help. Obi-Wan has lost so much in his life, and Anakin was one of the only bright things he had. I cannot, just plain cannot see Obi-Wan walking away if Anakin asked for help. Even if it meant his death.Say what you want about this being Obi-Wan’s moment of learning to give his “attachment” to Anakin up, but I don’t buy it for a second. Author intent can be whatever it is, but if Obi-Wan had truly learned to give Anakin up, if he truly 100% believed that there was no coming back from turning to the Dark Side, Anakin would be dead long before he ended up in that suit.Obi-Wan not killing Anakin on Mustafar is a big deal. It completes their foils, and Obi-Wan isn’t supposed to have learned how to give Anakin up here. He can’t, and he knows it, and the whole rest of the story hinges on Anakin’s invisible (Force-like) connection to everything: Tatooine, his step-family, Luke, etc.Sure, it’s a Jedi tenet that once you turn to the Dark Side, you never come back. But we spend the whole of the prequel story outlining the stringent (and rather cold and compassionless) tenets of the Jedi Order as archaic, outdated, blind, and wrong. You don’t need a Chosen One if nothing is supposed to change. That’s the whole point in pairing Anakin with Obi-Wan: this reckless, special case, a boy who cannot be separated from his need for attachments with canon’s effective proxy of the pedantic D&D rule lord. Obi-Wan is meant to temper Anakin as much as Anakin is meant to broaden and ease his outlook on that stringency.If Obi-Wan believed this in the way that the Jedi Code dictates, Anakin would be dead. He would have ceased to be Anakin. (Which is also the whole damn point of the story, proving that we all have Light and Dark that we need to address and accept as part of ourselves. Control, not eschew.) Why would Obi-Wan have a change of heart? Why would Obi-Wan pause, pull back, spend those last few moments lecturing him instead of taking that final blow we all know he’s capable of? Especially when he’s basically watched Anakin slaughter the whole of the only home and family Obi-Wan accepts as the definition of either?You cannot tell me intentionally, thematically, that Obi-Wan would have deserted Anakin had this plea (if it hadn’t been cut) been given with any modicum of remorse. If Anakin had asked for help and meant it, if it hadn’t just been the desperate wail of a broken, dying, deluded, sick man, Obi-Wan would not have walked away. Author intent or no. And the only way I can even think to rationalize this is that plea being given with nothing but desperation, fear, and maybe even angry entitlement.Which is difficult to rationalize when Anakin slips in the script, when he reverts back to “Master” for Obi-Wan instead of his name, when he openly acknowledges that they’re not equal and maybe never have been. Had this been kept in the script as-is, this would have been the redemptive moment that Kenobi walked away from. (One that makes no sense to desert when he’s dedicating himself to Anakin’s wife, to Anakin’s children, to Anakin’s legacy).While this would make sense for Anakin’s development in a life so shaped, motivated, and altered by loss after loss after loss and then the fear thereof (whereby it would make PERFECT sense why Anakin sees this as such a deep, deep betrayal that he can’t let go of for years, if ever), I cannot personally reconcile this with what we know about Obi-Wan and how much Anakin means to him.IMO: I’m glad this was cut. You can’t have Anakin ask for help here, because it completely contradicts the idea that power (and evil) completely and forever corrupts. His whole story is based on that corruption with an undercurrent of love still winning the day. Of hope eventually winning out, even–especially–when things look their dimmest. To have Anakin look redeemable here undercuts Luke’s entire OT journey. (Because that empathy, that care, that hope, that love is the redemption.Because Obi-Wan Kenobi would not have fucking turned away.) -- source link
Tumblr Blog : whenanangelfalls.tumblr.com
#star wars#anakin skywalker#obikin