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View Full Version : Something that lead to the fall



Doc Milo
Mar 29th, 2006, 11:23:32 AM
I watched RotS again a few days ago, and it "inspired" me to post about this. I had noticed this a few times, but didn't know for certain if it was done purposefully, or if it was part of Palaptine's master manipulation. I am focusing only on this one line, for now, but I'm sure other lines or scenes in the movie are illustrations of this technique.

At the beginning of the movie, Anakin fought Count Dooku. He wins. Cuts off Dooku's hands, and has Dooku on his knees before him, two lightsabers crossed at Dooku's throat. Palpatine tells Anakin to "kill him. kill him now." Anakin is hesitant. Palpatine orders him, "Do it" and Anakin does it.

Palpatine then turns into the sweet elderly uncle, telling Anakin, "you've done well. he was too dangerous to be kept alive." Anakin, though, knows in his heart that what he did was wrong. Still, the line gives Anakin a justification for his dark action.

Skip ahead to the Palpatine/Mace duel. Palpatine just attacked Mace with force lightning, and Mace deflected it back. He then says, "I'm going to end this now." Anakin tells him no, he must live, the senate should decide his fate. Mace then says, "he's too dangerous to be kept alive.

Now, the only other time when Anakin heard this was in justification for the "murder" of Count Dooku. Anakin knew it wasn't "jedi-like" to kill an "unarmed" prisoner -- which Count Dooku was at that moment.

In hindsight, after learning that Palpatine is the Sith Lord, he, even on a subconcious level, must come to realize that Palpatine's encouraging him to kill Dooku was a way to tempt Anakin to the dark side. When Mace uses the same exact line to justify killing Palpatine as Palpatine did to justify the murder of Dooku, how does Anakin, consciously or subconsciously, take that? Who does he now see as acting in the wrong?

Is this a coincidence of writing that the same line was used? Is it a purposeful line to give us a glimpse into Anakin's psyche and his subsequent action? Or is it a result of Palpatines master manipulation? Could Palpatine, who has an uncanny ability to sense the future, have seen that scene or heard that line, and then "corrupted" the line to give it an entirely different meaning that what it is intended when Mace speaks it (to explain, if that line is spoken by Mace without ever being used in a separate context before then, Anakin's perception of the line would change, from seeing it as a justification for murder, to seeing it as a justification for enacting justice.)

Has anyone seen this parallel? Has anyone seen any similar parallels with other lines, images, scenes?

JMK
Mar 29th, 2006, 02:34:02 PM
I've noticed this, and I believe that nothing Lucas wrote was by coincidence. It's either because he's a bad writer, or because he's really trying to make us see something.

In this case I believe that he's trying to show us Anakin's loyalty to Palpatine, and by extension, his weakness and selfishness.

When he was ordered to kill Dooku, he did it, against his will. Palpy then told him that he wanted revenge. But did Anakin want revenge? Not based on his reaction after lopping his melon off.
It was Anakin's moment of weakness (or is it blind devotion) that Lucas was trying to show, IMO.

During the Mace confrontation, he was trying to illustrate Anakin's selfishness. Up until the line "I NEED HIM!", you could have made the argument that Anakin was again doing what was right by law - protecting an unarmed prisoner. The difference this time is that the unarmed prisoner was his friend, so Anakin intervened, but was it his selfishness or unwillingness to break 'law' that drove him to intervene.

In the end those things are all balled together to make up the complex emotional wreck that is Anakin.