quote:
Anakin does bring balance to the force. You see, Yoda and Obi Wan are so good with the lighter side of the force that it takes killing off the younglings and all the other Jedi to put them in balance with the evil of Anakin and Palpatine.
Ya know, all the way through Eps. I & II, whenever the Council would mention the prophecy, I wondered what the hell they were thinking. "Hmm, there are hundreds of us Jedi, and the only Sith we know of got chopped off at the waist and thrown down a reactor core. We need a Chosen One to balance the Force, stat." Somebody definitely shoulda thought "Gee, 'bringing balance' sounds like a bad idea, when you think about it."
The more I think about it, the more I realize the Council were retarded, all the way through the prequel trilogy:
"Let's put all of our faith into this clone army that some mysterious maybe-Jedi ordered for us. Nothing bad could come of that."
"The Dark Side has clouded our vision. Never mind that there are a bunch of us and one (or, sometimes, two) of them."
"Well, Anakin's not yet master material, and we've been worried since he started his training that he's irresponsible, but the Chancellor says we have to put him on the Council, so gosh darn it, let's go one better and give him several missions that are vital to the survival of our order."
Side note: One piece of subtle continuity I enjoyed was the Alderaan ship (which we first see at the beginning of Episode IV), complete with bright-white curvy 70's walls.
Ep. III was rife with this kind of stuff. I got all kinds of nostalgic during the opening fighter battle. George straight kicked it old school with that X-wing shit.
Re: Chewie -- I'm still not sure what was even happening on the Wookiee planet. I'll find out when I watch it again next weekend (maybe). In any case, it was really important from a temporary-tension-relief standpoint that Chewie wound up giving Yoda a piggie-back ride to safety. I'm not being facetious here, either; the last hour-and-a-half of that movie were so relentlessly gutwrenching that something like that needed to happen. What I heard from the people around me would best be categorized as giggles of relief.
Re: Darth's coming out party -- By this time, we already feel heaps of pathos for the poor misled fool; the scream is certainly overwrought. That said, it didn't bother me too much. Star Wars is not all about nuanced emotions, and never was. From a plot angle, I would like to see a mini-episode 3.5 that explains to me why the hell Vader stays with the Dark Side. All the talk of loyalty to the republic we know to be a smokescreen--the real reason why Ani signed up was the whole immortality thing, which is rendered moot by the end of Ep. III. Certainly he should realize that his hubris has brought about his own tragic ending, and that his only chance of redemption is to turn back to the Light Side and try to attone for his sins. Then again, his intuitition was always kinda slow, so maybe 20-odd more years and some Force lightning were just what it took to get it through his fashionable metalloid skull.
In general -- In spite of myself, I periodically pictured that obnoxious Jake Lloyd throughout the movie. For all his annoyingness, he was certainly fresh-faced and innocent as all get out, which added to my nausea-of-the-good-variety when he turned. Especially in that one part (*shudder*). George's driving of the character to such depths of depravity was ballsy and refreshing. Despite the flaws exhibited this and all the prequels (and, for that matter, the originals--don't kid yourself) I must say this particular movie was the tits.
That said, I still need someone to explain to me why the Empire's technology looks so shitty by comparison twenty years later.
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