Darth Vader... The pinnacle of Jedi Perfection...

I've been thinking on StarWars and it's only central character.

Yes. I said only central character. Name one other character that shows up in all 6 movies.

Anakin/Vader is a perfect story of pride, stupidity, and ignorance. Really, I don't say that to insite flames or anger: Hear me out and THEN hate me...


In the beginning, we have a slave who while not mistreated, was generally misused his entire youth. He went for years no knowing anything else was out there for him, but at the same time knowing he had potential he could never live up to, because he was a slave.

But he tried anyway.

The irony was that if he never been found, he might have made a name for himself in the local community and been considered a folk hero in his lifetime.

Instead, he was taken by the jedi, used as a pawn to further their own ends, and taken from the only home and family he ever knew.

The boy was what, eight? And the Jedi let him pilot in a race they damn well KNEW was a death-trap. Do not try and tell me that they couldn't have know that piloting a high-tech chariot through rough terrain at 300 MPH was dangerous.

The worst was that the Jedi could have found and taken in his mother at any point, and left the poor woman a slave.

"Protectors of the people", indeed.

So Anakin slowly learns the powers of the Jedi, attempts to mold his worldview into their 'selfless' patterns, and fails.

And not a Jedi there could see it happening?

Wrong.

The Jedi admitted to knowing he was falling the entire time he did it. They knew he had doubts and fears, that he was having trouble adapting.

And they not only ignored the fact, but made it worse by nearly ostricising him for it.

They start by telling him he can never be a jedi, because he's not good enough. They continue by holding him up to standards that no other jedi could match. They ridiculed him for his failings, and bairly acknowledged his success.

In fact, the only respite he had to fall back on were a woman he was never supposed to care for in the first place, and an evil man who at least told him the truth.

Yup. The soon to be emporer was using the truth. Nasty weapon, huh?

Let's not dwell on the fact that the Jedi could have done any number of things to fix the problem. Let's not point out that the Jedi put every nail in their own coffin with their pride and arrogance. Let's not note that just taking the boy's mother with them when they left would have stopped this so fast it makes you sick.

Let's look at how they destroyed Anakin by destroying their own selves.

The Jedi were falling apart before the war started.

Let's look at Anakin at the time of him being an adult Jedi. He was adopting a belief system he was doubtful of in the first place, but trying damn hard to follow it as best he could...

And then the Jedi start ignoring parts of it as it suited them.

Look at the movies. Watch the Jedi begin with little things: Allowing Anakin to train being the first of them, and ending with Mace choosing the easy path rather than the spirit of the jedi code when dealing with the Sith.

Anakin could not handle the paridigm shift. To be fair, he did have a reason. He was a sociopath.

No really. Watch him.

Most sociopaths are not evil people. Most just can't understand morality except by emulation. They have to learn right and wrong in stages...

And Anikins compass kept getting spun.

He follows the Jedi, they punish him for not being good enough at it.

He takes bloody revenge on the sandpeople for his mother's death, and the queen comforts him and blows it off as not that bad.

He gets told about honor and serving the people, and then get's told to spy on the person representing the people for an obvious powerplay by the Jedi.

And on top of it all is Palpaten whispering into his ear, pointing it all out and offering him a way out that at least gives him a steady path...

Is it any wonder the kid cracked like a soft-boiled egg?

And the Jedi earned every death he caused...

Now, I'm not saying the Anikin was the victem here. He chose to become the monster. He decided, with eyes wide open to be the destroyer of the Jedi and all they stood for.

He chose to kill children.


Nope. Anikin was damaged goods, and he took the easy way out. I may pity him for how he was pointed down the path, but I hate him for walking it willingly in the end.


But I will leave you with one final thought:

The Jedi, philosopher warriors with powers that allowed them to even see sometimes into the future, were utter and total morons.

Anakin will bring BALANCE to the force.

The force has two sides: Light and dark.

There are always TWO sith. Master and student...

And thousands of Jedi?...

Can't anyone in the entire Jedi order do basic frigging math?!

Well. They got it.

Yoda and the emporer, Obi-wan and Vader...


<sigh>

Later all. Let the discussion and flaming commence!

Vader is just the penultimate tragic-hero type.

However, it was interesting to see the ironic half-thruths to both sides of the "force."

The good and riteous are selfless, shed emotion and desire to fulfill the greater purpose.

The evil and dastardly are selfish, passionate, and always desire more than they are afforded -- for their own purposes.

However, I don't think the manipulation of Anakin Skywalker was entirely well written. The concepts were there, but the depth was missing. The dialogue was a little too shallow and the movie didn't give enough room for acting. Which sometimes happens in epics --

in the case of this epic, Star Wars, too much room was given to the unneccesary details and action sequences rather than the characterizations and dialogue. Two films were spent giving backstory just for this one -- which made this third movie a rush job when it finally came time to reveal what all of it meant.

To me, it just seemed like they patched together the stories they've written so far and tried to make the best of it.

In the end though -- Vader did choose his path and walked willingly into it. And it was sooo shakespearean that his premonition was self-fulfilled.


Though in the greater scope of things; Anakin did fulfill his destiny, and the jedi did read their prophecies wrong. For after RotS, the Sith become too powerful and Luke restores balance -- after Return of the Jedi there's only Luke left... and once he's gone, then there'll be balance. Absolutes will always struggle for absolute control so even the jedi are flawed.

All well and good -- just could've been written/acted better.

Nevertheless, a perfectly fine little recreation of some classic stories.

And it still comes down to one sad little truth.

Darth Vader exists because a scared little boy missed his mommy.



<ducks and runs for an exit before they catch him>

It's true and that's why I don't think I really actually believed the character all that much.

That and the epic, "NOOOOO" from Darth Vader at the end was soooo incredibly horrible.

I just can't get my parodies out of my head.

The darkest one would be that upon regaining consciousness and discovering FINALLY what he'd become, he kills everyone in the facility and then offs himself. That would be an ending to make shakespear proud. There'd just have to be a strong and believable sillioquey (sp?) in there.

Or had Anakin half a brain, he would have ended up jetting with Padme to some glorious vacation where he could finally let go of the feelings he has for his mother, become a mature person, and raise a nice family and forget about Jedis and Siths. Palpatine would've been arrested, Mace would go on to make a sequel to Pulp Fiction and Obi-Wan would visit from time to time for tea and crumpets.

Luke would grow up a normal, well-adjusted teenager and probably discover his force powers are useful for picking up chicks. Padme and Lei would have a strong relationship as mother and daughter until she decides she wants more in her life and takes off to become a successful mathematician and becoming the youngest Nobel prize winner in history.

Han would end up going broke and selling his ship to Jabba. He's end up being a regular at the Mos Eisley bar and talking about the good ol' days. Chewie would've moved on after the loss of the ship, only to return one day with C3PO still chattering on his back to punch out Han and sober him up. They'd move in together in an old-age home and become very good at Bingo.

Lando "Mac-daddy" Calrissian.. well he'd just get old and stuff.

End of story.

C3PO

I'm not sure if droids count, but I'll grant that because he was annoying enough to be people...

Oh, but you said *character*, so...

BTW, I agree with most of your post. Growing up without parents sure didn't help Annakin much, and the Jedi failed to see the one simple fact... he was just a kid. However, I do think his wiring was already faulty... Think of Lamas for example, aren't they taken away from their parents at a very young age, too? How many Lamas do we know of went on murderous rampages because they couldn't have their cake and eat it too?

Just my 2L

The traditional Jedi teachings have always fallen short when it came to dealing with the Sith. When the Jedi that would become the original Sith broke away, they were doing so because they could not understand what the Jedi ultimately stand for. They saw inaction, forgiveness, empathy, and love... all of which they saw as weaknesses. Just look at the Sith code compared to the Jedi code:

There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no death, there is The Force.

vs.

Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion I gain strength.
Through strength I gain power.
Through power I gain victory.
Through victory my chains are broken.
The Force shall set me free.


It is evident they took what their masters taught them and changed it to fit their views of the universe.

The second Jedi Civil war was caused by the Mandalorian War. During the start of the Mandalorian War, the Jedi chose to wait and observe the situation. A few Jedi could not sit by and watch the Outer Rim be destroyed, so they disobeyed the will of the council and went out to fight. Out there they discovered remnants of the original Sith, and many of them turned against their former masters.

However the setting, the play is always the same. And in the end, the Jedi always forgive the Sith for turning on them. That weapon is the most powerful tool against the Sith. Sure, some are more resistant to it than others... just look at Sidious or Traya or Exar Kun. But in the end, when a Sith gets forgiven for all that s/he has done and gets embraced by their former masters... it disrupts all the Sith teachings they have known.

Funny, I just realized that Anakin/Vader was played by five different actors. (Though I suppose David Prowse and James Earl Jones counts as only one portrayal.)

Something else I noticed in the end credits, though I didn't catch it in the movie itself: Governor Tarkin put in an appearance at some point. And they cast the perfect actor for it: Wayne Pygram, aka Scorpius from Farscape. If you were looking for a young Peter Cushing, I doubt you could find better than that.

"Tarkin" was the officer speaking with the emperor at the end of the movie, as Vader approached him, just before the both of them turned and gazed at the Death Star. No lines, Tarkin walked away as Vader arrived, and was in-scene for scarcely 3 seconds.

You're right; he looked a lot like Peter Cushing.

As far as Lucas' "philosophy" of the Force, most of it is lifted from Buddhism and heavily simplified. Thus all of Yoda's talk about balance, etc. Obi-wan's admonition to Annikan - let go of everything that means anything to you - is classic. To Lucas, the clash of the good side and the dark side of the Force is similar to the clash between eastern and western values.

Values that have paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to Lucas over the years....

Maybe we should be worried that the Sith always destroy themselves in the end then

Hey, congrats on finding the moral to Star Wars. "The Light Side" is often ripe with beaurocracy and "The Dark Side" is often ripe with corruption. Only when people make personal stake in a cause do they make things right. (Luke Skywalker finally restoring order and peace because his family and friends were involved.)

You can't forget R2-D2

It's true However, C3PO is the only character in the series that has been in all the movies and played by the same actor.

Actually R2-D2 is played by the same actor in all of the movies as well Kenny Baker is his name, he is a Little Person

Sorry, off topic (and my first post on SL Forums)--but did anyone else find themselves Second Life-ing in the movie, reaching for a mouse so you could look closer at the cityscapes? The visuals were so gorgeous, it was distracting me from the movie (which wasn't the best plot- or acting-wise.) Would be great if SL had that kind of visual detail, wouldn't it? (or maybe it does and my graphics card is more horrible than I think it is?)

Also, this was annoying--how the "usually" strong, self-reliant and independent Padme spent the whole movie gazing limpidly into Annakin's eyes. I wanted to puke! Thank god Leia/Carrie Fisher had some spunk in #4 and #5 (tho she does go a little limpid over Han in #6, she at least gets to participate in the forest battles on the Ewok Planet--sorry, can't remember the name of it now).

I would give the movie three and a half stars, just based on visuals, and I would PAY $50 more per month for membership to SL if I could find a city to live in that looks like the one in the movie.