Revenge of the Sith

[lethargic_man]

Finally getting to see Revenge of the Sith today, I was startled, when I stood up at the end, to see a lightsabre drop at my feet:

Then reality reasserted itself and I realised it was my bike pump, which I'd had on my lap. :o)

A long time ago, in a Galaxy far far away, rysmiel wrote:

For your next assignment; a version of Star Wars Episode III in which it is revealed that darth Sidious is not Chancellor Palpatine..

To which I responded:

Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Darth Sidious turns out to be a clone of Palpatine created by Sidious' long-dead mentor, Darth de Cessor. In Episode III Sidious makes his move and tries to overthrow Palpatine. Palpatine turns out in the end to be, though power-hungry, on the side of good, and dies a hero's death. Darth Sidious takes his place. (Hey, I've just realised that would fit in with Lucas' original, pre-ANH description in the Journal of the Whills extract I read on a web page my brother pointed me at.) Anakin Skywalker does not realise the substitution, and it is easy for Sidious to turn his already troubled relations with Obi-Wan Kenobi into outright strife. The rest is history.

That was fun. But now for the real film. :o)

---

Spoilers follow...

I was surprised to see we saw Anakin Skywalker become Darth Vader; I had been under the impression Lucas wanted not to show that, so as not to spoil The Empire Strikes Back for people who had watched through the series in order. I was also surprised Padme died in childbirth, given that Leia talks in Return of the Jedi about barely remembering her mother. (I also think it would have been better if Padme had died in Obi-Wan Kenobi's ship on the way back rather than in hospital with all the futuristic medical technology available.)

For a film in which we knew in advance much of what was going to happen in it, one thing I expected which didn't happen was for Jar-Jar Binks to die. I thought this must be necessary to achieve closure on this thread, otherwise viewers would be wondering why we never saw him or heard of his fate in Episode IV. (Curious also to speculate about naive viewers' reaction to the lack of mention of the Emperor in A New Hope, then presence in The Empire Strikes Back. "He's still alive!?", probably. Though probably also wondering why he plays such a small role in The Empire Strikes Back.)

I agree with formorian (in rysmiel's review) that Anakin gave in to the Dark Side far too easily. One moment he was still wrestling with his conscience, the next moment he was agreeing to kill innocent children.

Is it just me, or did the sequence "If you're not with us, you're our enemy" followed by "Only Sith lords talk in absolutes" make implications about a certain man in a white house? (Not to mention "So this is how democracy dies: with a round of applause.")

What else? I'm sure more will come to me, but for the meantime, it's my bedtime. :o) (Which reminds me, last night I had a nightmare about people getting killed and limbs amputated by holding onto the outside of moving lifts, so Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin nearly suffering the same fate squicked me quite a bit. Though surprisingly the lift shaft was the only shaft in the film; there was, for one, no big Battle In A Big Shaft.)

And finally, I said it after The Phantom Menace, but I'll say it again here now: I want to see Episode 0 now, in which the young Palpatine gets picked up and trained by the last of the Sith Lords, and learn the circumstances leading to the Sith going underground.

Comments

[darcydodo]

I had been under the impression Lucas wanted not to show that, so as not to spoil The Empire Strikes Back for people who had watched through the series in order.

You'd think, wouldn't you. But at least this way one can be fully justified in showing new viewers the good trilogy first.

I was also surprised Padme died in childbirth, given that Leia talks in Return of the Jedi about barely remembering her mother.

Who ever accused Lucas of consistency?

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

You have seen this analysis I take it ?

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Actually I hadn't. Thanks for pointing me at it.

just to your nightmares

[(Anonymous)]

I actually never get nightmares from people dieing in a film. They do not look realistic. I get more nightmares when it is a kind of spooky or awful looking gosts or monsters are running around. It depends how the film is made. My mom switched the tele when they wanted to show our American women were tortured by the Japanese.
When something makes you nightmares don't watch it.