More thoughts on Sith.......

OK, I realize I am beginning to look a little obsessive, but oh well.....

The big question is "why did Anakin fall"?

As simple of a universe that George Lucas created in showing good vs evil and good guys vs bad guys, he did want to show that at least for Anakin, it wasn't so simple.

Anakin was not identified as a Jedi candidate until he was 10. This made him very old for training, in Jedi terms. He was very attached to his mother. Most children were identified as infants and brought into the Jedi order. This would not allow attachment to a parental figure. In Episode 2, one of the more significant conversations Anakin has with Padme, is about being a Jedi and what it entails. She starts off saying that it "must be hard to be a Jedi and not do what you want to do and go where you want to go". Anakin replies, "or be with those you love". Padme then asks him, "isn't Love forbidden"? Anakin then tells her, "Attachment is forbidden. Possessions are forbidden, but compassion is encouraged. If compassion is defined as unconditional love, then you could say that Jedi are encouraged to love".

Also in Episode 2, we see Obi Wan chiding Anakin a great deal to "watch his thoughts".

In summary, Annakin went from a kind and loving child that had a bubbly, open personality living with a mother he adored (and who adored him), to being a quiet, more stoic figure in acts and thought. He was not allowed to see his mother, or even really think about her. When he has nightmares about her, he is even to deny those (although Obi Wan is aware of them, he tells Anakin they "will pass"). As he tells Padme later, "Jedi do not have nightmares". Jedi are to meditate and practice the "arts". The times you see him smile and laugh are when he is when he is engaged in something reckless. (Such as when they are chasing the assassin that tried to kill Padme with poisonous animals, Anakin makes the speeder go straight down very fast. Obi Wan is screaming for him to stop, and Anakin is laughing and having fun. It seems to me that the only "approriate" time for him to express himself are through incidents such as this. It is probably the closest he comes to being "himself".)

On top of this, he has extraordinary "powers", even for a Jedi. He can sense the thoughts of others. I think this is why he is so clearly confused with Padme. He fell in love with her when he was 10 (he thought she was an angel). Now, when he is alone with her, he can sense her attraction to him, but she then denies it. That is confusing (and normal for kids).

This is a very volatile recipe. Going from Open to Closed is much more problematic than the other way.

He knows these actions of emotion, are not right. This further makes him conflicted.

On top of this, Anakin was supposed to be the "chosen" one; the one that was to fufill the prophecy and bring balance back to the Force. The force was out of balance, you ask? Well, yeah. (In episode 2, As Yoda put it, even the older Jedi members are getting "arrogant". In a scene near that one, Obi Wan tries to find a system that is not listed in the archives. What does the Librarian tell him?, "then it doesn't exist". She is that confident (arrogant) of the completeness of the Jedi's knowledge. (by the way, the system did exist; it was deleted from the records....) (Another sign that the Force was not quite right was that even the Jedi Masters had not detected the Sith's re-appearance. The uber Sith leader, Darth Sideous, was right there with them on a regular basis and none of them picked up on it!)

Darth Sideous had gone to a lot of trouble to work all ends against the middle. He was the instigator of the seperatist conflict; he kept the Senate chasing itself; he got the Camino cloning an Army way before the Republic was aware it needed an Army; and he talked to Anakin. In these talks, he appealed to Anakin's pride/hubris as well as his ambition and would offer "career" advice. Palpitine tells Anakin he believes he will be the most powerful Jedi ever, and in Episode 3, gives him the "in" to the Jedi Council. The Council plays right into Palpatine's hands by further mistrusting Anakin, which makes Anakin even more frustrated/angry.

The world in which Anakin and Padme now inhabit, is literally coming apart at the seams. The Senate is being undermined daily by Palpatine. The Republic is coming apart, the member systems are leaving the Republic and what is left of the Republic is at war. The Jedi are spread very thin trying to take care of all of this. Anakin is a hero, along with Obi Wan. Had it been a more peaceful or "normal" time, chances are the Council would have been more aware of Anakin's relationship with Padme, and done something about it. Instead, it is either not known or simply tolerated. Then Padme tells Anakin she is pregnant. It was a great moment. Hayden Christiansen played it great. He had about a dozen or more emotions fly across his face; but in the end, he was happy and accepting. Then he began to have nighmares that Padme would die in childbirth. This evoked the emotions he had when his mother died in his arms. He had told Padme at the time of his mother's death that he was going to be more powerful than death and keep people from dying.

This set up Palpatine perfectly to capture Anakin as a Sith. Palpatine started telling Anakin about the Sith "legend", something the Jedi did not tell him about. He mentioned to Anakin that one Sith was so powerful, that he was able to manipulate midi-chloridians to create life (much like Anakin's birth). He was also able to keep people from dying. This information resonated with Anakin.

The crisis in judgment begins when Anakin is not allowed to accompany Obi Wan to get rid of the opposition, the General Grievous. Anakin felt he should go and felt very slighted that he was not allowed to. While Obi Wan is gone, that is when Palpitine reveals to Anakin he is Darth Sideous. Anakin runs back to the Jedi Council and tells Mace Windu. Mace tells Anakin that he will go and confront Palpitine and if it turns out Anakin is right, then Anakin will be trusted.

Even though the members of the Council admit that Anakin is the ONE, they never trusted him. They saw him as dangerous. This was part of their un-doing. Had Anakin gone with Obi Wan or Mace Windu, Anakin would not have fallen. Instead, he walks in on the fight between Mace and Palpitine, and is tricked by Palpitine into believing that Mace was the culprit. Anakin saves Palpitne's neck (literally) at that moment. Afterward, Palpitine lays it all out to Anakin, join or die (because the rest of the Jedi will be hunting you down for Mace's death) and watch Padme die. Palpitine offered the knowledge of power over death, to save Padme; the price was giving in to the Dark Side.

Once Anakin pledges his allegiance to Darth Sideous and is named Darth Vader, Anakin gives in to the Anger he has felt his whole life and has barely been able to control. It had to be somewhat cathartic because for once, he was one with his feelings and they were being released.

I see Anakin as not wanting this; he wanted to be a Jedi and do the right thing. But he wanted to save Padme. (He almost was convinced by Padme to leave the lava planet and go with her to raise their child.)

The thing he didn't understand is that by giving in to the Dark Side and doing the things he did at his new Master's bidding, he played a part in Padme's death. Had he remained the way he was supposed to, Padme would not have had a reason to die of "a broken heart". The knowledge of power over death was an illusion.

Then Darth Sideous plays the ultimate card. Once Anakin gets his shiney new Darth suit, Anakin wants to know how Padme is doing. Sideous tells him that she died because he (Anakin) killed her.......

At that point, Anakin died and Vader was born. (The suit scene looked just like the Frankenstien movies.)

Time to play 20 Questions with Darth!

This is a lot of fun, until the creepy "Burger King" makes an appearance (that guy scares me!)

Very disjointed, un-related, unorganized thoughts on Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith

I soooooo loved this movie. I saw it with my family on Sunday, and I have literally, spent a week “unpacking” it out of my mind. I need to see it a lot more, but given the price of movies, time and space continuum with family obligations, the likelihood of that happening before it comes on DVD is about the same as Anakin leaving the Dark Side before Episode IV. Yeah, not happening.

Every time I start thinking about the movie, well, all I can say is “damn”…….

I have to admit first, I am a much bigger Star Trek fan, probably because it’s been around a lot more. (For the past 18 years, you could catch a relatively new episode every week.) But I always loved Star Wars.

This film put everything together. EVERYTHING!

First of what is the deal with characters loosing limbs?

Ep 1: Dart Maul: Cut in half by Obi Wan Kenobi (maybe that doesn’t count?)
Ep 2: Anakin: Loosing Right hand to Count Dooku (gets a shiny new one :)
Ep 3: Anakin: Looses Lt hand, both legs by Obi Wan Kenobi (gets shiny new Darth Vader suit:)
Count Dooku: Looses both hands and head against Anakin
(I’m sure there’s more, but I only saw this once……)
Ep 4: Obi Wan Kenobi: cut in half by Darth Vader: psych!
Ep 5: Luke Skywalker: Looses right hand to Darth Vader
Ep 6: Darth Vader: Looses right hand (again!) to Luke Skywalker

I’m sure there’s some psychologist that could earn a Masters or Doctorate on George Lucas having some sort of psychological pathology exhibited through all this mutilation……

Sith makes Ep 1 and 2 better.

They make sense now.

Intro: the Phantom Menace (i.e. the Sith). The Sith were thought to be extinct. Now they were present? The Jedi couldn’t believe it until they actually had a body to look at. That finally made them realize that a Sith exists and NO ONE NOTICED! (Their reliance on the Force to tell them such things, failed!)

Intro: Anakin, boy wonder. I know a lot of sci fi aficionados HATE child “wonders”. But in this universe, it happens because of the Force. Anakin was a smart, gifted child. He was bubbly and emotional. He loved his mother. But, and here’s the big BUT, he was a SLAVE. (Do you remember when he told Padme he was a slave? Padme made some comment that she thought that couldn’t be because slavery was outlawed. That hurt his feelings….. it would have hurt mine! I would have wanted to jump up and grab her and say, “Well what am I then? A figment of your imagination!”) As gifted and wonderful as this kid was in controlling events around him (via the Force), he did not control his own destiny because some one else OWNED him. I don’t know about you, but that would make me a tad bit on the BITTER side.

Intro: War without meaning. The Trade Federation starts a blockade of the peaceful world of Naboo. The Trade Federation leaders were in constant contact with some mysterious leader that would tell them what to do. That leader was “Senator” Palpitine (who then became Chancellor Palpatine, then Emperor Palpatine, .all while really being the Sith Lord, Darth Sidious!)

Intro: Political Intrigue and corruption. Where to begin? I don’t see this the way a lot of other people have been reporting that the story is a mirror as to what is going on in the Bush administration. (I think the biggest argument in these circles is Bush or Carl Rove Darth Sideous?) I don’t see it that way.

I was watching Episode 2 the other night with the commentary on. There is one scene where Mace Windu and Yoda are observing the Senate machinations. Lucas mentioned that this part of the story was formed by his understanding of history in that a Democracy eventually fails or falls. It does so through a crisis where the people are willing to give up some of their rights to preserve the safety that is being threatened. He named off as examples Rome, Greece and the Weimar Republic (Germany turning over its democratic government to Hitler.) Lucas wrote most of this during the early 70’s, way before there was any George Bush. I think several things are going on by Lucas. One is, he, like most Hollywood Liberals, hate George Bush and feel very threatened by him.(so if his summer blockbuster has some corresponding “similarities” to George Bush, what a happy coincidence.) The second thing is that we (individuals and society) read into things that we see. Is the glass half full or half empty? One reason that these sets of movies are so popular is because it “speaks” to so many people.


How do you become freer: through evil or good?

One of the major themes running through Anakin’s life is the desire to control. He was born a slave; his freedom was won by the Jedi and then he became a “Padawan” (or learner) to another more experienced Jedi (Obi Wan) and then he became a Sith Apprentice to the Sith Master (Emperior Palpitine/Darth Sidious). In every episode, Anakin/Darth Vader was always calling someone MASTER. Anytime he tried to do something his way, he got chided or belittled by superiors. In Episode 3, his desire to control his destiny and the world around him becomes very obvious at the end when he asks Padme to join him and rule the universe.

In the end, by locking in with the Dark Side, he become more of a slave, literally and figuratively (now he has to wear a suit just to survive).

I have so much more to say....... I will later!

A Good Gal on the Bench, Finally!

Too bad this New York Times didn't run this before the big dust-up in the Senate.

I met Ms. Owen over 16 years ago. She wouldn't know me from Adam. But I remember her. She had just made partner at Andrews & Kurth. I was one of the many paralegals working on the massive "take or pay" litigations going hot and heavy in the late 80's.

She was absolutely brilliant.

As will happen in high stakes litigation, a conundrum arose on how to get around an issue that was coming up in a hearing. It was looking like this one hearing could scuttle the whole litigation, in the bad way for our client. It was agreed by the more senior litigators, to seek Ms. Owen's help. She came through. I did not attend the hearing, but I understood that the tact Ms. Owen suggested, was presented to the Judge by the partner in charge of the litigation. It saved the day for our client.

I'm glad she allowed her name to remain on this list for 4 years. Most people would have thrown in the towel and gone home much sooner. (Not to even speak of the public humiliation and examination she has had to endure from the press and other politicians.) But she deserved to be on the bench by her credentials alone.

Absolutely brilliant.

That's all I really remember of her, which is vastly more than what she could recall about me.........