Dark Lord : Rise of Vader 9/6/06 Bookclub thread

[dalailala]

I'd like to join, and I do have Cestus Deception and I haven't read it yet. Hopefully if school doesn't sidetrack me I can get it read and participate....

Thanks!

Lala

[I Five]

Cool, glad to ahve you onboard!!! I sent you a PM...you can pick a book ;D

[dalailala]

ledaemborr said:

I agree with you there, on the issue of Anakin's transition into Vader. I didn't get to read Dark Lord, but the movie version of Revenge of the Sith didn't really capture that convincingly. The transition was too fast, with no real explaniation as to why he suddenly started killing younglings. Of course the more you watch it, the more you begin see why. The book version did better, since there was more room to get deeper into his emotional state.

I think that's part of the reason so many people bash the prequel trilogy so much, and think that we're strange for still supporting the story. It just didn't come across well in the film, but most of us are reading so much more into every scene because of all the background details that we know from obsessing and reading everything we can lay hands on. I think GL is victim of the same thing... he was trying to make a film that made sense to the non-geeks, but he was (unconciously) filling in the gaps just like we do, and therefore made a film that was flat for newcomers.

Anyway, I've been thinking about it today, for some reason... Ummm... 'cos I'm a nerd, I guess...

The prequel trilogy should have looked a little harder at the slavery situation from Anakin's point of view. I think someone brought this up at the EU panel at DragonCon. Qui-gon freed Anakin and, given the situation -- having a specific mission to protect Padme and prevent a war -- didn't have the time or capability to save Shmi. Okay, I can accept that. But he specifically said that he wasn't there to free slaves, meaning that Jedi didn't get involved in that sort of thing. If he had lived, would he have gone back for Shmi? I'm thinking not. Why not? Why couldn't he have been there to free slaves, given less pressing circumstances? Isn't that what the Jedi are supposed to be about?

Here's my thought on that: the Jedi had managed to back themselves into a corner through philosophy (which is how Palpatine got so much past them). Early on the very first beings who discovered the Force were probably thinking, "Cool, what can we do with this awesome power?" After some time -- and having to clean up some messes -- their descendants began to think more along the lines of, "Blast, what should we do with this awesome power?" So they began to lay down some guidelines, albeit necessary. Over time this made them deeply hidebound.

Now along comes Anakin. Slavery is the bane of his young life. He is free, but is not allowed to go back and free his mother or his friends. He wanted to be a Jedi to get some control of his life but finds that he has as little control as he did on Tatooine... perhaps less? Add some of his other drama to that and he can't have a deep love of the Jedi way -- he can't stop slavery, he can't save his mother, he can't be with the woman he loves. All of these very GOOD things, and he can't have any of it. In his mind, what good does it do to be a Jedi? All of this incredible cosmic power, yet still powerless. How great would it be if someone could show him another way?

Sigh... all of this stuff that we know and feel when we watch Anakin accept Palpantine as his master, and none of it evidenced in the film.

Anyway, that's what I was thinking about today.... sorry for the ramble!

-Lala

[Leda EmBorr]

Part of what has attracted me to RotS is the parallels drawn between the Jedi and the Sith, and how the lines sometimes get blurred between good and evil.