Across the Scenes, Part 2
Oct. 28th, 2016 06:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilPicking up right where I left off in Part 1, because I might as well keep going while the momentum's strong. :D Again, remember that the order is chronological, nothing more. Every scene serves a crucial purpose in the development of the story.
17.
The scene after Anakin's nightmare carries such a haunting beauty, of darkness and dread hiding beneath a lovely surface. It's the morning after a storm, the sky a patchwork of clouds with sunlight piercing through here and there. Anakin's initial stillness belies his wild inner turmoil. Padmé is filled with concern but keeps her distance at first, as if she's trying to approach a wounded animal and fears that she'll scare it away.
Torn between his dread for his mother and his Jedi duty (not to mention Padmé), Anakin chooses his mother. And Padmé, without hesitation, says she will go with him. She rejected the idea of having a romance with him, but she can't deny the bond they already share.
18.
Padmé doesn't speak much during the beginning sequence on Tatooine, but her face says plenty. She is constantly watching Anakin, her eyes filled with worry and sympathy. It's particularly powerful at the Lars homestead after they've learned what happened to Shmi. She looks as if she's feeling Anakin's anguish almost as powerfully he is. And then comes this moment, when he's about to leave to search for his mother and she can't say anything more than his name. Their embrace says all that needs to be said. Interesting how it's staged so that we first see their silhouettes coming together, and then their actual figures. It's also a bit of foreshadowing that Padmé's feelings for Anakin, no matter how she tries to suppress them, will inexorably rise up to the surface in moments of crisis.
19.
Who would have guessed, while watching Luke clean up Artoo and Threepio in Episode IV, that something crucial in his parents' history happened in that very same place? It's really kind of eerie. Here we learn the full extent of Anakin's murderous rampage. And because Padmé says so little, we can only speculate what's going on in her mind. I doubt someone from a pacifist background, so loathe to bring her people into war, would be able to dismiss such violence, particularly against children. And yet she is acutely aware of the strains and extreme circumstances that have brought Anakin here - the prolonged separation from his mother, the nightmares tormenting his mind, the brutal death Shmi suffered - not to mention the tumult he's constantly undergoing as he attempts to meet the stringent expectations of the Jedi Order. He was expected to ignore his dreams, leave his mother to her fate, and not feel any sorrow to lose her. But his pent-up feelings demanded a release, and the longer he held them in, the more explosive that release. I think that's why her one simple response is "To be angry is to be human" because in that moment he really seems to feel that his emotions disqualify him from humanity. As far as we know, Anakin only ever confided in one other about the massacre. Unfortunately, that other confidante was the duplicitous Palpatine. Boo.
20.
I love this scene because it's a much-needed lighter moment after so much angst. Anakin is very gloomy at first. He's coming straight from his mother's funeral only to receive a distress call from his Master that he's forbidden from answering. Can you imagine how much it must pain him to sit and wait while Obi-Wan is in mortal peril when pretty much the same thing happened with his mother and she just died because of it? Well, Padmé isn't having it. Now it's her turn to find a loophole. If she's going to Geonosis, then Anakin will have no choice but to come along so he can continue protecting her. Convenient! And his smile at the end of this exchange is the first we've seen from him since his nightmare on Naboo. Padmé is able to draw that out of him like no one else can. Later, after they've landed on Geonosis, they'll have another exchange wherein Padmé firmly takes charge and asserts her determination to find a "diplomatic solution." And again Anakin smiles and concedes that he's given up trying to argue with her. It seems like Captain Typho was right to assume that Padmé is just prone to reckless action as Anakin, perhaps even more so.
21.
The hellish landscape of the droid factory sequence is rife with imagery that evokes Anakin's struggle and eventual fall. This particular image is so striking to me. Padmé and Anakin stand, dumbstruck, at the brink of tremendous trouble. At the brink of an ultimately doomed romance - the brink of galactic war - the brink of heartache and loss and betrayal. And there's no avoiding it now; they've come too far to turn back. The platform retracts, forcing them to fall.
22.
How I love this scene. I love its parallels with the carbon-freezing chamber sequence in Episode V, the "I love yous" from both Padmé and Leia, the interplay of light and shadow, the last kiss before the apparent end. I also love the contrasts. Padmé's confession is quiet, subdued and intimate, whispered to Anakin rather than called out across the chamber. And they're standing together, presumably dying together. Anakin's response is subdued as well; he can hardly believe it, and probably also mourns that it might have come too late.
"I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life." Oh, the foreshadowing! Anakin is both her source of happiness and pain, bringing joy into her life and bringing her to the brink of death. And in keeping with the silent-movie feel of Star Wars, you could strip most of the dialogue from this scene and still know what's happening from how they look at each other, how the music swells to a heartbreaking climax, and how they join together in a final kiss before the execution.
23.
A couple nice moments in the arena scene. It's gratifying, first off, to see how handily Padmé fends off death, almost as well as the two Jedi beside her. Ever resourceful, she climbs to safety, frees her hands from the chains, and keeps the nexu at bay. When Anakin comes riding along with his tamed reek, it's not so much to the rescue as a "Hey, need a lift?" moment. And her quick, fervent kiss of his cheek says so much. "I'm so glad we're both still alive" "I meant what I said" "Let's stick together for the rest of this fight." You can tell the little gesture means so much to Anakin as well.
And then we have them fighting side by side, with the fantastic exchange of quips pictured here, calling back to previous mentions of diplomatic solutions and aggressive negotiations. You can tell that if only their lives weren't so complicated, they could have an awful lot of fun together. Maybe occasionally they do in spite of everything else.
24.
Alas, they do not finish the battle side by side, as Padmé is injured and left behind in spite of Anakin's fierce protests. It's probably partly the rage at her peril that drives him to attack Dooku prematurely, and that lack of judgement ultimately loses him an arm. When Padmé finally catches up with him, she doesn't hesitate to embrace him as ardently as she did on Tatooine. Does she worry that Obi-Wan will suspect something from this obvious display of affection? She doesn't care. Her thoughts are fully focused on Anakin. I'm pretty sure at this point Obi-Wan knew something of what was going on between them (a deleted scene from Episode III implies as much), but he shows a rare indulgence in looking the other way. That indulgence doubtless arises from Anakin's serious injury, which Obi-Wan might feel at least partly responsible for. In any case, Anakin is granted the perfect opportunity for more private time with Padmé, leading to....
25.
The wedding. A wordless, practically perfect scene.
There is symmetry with the end of Episode V. Two Skywalkers stand at the brink, gazing toward an uncertain future.
It is also a callback to their first kiss. A yearning to return to happier memories.
Once again, beauty mingled with impending darkness. Sunset. The beginning of the end.
The only witnesses are the droids. They will witness all the drama of the Skywalker family saga, from its beginning to the triumphal reunion and redemption at the end of Episode VI.
Anakin's face is full of tentative hope and happiness. Padmé's is more somber. She knows trouble is coming. But she's made her choice, and she's not going back.
And of course they would get married rather than embark on a casual love affair. It fits their personalities. When they care about something, they devote themselves entirely to it. They wouldn't settle for anything less. It's their strength and their weakness, their downfall and their salvation.
26.
Their first scene in Episode III comes after a prolonged, heady action sequence; a quiet private moment that will drive most of the plot for the remainder of the film. It starts with a long shot of their embrace in the enormous entryway of the Senate building, but afterwards it's tightly focused on them, as if they're the only two people in the universe. We're informed of a few important things during their exchange. First, enough time has passed in their married life that all hesitancy and shyness has vanished - Anakin is far more confident and unabashed in his physical affection toward her, and particularly eager after their months of separation. We also see that the weight of their secret is weighing heavily on both of them, and they don't quite agree on how to resolve it. And then, of course, Padmé's pregnancy. I don't care what people think of Hayden's ability to act; his reaction to her announcement showcases a fantastic range of non-verbal acting. Shock, worry, fear and determined happiness all cross his face in seconds. "The happiest moment of my life," he declares, and he might have even convinced himself.
27.
This sequence was added after Lucas realized the first draft didn't have any truly uncomplicated happy moments for Anakin and Padmé. I'm very glad for it. Their exchange is incredibly schmaltzy, but don't they deserve some schmaltz after everything they've gone through - and before everything that's coming? We also have Padmé's wish to return to Naboo for their baby's birth, which is comepletely heartrending in retrospect. And note the return of the japor snippet at last!
28.
Which brings us to this. I remember that during the filming of Episode III, they released a production still of this scene that made all of us Padmé/Anakin shippers wild with delighted vindication. Yes, Anakin knew she was pregnant. We'd all hoped it was true, but it was only speculation until that point. And they brought back the japor pendant. We kept hoping it would show up in Episode II - why else was it introduced in the first film? But at last we had the pay-off. And it was far more devastating than I could have imagined.
So Anakin has a nightmare of Padmé dying, just like he had dream-visions of his mother's death. And that terror of losing her will ultimately drive him to the Dark Side - along with a number of other factors, of course. It's a story worthy of any Shakespearean tragic hero, of good intentions gone horribly wrong and heroic inclinations twisted into evil. Anakin is tormented, and his best confidante is the one whose potential death is the cause of his torment! Yoda just tells him to stop being sad, and that's not remotely a possibility for Anakin. So he turns instead to the worst of all possible confidantes, and everything goes down from there.
29.
You can see how their communication has already started to break down at this point. Padmé speaks of a failure to listen, but it's not just on a galactic scale. Anakin refuses to validate her concerns about the encroaching corruption in the Republic, dismissing them as Separatist sympathies. And then he refuses to explain why he's so touchy about his closeness to the Chancellor, hiding the ethical quandary he's undergoing as the Jedi Council's would-be spy. Padmé pleads with him to confide in her so she can help him, but when he remains unmoved, she doesn't persist. Instead she attempts to take them back to a happier time. It's all in vain. Anakin might as well be a million miles away from her, lost in his own tumult and terrors. Didn't anyone ever tell him that communication is the key to a healthy marriage? Oh, right - they don't really offer marriage seminars in the Jedi Order. Too bad.
30.
This is their last real interaction before Anakin's fall. And you see all the terrible pieces coming into place - his growing animosity toward Obi-Wan, his fear that he's lost, that he's not the Jedi he should be, that the only answer to preventing his nightmares is a forbidden power that goes against everything he's been taught to believe in. And Padmé's mood alters accordingly. First she has a cheerful, reassuring demeanor. Surely she has her own share of stresses; from her pregnancy, from the war and its impact on the Senate, and from her worries about Anakin. Yet she seems determined to be calm and soothing for Anakin's sake. All her composure slips away, however, as Anakin voices more and more of his turmoil. And when he forcibly declares his pledge to keep her from dying, she looks downright alarmed.
There are echoes in this scene of their first conversation in this bedroom. Again Anakin is pouring out his worries to a sympathetic Padmé, culminating in a similar pose between the two of them. But this time the culmination is ominous. Instead of marking the beginning of their romantic relationship, it marks the beginning of the end.
31.
Another beautiful, powerful wordless sequence. It offers a tantalizing hint of some mystic connection between Anakin and Padmé. It doesn't need to be explained. We see them both drawn to the windows, gazing toward each other, bowing their heads in the same sorrowing gesture. The music is so unusual and haunting. It re-centers all of Anakin's motivations as he returns to Palpatine's office. All his resentment and antagonism toward the Jedi Order would not be enough to turn him, but saving Padmé - for that, he would walk straight into hell.
32.
Padmé's uncertainty and anguish is showcased again and again as she goes to confront Anakin. She heads for her ship in grim determination, but once she arrives on Mustafar she sits in dreary silence as if she can't dare go any further. And yet as soon as she sees Anakin's familiar form, she runs to meet him with the sort of dramatic embrace that has characterized their relationship from that first urgent moment on Tatooine. Then, gradually, she pulls away from him both literally and symbolically, drawing farther and farther back. Obi-Wan shows up and it gets even worse. I don't even want to write about it. It's heart-shattering.
33.
"Is Anakin all right?"
Is he alive, is he hurt, is he utterly consumed by darkness, will he ever be all right....though she knows she could never follow him down that awful path, she still loves him; she will always love him.
34.
These parallel sequences are so chilling, so perfectly aligned in visual symmetry. Both carried to a medical center, both lying helpless on a table, in agony...birth and death entwined....her last breath followed by Vader's first. And her last words, proclaiming the good that still remains somewhere inside him - she must know better than anyone, as we've witnessed the mystical connection they share right to the moment of death. Obi-Wan doesn't believe it, or at least he stops believing it in the years to come, but Luke knows better. Always listen to your mother.
35.
Like Padmé, Vader's first concern is his beloved. And broken as he already is, the knowledge of her death - that he caused it - is enough to thoroughly shatter him. The good man he used to be has died with Padmé. I wouldn't be surprised if he never spoke her name again. But maybe it was the first thing that ghost-Anakin told Luke. I'd like to believe that.
36.
And now I cry forever.
Well, there you have it. I'm rather proud of myself for restricting it to only 36, hah. I do awfully love this story.
17.
The scene after Anakin's nightmare carries such a haunting beauty, of darkness and dread hiding beneath a lovely surface. It's the morning after a storm, the sky a patchwork of clouds with sunlight piercing through here and there. Anakin's initial stillness belies his wild inner turmoil. Padmé is filled with concern but keeps her distance at first, as if she's trying to approach a wounded animal and fears that she'll scare it away.
Torn between his dread for his mother and his Jedi duty (not to mention Padmé), Anakin chooses his mother. And Padmé, without hesitation, says she will go with him. She rejected the idea of having a romance with him, but she can't deny the bond they already share.
18.
Padmé doesn't speak much during the beginning sequence on Tatooine, but her face says plenty. She is constantly watching Anakin, her eyes filled with worry and sympathy. It's particularly powerful at the Lars homestead after they've learned what happened to Shmi. She looks as if she's feeling Anakin's anguish almost as powerfully he is. And then comes this moment, when he's about to leave to search for his mother and she can't say anything more than his name. Their embrace says all that needs to be said. Interesting how it's staged so that we first see their silhouettes coming together, and then their actual figures. It's also a bit of foreshadowing that Padmé's feelings for Anakin, no matter how she tries to suppress them, will inexorably rise up to the surface in moments of crisis.
19.
Who would have guessed, while watching Luke clean up Artoo and Threepio in Episode IV, that something crucial in his parents' history happened in that very same place? It's really kind of eerie. Here we learn the full extent of Anakin's murderous rampage. And because Padmé says so little, we can only speculate what's going on in her mind. I doubt someone from a pacifist background, so loathe to bring her people into war, would be able to dismiss such violence, particularly against children. And yet she is acutely aware of the strains and extreme circumstances that have brought Anakin here - the prolonged separation from his mother, the nightmares tormenting his mind, the brutal death Shmi suffered - not to mention the tumult he's constantly undergoing as he attempts to meet the stringent expectations of the Jedi Order. He was expected to ignore his dreams, leave his mother to her fate, and not feel any sorrow to lose her. But his pent-up feelings demanded a release, and the longer he held them in, the more explosive that release. I think that's why her one simple response is "To be angry is to be human" because in that moment he really seems to feel that his emotions disqualify him from humanity. As far as we know, Anakin only ever confided in one other about the massacre. Unfortunately, that other confidante was the duplicitous Palpatine. Boo.
20.
I love this scene because it's a much-needed lighter moment after so much angst. Anakin is very gloomy at first. He's coming straight from his mother's funeral only to receive a distress call from his Master that he's forbidden from answering. Can you imagine how much it must pain him to sit and wait while Obi-Wan is in mortal peril when pretty much the same thing happened with his mother and she just died because of it? Well, Padmé isn't having it. Now it's her turn to find a loophole. If she's going to Geonosis, then Anakin will have no choice but to come along so he can continue protecting her. Convenient! And his smile at the end of this exchange is the first we've seen from him since his nightmare on Naboo. Padmé is able to draw that out of him like no one else can. Later, after they've landed on Geonosis, they'll have another exchange wherein Padmé firmly takes charge and asserts her determination to find a "diplomatic solution." And again Anakin smiles and concedes that he's given up trying to argue with her. It seems like Captain Typho was right to assume that Padmé is just prone to reckless action as Anakin, perhaps even more so.
21.
The hellish landscape of the droid factory sequence is rife with imagery that evokes Anakin's struggle and eventual fall. This particular image is so striking to me. Padmé and Anakin stand, dumbstruck, at the brink of tremendous trouble. At the brink of an ultimately doomed romance - the brink of galactic war - the brink of heartache and loss and betrayal. And there's no avoiding it now; they've come too far to turn back. The platform retracts, forcing them to fall.
22.
How I love this scene. I love its parallels with the carbon-freezing chamber sequence in Episode V, the "I love yous" from both Padmé and Leia, the interplay of light and shadow, the last kiss before the apparent end. I also love the contrasts. Padmé's confession is quiet, subdued and intimate, whispered to Anakin rather than called out across the chamber. And they're standing together, presumably dying together. Anakin's response is subdued as well; he can hardly believe it, and probably also mourns that it might have come too late.
"I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life." Oh, the foreshadowing! Anakin is both her source of happiness and pain, bringing joy into her life and bringing her to the brink of death. And in keeping with the silent-movie feel of Star Wars, you could strip most of the dialogue from this scene and still know what's happening from how they look at each other, how the music swells to a heartbreaking climax, and how they join together in a final kiss before the execution.
23.
A couple nice moments in the arena scene. It's gratifying, first off, to see how handily Padmé fends off death, almost as well as the two Jedi beside her. Ever resourceful, she climbs to safety, frees her hands from the chains, and keeps the nexu at bay. When Anakin comes riding along with his tamed reek, it's not so much to the rescue as a "Hey, need a lift?" moment. And her quick, fervent kiss of his cheek says so much. "I'm so glad we're both still alive" "I meant what I said" "Let's stick together for the rest of this fight." You can tell the little gesture means so much to Anakin as well.
And then we have them fighting side by side, with the fantastic exchange of quips pictured here, calling back to previous mentions of diplomatic solutions and aggressive negotiations. You can tell that if only their lives weren't so complicated, they could have an awful lot of fun together. Maybe occasionally they do in spite of everything else.
24.
Alas, they do not finish the battle side by side, as Padmé is injured and left behind in spite of Anakin's fierce protests. It's probably partly the rage at her peril that drives him to attack Dooku prematurely, and that lack of judgement ultimately loses him an arm. When Padmé finally catches up with him, she doesn't hesitate to embrace him as ardently as she did on Tatooine. Does she worry that Obi-Wan will suspect something from this obvious display of affection? She doesn't care. Her thoughts are fully focused on Anakin. I'm pretty sure at this point Obi-Wan knew something of what was going on between them (a deleted scene from Episode III implies as much), but he shows a rare indulgence in looking the other way. That indulgence doubtless arises from Anakin's serious injury, which Obi-Wan might feel at least partly responsible for. In any case, Anakin is granted the perfect opportunity for more private time with Padmé, leading to....
25.
The wedding. A wordless, practically perfect scene.
There is symmetry with the end of Episode V. Two Skywalkers stand at the brink, gazing toward an uncertain future.
It is also a callback to their first kiss. A yearning to return to happier memories.
Once again, beauty mingled with impending darkness. Sunset. The beginning of the end.
The only witnesses are the droids. They will witness all the drama of the Skywalker family saga, from its beginning to the triumphal reunion and redemption at the end of Episode VI.
Anakin's face is full of tentative hope and happiness. Padmé's is more somber. She knows trouble is coming. But she's made her choice, and she's not going back.
And of course they would get married rather than embark on a casual love affair. It fits their personalities. When they care about something, they devote themselves entirely to it. They wouldn't settle for anything less. It's their strength and their weakness, their downfall and their salvation.
26.
Their first scene in Episode III comes after a prolonged, heady action sequence; a quiet private moment that will drive most of the plot for the remainder of the film. It starts with a long shot of their embrace in the enormous entryway of the Senate building, but afterwards it's tightly focused on them, as if they're the only two people in the universe. We're informed of a few important things during their exchange. First, enough time has passed in their married life that all hesitancy and shyness has vanished - Anakin is far more confident and unabashed in his physical affection toward her, and particularly eager after their months of separation. We also see that the weight of their secret is weighing heavily on both of them, and they don't quite agree on how to resolve it. And then, of course, Padmé's pregnancy. I don't care what people think of Hayden's ability to act; his reaction to her announcement showcases a fantastic range of non-verbal acting. Shock, worry, fear and determined happiness all cross his face in seconds. "The happiest moment of my life," he declares, and he might have even convinced himself.
27.
This sequence was added after Lucas realized the first draft didn't have any truly uncomplicated happy moments for Anakin and Padmé. I'm very glad for it. Their exchange is incredibly schmaltzy, but don't they deserve some schmaltz after everything they've gone through - and before everything that's coming? We also have Padmé's wish to return to Naboo for their baby's birth, which is comepletely heartrending in retrospect. And note the return of the japor snippet at last!
28.
Which brings us to this. I remember that during the filming of Episode III, they released a production still of this scene that made all of us Padmé/Anakin shippers wild with delighted vindication. Yes, Anakin knew she was pregnant. We'd all hoped it was true, but it was only speculation until that point. And they brought back the japor pendant. We kept hoping it would show up in Episode II - why else was it introduced in the first film? But at last we had the pay-off. And it was far more devastating than I could have imagined.
So Anakin has a nightmare of Padmé dying, just like he had dream-visions of his mother's death. And that terror of losing her will ultimately drive him to the Dark Side - along with a number of other factors, of course. It's a story worthy of any Shakespearean tragic hero, of good intentions gone horribly wrong and heroic inclinations twisted into evil. Anakin is tormented, and his best confidante is the one whose potential death is the cause of his torment! Yoda just tells him to stop being sad, and that's not remotely a possibility for Anakin. So he turns instead to the worst of all possible confidantes, and everything goes down from there.
29.
You can see how their communication has already started to break down at this point. Padmé speaks of a failure to listen, but it's not just on a galactic scale. Anakin refuses to validate her concerns about the encroaching corruption in the Republic, dismissing them as Separatist sympathies. And then he refuses to explain why he's so touchy about his closeness to the Chancellor, hiding the ethical quandary he's undergoing as the Jedi Council's would-be spy. Padmé pleads with him to confide in her so she can help him, but when he remains unmoved, she doesn't persist. Instead she attempts to take them back to a happier time. It's all in vain. Anakin might as well be a million miles away from her, lost in his own tumult and terrors. Didn't anyone ever tell him that communication is the key to a healthy marriage? Oh, right - they don't really offer marriage seminars in the Jedi Order. Too bad.
30.
This is their last real interaction before Anakin's fall. And you see all the terrible pieces coming into place - his growing animosity toward Obi-Wan, his fear that he's lost, that he's not the Jedi he should be, that the only answer to preventing his nightmares is a forbidden power that goes against everything he's been taught to believe in. And Padmé's mood alters accordingly. First she has a cheerful, reassuring demeanor. Surely she has her own share of stresses; from her pregnancy, from the war and its impact on the Senate, and from her worries about Anakin. Yet she seems determined to be calm and soothing for Anakin's sake. All her composure slips away, however, as Anakin voices more and more of his turmoil. And when he forcibly declares his pledge to keep her from dying, she looks downright alarmed.
There are echoes in this scene of their first conversation in this bedroom. Again Anakin is pouring out his worries to a sympathetic Padmé, culminating in a similar pose between the two of them. But this time the culmination is ominous. Instead of marking the beginning of their romantic relationship, it marks the beginning of the end.
31.
Another beautiful, powerful wordless sequence. It offers a tantalizing hint of some mystic connection between Anakin and Padmé. It doesn't need to be explained. We see them both drawn to the windows, gazing toward each other, bowing their heads in the same sorrowing gesture. The music is so unusual and haunting. It re-centers all of Anakin's motivations as he returns to Palpatine's office. All his resentment and antagonism toward the Jedi Order would not be enough to turn him, but saving Padmé - for that, he would walk straight into hell.
32.
Padmé's uncertainty and anguish is showcased again and again as she goes to confront Anakin. She heads for her ship in grim determination, but once she arrives on Mustafar she sits in dreary silence as if she can't dare go any further. And yet as soon as she sees Anakin's familiar form, she runs to meet him with the sort of dramatic embrace that has characterized their relationship from that first urgent moment on Tatooine. Then, gradually, she pulls away from him both literally and symbolically, drawing farther and farther back. Obi-Wan shows up and it gets even worse. I don't even want to write about it. It's heart-shattering.
33.
"Is Anakin all right?"
Is he alive, is he hurt, is he utterly consumed by darkness, will he ever be all right....though she knows she could never follow him down that awful path, she still loves him; she will always love him.
34.
These parallel sequences are so chilling, so perfectly aligned in visual symmetry. Both carried to a medical center, both lying helpless on a table, in agony...birth and death entwined....her last breath followed by Vader's first. And her last words, proclaiming the good that still remains somewhere inside him - she must know better than anyone, as we've witnessed the mystical connection they share right to the moment of death. Obi-Wan doesn't believe it, or at least he stops believing it in the years to come, but Luke knows better. Always listen to your mother.
35.
Like Padmé, Vader's first concern is his beloved. And broken as he already is, the knowledge of her death - that he caused it - is enough to thoroughly shatter him. The good man he used to be has died with Padmé. I wouldn't be surprised if he never spoke her name again. But maybe it was the first thing that ghost-Anakin told Luke. I'd like to believe that.
36.
And now I cry forever.
Well, there you have it. I'm rather proud of myself for restricting it to only 36, hah. I do awfully love this story.
