Star Words: Episode II, Part 1

[matril]

Well, here we are with the first installment of the second episode! I'm going to modify the numbering system a bit before the Roman numerals get too unwieldy. 28 entries for Episode I -- if I do that many for II and III, we'll get close to 200 before the series is done. Whew!

Anyway, let's get started. The opening scene of Episode II begins subverting our expectations immediately, warning us that things are not what they seem. From the camera panning up to Coruscant rather than down, to the reveal that it was a decoy and not Padmé Amidala on the ship, we see that we're in for plenty of surprises. This is not accidental. The prequels, and Attack of the Clones in particular, are all about the familiar being turned upside-down. Vader is a thoughtful and well-intentioned boy, helmeted troopers are the army of the good guys, the Jedi are far from the infallible sages we thought they were...it's all topsy-turvy. (Ever read any of Mike Klimo's stuff about the interlocking rings of storytelling in Star Wars? Great stuff; check it out if you haven't. Episode II's structure is basically Episode V's in reverse.)

So it's quite fitting that one of the first lines we hear is this:

"I guess I was wrong. There was no danger at all."

Followed immediately by a massive explosion. Whoops.

Now, on its own this line carries a sort of dark humor. We all know that a character should never, ever say there was no danger after all, because that's the surest way to bring calamity upon your head. Dramatic irony being what it is, the worst possible thing is always going to happen right after you let your guard down. So, we're all kind of groaning as Captain Typho says it.

But I think the line goes deeper. It's an indication of where this movie is going to take us. Don't get comfortable. Don't assume you've figured it all out, because just when you think you have, you're going to have the rug pulled out from under you. This film, particularly Obi-Wan's storyline, is going to take us through reveal after reversal after reveal. From Zam to Jango to Kamino to the first mention of "Tyrannus" to Geonosis to Dooku to the Separatists...and then, after you might think everything's finally explained, we end up going back to Geonosis with Dooku -- who turns out to be Tyrannus -- who was working for Darth Sidious all along.

I'll get into all those entangling threads in more detail in later entries, but it's clear, from Typho's ill-timed comment, that we're in for a wild ride. We'll be moving along to some ironic words from Mace Windu next time....

Comments

[krpalmer]

I admit I'd been contemplating just how high the Roman numerals might run myself, but it's good to see this series continuing anyway. It was also interesting to see the Ring Theory mentioned again; it really did seem to strike a chord, and I was willing to consider that had something to do with it being something other than trying to rebut the endless attacks on the new movies. (However, I'm a bit conscious it could still leave a lot of complaints available for goalpost-shifting.)

I've seen Typho's (possibly bionic) eyepatch brought up in connection with this line as evidence of "blindness," but in thinking about that this time I did remember he had thought there was danger, and also thought of how Amidala's previous security chief Panaka had been pessimistic about fighting the Federation armies (although that might provoke some amused thoughts of the spindly and seemingly fragile standard battle droids) but determined and quite competent in actual battle.

[matril]

It's true that Typho is hardly characterized as complacent or as one to underestimate danger -- he's the one urging Padmé to be cautious and worrying that she'll do something foolish. And though he might have failed to predict the ship's destruction, there's no question that having a decoy in place was the only thing that saved Padmé's life.