Star Words: Episode II, Part 4

[matril]

The first scenes introducing Obi-Wan and Anakin already tells us a lot about the relationship they've developed over the last ten years -- a strong camaraderie, but complicated by all sorts of tensions. Now, as they watch over Padmé's apartment in the night, those tensions become even clearer. Obi-Wan doesn't like Anakin's plan to lure in the assassin, nor his confidence that he'll be able to sense any danger, leading to the positively icy exchange of "Your sense aren't that attuned" "And yours are?" "Possibly." There is a lot of competitiveness going on between these two, whether openly-acknowledged or not, and it's all a symptom of Obi-Wan being a very young master and Anakin being a very unusual Padawn, desperate to prove himself as the best of the best. It verges on dysfunction at times. A teacher and a student really shouldn't be competing with each other.

But Obi-Wan is trying. He genuinely cares for Anakin at this point, not just in deference to his former Master. He wants him to succeed; he wants him to be at peace. He just doesn't always know the means to teach him how. It's probably for this reason that a certain line of his always strikes me as particularly heartbreaking. As he notes Anakin's lack of sleep and the subject turns to the troubling dreams of his mother, Obi-Wan tries to console him.

"Dreams pass in time."

Ah, but do they? Not these dreams; not for Anakin. Not until the awful future they are foretelling has come to pass. I'm not sure if Obi-Wan has any idea that they might be visions or premonitions. Would that change his response? Maybe not, as the Jedi are so strictly forbidden from having emotional attachments. Maybe he really would advise Anakin to ignore the visions and not concern himself with his mother's fate. But I can't quite believe he would be so fully cold-hearted. He seems sincerely sympathetic in this scene as they discuss the dreams tormenting Anakin's mind. But he also seems to believe that his advice will be enough to console him. "Dreams pass." And it's clearly not enough.

It's particularly painful when Anakin goes on to say that he'd "rather dream of Padmé." Ouch. If you know the events of Episode III, that line carries a particularly harsh dramatic irony. And those dreams don't fade calmly away either -- they drive Anakin straight to the Dark Side before their awful fulfillment.

And yet...if he had ignored them, taken Obi-Wan's advice and considered them nothing but passing dreams, maybe the whole tragedy could have been avoided. There's a whole boatload of fatalism versus free will to unpack in that scenario, and it's obviously beyond the scope of this single entry. It's enough to acknowledge that Obi-Wan's simple, wistful little line carries a lot more weight than might appear at first.

(A brief tangent - here is a refreshingly prequel-positive look at the political metaphors of Star Wars. It is, of course, extremely biased about certain real-world politics, but whether or not you agree with those biases, it's awfully nice to see an article free of bashing!)

And next time, more character development through banter!

Comments

[krpalmer]

I'd been amused by "I'd much rather dream of Padme" myself before in a winky-nudgy "of course you would" and "that's one way to unsettle Obi-Wan" way, and I'm not sure I'd actually connected that to the movie to follow; it's certainly something to think about now. That Anakin's visions of the future come as "dreams" does make them a bit more ambiguous than (say) Luke's conscious vision in The Empire Strikes Back (and there's the unfortunate example of the dream he reported in The Phantom Menace...) When you mentioned "if he had ignored them," I actually first thought of the dreams in this movie, and could imagine them moving from "dreams" to something undeniable; as you said, there's plenty to consider here.

[matril]

I do think it's interesting that Luke's vision comes when he's awake while Anakin gets dreams, though I suppose it could be as simple a plot exigency that Yoda needs to be right there when Luke sees it, and he's not going to be hovering around him while he sleeps. ;) But it could be argued that Luke, without any formal Jedi training, requires more deliberate concentration to see the future, while it comes to Anakin without even trying. Lots of different ways to interpret it.