Star Words: Episode II, Part 25
Mar. 15th, 2018 02:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilThere is so much packed into the final act of this film. I'm really going to have to restrain myself from writing another twenty entries before I even get to Episode III. There's the scene immediately following Obi-Wan's confrontation with Dooku which illustrates perfectly just how much Palpatine/Sidious controls the Senate, even more so now that he's manipulated the well-meaning Jar Jar into granting him emergency powers. Oh, the irony of his claim, "I love the Republic. I love democracy" as he systematically dismantles its protections. And then there's the exchange between Anakin and Padmé as they arrived on Geonosis, from her hope for a "diplomatic solution" to his "I've given up trying to argue with you," followed by Threepio's first real bickering match with Artoo.
And the droid factory sequence. I love this scene. The factory is a perfect symbol of the mechanized, inhuman, even hellish aspect of warfare, as well as an intriguing counterpoint to the gleaming white cloning facilities on Kamino. Poor Threepio endures the worst of it, being literally dismantled much as he will be in Episode V. His lines punctuate the surreal horror -- "How perverse!" and "It's a nightmare!" Meanwhile, Anakin's fall is foreshadowed with some chilling literal imagery. Padmé is in peril; he leaps down in a rash attempt to save her. He fails and becomes trapped by the machinery, nearly becoming a permanent part of it. All of this with hardly a word of dialogue. A picture is worth a thousand words, etc. etc.
But this series is about my favorite lines, so, on to the next scene.
Anakin and Padmé have been captured, tried and sentenced to death. They stand at the verge of execution. And just like her daughter, this impending death will impel her to a confession of her feelings. However, there is a tragic edge to her words that hints at the ultimately doomed nature of their relationship. Anakin tries to offer words of comfort, and she tells him she's not afraid to die.
"I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life."
That's a rather peculiar way to confess your love. No wonder Anakin responds in confusion. She clarifies with a simple, "I love you." But there is still inherent tragedy to every word she speaks, continuing with "It looks like our lives are about to be destroyed anyway. I truly, deeply love you....and before we die I want you to know."
From Padmé's perspective, we can assume she's referring to the agonizing struggle she has been enduring ever since Anakin reappeared -- the conflict between duty and personal happiness, between logic and passion, a life of service and a life lived for herself. Every day that she denies her own feelings, she dies a little more. And on the verge of actual death, she comes to the decision that the price of her self-denial has been too high to bear any longer.
But for us, knowing her fate and the trajectory of her relationship with Anakin, the line is pure pain. From the moment he came back to her life, they started down a path to their doom. As I've said before, I don't think this doom was inevitable or fated or inescapable, but for the story to line up with where we start in Episode IV, Anakin has to become Vader and Padmé has to disappear. This is an important beginning for them, but it's also the beginning of the end.
Next time, some lighter moments in the middle of battle....
And the droid factory sequence. I love this scene. The factory is a perfect symbol of the mechanized, inhuman, even hellish aspect of warfare, as well as an intriguing counterpoint to the gleaming white cloning facilities on Kamino. Poor Threepio endures the worst of it, being literally dismantled much as he will be in Episode V. His lines punctuate the surreal horror -- "How perverse!" and "It's a nightmare!" Meanwhile, Anakin's fall is foreshadowed with some chilling literal imagery. Padmé is in peril; he leaps down in a rash attempt to save her. He fails and becomes trapped by the machinery, nearly becoming a permanent part of it. All of this with hardly a word of dialogue. A picture is worth a thousand words, etc. etc.
But this series is about my favorite lines, so, on to the next scene.
Anakin and Padmé have been captured, tried and sentenced to death. They stand at the verge of execution. And just like her daughter, this impending death will impel her to a confession of her feelings. However, there is a tragic edge to her words that hints at the ultimately doomed nature of their relationship. Anakin tries to offer words of comfort, and she tells him she's not afraid to die.
"I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life."
That's a rather peculiar way to confess your love. No wonder Anakin responds in confusion. She clarifies with a simple, "I love you." But there is still inherent tragedy to every word she speaks, continuing with "It looks like our lives are about to be destroyed anyway. I truly, deeply love you....and before we die I want you to know."
From Padmé's perspective, we can assume she's referring to the agonizing struggle she has been enduring ever since Anakin reappeared -- the conflict between duty and personal happiness, between logic and passion, a life of service and a life lived for herself. Every day that she denies her own feelings, she dies a little more. And on the verge of actual death, she comes to the decision that the price of her self-denial has been too high to bear any longer.
But for us, knowing her fate and the trajectory of her relationship with Anakin, the line is pure pain. From the moment he came back to her life, they started down a path to their doom. As I've said before, I don't think this doom was inevitable or fated or inescapable, but for the story to line up with where we start in Episode IV, Anakin has to become Vader and Padmé has to disappear. This is an important beginning for them, but it's also the beginning of the end.
Next time, some lighter moments in the middle of battle....
