Star Words: Episode III, Part 23

[matril]

This series is, of course, about dialogue, but I have to gush briefly about the gorgeous wordless scene that leads to Anakin's desperate return to Palpatine's office. With just a few carefully edited cuts we see the mystic connection between him and Padmé, gazing from their windows toward each other. So powerful, so evocative and haunting and heartbreaking. Sigh...

Anyway, it's clear that Anakin can't bear to lose what might be his only chance to save Padmé, however slim that chance might be. So he returns to the Senate building. And finds what appears to be a helpless Palpatine cowering below Mace's blade. Whether Anakin really believes the Chancellor is helpless isn't really the point here. The point is that the situation is painfully similar to what happened with Dooku. The dialogue is deliberately arranged as a parallel. When Anakin insists that Palpatine must stand trial, Mace counters that he already has control of the Senate and courts. Therefore,

"He's too dangerous to be left alive."


....which is just what Palpatine said about Dooku, almost word-for-word. Anakin was wracked with guilt over executing Dooku, breaking the Code's guidelines for dealing with unarmed prisoners. Palpatine was the one to offer a justification. Palpatine, who turned out to be a Sith Lord. Now a Jedi is saying the same thing. Remember the conversation at the opera, and how the Chancellor told Anakin the Jedi and Sith were alike in almost every regard? Mace's behavior isn't doing much to disprove that claim. And if they're not really that different; if the Jedi don't actually have the moral high ground, then why not embrace the path that might save his wife? You could easily see Anakin coming to this conclusion.

Of course he doesn't have time to sit and ponder all of this at his leisure, seeing how Mace is on the verge of executing Palpatine. Anakin counters with the same words he used before, to condemn his own behavior. "It's not the Jedi way." Mace ignores him. More and more desperate, Anakin cries out a much more personal, selfish objection. "I need him!" This plea, of course, still falls on deaf ears.

Mace is a zealot. He takes the existence of the Sith like a personal insult. Every other concern, every other principle, is subordinate to the all-important survival of the Jedi and destruction of the Sith. He is willing to sacrifice even the core Jedi principle of non-aggression to destroy Darth Sidious. But this zealotry is his downfall. Witnessing this hypocrisy is enough to sway Anakin to Palpatine's defense, just for an instant. That instant will have eternal consequences.

I don't know that Anakin expected the Chancellor to then murder a defenseless Mace; I doubt that he's really thinking at all beyond the instant. He's clearly stunned afterward. But the deed is done; it can't be undone. The Jedi way has not prevailed, neither for Anakin nor for Mace Windu.

Next time Anakin, in his anguish, echoes another earlier line....

Comments

[krpalmer]

I've perhaps seen Mace as "representing the typical Jedi, not really affected by the unique circumstances of 'the Chosen One'"; seeing him presented as "a zealot" might be something I'll have to think about for all that drawing a parallel between scenes is significant. In some ways, mind you, I can see the Star Wars saga as cautioning against "unshakeable codes," although I can also suppose it threads a line to "consider your reasons for doing it before you 'make an exception.'"

I have seen arguments that Anakin still could have turned back after "the deed was done," striking down the Sith Lord who really was more dangerous than he looked (and presumably facing the consequences for all his actions). Perhaps, though, it is "the consequences" of that that's holding him on his path for the time being.

In any case, it's also nice to see "the wordless scene" also appreciated here, even if since the moment I first saw it I've been ready to interpret it as trying to make clearer all those previous comments that "dialogue's not the only thing to dwell on here."

[matril]

I agree that Anakin still could have turned back even after helping to kill Mace, but I don't think he believed he could, which is part of his problem. That fatalistic attitude sticks with him all the way to Episode VI, when he tells Luke "it is too late for me" but Luke shows him otherwise.

[krpalmer]

I've certainly thought "the most effective leash on Vader is that he thinks nothing he can do can outweigh what he's done," although perhaps at the moment in the story we're talking about I have that mixed up with "he still thinks what he's doing will keep Padme alive."

[matril]

Yeah, I suspect it's a little of both. He fears that he's already burned all his bridges in regards to the Jedi Order, so as long as that's happened, he might as well grasp at the hope of saving Padmé that this Sith Lord has offered him.