Star Words: Episode III, Part 30
Nov. 15th, 2018 02:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilViewing the security footage at the Jedi Temple, Obi-Wan gets an answer to his pained question from two entries ago. Ugggnnnnnh. This one really hurts.
It's Anakin. When they last parted it was on good terms, with an apology from Anakin, validation from Obi-Wan, well wishes and fond farewells. Now all of that has crumbled into dust. Worse, Yoda promptly informs him that it is their duty to destroy the Sith. Since Palpatine is beyond his capabilities to defeat, Obi-Wan must confront his former apprentice. In anguish he protests that he cannot kill the man who has become a surrogate brother. And how does Yoda reply?
"The boy you trained, gone he is. Consumed, by Darth Vader."
Hmm, that point of view sounds familiar...Who else claimed that Anakin's fall was the equivalent of his being killed by his Sithly alter-ego? Guess Obi-Wan really took Yoda's words to heart.
Well, maybe Yoda has a point. He knows, after all, how it feels to confront a former apprentice who has embraced the Dark Side. Perhaps the only way he could convince himself to fight against Dooku was with the notion that Darth Tyrannus had consumed everything good that Dooku used to be. Perhaps Obi-Wan embraced this idea so completely that he started to believe it himself. How else could he endure the ordeal of his old friend and student turning so completely to darkness? Why else would he speak his final words to Anakin in the past tense? (A heartrending line which will definitely be showing up a in a later entry, by the way.) Maybe a little bit of denial or selective truth is the only way we can cope with horror.
But then, the belief carries such finality that it becomes dangerous. If Anakin is fully dead, then there's no coming back. In that, both Obi-Wan and Yoda's "certain point of view" blinds them to the possibility of change. Good thing Luke saw otherwise.
Next, more heartbreak and denial and let's be honest, I'm just generally in tears for the entire second half of this movie...
It's Anakin. When they last parted it was on good terms, with an apology from Anakin, validation from Obi-Wan, well wishes and fond farewells. Now all of that has crumbled into dust. Worse, Yoda promptly informs him that it is their duty to destroy the Sith. Since Palpatine is beyond his capabilities to defeat, Obi-Wan must confront his former apprentice. In anguish he protests that he cannot kill the man who has become a surrogate brother. And how does Yoda reply?
"The boy you trained, gone he is. Consumed, by Darth Vader."
Hmm, that point of view sounds familiar...Who else claimed that Anakin's fall was the equivalent of his being killed by his Sithly alter-ego? Guess Obi-Wan really took Yoda's words to heart.
Well, maybe Yoda has a point. He knows, after all, how it feels to confront a former apprentice who has embraced the Dark Side. Perhaps the only way he could convince himself to fight against Dooku was with the notion that Darth Tyrannus had consumed everything good that Dooku used to be. Perhaps Obi-Wan embraced this idea so completely that he started to believe it himself. How else could he endure the ordeal of his old friend and student turning so completely to darkness? Why else would he speak his final words to Anakin in the past tense? (A heartrending line which will definitely be showing up a in a later entry, by the way.) Maybe a little bit of denial or selective truth is the only way we can cope with horror.
But then, the belief carries such finality that it becomes dangerous. If Anakin is fully dead, then there's no coming back. In that, both Obi-Wan and Yoda's "certain point of view" blinds them to the possibility of change. Good thing Luke saw otherwise.
Next, more heartbreak and denial and let's be honest, I'm just generally in tears for the entire second half of this movie...
no subject
Date: 2018-11-18 02:14 am (UTC)It is sort of interesting to look afresh at Yoda's warnings to Luke and contrast "looked at in one order, you might suppose it's all very well known, which makes the core story something singular" to "looked at in another order, Yoda isn't just a wise old mentor who knows all, but has been shaped by his own experiences"... although I have to unfortunately admit I can imagine that being dragged into arguments about the Disney Space Movies.
no subject
Date: 2018-11-18 07:30 pm (UTC)