Star Words: Episode III, Part 45
Feb. 28th, 2019 02:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matrilWe have come at last to the end of this series. Yes, I'll probably start up a similar one for the original trilogy, but it's not quite the same. People have celebrated lines from the original films for ages. Meanwhile, I wanted to offer a counterpoint to all the detractors claiming that there's no good dialogue in the prequels. Not that anyone but diehard fans have been reading this, but it's been awfully nice to share an appreciation for these oft-unappreciated screenplays. Thank you for your comments!!
So, as with the other two films, I'll be finishing with the final spoken line of Episode III. It's, well, just a little different from those fraught and eloquent quotes (But which was destroyed? The master...or the apprentice? and The shroud of the Dark Side has fallen. Begun, the Clone War has.) This one is...shorter.
"Oh, no...."
Poor Threepio. After all he's gone through -- perilous space voyages, getting decapitated, passed from one master to another -- he must suffer the ultimate indignity of having his mind wiped. Or maybe it's a blessing. He just witnessed his Maker falling into darkness, the death of his beloved mistress Padmé. Perhaps it'll be easier to succumb to blissful ignorance. We could ask Artoo if it's easier for him to carry all this sad knowledge around without anyone to commiserate with him. We could ask, but I don't think he's telling. (In my headcanon, he tells Luke and Leia everything, via Threepio's bemused translation, after the Battle of Endor).
But why this line? Why is this two-word gag about Threepio the last dialogue before the poignant but wordless montage that shows us the fate of each member of the Skywalker family? Well, I think it's more than a gag. Is there really anything more illustrative of the state of things at the end of Episode III than a dismayed "Oh, no!" Don't we all feel like groaning in misery with Threepio as the iris closes on his face to reveal the procession of mourners at Padmé's funeral? Those two words sum it up pretty perfectly for me.
And then we have the wider saga to consider. There is a twenty-year gap between this film and the next, but there is a continuity in visuals and mood that ties this scene directly to the start of Episode IV. Here we have our hapless droids in the hallways of the Tantive IV, handed over to Captain Antilles. The very next film opens with that ship, and who speaks the first line? Why, C-3PO, of course. "Did you hear that?" in the very same worrisome tone as the last thing we heard him speak. It's a perfect link between this trilogy and the next, far more clever than literally filling in every gap in that twenty-year period. It's a reminder that these droids will carry the story on to the next generation, the promise that hope is coming even if it's a long way off. The saga started with Artoo and Threepio back in 1977, and now we see where they come from. Between that and the sweeping scenes on Alderaan and Tatooine, we can wipe our tear-stained cheeks and look forward to a New Hope.
So, as with the other two films, I'll be finishing with the final spoken line of Episode III. It's, well, just a little different from those fraught and eloquent quotes (But which was destroyed? The master...or the apprentice? and The shroud of the Dark Side has fallen. Begun, the Clone War has.) This one is...shorter.
"Oh, no...."
Poor Threepio. After all he's gone through -- perilous space voyages, getting decapitated, passed from one master to another -- he must suffer the ultimate indignity of having his mind wiped. Or maybe it's a blessing. He just witnessed his Maker falling into darkness, the death of his beloved mistress Padmé. Perhaps it'll be easier to succumb to blissful ignorance. We could ask Artoo if it's easier for him to carry all this sad knowledge around without anyone to commiserate with him. We could ask, but I don't think he's telling. (In my headcanon, he tells Luke and Leia everything, via Threepio's bemused translation, after the Battle of Endor).
But why this line? Why is this two-word gag about Threepio the last dialogue before the poignant but wordless montage that shows us the fate of each member of the Skywalker family? Well, I think it's more than a gag. Is there really anything more illustrative of the state of things at the end of Episode III than a dismayed "Oh, no!" Don't we all feel like groaning in misery with Threepio as the iris closes on his face to reveal the procession of mourners at Padmé's funeral? Those two words sum it up pretty perfectly for me.
And then we have the wider saga to consider. There is a twenty-year gap between this film and the next, but there is a continuity in visuals and mood that ties this scene directly to the start of Episode IV. Here we have our hapless droids in the hallways of the Tantive IV, handed over to Captain Antilles. The very next film opens with that ship, and who speaks the first line? Why, C-3PO, of course. "Did you hear that?" in the very same worrisome tone as the last thing we heard him speak. It's a perfect link between this trilogy and the next, far more clever than literally filling in every gap in that twenty-year period. It's a reminder that these droids will carry the story on to the next generation, the promise that hope is coming even if it's a long way off. The saga started with Artoo and Threepio back in 1977, and now we see where they come from. Between that and the sweeping scenes on Alderaan and Tatooine, we can wipe our tear-stained cheeks and look forward to a New Hope.
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Date: 2019-03-01 01:21 am (UTC)While I've brought up my own wishes before for a follow-on series looking at the next three movies from a similar saga perspective (it just might be a question how deeply its lines have been "celebrated," as you put it, no matter how often that happens), in these last few instalments I did get to thinking I'd be willing to wait. Perhaps it's the thought that to begin the follow-up is to eventually finish it, and once it was finished the "what now?" question might get a bit more poignant.