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Star Words: Episode III, Part 3
May. 10th, 2018 03:44 pmSo Obi-Wan is conked out under a fallen balcony, and Anakin is facing Dooku alone. This is presumably just what Palpatine wanted. Pitting his current apprentice against the younger, more powerful warrior he intends to replace him with. Not sure what Dooku was expecting, but it's not going to turn out so well for him.
Dooku taunts Anakin, goading him to greater anger and aggression. Anakin's ferocity grows, and he prevails over his foe, slicing off his hands and holding him at saber point. This is such a powerful visual moment. The crossed red and blue sabers at Dooku's throat; Anakin's indecision; Palpatine's demeanor of vindictive command; Dooku's silent expression of betrayal.
Why crossed sabers? Because Anakin is at a crossroads. And he chooses wrongly. He beheads Dooku, presumably in a moment of anger and vengefulness. And immediately regrets it. He shouldn't have done that.
"It's not the Jedi way."
(This is one of my all-time favorite lines. I even have it on a T-shirt.)
It's not the Jedi way. It could be considered the most important line marking Anakin's journey through Episode III. It will show up again at another critical crossroads, rife with ever more poignant meaning. We'll get to that later. For now, what does it mean? What is the Jedi way?
He was an unarmed prisoner, Anakin says. The Jedi don't kill unarmed prisoners; they are not executioners. They will kill if necessary; if there is no other way to take down an enemy, but never unnecessarily, and never to satisfy their own bloodlust or vengeance.
But. This is an ideal. Do the Jedi really adhere to it? And should they? Palpatine offers two counterpoints to try to soothe Anakin's conscience, to assure him that he has done nothing wrong. The first is that Dooku was too dangerous to be left alive. Leaving aside Palaptine's ulterior motives as a Sith Lord looking to replace his apprentice, let's consider that this argument may have some merit. Even without his hands, Dooku could still cause trouble, couldn't he? He has tremendous skills in the Force; he's devious and charismatic. Unarmed, perhaps, but harmless? Probably not. So maybe there are times when execution is the only option.
But it's not the Jedi way. We're not given an explicit list of all the do's and dont's in the Code, but Anakin seems pretty certain on this point. Killing an unarmed prisoner is not how the Jedi do things.
So Palpatine tries another tack. He calls Anakin's vengeful instincts "only natural." Dooku cut off Anakin's arm. Now he's paid the price, and at Anakin's own hand. We learn that Padmé wasn't the only one Anakin confided in about his massacre of the sandpeople. Palpatine knows too, and he uses it as a precedent to justify killing Dooku. Is vengeance natural? Perhaps. The concept shows up in almost every culture. Does that make it right? Moral? An ideal to live up to? That's a stickier question. Natural impulses are not always good impulses.
This tangled ethical web is only going to get more and more tangled throughout the film. Some things are absolutely wrong. Murdering a temple full of Jedi, obviously. But Anakin doesn't start there. He starts with things of a murkier ethical nature, struggling between his ideals and his impulses, trying to live up to a Code that even the highest-ranking Jedi do not always adhere to -- as we will see when this pivotal line shows up again.
In the meantime, the next entry will look at some more lighthearted battlefield snark....
Dooku taunts Anakin, goading him to greater anger and aggression. Anakin's ferocity grows, and he prevails over his foe, slicing off his hands and holding him at saber point. This is such a powerful visual moment. The crossed red and blue sabers at Dooku's throat; Anakin's indecision; Palpatine's demeanor of vindictive command; Dooku's silent expression of betrayal.
Why crossed sabers? Because Anakin is at a crossroads. And he chooses wrongly. He beheads Dooku, presumably in a moment of anger and vengefulness. And immediately regrets it. He shouldn't have done that.
"It's not the Jedi way."
(This is one of my all-time favorite lines. I even have it on a T-shirt.)
It's not the Jedi way. It could be considered the most important line marking Anakin's journey through Episode III. It will show up again at another critical crossroads, rife with ever more poignant meaning. We'll get to that later. For now, what does it mean? What is the Jedi way?
He was an unarmed prisoner, Anakin says. The Jedi don't kill unarmed prisoners; they are not executioners. They will kill if necessary; if there is no other way to take down an enemy, but never unnecessarily, and never to satisfy their own bloodlust or vengeance.
But. This is an ideal. Do the Jedi really adhere to it? And should they? Palpatine offers two counterpoints to try to soothe Anakin's conscience, to assure him that he has done nothing wrong. The first is that Dooku was too dangerous to be left alive. Leaving aside Palaptine's ulterior motives as a Sith Lord looking to replace his apprentice, let's consider that this argument may have some merit. Even without his hands, Dooku could still cause trouble, couldn't he? He has tremendous skills in the Force; he's devious and charismatic. Unarmed, perhaps, but harmless? Probably not. So maybe there are times when execution is the only option.
But it's not the Jedi way. We're not given an explicit list of all the do's and dont's in the Code, but Anakin seems pretty certain on this point. Killing an unarmed prisoner is not how the Jedi do things.
So Palpatine tries another tack. He calls Anakin's vengeful instincts "only natural." Dooku cut off Anakin's arm. Now he's paid the price, and at Anakin's own hand. We learn that Padmé wasn't the only one Anakin confided in about his massacre of the sandpeople. Palpatine knows too, and he uses it as a precedent to justify killing Dooku. Is vengeance natural? Perhaps. The concept shows up in almost every culture. Does that make it right? Moral? An ideal to live up to? That's a stickier question. Natural impulses are not always good impulses.
This tangled ethical web is only going to get more and more tangled throughout the film. Some things are absolutely wrong. Murdering a temple full of Jedi, obviously. But Anakin doesn't start there. He starts with things of a murkier ethical nature, struggling between his ideals and his impulses, trying to live up to a Code that even the highest-ranking Jedi do not always adhere to -- as we will see when this pivotal line shows up again.
In the meantime, the next entry will look at some more lighthearted battlefield snark....
