A Thousand Stars: Episode I, Part 40

[matril]

Now for the resolution of the space battle. Anakin's ship cools down enough for functionality, and he fumbles for something to do. Fumbles directly into setting off a chain reaction that will destroy the whole droid control ship. Now, this would seem a ridiculous coincidence if not for the certified fact that Anakin has ridiculously high potential with the Force, and a lot of his lucky happenstances are actually due to subconscious Force guidance. In addition, it's a foreshadowing of the Death Star battle and how his son achieves a narrow victory by that same luck-of-the-Force. That victory was anything but inevitable. People can whine themselves hoarse about how it's a terrible design flaw, but the truth is, anything with that tiny a margin of likelihood could be reasonably ignored. No one counted on nascent Jedi with pinpoint reflexes and instincts.

There's another thing I like about this moment, though.

Blowing up from the inside. And what is that a metaphor of? Why, the good old Republic. Nothing could take it down from the outside; no, it's only internal corruption that destroys it.


A chilling image if you apply it to the Separatist War and subsequent collapse into totalitarianism.

Next, subtle smirks...

Comments

[krpalmer]

I might have grappled with "Anakin saves the day by accident!" a bit more than with the million and one other things certain people started complaining about to as if to diffuse their negative reactions. Eventually, I got to the point of wondering if it "looked flashy but wasn't the biggest thing that saved the day," with Queen Amidala and her equally non-Force-powered soldiers having already captured the Trade Federation officials and no "once my droid army arrives here, the tables will turn again!" threat. As you said, though, the extended explosion (where the big ship and Death Star models could only have explosions superimposed over them in the movies made before) does have room for greater significance.

[matril]

The extended explosion really got me thinking. If you apply the metaphor of the Republic rather than just thinking "it's the bad guys' ship," it's downright unsettling to watch one explosion spread into dozens, growing and growing until the whole thing disintegrates.