A Thousand Stars: Episode II, Part 30
Jun. 15th, 2023 08:36 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
And now for the confession scene.
Throughout this sequence, the positioning of the two characters provides us with a physical manifestation of their emotional push and pull. We start with Padmé facing Anakin while he looks away, his back to the audience. Our first look at him isn't even his face, it's his hand, struggling to fix something.


Then we pan up to his face, so stiff that you might mistake it for a lack of emotion if you don't look closer.

He pulls way, still unable to face her, still suppressing his emotions.

Finally, after some emotion escapes in the form of anger, a bit of violence, Anakin stares at his hand as if recalling the far worse violence he just perpetrated.

Padmé knows Anakin too well; she sees there is something more than grief here.
The confession. His voice gets more and more angry as he overtly expresses his violence and hatred. And yet...there are tears in his eyes. He is not exulting in this. The force of his hatred terrifies him. His grief, a feeling he was told not to experience, has no proper outlet and no way to be processed.

Not that Lucas intends to mitigate the horror of what he did. Padmé is an avatar for the audience in this closeup on her growing dismay.

But Anakin's rage dissolves as fast as it came, and he literally sinks down, into misery and self-loathing.

Watch Padmé struggle with what to do.

She does not condone the massacre by any means. But she knows that it came from unbearable pain and the inability to cope with that pain. Pain needs compassion. So she offers compassion.

She sits with him. Mourns with him. Tells him he is still human.

Anakin has spent ten years starving for human connection, largely denied such a thing by his Jedi discipline. Padmé isn't confessing her love here or stupidly falling for the "bad boy" or any of the nonsense detractors have claimed. Right here, she is simply offering the basic kindness that Anakin needs to pull him from the brink of despair. Despair, after all, is what led him to this first awful brush with the Dark Side. And if only he can take hold of this kindness, he has a chance at avoiding that despair in the future.
If only...
Next, symbols at a funeral...
Throughout this sequence, the positioning of the two characters provides us with a physical manifestation of their emotional push and pull. We start with Padmé facing Anakin while he looks away, his back to the audience. Our first look at him isn't even his face, it's his hand, struggling to fix something.


Then we pan up to his face, so stiff that you might mistake it for a lack of emotion if you don't look closer.

He pulls way, still unable to face her, still suppressing his emotions.

Finally, after some emotion escapes in the form of anger, a bit of violence, Anakin stares at his hand as if recalling the far worse violence he just perpetrated.

Padmé knows Anakin too well; she sees there is something more than grief here.
The confession. His voice gets more and more angry as he overtly expresses his violence and hatred. And yet...there are tears in his eyes. He is not exulting in this. The force of his hatred terrifies him. His grief, a feeling he was told not to experience, has no proper outlet and no way to be processed.

Not that Lucas intends to mitigate the horror of what he did. Padmé is an avatar for the audience in this closeup on her growing dismay.

But Anakin's rage dissolves as fast as it came, and he literally sinks down, into misery and self-loathing.

Watch Padmé struggle with what to do.

She does not condone the massacre by any means. But she knows that it came from unbearable pain and the inability to cope with that pain. Pain needs compassion. So she offers compassion.

She sits with him. Mourns with him. Tells him he is still human.

Anakin has spent ten years starving for human connection, largely denied such a thing by his Jedi discipline. Padmé isn't confessing her love here or stupidly falling for the "bad boy" or any of the nonsense detractors have claimed. Right here, she is simply offering the basic kindness that Anakin needs to pull him from the brink of despair. Despair, after all, is what led him to this first awful brush with the Dark Side. And if only he can take hold of this kindness, he has a chance at avoiding that despair in the future.
If only...
Next, symbols at a funeral...