A Thousand Stars: Episode III, Part 4

[matril]

Anakin and Obi-Wan vs. Dooku, Part II. There are some pretty impressive lightsaber moves here, but the real focus is a different conflict. And you can see it from all the closeups on faces -- Anakin, Dooku and Palpatine. Nope, not Obi-Wan. He's just doing his job (speciality) fighting Sith. All in a day's work for him, as it were. Anakin is the ping pong ball getting knocked back and forth between the Chancellor and Dooku. Until Dooku becomes the pawn instead....

Okay, I'm mixing my metaphors. Just look at the closeups.


Palpy is enjoying this way too much for a supposedly-helpless prisoner.


Dooku taunts Anakin, drawing out his anger. Anakin's anger, alas, rises up.


Dooku didn't plan on getting unarmed...er, unhanded.


Quiet triumph on Anakin's face. He can't deny the satisfaction at defeating his foe.


How casually Palpatine orders Dooku's execution.


This is definitely not what Dooku planned. He doesn't have to speak; we see the betrayal written in his face.


A man wracked by conflict. Follow the Jedi way, or give in to the alluring call of vengeance?


Dooku looks helplessly to Anakin, his last hope at survival.


The conflict continues. The satisfaction of dispatching Dooku wars with the guilt at betraying his principles.

Faces can say an awful lot, with hardly a word.

Next time, imagery of disintegration....

Comments

[krpalmer]

While it's easy enough to see Anakin as "getting angry" in this duel, I don't have the feeling it's presented with quite as much ominousness as Luke overpowering Vader at the end of Episode VI's duel. Looked at from a different direction, it seems possible to interpret Obi-Wan as "getting angry" as he duels Darth Maul after Qui-Gon is run through, and that doesn't seem to have had lasting negative effects (although it could certainly be argued as leading to him being shoved over the edge of a bottomless pit, something not really pulled off in other duels where the participants could be seen as "staying focused"). I know that beyond "faces," a big deal has been made of Anakin holding a blue and a red lightsabre at once, with suggestions this shows him poised between good and evil. That can be contrasted to him holding blue and green lightsabres for a little while in Episode II.

[matril]

Yeah, Anakin is definitely holding back a lot of his anger here compared to ROTJ Luke. It only comes out in brief flashes, and you can see he regrets it.

I agree that Obi-Wan's anger at Qui-Gon's death makes him careless, resulting in nearly falling to his death. But he doesn't go on to have the constant, sublimating frustration and inner conflict that Anakin's dealing with throughout Episode II and III.

[jppiper]

The whiny fans wanted an emotionally unstable psychopath they say kylo ren is what anakin should have been