A Thousand Stars: Episode III, Part 11

[matril]

With his nightmares of Padmé's death, Anakin is already in a precarious state. Then along comes his old friend Palpatine with a ploy to further his resentment and estrangement in regards to the Jedi, all under the guise of offering him a great honor.

And note the staging of this scene between them. Anakin is young, powerful and towers over the aging Palpatine, but his body language constantly defers to the old man, letting him lead in every regard. And the Chancellor secretly revels in this control he holds over him.




Palpatine is in constant motion. Anakin stands stock-still as if mesmerized, and only stirs when following the Chancellor's lead.



Smug triumph. He's got Anakin right where he wants him.



"Hmm? Aren't you coming, my minion -- ah, that is, my friend?"

Next time, a temper tantrum...

Comments

[krpalmer]

Being not always that quick to consider things like this (even as I try to tell myself there has to be more to movies than "the dialogue as it's delivered and how much the special effects look like they could have been made years ago"), I did find this analysis intriguing. Before I might have been more inclined to just think of the very end of this scene as Anakin and Palpatine are leaving the chamber, comparing it to a similar moment in Attack of the Clones and the more distant echo of Vader and the Emperor walking away from the shuttle in Return of the Jedi.

I would have liked to say something in response to your previous post, but couldn't quite get the words together. I am conscious of how "saga-positive" fans can look at it, and the whole issue of "attachment," either as "the Jedi were wrong" or "the whole problem is just that Anakin can't do what he knows he has to do!" These days, too, I'm aware of some comments from George Lucas in the "Star Wars Archives" books that could certainly be seen as him endorsing the necessity of stoicism, but maybe for the moment I'm picking the weaselly way out and supposing that perhaps a story that offers room for interpretation is one that "lasts."