#i just rewatched revenge of the sith

[skywalkerenthusiast]

It's been a minute.

Alison’s 10k Celebration ☆ request for @haydanakin

Anakin Skywalker & Padme Amidala

[mayhaps-a-blog]

There's something about how it's Padme who suggests running away that just makes the most terribly tragic sense.

In the novelization, we start with Anakin, and he's so ready to leave, so ready to up and leave the order and has... no plan as to what's next. He'll be with Padme, and that's all that matters. He promises that he'll walk out, right this minute, if she just says the word.

And she doesn't. There's a war on, they're a Senator and a Jedi, they're needed - the Jedi need him, and the Republic needs her.

So they stay.

But then it's Anakin's turn to have a crisis. He needs to stay a Jedi to figure out his visions, but he needs to stay a Jedi to please Palpatine, but he needs to stay a Jedi because the Jedi need him... but it's all falling apart. The Jedi are being secretive, Palpatine's being manipulative, he hasn't slept in days and Obi-Wan is gone...

Padme is his only rock, and she can see that he's drowning.

So her solution? They run away. Take off, leave, get out, figure it out from there. They'll be away from the Jedi, from the war, from it all; they can figure it out. Together.

And you can see it, can't you? That fourteen-year-old queen. Still just a kid, but her planet needed her, and she refused to turn away. How many times did she dream of throwing it all away, running off into the stars? How many times did she dream, like teenagers so often dream, of that starry-eyed prince sweeping her off her feet, taking her away from all that? The pressure, the responsibility; freely taken, but sometimes knowing that you can't put it down only increases the burden.

And Anakin comes to her, drowning, like she once drowned, under it all - too much responsibility, too much pressure, too much everything. And she offers him the only thing she has: her dream. Her childhood dream, that carried her through so much: run away with me. Be my starry-eyed prince, and I will be your beautiful princess, and together we can be anything, far away among the stars.

The tragedy is that, in the end, that was never his dream. Padme dreamed of running away with a starry-eyed prince; Anakin dreamed of being the hero, saving the princess, saving the world. Padme dreamed of freedom - but Anakin dreamed of safety. Security. Power.

Neither were ever going to give the other what they wanted, no matter how hard they tried.

[kenobihater]

of all the star wars movies, which of them do y'all 1) enjoy the most 2) consider the best quality and 3) think you've rewatched the most. add your answers in the reblogs or replies, i'm genuinely curious how much of an overlap there is within everyone's three answers. mine don't overlap at all! they're revenge of the sith, empire strikes back, and the force awakens :^)

[gabityaby]

I think i cracked it, the reason everything produced in the times of the High Republic is soo good compared to modern Star Wars, tldr its because of pain.

See, in all the works that date during the High Republic (specifically during George's ownership of SW) there's this fearlessness to show pain and tragedy and death, and i know it sounds like "everything for the children these days is sanitized!" but think for a second if Revenge of the Sith would be something Disney would publish these days and that's your answer, but that's just a tangent meant to emphasize the difference between Og SW and new SW, because what Og SW had was strife, and you the viewer knew that, because every time you booted up KOTOR or played Phantom Menace you knew what was coming, you knew to expect the isle of happiness in which the characters lived to slowly sink beneath the waves of tragedy and you'll see it happen as the characters around the story just dug up their own fates, in very much George Lucas fashion, and THAT is what made the work and the small moments of levity to taste so much sweeter, because you see the characters who you've grown attached to suffer so un-justly that when you return to the good times you can't help but appreciate the good and mourn it's departure.

The reason new SW does not achieve this is because the characters are dealing with the aftermath of the destruction of the baddies, its the birth of the hope for the future, its when you look at the horizon at the END of the movie, yes new problems may arise but the big hurdle is done and Disney didn't cultivate the joy from the Alliance's victory as it should, because instead of giving us proper post-war optimism (as it fits the real life post WW2 countries counterparts and fantasy sci-fi proper) it stuck only with the brooding post-war trauma, and while yes, that is also a very realistic take it still lacked verily from the former and thus there is no reason why we should mourn a character's strife if that is all we've seen from them, its like watching paint dry, nothing particularly changes, just a new villain here and there, the new character discovers new powers, new info, but there is no resolution, no reward for their strife, and even if they were going for a bleak post-war future (which they didn't and it also doesn't fit SW's constant theme of hope for a better future) it still ends up looking incomplete for the mere reason that they don't want to shut the book in case they need to milk the cow some more.

My point with all this was not to bash new SW though, my point was to use it as a comparison to highlight how Og SW built itself on a foundation of hope, how it showed us the height before the fall, how it is possible to make Shakespeare in space and leave all of us with broken hearts and looking hopefully into the future.

[sunshinechildskywalker]

Sticks and stones may break my bones and Revenge of the Sith will always hurt me

[sunsetonscarif]

he is the chosen one / you were the chosen one

x

[weregonnabecoolbeans]

What do you do when the comfort movie trilogy you want to use as escapism absolutely cannot be used as escapism because it’s too close to what you’re trying to escape?

[asteroids-and-tractorbeams]

You ever think about how Obi-Wan told Yoda and Mace Windu they could trust Anakin because he’s never let him down

[lukedjarinsblog]

me, waking up at 3 am, in cold sweat: I HAVE BROUGHT PEACE... FREEDOM.... JUSTICE.... AND SECURITY TO MY NEW EMPIRE

[salt-mines]

It's interesting how when you rewatch 'Revenge of the Sith,' you realize that all of the little anti-jedi lines the fandom has parroted (and still parrots) for years comes straight out of the mouth of Sidious.

Like I know I'm not the first person to realize this OR even mention it, but I just always find it interesting.

[threebea]

Rewatched Return of the Jedi and forgot how Han and Leia's romance sets up what unselfish love looks like to compare with in the prequels and also gives us context why love can be dangerous for a Jedi.

(Note: this isn't an!dala bashing I like an!dala)

With Han! (Yes! Han the non-Force sensitive.)

Han, we must remember has been out of the loop because of his Carbonite freezing, but even so he wakes up to: someone who loves you. Before that he had Leia declaring: I love you!

He gets very clear signs from Leia that she is in love with him. Like. Very clear out loud signs. In the Ewok village when they reunite they hug.

But he's still jealous of Luke.

So when he finds Leia crying after Luke says he's leaving to face Vader and that he's Leia's brother, his first reaction is jealousy. He gets mad when she refuses to tell him what's wrong. He accuses her of being able to tell Luke but not him, implying obviously she thinks Luke is more important to her.

His fear she doesn't love him back makes him angry.

You can see how it could lead to hate, this kind of situation. Hating Luke and Leia two people he adores because he thinks they're together, which would lead to him suffering unable to let go of his feelings for Leia and Leia suffering from his anger as well. He could destroy all their relationships with his anger, and he's just a normal non-Force sensitive guy.

And Luke and Leia aren't even a thing. He's just assuming! He's letting his emotions control him.

He's about to stomp away with a: bitter forget it! As she sobs.

But he stops! He stops giving into his negative emotions and he goes back to comfort her without demanding answers. He holds her because he loves her. He lets go of his negative emotions and possessive jealous feeling. His love is stronger than his fear.

Then on Endor he point blank asks her if she loves Luke. She answers Yes, not realizing unlike the Skywalkers he didn't get the memo from the Force about the family stuff.

And he is disappointed, but he says he'll step aside. He loves Leia and he's willing to let her go for her happiness.

That's what romantic love without possessive attachment looks like. He loves her. He puts his own initial negative emotions aside.

-

I always wondered why as a kid this was the romance I liked out of all other movie romances. (Usually I hated romance in things.)

At first I thought it was because there's not a lot of emphasis on it, but now I realised when Han has all the opportunities to do the classic Alpha Male stuff, he doesn't. In other movies he would have walked away and let her cry by herself to make drama. Have the stakes higher. They'd get together in the end but it would be after Han does something heroic and Leia throws herself at him or something. Which would make Leia a prize even though she never had to be.

But Return of the Jedi cuts through it. Han comes back, holds her even though she might not love him. That's incredibly powerful. That moment he holds her and apologizes and lets her cry and is there for her despite his jealously. Even now it's pretty refreshing considering the archetype people associate Han with.

And Han doesn't heroically save Leia to win her. They get held up. She has her gun ready to blast their attackers. They smile at each other. That's the moment he says the words I love you out loud. When she is about to save them.

It's obviously contrasted with Anakin and Padme.

Once again it is very clear how Padme feels. They both verbally reinforce their love for each other.

But Anakin isn't thinking of what Padme would want or asking what she would want. Through out the movie he's obsessed with the idea of her death. Letting himself be corrupted and ultimately killing people so that he doesn't have to feel losing her. Unlike Han, he puts his negative emotions and possession of her above his love for her.

And just like Return of the Jedi is different for Han coming back and holding her, Revenge of the Sith is different because usually movies emphasis all-consuming love as a good thing. Love so strong you would do anything to save them is shown as being selfish in RotS because Anakin does it. He does anything and everything. He makes himself unrecognizable.

He will stop at nothing to keep her. And then the moment he thinks Padme herself is the one trying to take herself away from him. When he thinks she's chosen the other side or Obi-Wan or however you interpret the moment and not him, he doesn't let her go. He doesn't love her enough to see her happy, he attacks her. That's what attachment does. It isn't about the love he truly feels for her, it's about the fear of losing her. His negative emotions ruling him. He lashes out and hurts the person he's supposed to be saving because it was about him, not about her. She became a prop. An icon of his fear of loss.

He wasn't acting on his love when he joins Sidious, he was acting on his fear. It is a selfish moment and ends in everyone suffering.

I can see why there was supposed to be more of a love triangle with them and Obi-Wan in the earlier concepts just to heighten the contrast with Leia and Han.

Han accepts that Leia chooses Luke (even though she didn't). He says he'll let her go to be happy.

Anakin accuses Obi-Wan of turning Padme against him (even though he hasn't). He attacks her when he thinks she's going to leave him.

Anakin's love by itself has never been the problem. It's what love so easily can become if darker emotions are controlling you. The Jedi forbid these kind of relationships because of the powers they hold and how easily love can turn to fear, anger, hatred, and suffering. And because they have powers most do not, how devastating that can be. Jedi learn emotional regulation so they don't get overwhelmed and hurt people. Palpatine made an effort to chip away at those teachings by using Anakin's trauma against him and encouraging him to dig into his negative emotions. That he's right for indulging in them and that it's human and normal to do so.

Sidious tries to do this with Luke. He's taking Luke's love for his friends and emotions and trying to get him to strike him. Use his fear to put him on the path to the Darkside. To give into his hatred and violence.

Then Luke remembers the cave. Killing Vader would be to kill himself, just as Anakin had once done. Winning the fight would be losing his soul.

He lets go of his fear for his friends and his hatred for Sidious and he refuses to fight. He sees the only way forward is love. That when Yoda said he must face Darth Vader before he can be a Jedi this is what he meant. In facing Vader he is facing his own darkness.

This is all to say the Jedi teaching doesn't only apply to Jedi. (I mean it's based on real world practices it's not just fantasy nonsense). But it makes sense that it's very important for Jedi.

This is also why I prefer the release viewing order. It gives a lot more context to the prequels that can get lost in the shuffle. Rather than trying to make prequel concepts fit for the OT, OT concepts are actually being expanded on in the PT. Looking at it the other way around is working backwards from the true starting point.

Tl;dr: Han shows what love without attachment looks like.

Thanks for coming to my blorbo talks.

As always YMMV.

[infernaleikon]

i just rewatched the opening sequence of revenge of the sith and i know the film showing anakin and obi-wan’s starfighters flying completely in sync is meant to show the “two halves of a single warrior” aspect of their relationship but christ on a cracker look at these two insufferable bitches just twirling like some glorious synchronized space swimmers in the middle of a fucking battle for no apparent reason like can u fuckin believe how Extra they are while they’re supposed to be on their way to save the chancellor of the republic

[anakinsafterlife]

"Do not depend on a man's character until you have seen him as a slave to anger."

Omar ibn al-Khatab, Second Rashidun Khalif

“لا تعتمد على خلق رجل حتى تجربه عند الغضب.”

— عمر بن الخطاب المصدر: خلِّدها - مقولات عن الأخلاق

[confused-much]

I've just rewatched Revenge of the Sith for like a 5th time and you know what annoys me the most?

That some people think Anakin is the most tragic character of Star Wars.

Like, yeah he was a slave and his mother was killed but most of his other suffering was his own doing.

HE killed the Jedi, including kids (as he did sand people).

HE decided to get married to Padme despite his problem with attachments and hide it from the Order.

HE decided to save Palpatine for his own gain.

HE choked Padme!!! The woman he supposedly loved and couldn't live without!!!

HE chose to fight Obi-Wan and even when Obi-Wan told him it's over, he still chose to attack him.

Most of his suffering was self inflicted and seriously, I don't even feel sorry for him. He deliberately chose to allign himself with a literal Sith Lord just because he wanted to save Padme. And while yes, I could understand the sentiment, he did it selfishly ("I can't live without her!" he screams at Windu before cutting his hand.

When he tells Padme about his dreams, she asked what about their child and he doesn't care about it, he only cares about Padme because HE cannot leave without her, screw her feelings or thoughts on that matter), dooming all of the Republic, not even thinking about other alternatives before.

So no, I don't think Anakin is the most tragic character. But you know who I think is?

Obi-Wan

In a span of a short time he:

- was betrayed by the men he was fighting with for the whole war

- lost his home and family

- had to fight the person he considered his brother

- became a hunted down man

- was betrayed by the person he considered his brother (who also killed kids)

- was forced to go into exile to Tatooine and spend his time alone, guarding Luke, a son of the person who was directly responsible for all of his suffering

- he lost Padme who he valued as a good friend

And before that he also:

- lost his master after said master was ready to throw him away for the Chosen One™ (I hate Qui Gon with passion)

- lost a woman he loved (killed by the same man who killed his master)

And somehow, Obi-Wan till the end was loyal to Jedi teachings and never went to the dark side. And, guess what, none of the points above were his doing! He got dealt with shitty hand all the time and yet he still endured it and still had faith!

Man, I love Obi-Wan.

[tossawary]

I'm going to rewatch "Revenge of the Sith" later and I don't remember the original trilogy all that well either, but... both "The Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones" seem to suffer tremendously during their final battles because the films keep cutting away from the potentially dramatically and emotionally rich sequences to... the childish physical comedy adventures of sidekick characters.

I'm not going to pretend that "Star Wars" isn't incredibly silly at times. "Return of the Jedi" has the Empire being murdered by teddy bears with sticks at one point, and I am personally incredibly fond of this sequence and the Ewoks generally for no good reason I can name. But, from what I remember, that movie was better editing-wise about letting more dramatic sequences like Luke versus Vader breathe emotionally. We had some time to settle into these fights, to feel Luke's fear and anger, to see Luke's resolve, you know?

And in "A New Hope", the climatic dogfights involve people dying and it's treated quite seriously. A lot of lives are on the line with the Death Star's destruction. The characters go into the battle knowing that some of them won't make it back. And in "The Empire Strikes Back"... as far as I vaguely remember, there's not very much silliness at all at the end of that movie, the protagonists "lose" and all of the characters are in a lot of pain. The camera stays with them to show us their agony and grief and strength.

But in "The Phantom Menace", the film keeps cutting away from Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan versus Maul in favor of Jar-Jar Binks tripping over droids. Jar-Jar Binks fighting to defend his homeworld against an invading army, as his people die around him, is treated as an utter joke. Pure comedic relief with no substance at an utterly inappropriate time. They are undercutting the "war" in "Star Wars" that was a big part of its tone. The film doesn't bother to treat anyone like they or their lives matter in that sequence. And Anakin is in a ship he's struggling to pilot against an entire army, but we never get any real sense of him being afraid of dying in space or being at risk, as he almost accidentally saves the day. Padmé is just... fighting down hallways and it's kind of boring, both action-wise and emotionally. I spent most of the time wishing that the camera would just cut back to Maul again because that fight had actual, like, substance.

And in "Attack of the Clones", the film keeps wasting time cutting back to Threepio with his head accidentally stuck on a battle droid's body, when it's not even clear why he and Artoo are even there beyond just jamming them in as iconic figures from the original trilogy. They shouldn't be there!!! This is blatant shoehorning!!! This is valuable screentime that the Battle of Geonosis could use to focus on the Jedi who are being killed, on the separatists who are being invaded, or on the clones who have just entered the war. Mace Windu or Obi-Wan Kenobi reacting emotionally to the nameless Jedi being cut down around them would have been nice. The confrontations with Dooku could have dug deeper into the emotional and physical pain of his betrayal.

Mace Windu's fight with Jango could have been longer, instead, seeing as the hardest emotional beat we actually get in this film confronting the death of this battle is probably Boba picking up Jango's helmet. A kid has lost his dad!!! We could have seen any of the clones reacting to this, maybe? We could have seen Mace Windu telling Obi-Wan about Jango's death and then Obi-Wan belatedly realizing that they don't know what happened to Jango's child in the chaos. "The Clone Wars" television show ended up doing so much heavy lifting emotionally for this trilogy, because these movies are way too busy with unnecessary Jar-Jar Binks and Threepio physical comedy in all the wrong places.

"Revenge of the Sith" as far as I remember is at least too busy finally focusing on everything going to hell and the tragedy to fit in a jarring sidekick comedy sequence during any final battle. Can you even imagine? Anakin is murdering younglings and the movie keeps cutting back to Threepio and Jar-Jar tripping over droids and shrieking trying to escape Coruscant? I don't remember the movie that well. If there actually is a sidekick physical comedy sequence through the end of the fights in "Revenge of the Sith" that I have blocked from my memory, then I am going to scream into a pillow.

[short-wooloo]

I rewatched Transformers One now that it's available on home media (and you should too! Please! The movie didn't do so well in theaters and it deserves a sequel) and I realize that the plot is very SW/Jedi/the dark side is bad

Like just from the contrast of our main characters

Orion/Optimus is very Jedi-like in his compassion, emotional self-control, selflessness and focus on what's best for everyone

Compare D-16/Megatron, who over the course of the plot becomes emotional, volatile, quick to anger, uncontrolled, bloodthirsty and above all selfish, prioritizing HIS need for revenge over exposing the truth and helping everyone, culminating in him accidentally and then intentionally murdering a friend, and most importantly it doesn't stop there, once Megatron has his revenge it's not enough, he needs to burn everything down and take control himself

Not to mention how the High Guard/Proto-Decepticons follow that same "the strongest rules, and who is the strongest is determined by combat" that the sith live by