Sith Child O’ Mine

The story hasn’t been a secret even long before written. There will be a massive number of deaths (espescially on the Jedi side), Padme will give birth to twins, and Anakin will enrage and turn Sith. But the question is not what would happen, but how would it happen. Judging from the two previous episodes, people will still get in line to witness this part of the legendary saga. And according to Time Magazine two weeks ago, Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is obviously the darkest Star Wars episode.

On my way home after the movie,
I thought of these and realized
how possessive I am about Star Wars.

A Sweeth Memory
There was a grand nostalgia from the very first second the movie started: pilots helping one another in crowded space battlefields, few Jedi Knights on a mission fighting comical droids and animal-like aliens. Everything is pretty much the same. Even after five movies, the dialogues were equally stiffy, how the actors performed are still not worth analyzing, and the jokes are still not worth laughing [1]. However, this Revenge added some new scents. Some succeeded, some failed.

Revenge is surprisingly packed with love scences between Anakin and Padme. Lucas had to show the audience how much Anakin loved Padme. Anakin’s love is what justified his conversion in the first place. But all these mellow scenes looked bad. Similar to the blooming love between Solo and Leia, Anakin-Padme’s couplings were rather comical than heartfelt. His verbal expression souded like a playboy’s words rather than a knight desperately in love. I wished Lucas picked different dictions, or better yet, asked Nora Ephron [2] to write them over. Lucas was always good at painting passion onto a giant screen, but I guess when writing romance, The Force isn’t with him.

The fights were also felt like new. The fighting coreography boasted overwhelming speed and involved many high jumps. I lost count of the super fast saber fights scenes. More importantly, this time Lucas didn’t forget the whole idea of a fight: emotion —anger, hate, fear, pity, (maybe even love). All these are blended in the final fights between Anakin and Obi-Wan. It is sad to see two friends turned enemies. Over other movies, I know I would shed a bit of tears, but not over Star Wars. But I was wrong. After beating Anakin, Obi-Wan shouted crying, “You were my brother, Anakin.” Somehow it felt real, and I felt sad. I thought, This is the real love scene!

There is something special about Star Wars. The movies are different than others that you cannot make any comparison. Therefore, final judgment cannot fall between good and bad. Although there weren’t any surprise —almost disappointing, even— I’ll bet it won’t be long untill I see it for the second time. Because general rule doesn’t apply on Star Wars.


Not a Sweeth Memory nor Revenge
The confusion it inflicted me was also familiar. When I first saw Empire [3] in 1981, I expected Luke to show some heroic stunts as he did in New Hope [4]. What I found was shocking. The Rebel and Jedi were flat defeated. Not only Luke was beaten bad by Vader, he even fled to exile. The Emperor —that means: Sith— was victorious. I was only a kindergarten kid and already I had to watch my hero lost, failed, and ran away. A kid my age can only think of one name for someone who flees: coward. I lost faith in one of my hero and there were no one to explain it to me.

In Revenge, many things also happen to Anakin. He was furious for feeling not being trusted by the Jedi Council he respected. He’s been having nightmares about his beloved wife Padme died giving birth. To make things worst, it is only Sith power that can save her. He was so conflicted and mad, he became aggressive. For Padme’s sake, he plegded himself to the dark side, and accepted his first duty: to kill all the Jedi. He went back to the Jedi Temple to slay them, even the very young ones.

I cannot imagine how stressfull it is for kids to watch their hero became the unthinkable —a savage. At the theatres, I saw many kids machine-gun asking their dad. And I overheard that many of those dads gave disappointing aswers. One of them even said, “Yes, he became evil, son, but the hero is Luke all along.” I thought, boy, even the fathers couldn’t understand what Jedi Council meant by balance to the force. It simply means that Anakin is the a necessity ‘instrument’ to end the war, not necessarily to help win the war. Anakin will again, continue his Jedi lesson through his descendant, Luke.

Fathers don’t need to have that answers. They don’t even have to see and like Star Wars. And their answers weren’t totally wrong either. But I do think a father needs to work harder in answering questions about love, hate, death posed by children [5].

That possessive I am
The title, hence

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[1] The only funny thing about Star Wars is Harrison Ford.
[2] Nora Ephron is a writer-director. Among of her famous flicks are Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail.
[3] Episode V: Empire Strikes Back
[4] Episode IV: A New Hope
[5] The same thing happen to Lion King. Many kids asked why Mufasa (Simba’s father) had to die. I read somewhere that many parents failed to answer it properly. I also read somewher that many schools and parents blamed Disney.