Friday, May 20, 2005

Thoughts about the Sith

Number 1 Son and I made the midnight showing Wednesday night. We didn't make it home until 3AM, and I was up by 7:30 to make it to work again. I'm getting too old to deal with that little sleep any more, and I'm still really young. ;)

There are some light spoilers here, but if you haven't already figured out the basic storyline, it's too late for you anyway...

Some random thoughts, in no particular order:

  • TheAnchoress asks if Lucas is targeting the Catholic priesthood? I have my own issues with the celebate priesthood, but I don't think Lucas is trying to present it as a problemper se. First, there are women Jedi, and even women Jedi on the Jedi Counsel (think the top 10 cardinals as a governing body). Second, Lucas loves his symbols, but like the Greek myth writers, he can't be subtle. If you don't feel like he just beat an idea into your head with a hammer, Lucas didn't mean to tell it to you. :)

    I think Lucas is trying to portray Anakin and Padme as both being ambitious, and that is their downfall.

  • It helps to be able to tell who the good guys are. Anakin couldn't. Obi Wan lied and deceived, and if you annoyed him you could kiss that arm goodbye. The Jedi Counsel was willing to use the same tactics as Palpatine. There's no tactical differences between the Jedi and Sidious.

  • The bad guy is the only person interested in Anakin as a person. Obi Wan preaches patitudes. Yoda basically says "Get happy your loved one will die." It's Palpatine who offers him a way to save her. Of course, being the bad guy, he's helping Anakin actually cause the problem, but Lucas likes old myth-based ideas.

  • I am beginning to wonder if Lucas is intentally bad at writing the Star Wars dialog, in some vain attempt at emulating the Joseph Campbell-style hero stories too well. Read the Odyssey or the Iliad sometime. The dialog in almost all of these stories stinks, and you like the hero because he's the hero, not because the hero gets you to like him. The hero's loved ones have no reason in the story to love him (think about Penelope's loyalty to Odysseus, despite his sleeping with every woman he's come across), yet they do. Occam's Razor leads us to believe that Lucas just can't write, but I hold a vain hope that he might just be doing it on purpose.

For my final verdict, I'll quote David Elliott: "Lucas speaks cosmic Crayola, in tones both murky and obvious".

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