Skip to main content

star wars - How did Anakin think the power to cheat death would be helpful?


In Revenge of the Sith, we learn that Anakin's final seduction to the Dark Side occurs because of his obsession with power and especially his obsession with the power to cheat death to save Padme.




PALPATINE: Only through me can you achieve a power greater than any Jedi. Learn to know the dark side of the Force, Anakin, and you will be able to save your wife from certain death.



(Note, save your wife from certain death, not resurrect)


This obsession is motivated by Anakin's repeated visions of Padme's death during childbirth.


Also, we have



PALPATINE: To cheat death is a power only one has achieved, but if we work together, I know we can discover the secret.



Yet when Padme confronts Anakin on Mustafar, and then Luke and Leia are born, they are full term or close to it.





Answer




In universe, Anakin is not very bright, and he trusts Sidious implicitly. He describes Sidious to Obi-Wan as "a mentor and a friend". Sidious has had more than ten years to cultivate a relationship with Anakin.


Anakin is desperate for help because of his prophetic dreams. He does go to the Jedi first, but Yoda is incredibly unhelpful, telling him only to "let go of that which you fear to lose". He also knows he can't reveal his marriage to the Jedi. So Sidious is the only one he can turn to, and when Sidious offers him a way out, he doesn't ask any questions.


That said, it is very, very stupid of Anakin not to question whether Sidious is really able to help him.


Out of universe, Lucas is a lousy plotter, so he makes his protagonist implausibly gullible to cover it up.


(Self-promotion: I've written a blog post about bad character motivation in Episode 3 which is somewhat relevant.)



It's unclear from visual cues whether the Skywalker twins were full-term or not. So in fact Anakin may have had a few months to work with.


There is no way Padmé was carrying full-term twins on Mustafar; if she had, she would have been much bigger. Really, with twin babies, her slim build, and that modest little bump, it's implausible she was out of her second trimester.



Conversely, the babies do appear to be full term. In fact they are older than that, I would guess by several months. To be fair, it's not very practical to have a newborn baby on a film set, so this is not unusual in Hollywood.


Out-of-universe, Lucas is no better a director than he is a writer, and he has long-standing issues with the shape of womens' bodies (infamously refusing to let Carrie Fisher wear a bra on the set of Episode 4). This may explain why Padmé is smaller than one might expect.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - What is the difference between Diffindo and Sectumsempra?

In the Harry Potter books, Diffindo is called the 'Severing Charm' and it’s most commonly used to cut ropes and the like. However, in the last book Hermione uses it on Ron but misses, creating a 'slash in his jeans' and his knee gets cut, causing him to 'roar in pain'. We've only seen Sectumsempra used once on screen when Harry directly uses it on Malfoy in the sixth book, but there it's mentioned that he is 'waving his wand wildly'. Wouldn't Diffindo, if used in such a fashion also cause a similar effect? Similarly, if it was able to cut Ron, it would also be able to, say, chop off an ear (George's)? In that case, how are these two spells different, except for Sectumsempra seemingly used exclusively to hurt humans? Answer While Diffindo and Sectumsempra both can be countered by other spells, Diffindo is far more easily countered. Reparo, a relatively common spell, can completely reverse its effect when used once. “He pulled the old cop...
Post a Comment
Read more