Have finished RotS

[dangermousie]

Am drained. I both hate and deeply pity Anakin...grrrrr...

Comments

[katranna.livejournal.com]

Really? That's impressive.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

My finishing? Or my feeling both?

[crumpeteer.livejournal.com]

I personally feel a need to slap him at the end, but that's just me. I feel horrible for him, but that doesn't mean I STILL don't want to slap him.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oh yes...it's clearly both. I was going to write a really long reaction to RotS post but it will have to wait since work is crazy.

Oddly enough, the most chilling, the most "how far gone he is" was not any of the things I expected (Jedi, Padme etc) but his dealings with the Separatists...(trying to be very vague as to be nonspoilery for flisters).

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

That is surprising - the separatist bit (I already both pity him and want to smack him). Guess I'll have to wait until the movie to know what you really mean, though, since I'm holding off on the book.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Without going into spoiler territory, it's not what he does, it's his emotional stage while doing it. If he does something despicable but he is angry (as he is with Padme and Obi-Wan) or desperately torn (when he turns) or acting out of fear (Jedi), it's one thing. But he is really not feeling any of these things in the incident I mention. He is purely enjoying himself and not feeling much of anything at all. Ugh.

The interesting thing is, after reading RotS I realize even more that death at the end of RotJ was the most happy ending he could get. I don't think Anakin (even if he still had Padme and Obi-Wan), if he turned back to he good side (e.g. at the end of RotS) could really deal with what he'd done. The scenario would be his doing the most amends he could and killing himself, most likely through battle. Which is precisely what happens at the end of RotJ, of course. *sigh*

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

*sigh* The book is going to kill me before the movie even comes out.

I wonder if our mail if here yet? *hugs* I don't want to hate him...but I know I will in some ways.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hope it got here!

I knew I would end up hating him (it's crucial. He is Vader after all). But I was deeply pleased to find that I still deeply pitied him at the end and wanted to change his fate...

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

Yes, you do have to hate him because of who he becomes - and even Vader is so pitiable at the end when he gives up his life for Luke. I think that's how it had to end. He had to save his children but die in the process, because somehow it completes the circle, and makes every evil act that he did wash (albeit slowly) away.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yup. He couldn't do what he had done and live. He wouldn't be able to. Interestingly, by the end, he returns to the light, but he is still Anakin with his flaws (love, protectiveness etc). Fear for self was never an issue with him. He frees himself. But he never becomes, magically, an old-school Jedi of detachment and pure idealism. And that is OK.

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

He does return, but he couldn't have ever become detatched because it would have been a betrayal of his character. In the end, Anakin is Anakin, and without those flaws and passions, he wouldn't be who he is, good or bad.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

So true. At the end, he manages to find balance between returning to being a Jedi, being good, and still keeping his emotions.

He is still afraid his loved ones (in this case Luke) will die, but in this situation it makes him turn against the Dark Side. In fact, it's a show of how much the Dark Side has got him that it takes him so long while Luke is tortured. Palpatine should have realized that. But being true Sith, a sociopath, I don't think he ever really comprehended the power of protective love.

And related to this, this is why I think it's important that Luke is Padme's child, and not a child of some one-night stand. The child of the one person whom Anakin loved more than the Universe, the person for whom he gave away his soul. Letting him die is a bit like having Padme die all over again. Saving him is a second chance.

His love might have been his downfall, but it is also his redemption.

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

The thing about Anakin is, he loves so deeply, that I don't really think he could have had a one night stand. (Forget when some fic writers may say.) He always loved Padme, he always needed her, and that's part of what drove him on, and eventually drove him over the brink. And their child is the one that pulled him back up out of darkness. You are right - saving Luke becomes his second chance. He dies, but he dies in goodness, fighting the one who had been using him for so long. He needed to die turning back, instead of falling while battling Obi-Wan. I think the reason he doesn't die in that lava pit is because he's still destined to somehow bring balance, and that balance is achieved when he realizes his love for his son.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I am reading this and nodding. Yes, it's his destiny to bring balance. And he does that not by becoming some ideal Jedi, but by using his individual traits (dedication, passion) for good, at last.

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

He couldn't bring balance by being stifled, by either the good or the bad sides. He had to be himself. Anakin Skywalker, the boy from Tatooine, not the Jedi, or the warrior, or the Dark Lord. Just Ani. And, thanks to Luke, he's able to.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes. And that is such a show of grace to him by the fate. I am so glad he gets this chance...

[elvensapphire.livejournal.com]

So, am I. Of course, he had to get the chance. Otherwise his story would be a waste. And at heart, he was born a hero.