Revenge (Star Wars I - III)
November 29th 2007 22:38
Category: Movies
“At last we can reveal ourselves; at last we can have our revenge.”
Darth Maul speaking to Darth Sidious, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
The first thing that has to be realised is that there was at some point always going to be another three Star Wars movies and it was very likely that these movies were going to tell the story of Darth Vader, his origins and how he became to be the man in the black armour and mask. Those who feel that only the ‘original’ movies are the only ones worth watching fail to grasp the point that the ‘originals’ are only a part of the whole, they are but one side of the coin with the prequels being the other and complementary side. Star Wars is an epic saga as much as the Lord of the Rings, Wagner’s Ring cycle and the prose epics of the Icelanders and as a result you really can’t appreciate it if you only accept half the saga, after all you don’t go and order half a meal or half a glass of fine blonde lager? Granted these three movies may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s not the point the point is that they are a legitimate part of the Star Wars saga. After all the purge of the Jedi and the emergence of the Empire is something that is pivotal to the reason why the events of the ‘original’ movies occur.
So what is the story that the prequel movies are telling? On the surface it would seem to be the story of Anakin Skywalker, ace pilot, Jedi knight, chosen one of prophecy, father and husband. A former slave boy from the desert sands of Tatooine whose chance encounter with Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn catapults him into freedom and the notice of great events that will have a major impact on galactic affairs, it would certainly seem that the prequel movies are solely focused on this, that this is the story being told. But just as the prequels are only part of the larger epic that makes up Star Wars so to is the story of Anakin Skywalker only a part of the whole, an important part granted but it is not the entirety. Anakin’s tale is the means through which the larger story that encompasses the prequels is told, it is the device that drives things along. What really is going on in the prequels is a story of revenge, a revenge that has taken at least a thousand years to achieve fruition.
Revenge? Isn’t that the focus of Episode III I hear you say, isn’t that why they call if Revenge of the Sith? Certainly revenge is the focus of the final prequel episode, but this is more down to the fact that in that particular instalment e we are seeing the fruition of that revenge not an episode solely focused on it. The machinations of Sith began a thousand years ago with the rise of Darth Bane, a Sith Lord who survived the conflict between the Sith and their allies and the Republic and the Jedi. Due to constant bickering and backstabbing amongst the Sith Darth Bane laid down the rule of two ‘Always two there are, a master and an apprentice’ in order to prevent continued internal strife and dissipate the focus of the Sith on their agenda. From that point on these two potent wielders of the dark side would work towards achieving their revenge against their most hated enemies namely the Jedi and the Republic.
So in the first opening moments of the Phantom Menace the story that unfolds is the beginning of the revenge of the Sith, they are the Phantom Menace, the manipulators of the Trade Federation and the Senates imposition of various taxes in order to bring about the climax of their millennia long agenda. Darth Sidious, who now wears the mantle of Dark Lord, finally has the means and the will to bring about what his predecessors had long envisaged but where unable to achieve. Consummate manipulator and negotiator that he is he has all his pieces in place, all the situations primed; all that is needed is for events to take their place and the Sith will once again rule. Of course two things provide a hick up to the Machiavellian schemes of the Dark Lord; Obi-wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Kenobi manages to kill Sidious’ apprentice Darth Maul whilst the young Anakin Skywalker through his piloting and intuition inflicts a crushing defeat on the forces of the Trade Federation.
Naturally this would seem to have put a dampener on Darth Sidious scheme, but as pointed out he is a master manipulator and has more than one plan going and one pawn moving and once he realises the potential of Anakin Skywalker he makes certain adjustments and tweaks to his plan. So even though the Phantom Menace ends with a victory parade in the streets of the capital city of Naboo this victory is only fleeting at best. The Sith still remain at large ready to make their next move and the Jedi have lost one of the best, Qui-Gon Jinn beneath the blades of an ancient enemy. The seeds of Anakin’s eventual downfall are also sown as he has fallen in love with Padme and vows that he will marry her one day.
Time and events move on and by the time of Attack of the Clones things have taken a turn for the worse in the galaxy, a potential war is looming on the horizon and a bill is being debated in the Senate on the creation of a Grand Army of the Republic, something that has not existed for a thousand years or more. All of this is the work of the Sith, Darth Sidious has been manipulating events and he has a new apprentice, Count Dooku, with which to further the agenda of the dark order. Unfortunately for Count Dooku and his allies in the Separatist Council they are merely fall guys and targets by which budding young Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker can hone his talents and strength in the force. Dooku thinks he is a player but unfortunately he is a pawn ready to be sacrificed at the appropriate time, for his master has factored into his agenda not only the destruction of the Jedi and the Republic but the downfall of the chosen one and his eventual admission into the ranks of the Sith. Anakin is the apprentice Sidious really wants, Dooku is just a stop gap until Skywalker is ready to take his place beside Sidious and make the Sith’s revenge absolute and complete. Even the very clone army that has been created to serve the Republic in its conflict against the Separatists is another tool for the Sith, they are the means by which many of the Jedi will later be exterminated and also the backbone upon which the Emperor’s New Order will be built becoming the feared Stormtroopers.
By the time we see the opening of the third and final instalment in the prequel trilogy everything is now in place for the victory of the Sith and the end of both Republic and the Jedi. Also with his murder of Count Dooku aboard the Separatist flagship by Anakin Skywalker the Chosen One’s downfall has begun. So it would seem that Darth Sidious has at last achieved the Revenge of the Sith, or has he? You see halfway through the movie there is scene where Anakin is talking to Chancellor Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious) whilst that worthy is taking in a show at the local opera house on Coruscant. At some point in the conversation Palpatine tells Anakin an old Sith legend, ‘The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise’. Darth Plagueis was Sidious’ master until he killed him in his sleep, according to the Dark Lord’s recollection his master could actually create life through using the force and keep the one’s he loved from dying. This is of certain importance to Anakin as he has become mortally afraid of his wife, Padme, dying and being helpless to prevent it. What he doesn’t consider is the fact that Plagueis could create life – you see Anakin has no father and as his mother Shmi explained to Qui-Gon all those years ago on Tatooine she became pregnant and gave birth but there was no father. Coincidence or the hand of the Sith, in particular Darth Palgueis, at work? Running with this you then have another layer to the whole revenge angle.
Because of Darth Plagueis created Anakin Skywalker then his birth and fall into the dark side not only allows Sidious to fulfil the agenda of his predecessors but also results in his own demise further on down the path. And it means that Darth Plagueis has his revenge on the treacherous disciple that killed him. For even though Anakin has become a Sith he is not like the other Sith Lords, there is a fragment of the light still within him, a fragment that even though Sidious attempts to snuff out he never manages to. Did Plaugeis know that this would happen? His apprentice claimed that he was the most powerful of all Sith Lords in his knowledge of the Force and as any force wielder knows there is no such thing as luck or coincidence. In the end it shows that the revenge is simply an empty promise, Sidious may have achieved victory but he is unable to create anything lasting and he has inadvertently brought about the means of his own demise by making Skywalker his apprentice. In the end his revenge against the Jedi becomes the revenge of Plagueis against him leading to the return of their ancient enemies, the thousand years that the Sith had spent in hiding certainly made them craftier and powerful in the force but their revenge only lead them to end up devouring themselves.
But it is that revenge through which the circle is finally complete...
Darth Maul speaking to Darth Sidious, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
The first thing that has to be realised is that there was at some point always going to be another three Star Wars movies and it was very likely that these movies were going to tell the story of Darth Vader, his origins and how he became to be the man in the black armour and mask. Those who feel that only the ‘original’ movies are the only ones worth watching fail to grasp the point that the ‘originals’ are only a part of the whole, they are but one side of the coin with the prequels being the other and complementary side. Star Wars is an epic saga as much as the Lord of the Rings, Wagner’s Ring cycle and the prose epics of the Icelanders and as a result you really can’t appreciate it if you only accept half the saga, after all you don’t go and order half a meal or half a glass of fine blonde lager? Granted these three movies may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but that’s not the point the point is that they are a legitimate part of the Star Wars saga. After all the purge of the Jedi and the emergence of the Empire is something that is pivotal to the reason why the events of the ‘original’ movies occur.
So in the first opening moments of the Phantom Menace the story that unfolds is the beginning of the revenge of the Sith, they are the Phantom Menace, the manipulators of the Trade Federation and the Senates imposition of various taxes in order to bring about the climax of their millennia long agenda. Darth Sidious, who now wears the mantle of Dark Lord, finally has the means and the will to bring about what his predecessors had long envisaged but where unable to achieve. Consummate manipulator and negotiator that he is he has all his pieces in place, all the situations primed; all that is needed is for events to take their place and the Sith will once again rule. Of course two things provide a hick up to the Machiavellian schemes of the Dark Lord; Obi-wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Kenobi manages to kill Sidious’ apprentice Darth Maul whilst the young Anakin Skywalker through his piloting and intuition inflicts a crushing defeat on the forces of the Trade Federation.
Naturally this would seem to have put a dampener on Darth Sidious scheme, but as pointed out he is a master manipulator and has more than one plan going and one pawn moving and once he realises the potential of Anakin Skywalker he makes certain adjustments and tweaks to his plan. So even though the Phantom Menace ends with a victory parade in the streets of the capital city of Naboo this victory is only fleeting at best. The Sith still remain at large ready to make their next move and the Jedi have lost one of the best, Qui-Gon Jinn beneath the blades of an ancient enemy. The seeds of Anakin’s eventual downfall are also sown as he has fallen in love with Padme and vows that he will marry her one day.
Time and events move on and by the time of Attack of the Clones things have taken a turn for the worse in the galaxy, a potential war is looming on the horizon and a bill is being debated in the Senate on the creation of a Grand Army of the Republic, something that has not existed for a thousand years or more. All of this is the work of the Sith, Darth Sidious has been manipulating events and he has a new apprentice, Count Dooku, with which to further the agenda of the dark order. Unfortunately for Count Dooku and his allies in the Separatist Council they are merely fall guys and targets by which budding young Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker can hone his talents and strength in the force. Dooku thinks he is a player but unfortunately he is a pawn ready to be sacrificed at the appropriate time, for his master has factored into his agenda not only the destruction of the Jedi and the Republic but the downfall of the chosen one and his eventual admission into the ranks of the Sith. Anakin is the apprentice Sidious really wants, Dooku is just a stop gap until Skywalker is ready to take his place beside Sidious and make the Sith’s revenge absolute and complete. Even the very clone army that has been created to serve the Republic in its conflict against the Separatists is another tool for the Sith, they are the means by which many of the Jedi will later be exterminated and also the backbone upon which the Emperor’s New Order will be built becoming the feared Stormtroopers.
By the time we see the opening of the third and final instalment in the prequel trilogy everything is now in place for the victory of the Sith and the end of both Republic and the Jedi. Also with his murder of Count Dooku aboard the Separatist flagship by Anakin Skywalker the Chosen One’s downfall has begun. So it would seem that Darth Sidious has at last achieved the Revenge of the Sith, or has he? You see halfway through the movie there is scene where Anakin is talking to Chancellor Palpatine (aka Darth Sidious) whilst that worthy is taking in a show at the local opera house on Coruscant. At some point in the conversation Palpatine tells Anakin an old Sith legend, ‘The Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise’. Darth Plagueis was Sidious’ master until he killed him in his sleep, according to the Dark Lord’s recollection his master could actually create life through using the force and keep the one’s he loved from dying. This is of certain importance to Anakin as he has become mortally afraid of his wife, Padme, dying and being helpless to prevent it. What he doesn’t consider is the fact that Plagueis could create life – you see Anakin has no father and as his mother Shmi explained to Qui-Gon all those years ago on Tatooine she became pregnant and gave birth but there was no father. Coincidence or the hand of the Sith, in particular Darth Palgueis, at work? Running with this you then have another layer to the whole revenge angle.
Because of Darth Plagueis created Anakin Skywalker then his birth and fall into the dark side not only allows Sidious to fulfil the agenda of his predecessors but also results in his own demise further on down the path. And it means that Darth Plagueis has his revenge on the treacherous disciple that killed him. For even though Anakin has become a Sith he is not like the other Sith Lords, there is a fragment of the light still within him, a fragment that even though Sidious attempts to snuff out he never manages to. Did Plaugeis know that this would happen? His apprentice claimed that he was the most powerful of all Sith Lords in his knowledge of the Force and as any force wielder knows there is no such thing as luck or coincidence. In the end it shows that the revenge is simply an empty promise, Sidious may have achieved victory but he is unable to create anything lasting and he has inadvertently brought about the means of his own demise by making Skywalker his apprentice. In the end his revenge against the Jedi becomes the revenge of Plagueis against him leading to the return of their ancient enemies, the thousand years that the Sith had spent in hiding certainly made them craftier and powerful in the force but their revenge only lead them to end up devouring themselves.
But it is that revenge through which the circle is finally complete...
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