DearWinter219:
Ska, do me a favor and make me care about all that jazz you were quoting from SW. I couldn't care any less, but I'd like to care more.There's gotta be something more than weak $%# light sabers and rinkydink force powers. Either that, or there's a depth in it all that I'm missing here. I'd take Spider Sense over the Force 8 days a week.
It can be about political schemes and backstabbings, like RawSheed mentioned.
But that's not what it is for me. I'm a new school Star Wars fan. I knew as a kid what Star Wars was and that Luke Skywalker was everyone's hero,learning to defeat the bad guys desspite feeling inadequately equipped to do so. I knew that the bad guys were lead by Darth Vader, and that he is Luke'sfather. I knew all that, but to me, it was still just a story about a guy leading a good army to beat up the bad army.
I didn't know about the character who I consider to be the central figure in the whole story until the new 3 came out, beginning in 1999. In my opinion,the central figure in the whole saga is not Luke, but Darth Vader. I didn't know that Darth Vader started out on the good side, being trained by a mentoron the good side, being trained to defeat the bad guys, the dark side, the Sith. I never knew that Darth Vader used to be Luke Sywalker's role, the role ofa young boy being trained to defeat the bad guys. I never knew that. Darth Vader used to be Anakin Skywalker, being trained by Obi Wan Kenobi, a Jedi Master. Iknew none of that until the newer 3 episodes came out. So knowing that, my interest was definitely there, because I looked at the whole story, stripped down tothe basics, like this:
Anakin was discovered, as the child of a slave family, by Obi Wan. Obi Wan senses a strong presence of the force inAnakin, and earns the right to take the boy from their owner. Yes, Anakin is taken from his family by Obi Wan, who trains him to become a Jedi Master. WhenAnakin becomes a teenager, he begins seeing things that make the dark side more appealing than the good side, things like... well... the fact that the'good guys' took him away from his mother. Anakin falls in love, has a couple kids (Luke and Leah), joins the dark side, and actually leads the darkside, as Darth Vader. Luke is trained to be a Jedi warrior to defeat the dark side, who is being lead by... Dad.
I know most old school Star Wars fans hate the new 3 episodes, but my favorite line comes from Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, released in 2005. Obi Wan andAnakin are fighting, because Anakin is 99% convinced that the dark side is a better look for him. Obi Wan, ever the mentor, even in battle, is throwing out onelast ditch effort to convince Anakin that he's making the wrong choice for his future, that the dark side is not a good look for him, not his destiny.
Obi Wan tells him, in battle: "You were the Chosen One! You were supposed to destroy the Sith, not join them!"
Every time I watch Revenge of the Sith, that line just rips me apart. The passion in Obi Wan's words, the disappointment in knowing that he basicallywasted the last 15 or so years of his life training the leader of the dark side, the despair of hoping that maybe there's some small chance thingswon't happen the way they are clearly going to happen... "You were the Chosen One!!"
So from that moment on, we have something interesting unfold.
We had a Skywalker being trained to defeat the dark side, and choosing togo against that destiny by joining the dark side... and then we have a Skywalker being trained to defeat the darkside, and choosing to stay that course, ignorant to the fact that the leader of the dark side is the guywho was in his shoes before and chose to buck the status quo, ignorant to the fact that the leader of the dark side is his own father, who he thinks wasmurdered by the leader of the dark side.
I could go on and on about how awesome the whole 'inner conflict to do the right thing amidst overwhelming external chaos' dynamic is, but essentially,that's what Star Wars is to me: the story of Anakin Skywalker's internal struggles to do the right thing, and Luke Skywalker's struggles forconfidence and embracing his role.
"You were the Chosen One!"
I feel so bad for the turmoil going on in Anakin's head every time I watch that scene.
