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It Takes a Village to Raise a Darth

By Timothy Sexton, published Feb 06, 2007
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In addition to providing a complex, multilayered story of political intrigue worthy of Shakespeare-or at least Syriana-what George Lucas did with the Star Wars prequels was to transform the focus of the franchise from the quest for truth undertaken by Luke Skywalker into the tragic rise and fall and redemption of Anakin Skywalker. The great irony is that while the collective consciousness of millions of filmgoers around the world was shaped and formed by the original trilogy, audiences for the most part rejected the Star Wars prequels in exchange first for the original Matrix (before the sequels utterly destroyed its legacy) and then for the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The irony lies in the fact that while we are living in perhaps the most ambiguous and complex period in human history, moviegoers eschewed a complex and ambiguous movie series in favor of not one, but two incredibly simplistic morality tales.

It is not surprising that movie fans prefer Lord of the Rings and the original Star Wars trilogy. In a world in which we are daily promised peace through war, protection of rights through the violation of our rights, and draft dodgers strutting around like war heroes, the easy black and white answers afforded by LOTR is comforting. But, after all, Lord of the Rings is, like the original Star Wars trilogy, a quest movie and by definition a quest movie must be composed of polar opposites: white versus black, good versus evil, even small versus tall. There's simply no room for suggesting that just perhaps there may be such a thing as a propensity to commit evil acts by a hobbit or an orc who enjoys flowers and poetry.

It Takes a Village to Raise a Darth

Can you hear the breathing?

Credit: Timothy Sexton

Copyright: Timothy Sexton 2007

Takeaways
  • In a world in which we are daily promised peace through war, protection of rights through the violation of our rights, and draft dodgers strutting around like war heroes, the easy black and white answers afforded by LOTR is comforting.
  • Padme should have told Anakin right from the start to choose either her or being a Jedi.
  • The Jedi Council shares blame because they contributed to the fear and distrust they already sensed in Anakin.
Did You Know?
There has been a lot of talk about how the young Anakin was a whiny crybaby. Well, I've got news for you: Darth Vader-and anyone who engages in the dark side of evil, revenge and tyrrany-was a whiny crybaby, too.
Comments
Comments 1 - 3 of 3
 
 
Yes. Well put and well-written.

Posted on 02/28/2007 at 3:02:00 PM

 
Well put.

Posted on 02/08/2007 at 12:02:00 AM

 
Yet another great article.

Posted on 02/07/2007 at 11:02:00 AM

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