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Roderick Vonhögen's
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| November 2005 |
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The Chosen One and the Balance Prophecy
15th November 2005 |
| In the dvd commentary, producer Rick McCallum suggests that Darth Plagueis did in fact create Anakin Skywalker. Now, until we hear a definitive answer from George Lucas, this aspect of the Saga will have to remain a hotly contested and speculated point ! However, I thought it would be good to look at the issues such a comment would raise, and how they would impact on the surrounding events. The Prophecy of the Chosen One who will bring Balance to the Force also prefigures into our investigations, and we have to ask ourselves if the Sith were aware of this omen, and how much. |
| It seems that we can look on the history of Skywalker with three alternatives. |
1) Anakin is born of the Force
Although the Sith have survived the millennia, their central maneouvring and increasing confidence has fuelled their Dark Side power, and the Force responds to counter this threat of chaos. Ten years before Darth Sidious consolidates his positon as Supreme Chancellor, Shmi Skywalker immaculately conceives a child. Although her whereabouts at this time are unknown, three years later, she settles on the Outer Rim desert world of Tatooine where she lives a life of slavery to Gardulla the Hutt.
Her son, Anakin, grows up knowing nothing of greed and only wanting to help others. As soon as he is physically able to, Shmi's new owner, Watto the Toydarian, employs him to work in his trading yard, repairing mechanical tools and vehicles. His unnatural aptitude to this is exploited by Watto, as is his ability to participate in the local high-speed podraces, on which the slave-owner gambles.
When the Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jin is forced to stop at Tatooine for repairs, he discovers the extraordinarily high midichlorian count in the slaveboy, and comes to believe this vergence in the Force that created the conception must point to the Prophecy of the One who will bring Balance.
But for the Jedi Order in what will become its waning years, to what does the Prophecy refer ... and can it possibly be misread ? How much faith are they expected to place in an immensely powerful boy who has not learned to control his emotions, and who will presumably push back the growing tide of Darkness that the Sith represent ?
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2) Anakin is created by Plagueis
It was said that the shadowy and secretive Sith Lord Darth Plagueis had such a Dark ability with the Force that he was able to manipulate the midichlorians that exist in symbiance with the Force. According to his erstwhile Apprentice, Darth Sidious, he had discovered the power to create and to sustain life.
There is no doubt that Sidious revealed this information to Anakin in order to sway the Jedi to his cause, knowing that the young man's wife faced imminent death. The questions, then, are :
How did Sidious know that Padmé was in danger ?
Was the ploy a partial or complete falsehood ?
If the revelation was true, what insight, narratively and mythically, do we have on Anakin ?
Of the former we can only surmise that Sidious was able to divine Padmé's possible fate from either the Force or directly from Anakin's own mind : elsewhere in the Saga we have seen the Jedi Council and Vader read feelings and images from another person ; and we are repeatedly told that the Force itself can provide knowledge. So a dream experienced solely by Anakin could have been unlocked by the Sith Lord.
Once Anakin accepts Sidious as his Master, the Sith Lord reveals that he can not immediately offer the powers to safeguard Padmé. So was his declaration a lie ? Had Plagueis ever discovered an elixir ? It could simply have been a ploy by Sidious to ultimately seduce the most powerful Jedi ever. In which case it worked. But what if the midichlorians could be harnessed ...?
What if, over twenty-three years previously, Darth Plagueis had indeed manipulated the midichlorians and the Force to bring into existence the lifeform of what would become Anakin Skywalker ? Was the Sith Lord simply 'meddling', or did he have a greater agenda ? If he was building a tool, was this going to be the ultimate weapon to defeat the Jedi ? This may have been an attempt to 'create' an Apprentice, and therefore this could have have occurred before he took on Lord Sidious. If he was unaware of the vessel that carried the vergence, or if Shmi was lost from his possession, then he would have assumed that his weapon was forfeit. And that such a weapon was only re-discovered when the Jedi brought Anakin before Palpatine, and over the successive years, the young slaveboy revealed to his Chancellor-friend of his unusual heritage.
Alternatively, it could be argued that Anakin was deliberately located in the Outer Rim by the Sith Lord to ensure that the Jedi of the Republic would never discover him. And that when the time was right, Plagueis would unleash him.
Of what we know of the Sith Lords, their cowardly greedy desire for power, and Darth Bane's self-imposed rule that there should only ever be two Sith to counter each other, it would be surprising to expect Plagueis to have revealed to Sidious such an agenda. And therefore, we could assume that when Sidious murdered his own Master to usurp the hierarchy, believing that he had learnt all that he needed, the secret of Anakin's existence would have died with him.
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3) Anakin the Chosen One is created by Plagueis
Taking this line of thought further leads us to wonder if the Sith were aware of the Jedi Prophecy, and if so, by how much. If Plagueis, with or without Sidious being privy, created Anakin, then was he trying to address the imbalance in the Force ? For him, would 'Balance' return the galaxy to a Sith Empire once more ? And was the Prophecy recorded by the Jedi or the Sith, or much earlier, at a time when these guardians stood side by side ?
The Sith and the Jedi had become mortal enemies, so the fulfilment of such a prophecy, for either warrior, would be to eradicate the opponent. The imbalance could be the re-emergence of the Sith, or, paradoxically, the omniscient presence of the Jedi, complacent and arrogant in their own way. And if Plagueis was aware of the Prophecy as solely a Jedi device, was he, in creating Anakin, contemptuously turning it against its authors ?
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| We have been discussing this aspect of the Star Wars Saga in the discussion forum here. |
| Mythically, we have many characters who are born from unusual circumstances ; and, too, we see figures who betray, and those who willingly turn to evil. The story of Anakin is of the angel who succumbs to temptation to protect the one he secretly loves, and in so doing savours the increasing power he gains. Only at the end, when it seems irreversible, does the hero return by vanquishing his evil master. |
| The scene I am setting, however, asks whether Anakin was indeed a product of the devil to begin with, a weapon to destroy the 'earth and heaven', but which ultimately turns against itself in an act of heroic sacrifice. And, presumably, the only one who knows the definitive answer is George Lucas :o) |
| Nathaniel Reed, 15th November 2005 |
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Episode III on dvd
3rd November 2005 |
| This week has seen the final chapter of the Star Wars Saga revealed on dvd ! An already impressive film is clearer and richer on the disc format, and the extras are quite rewarding. |
| Although there are no new inserts as there were with TPM and AOTC, the separate deleted scenes are of great significance and quality. The ones that, to me, 'stand out' are those showing the political seeds of rebellion. Lucas explains that these beloved scenes were trimmed due to his focusing on Anakin's tale, but at least - for now - they are in a presentable condition. |
| This subplot really does help to not only tie-in to the subsequent episodes' rebel alliance, but also reveals the characters important to the birth of rebellion : Bail Organa becomes more of an intruiging character with his almost mischievous sparkle as he foments 'loyal rebellion' ; and Genevieve O'Reilly who plays the younger Mon Mothma has 'extrapolated' Caroline Blakiston's 1983 performance down to such a pat it's uncannily spooky as we watch her defend the virtues of democracy - I almost expected to see Admiral Ackbar standing to one side !! I hope that one day Lucas will re-incorporate these three scenes into Revenge of the Sith, and for the sake of an extra 10 minutes or so subplot, both Padmé Amidala's story and that of the Rebel Alliance will be improved. |
| Sadly, the featurettes and documentaries seemed 'weaker' than the episode's predecessors, though, having followed the webdocs online, I know that this series of fifteen 'Makings Of...' are breathtaking ! The full-length documentary focuses on one sequence of the Mustafar duel, revealing every single aspect of production that went in to realising the shots. Of the remaining two articles one showcased Nick Gillard's sword and stunt choreography - don't expect to be taught any nifty lightsabre footwork though ! - while the other simply summarises the path taken by The Chosen One from slave boy to Jedi to Sith Lord and back to Jedi. Essentially no further insight is provided as to the Prophecy and the origins of Anakin. |
| The movie commentary is the same single format as the previous films, with collected 'soundbites' from the various participating groups synchronised as best as possible to the unfolding events. The quality and significance, as before, varies, and, personally, I can't help but wish for a re-release with at least TWO audio tracks available to allow one for technical commentary, and the other with lore insights from Lucas. |
| An almost throw-away remark from McCallum hints that Anakin's creation may well have been as a result of Darth Plagueis' "unnatural" machinations, and this is a topic I might touch upon for further discussion in time. |
| Still, our shelves are now complete with the Saga on high quality dvd, and this side of a six set, and/or a 30th anniversary edition in 2007, with further tweaks, we will have to be content ! ;o) |
| We've been discussing the new release of the Revenge of the SIth dvd in this forum thread. |
| Nathaniel Reed, 3rd November 2005 |
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